Updated Victron Energy Charger and Smart Shunt

[FSH 210 Sport]

Woke up at 0200 couldn’t go back to sleep..While I was laying there engaging in a mental karate match on how I could use the new smart shunt I bought to monitor both the total and net output of the alternators of the TR-1 engines, could I do that with one shunt and then just change the wiring around to monitor just the house battery, or should I get another one and dedicate that one to the start battery.

I got up and stoked the wood stove and went online to review the smart shunt set up and discovered there is now a IP 65 rated version available. It has the same operational specs as the original smart shunt with the only noticeable physical difference being the wires for measuring battery voltage, battery temp, start battery voltage etc are already connected, whereas the original version has the user connect them in what configuration is desired. The original version is IP 21 rated which is rated for vertical dripping water and condensation. I found that the smart shunt can be used as a DC monitor or a battery monitor simply by changing the settings via the Bluetooth app. In the DC monitor configuration the shunt could be hooked up to monitor the total output coming from the alternators to the batteries, but the parasitic loads, fuel pump/ injectors/ ECU for running the engines is drawn before it gets to the batteries. I’m still not sure trying to figure out the total output going to both batteries is worth the trouble when all that really matters is how much charge current is going into the house battery, and the start battery aux monitor function does that. Once the start battery gets to 14.4 volts the charge current going to the start battery is negligible.

https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors/smart-battery-shunt#pd-nav-thirdimage

The topic of using the charging system to charge the trolling motor battery bank had come up again recently, and while I had researched this topic before by using a Trollbridge charge controller off of the house battery the engineers at Yamaha had said the left over available charge current was so little it was not worth the effort.

It also appears Victron has updated the IP 67 and IP 65 chargers. From what I can tell from a quick once over is that the IP 67 now has two charge modes, High and Low, with several charge levels / amps in both high and low charge levels. Previously the IP 67 had two charge rates-10A or 25A, now there are eight charge rates; 2A, 4A, 6A, 7A, 10A, 13A, 17A, 25A. The IP 67 charger is a grip at $210, but is by leaps and bounds better than any other on board-able charger I have come across. I have three of the IP 67 chargers on board for charging each one of my 100Ah LiFePO4 trolling motor batteries, my charge time went from 14 hours with the MinnKota 10A charger set to AGM to 3.5 hours with the Victron IP 67 set at 25A for LiFePO4 batteries. While not everyone needs that fast of a charge time, I do, many times I’d get home and plugged in at 2200 hrs (10:00PM) and wanted to head back out at 0600 hrs the next day and my batteries were still charging with the MinnKota charger, another advantage of LiFePO4 batteries is their increased maximum charge rate of .5C or 50A for a 100Ah battery so why not exploit that.

https://www.victronenergy.com/chargers/blue-smart-ip67-charger-waterproof#pd-nav-image

 

[Kelleyja]

The topic of using the charging system to charge the trolling motor battery bank had come up again recently, and while I had researched this topic before by using a Trollbridge charge controller off of the house battery the engineers at Yamaha had said the left over available charge current was so little it was not worth the effort.

This is probably true for your use-case. I have a Victron DC-DC Charger that I use to charge my 100ah Lifepo4 house bank. My experience with the SVHO engine is at idle there's about 7-10 amps excess that the Victron can pull from the charging system to charge the house bank. I installed the 18amp charger because I heard the same thing about the charging systems in these boats and didn't want to risk damage to the charging components. At idle, there's enough excess current from the 2 SHVOs to charge my bank at the max current the Victron 18a is capable of.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

H

This is probably true for your use-case. I have a Victron DC-DC Charger that I use to charge my 100ah Lifepo4 house bank. My experience with the SVHO engine is at idle there's about 7-10 amps excess that the Victron can pull from the charging system to charge the house bank. I installed the 18amp charger because I heard the same thing about the charging systems in these boats and didn't want to risk damage to the charging components. At idle, there's enough excess current from the 2 SHVOs to charge my bank at the max current the Victron 18a is capable of.

Hey that’s awesome news!

Did you try running just one engine and use the Bluetooth app to see what the Victron charger is putting out ?

Were there any


I’m going to install a Victron smart shunt on my boat to measure how much my TR-1’s will put into my 100Ah LiFePO4 house battery.

Thanks again for posting that info, that’s the most concrete information I’ve ever seen about the charging capacity of any Yamaha engine like ours.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I know I duplicated this post in a thread of its own name, I did that so people would be able to find the output if they do a search more easily.

Okay Boys and Girls,

Finally got a chance to run the engines on the hose with the new smart shunt on the house battery.

With no accessories on I started the starboard engine and turned on the water, I waited until I read 14.4 volts on the start battery, verified no amp draw on the house battery then closed the DVSR enable switch, 10 seconds later the DVSR closed and I was getting 6.8-7A’s of charge gong into the 100Ah LiFePO4 house battery on one engine at idle, raised the rpms to 3500 and got 13.12A’s. Started the port engine and raised both engines to 3500 rpm’s and read 26A’s of charge current going into the house battery.

So there you have it, roughly 7A’s of charge per engine at idle, and 13A’s of charge per engine at 3500 rpm’s. This is very close to a thread I once read that said the TR-1’s were good for 14A’s but I’ve never been able to find that thread again.

I have no idea what the engine consumes for the fuel pump, injectors and ECU. But lets assume that the stator is 200 watts, divide that my 14.4, and you get 13.888A’s, so 13.89 which cries out to be 14A’s. I find it hard to believe that the fuel pump and injectors would only be drawing 1A, but all that matters is now I know, and so do you, how much charge current is available off of the TR-1 engines. I’ll be doing some more measurements once I get on the water.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

So real world test of the smart shunt with the Solix on (2.5A of draw) at 6500 rpm’s was 20+ amps…I think the house battery was around 95% charged.

Later in the day the house battery had dropped to around 90% SOC, I was using the engines at idle for a while to help the trolling motor due to some high afternoon winds, it didn’t seem like it was all that long before the house battery was fully charged and as I turned all the accessories, live well fill, aerator, courtesy lights, Nav lights, and both bilge pumps there was no flow out of the house battery…. Why these boats don’t come with a set up like this is truly a shame.

I’m stoked. It appears that the marriage of the LiFePO4 battery and the charging systems on our boats is a great match.