question

mtnhillsman avatar image
mtnhillsman asked

Color Control GX & 500A shunt installation

Hi - Need some advice on a new Victron install. While waiting on some other components I'm getting started with the Color Control GX and at this time just want to use the current shunt to monitor amps coming in and out of my battery bank. I may have poorly researched when ordering but I was hoping to avoid the BMV-712 kit which has a separate display for the current shunt. What i wanted to do was connect the shunt directly to the color display and see charge amps or load amps coming in/out of the battery bank. I am not using the bluetooth module on the shunt, instead the hardwired one that has a phone cable. I'm confused where to connect this to the color display or if it will work this way at all. If it's not designed to work this way I can buy the BMV-712 display and call it a day but how does the color display know what's coming in and out of the battery bank. one thought is the MultiPlus will give the unit that info but what about the 12v loads that have nothing to do with the inverter/charger? I'm very proficient at making and terminating ethernet and phone cables so if it's just a matter of making a phone cable on one side with an unused pair and an rj45 on the other that's fine but I am looking for documentation on how to accomplish this without a lot of trial and error and/or burning something out. Thanks very much. Chris

BMV Battery MonitorCCGX Color Control
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2 Answers
Matthias Lange - DE avatar image
Matthias Lange - DE answered ·

You cannot connect the normal BMV shunt directly to the CCGX, if you don't need the BMV monitor you should have brought the SmartShunt instead.

It is an BMV without display and will be connected to the CCGX via VE.direct.

https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors/smart-battery-shunt

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Kevin Windrem avatar image
Kevin Windrem answered ·

The GX device connects to the VE.Direct port on the BMV-712 display. The phone cable that runs between the shunt and the display caries analog information to the 712 display.

The SmartShunt is different in that as Matthias says it includes the circuitry contained in the 712 but without a display. It has a VE.Direct port that connects directly to the GX device. The Smart Shunt is less expensive than a complete BMV-712 and perfect for systems with a GX device.

You may also wish to consider Cerbo GX and the Touch 50/70 as an alternative to the CCGX. You get a much better user experience and the Cerbo is much faster than CCGX. The price of the Cerbo + Touch 50 is about the same as the CCGX. Cerbo + Touch 70 is about 30% more.

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Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.