Victron Multiplus and BMV Battery Monitor

wildebus

Forum Member
You may be aware that the Victron Multiplus Charger/Inverter has a State of Charge Monitor. It only knows about the current going through the MP and is not aware of things like Solar Controllers and Split-Charge systems.
But having said that, whenever I compare the Multiplus SOC Monitor with my BMV Monitor in the VRM system, it somehow manages to be within 1% of it. So if budget is limited, I think postponing the installation of a BMV or maybe putting the money towards a Cerbo GX might actually be a good option.

Just a little observation based on my own system. As usual, YMMV .... :D
Screenshot 2022-03-06 at 20-44-04 Monty - VRM Portal.png
 

wildebus

Forum Member
st3v3 said:
Are you sure they aren't talking to each other?

See the answer at:

Feature request: Cerbo GX DVCC to also share SOC from BMV to Multiplus - Victron Community

community.victronenergy.com community.victronenergy.com
Click to expand...
Well, I am not sure :). However, if they were I would have expected the numbers to have been the same, not just close?

I am surprised how close they are still, so it doesn't quite make sense and was really just an observation.
Ref the question posted on the Victron Community, one of the problems on the community is that often the replies are either incorrect or don't stand the test of time. In the case of the above one, that feature to sync data between BMV and Multiplus monitors and the displayed screenshot is no longer present as shown in the reply and was reportedly removed a while back.

Can't see much value in that syncing really anyway, as if you are syncing data to the MP monitor, you may as well just ignore the MP monitor if all it is doing is parroting the BMV? I only turned on the MP Monitor again last summer, just out of curiosity to see how far out it was and that is when I noticed it was oddly giving a pretty decent fist of showing the right SOC value.

I just thought it was interesting. Maybe others with a Multiplus, a BMV and a VRM setup could compare their own numbers?

Update:

Interestingly, I just reset the BMV SOC and the MP SOC followed the reset, so it is linked to it despite the values being different. I then changed to a different SOC and the MP SOC followed the change.

I wonder if the act of manually changing the SOC triggers the MP SOC to follow suit and then it will do its own calcs until the next manual change? Well, it does not seem to be as independant as I had thought and so likely not as accurate (which makes more sense). So back to my comment above really, I don't know if it has any value if all it does is pretty well copy the BMV.
 
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st3v3

Forum Member
If you want to test it, disconnect the bmv from the network (cable and smart networking) and run the system through discharge/charge and compare the vrm MP value with the bmv screen value.
 

wildebus

Forum Member
st3v3 said:
If you want to test it, disconnect the bmv from the network (cable and smart networking) and run the system through discharge/charge and compare the vrm MP value with the bmv screen value.
Click to expand...
That could be an interesting test at some time, but I can't do that in my system as I use the relay on the BMV-712 remotely via Node-Red to control the Fridge power.
 

wildebus

Forum Member
be worth mentioning how to access them ....
controls.png


There should be some more controls in the list soon (they are on screenshots from Victron but not appearing in the published VRM (at least not in mine!)
 

wildebus

Forum Member
MarkJ said:
How did you get those neat boxes at the bottom with "starter batter", "PbC" etc in them?
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It is a setting on the Venus OS device.

If you go into the Remote Console and goto System Setup, you see an option for Battery Monitor - that is the main Monitor that is shown in the graphic on the bottom left. But there is also a "Battery Measurements" sub-menu (shown on the bottom in the screenshot below)
Screenshot 2022-03-15 at 14-21-18 Monty - VRM Portal.png



In there, you get a list of all the battery measurements available. The Smartshunt, the BMV-712 and BMV-702 have potentially two (first two in the list), the BMV-702 has just one, which are the next two, and there is also the Monitor in the Multiplus if you have one.
Screenshot 2022-03-15 at 14-21-35 Monty - VRM Portal.png


When you click on one of those, you get to select if it is visible or not, and what to call it.
Screenshot 2022-03-15 at 14-22-31 Monty - VRM Portal.png


My Setup is not that typical as I have 3 BMVs installed, but having a box with the Starter Battery Voltage and maybe Multiplus one could be handy (not sure about the Multiplus one anymore now but if I turned that off I would lose the symmetry so keep in there :) )
 

MarkJ

Forum Member
wildebus said:
There should be some more controls in the list soon ( (they are on screenshots from Victron but not appearing in the published VRM (at least not in mine!)
Click to expand...
Yes, I only see the Multiplus - which is actually the one I use most often - but it would be good to see others
 

wildebus

Forum Member
MarkJ said:
Yes, I only see the Multiplus - which is actually the one I use most often - but it would be good to see others
Click to expand...
On the screenshot I saw posted by the Victron dude, he had the on/off controls show for the relays on the Cerbo (and the Venus would be the same). It would be handy to have those :)
 
DnK

DnK

Forum Member
Another off topic and another new feature - Custom widget maker (Beta) on VRM, accessed on Advanced tab > widgets.

Screenshot 2022-03-18 at 5.01.38 PM.png
 

wildebus

Forum Member
DnK said:
Another off topic and another new feature - Custom widget maker (Beta) on VRM, accessed on Advanced tab > widgets.

View attachment 5199
Click to expand...
now THAT is the one I have been waiting for :D

Shame you can't control a common Y axis scale reliably but I am sure that will come!
Interesting to see my two battery banks as they connect and disconnect together ...
Screenshot 2022-03-18 at 17-52-10 Monty - VRM Portal.png
 
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