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Help with electrics for Battery Monitor / Identify electrics

L

LondonPride

VIP Member
Messages
32
Location
UK
Vehicle
T5 Beach
I had a battery monitor / Victron Smart Shunt installed during the peak of Covid. Unfortunately when it was being installed the technician got pinged by track and trace and poor mobile reception at the time meant I couldn’t really get to bottom of what was going on. it doesnt work properly, I changed the cables round to what i thought was right but still doesnt work. Perhaps you guys can help!

Does anyone know what the bus bar on white blocks is in the top left of this picture? It has 2 cables coming out of it, but nothing connected to any positive voltage - just negative terminals from what I can tell. If it was a negative bus bar I thought it should have current going in and the out?

Secondly you might be able to see top right the blue victron smart shunt / battery monitor I had installed. There is a brown cable there which goes into the van floor. Is that the earth or something else? Cable was connected to the negative terminal on the battery?

Overall, trying to get the Smartshunt to work. All negative should to it and then it connects to the battery negative. But cannot get it work properly

Van is a 2015 T5.1 Beach

02E647D2-3FE1-4AC1-B2B2-7B1B39ED9C93.jpeg
 
I would hope an uninsulated bus bar like that is an earth bar. That said, there is no reason to isolate it on the white bobbins unless it’s a clean earth for something.
 
It looks odd to me. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing that is not OEM and was added after (guessing when they did the battery monitor). But not sure why as doesnt seem to be connected to anything. It is almost as though a job was started but not finished
 
Section 3.3 on page 7 has a diagram that shows how to correctly install the SmartShunt.
 

Attachments

  • Manual-SmartShunt-EN-NL-FR-DE-ES-SE-IT-PT.pdf
    3.3 MB · Views: 48
Thanks @Mike Currie ive followed the instructions but still doesn't seem to be working correctly. Why I've come here to try snd work out what some of the cables from the van actually are and whether something is missing
 
The pdf on the website is nice and clear, very simple. What isn’t working, the Bluetooth part?
 
I habe followed the manual and the setup is as per the manual. But the readings for State of Charge are not right. Voltage is. THat is why I’m trying to determine what the 2x cables above actually are - perhaps there is another cable which has been missed somewhere giving negative load, or I added a cable shouldn’t have.
 
Well it all looks very simple, rip it out and start again.
 
If the voltage and current are correct then the soc is calculated on those parameters plus some config in the module itself. See section 4.5.
 
So can anyone help identify what the cables in the pic are?

the brown one going to floor of van....in that earth?

and the BusBar in top left. Is that OEM or retro fit does anyone know?
 
Brown is earth.
My money is on retro fit bus bar.

Hard to tell from that photo where the cables from the bus bar go?

Work with us here. Trace the cables, take a better photo.
Put a meter on it, is it live?

That’s all my crystal ball has got.
 
Thanks for your help.

So the odd thing about the retro fit bus bar. There is a thick cable going to the VictronConnect smartshunt.

Then another thiner cable which was going to negative of battery. As nothing should go to to the battery bypassing the shunt I moved this to the shunt

but now there are 2 cables coming from bus bar to the shunt. But there is
Nothing else on the bus bar. Just those 2 cables coming off it and nothing going into it. So I don't understand what the purpose of this bus bar is. It is as though it is missing another connection.

Thanks for confirming the earth. That has been moved from negative of battery to smartshunt too.
 
Can you draw this and post it so I can see what you have in schematic form?
 

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