Battery Monitors - Victron BMV-712 or AiLi Battery Monitor

[Vermilye]

I've been pleased with the work of Genuine DealZ for custom battery cables. Size, length, color, and terminations are your choice.

As to placement, it is best to position the shunt as close (ie within inches) of the negative battery terminal, and run ALL negative connections to the opposite side from the battery connection. Any voltage drop between the shunt & battery will lessen the accuracy of the metering. A large enough wire to prevent measurable voltage drop when moving the shunt inside the trailer on a 17 or 19 is important.

[tdf-texas]

Originally Posted by Effie

I was thinking of doing the same thing, did you see any performance improvement after the upgrade?

It corrected several things:

1. Voltage drop across the cables was reduced. It makes a difference if the battery voltage is a little low and you want to pull high current using the inverter. If the batteries are fully charged and the current demand is low, you will see no difference between 2 gauge and 2/0.

2. It eliminated the those horrible hammer crimped connectors Escape used.

3. The inverter fuse is now installed correctly. Bolting the 200 amp fuse directly to the battery is a bad idea. My fuse ended up with a high resistance across it due to vibration loosening the rivets on the fuse. It's all good now.

After looking at these pics, I have decided to replace that stub between the pos battery post and the mega fuse block with a short section of buss bar. The stub is as short as I could make it using two lugs and a piece of 2/0 cable but still longer than I wanted. Using a section of 3/16 x 3/4 copper C110 buss bar, I can move the fuse block closer to the pos terminal.

[75thRanger]

Where have most installed the monitor for their Victron? I would like it up where the tank monitor is at eye level but running the signal and power cables up there would probably be a PIA.

Maybe not, I haven't looked

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by sklein

I agree it is definitely not a good practice to run large currents thru the frame. I was a bit concerned that the power center / converter is frame grounded, but that is a max of 55A. Still not particularly optimal. Thanks for the confirmation on the inverter wiring!

cars run the 200+ amp starter motor ground through the frame. AND everything else.


re: wiring for the Victron 700 series, there's only a single 6 pin 'telephone' style RJ12 wire between the shunt and the meter, and they give you quite a long cable. thats a pretty darn easy cable to hide. Normally, the shunt is mounted right on the battery - terminal, and the battery - cable goes to the other side of the shunt. the shunt has an additional small gauge red wire to the battery + terminal, which is used for voltage monitoring as well as powering the meter.

[sklein]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

cars run the 200+ amp starter motor ground through the frame. AND everything else.

Some of the crummy welds I've seen don't look like they would be optimal with a few hundred amps run through them

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by 75thRanger

Where have most installed the monitor for their Victron? I would like it up where the tank monitor is at eye level but running the signal and power cables up there would probably be a PIA.

Maybe not, I haven't looked

I installed our Victron 712 in the upper cabinet on the passenger side of the dinette, to the right of the tank monitors. I ran the wire up the rear passenger side corner where it is easily hidden, across the back of the cabinet to the monitor. I cut the hole perfectly so the round monitor precisely fits in the hole and doesn't move, so you don't need that front cover. We've easily driven 15,000 miles with it mounted there and it hasn't moved or rotated.

Simply put, it was an easy mount.

Enjoy,

Perry

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Perryb67

I installed our Victron 712 in the upper cabinet on the passenger side of the dinette, to the right of the tank monitors. I ran the wire up the rear passenger side corner where it is easily hidden, across the back of the cabinet to the monitor. I cut the hole perfectly so the round monitor precisely fits in the hole and doesn't move, so you don't need that front cover....

how did you cut a clean hole in that thin flimsy luan ply ? I had to do some 1-1/8" holes for power outlets I installed, so I sandwiched the luan between a couple pieces of thin hardwood 'hobby ply', and hole-drilled right through the stack, then used one as a backing for mounting my USB, cigar, and powerpoles... those came with a faceplate which I used. IIRC, I used the faceplate as the drill guide, first drilling the 4 corner holes through the plate and the stack so I could bolt it together, then I used the hole saw /without/ the pilot drill, and let the faceplate act as the centering guide. I also ran my cordless drill at very slow speed.

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

how did you cut a clean hole in that thin flimsy luan ply ? I had to do some 1-1/8" holes for power outlets I installed, so I sandwiched the luan between a couple pieces of thin hardwood 'hobby ply', and hole-drilled right through the stack, then used one as a backing for mounting my USB, cigar, and powerpoles... those came with a faceplate which I used. IIRC, I used the faceplate as the drill guide, first drilling the 4 corner holes through the plate and the stack so I could bolt it together, then I used the hole saw /without/ the pilot drill, and let the faceplate act as the centering guide. I also ran my cordless drill at very slow speed.

That particular bit for the hole saw kit had never been used. Old bits create ragged holes. I placed a 2 x 6 behind the luan with the end of the 2 x 6 on the bottom of the cabinet for stability, so I'm pushing the 2 x 6 against the luan and down on the cabinet bottom. Then barely put any pressure on the bit while drilling and run the bit at high speed, not low. The 2 x 6 is important so the pilot into the 2 x 6 slows the drilling depth speed down.

OTOH, if you do screw up the hole there is always the faceplate to hide the mistake.

Enjoy,

Perry

[75thRanger]

Originally Posted by Perryb67

I installed our Victron 712 in the upper cabinet on the passenger side of the dinette, to the right of the tank monitors. I ran the wire up the rear passenger side corner where it is easily hidden, across the back of the cabinet to the monitor. I cut the hole perfectly so the round monitor precisely fits in the hole and doesn't move, so you don't need that front cover. We've easily driven 15,000 miles with it mounted there and it hasn't moved or rotated.

Simply put, it was an easy mount.

Enjoy,

Perry

Do you have a pic of it there?

[flynfrfun]

I traced the hole and drilled a series of holes around the inside perimeter. Then used my dremel with sanding drum to clean it up. Quick and easy. I would recommend applying painters tape or something similar to keep the thin oak paper finish from tearing. That happened to me which required the square cover plate to cover it up.

On my 17B I found it easiest to run the wire along the upper cabinets and down the rear corner (behind the trim). Initially I was trying to go down the bath wall and then thru the lower cabinets but fishing thru that bath wall was too difficult for me.

[Vermilye]

Mine is mounted in a 4" box over the stove hood. I had already had a TriMetric flush mount meter in that location. Finding a 4" cover with the correct size hole was difficult, but they do exist.

[tdf-texas]

Mine is mounted above the fridge next to the tank level monitor.

On the newer 21s, the tank level monitor is mounted above the range top in the location of Jon's battery monitor and with little room for anything else.

On the newer trailers, I have been mounting the battery monitor next to the EMS monitor in the dinette. It's down low but with bluetooth connectivity, you rarely look at the monitor anyway as all the data shows up on your phone.

[75thRanger]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

Mine is mounted above the fridge next to the tank level monitor.

On the newer 21s, the tank level monitor is mounted above the range top in the location of Jon's battery monitor and with little room for anything else.

On the newer trailers, I have been mounting the battery monitor next to the EMS monitor in the dinette. It's down low but with bluetooth connectivity, you rarely look at the monitor anyway as all the data shows up on your phone.

I suppose I'm going to finally get a 'Smartphone'. I don't want to but there are so many things now that one can do much simpler with the connectivity.

I'm probably the last holdout in TX without one. Have to figure out what 'Bluetooth' is.

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by 75thRanger

Do you have a pic of it there?

Here they are!

It's mounted at eye level, so is easy to see and press the buttons.

Enjoy,

Perry

[Vermilye]

One minor complaint I have with the Victron 712 is the lack of a push button to turn on the display lighting. You turn it on by using the up or down arrows, but that changes the function it is reading. Since I usually use the Bluetooth app to read it, it really isn't a problem, just an annoyance.

[Effie]

In e19, mounted to cabinet above the bench on driver side, I also found that I prefer the round finish.

[75thRanger]

Originally Posted by Perryb67

Here they are!

It's mounted at eye level, so is easy to see and press the buttons.

Enjoy,

Perry

Thanks. That's a great place to put it, I went down and looked at mine this morning and figured that was the place you meant.

Did you have to remove any paneling etc to run the comm and power cables up to it?

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by 75thRanger

Did you have to remove any paneling etc to run the comm and power cables up to it?

again, the Victron uses a single 6 conductor RJ12 'telephone' wire between the shunt at the battery and the display unit.

[75thRanger]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

again, the Victron uses a single 6 conductor RJ12 'telephone' wire between the shunt at the battery and the display unit.

I had the line from the B1 terminal on the shunt on my mind.

[fudge_brownie]

I have taken a different approach to battery monitoring and replaced my existing solar controller with a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 controller. There were several reasons for my replacement: I wanted to run 24 volt panels, I wanted MPPT and I was tired of my Trimetric Battery Monitor.

My point in the post is to discuss the battery monitoring built into this controller. Yes, it requires a smart phone and the download of their free app and yes it does have a limited range of about 20 feet outside the trailer (it does have networking capability that I have not explored), but does it ever give great data. For one, you do not have to get up from you favorite adult beverage to go inside to check and second the results are clear and easy to understand. The Victron clearly tells you what process is occurring on your solar charge. Bulk, Absorption or Float in my case as I do not do equalize. The best part is it also graphs these stages and gives you 30 days of results.

Here is a link to the app for the Victron.
https://www.victronenergy.com/panel-...t#pd-nav-image