Victron app displaying strange smart shunt data

descott12 · June 8

Hello all,
New tab owner so maybe this makes sense to more experienced users. We were boondocked and the app was showing a battery voltage of 13.19 but a state of charge of 100%. For a LiFePO4 battery 13.1 = 60% and 13.2 = 70% so it should have displayed somewhere in the sixties.
Screenshot attached.

Then another anomaly at around 9AM - the SOC jumped from around 80% straight up to 100% in just a few seconds. This was unhooked with just some early morning solar energy coming.
Screenshot also attached.

Neither of these makes sense. Any thoughts?
I am back on shore power and it is showing 13.75 V and 100% which does make sense.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/by/yu1wz69kdf5b.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/ra/8r3dlvu74o3h.png

dlb · June 8

My first suggestion is to go into the settings and see if the battery type is for a lithium battery. If so, look at the state of charge settings for what the 100% charge is set for. I suspect that these are your issue.

Search the site as there are many threads on the proper settings for a lithium battery and solar panels.

descott12 · June 9

Thanks alot. That was it. I had to disconnect the battery for something and for some reason, the devices forgot all their settings and were defaulted to AGM. I think I have it correctly but oddly, the Smart Shunt does not allow you to choose a battery type like the charger does so I had to tweak the settings and the manual is not very helpful. I will search this site as you suggested for the correct values.

descott12 · June 9

I found a good YouTube that showed all the settings. Thanks again.

Marceline · June 9

descott12 said:

Thanks alot. That was it. I had to disconnect the battery for something and for some reason, the devices forgot all their settings and were defaulted to AGM. I think I have it correctly but oddly, the Smart Shunt does not allow you to choose a battery type like the charger does so I had to tweak the settings and the manual is not very helpful. I will search this site as you suggested for the correct values.

I think it’s dumb, but the default setting for the SmartShunt sets the SOC to 100% when you connect a battery. So if your battery isn’t fully charged when you connect it, the SOC number will never be correct. The solution is to get a full charge on the battery and then synchronize to 100%.

PandL_explore · June 9

Thanks for bringing this up, so we're aware of needing to reset the settings in our Victron apps after a battery disconnect (and maybe after getting a new smart phone, depending on how the apps were set up on the new phone). If you have a Battleborn battery, a list of settings can be found at https://battlebornbatteries.com/how-to-install-and-program-a-battery-monitor/.

elbolillo · June 9

Marceline said:

descott12 said:

Thanks alot. That was it. I had to disconnect the battery for something and for some reason, the devices forgot all their settings and were defaulted to AGM. I think I have it correctly but oddly, the Smart Shunt does not allow you to choose a battery type like the charger does so I had to tweak the settings and the manual is not very helpful. I will search this site as you suggested for the correct values.

I think it’s dumb, but the default setting for the SmartShunt sets the SOC to 100% when you connect a battery. So if your battery isn’t fully charged when you connect it, the SOC number will never be correct. The solution is to get a full charge on the battery and then synchronize to 100%.

This is incorrect. If your battery isn’t fully charged when you connect it the smart shunt will synchronize itself at the top of the charge.

Marceline · June 9

elbolillo said:

Marceline said:

descott12 said:

Thanks alot. That was it. I had to disconnect the battery for something and for some reason, the devices forgot all their settings and were defaulted to AGM. I think I have it correctly but oddly, the Smart Shunt does not allow you to choose a battery type like the charger does so I had to tweak the settings and the manual is not very helpful. I will search this site as you suggested for the correct values.

I think it’s dumb, but the default setting for the SmartShunt sets the SOC to 100% when you connect a battery. So if your battery isn’t fully charged when you connect it, the SOC number will never be correct. The solution is to get a full charge on the battery and then synchronize to 100%.

This is incorrect. If your battery isn’t fully charged when you connect it the smart shunt will synchronize itself at the top of the charge.

@PandL_explore mentioned that they had disconnected the battery and they were boondocking. Also that the SmartShunt lost its settings and reverted to AGM. Under those circumstances it seems unlikely that shunt would automatically synchronize correctly (page 17 of the manual).

We have seen case after case of this default setting (SOC 100% when a battery is first connected) causing issues. IMO the best thing to do is turn off "Battery start synchronized." But at the very least, people should be aware of this quirk.

pthomas745 · June 9

After a battery disconnect, you should not have to "reset the settings". What you have to do, however, is reconnect the solar controller in the proper order: the battery needs to be connected to the controller before the solar panels are connected to the controller. This is from page 13 of the Victron manual. (Ignore the comments about the load settings, etc).

1. Connect the battery: allow the solar charger to automatically recognise the system voltage (wait 10 seconds).
2. It is recommended to verify system voltage: use VictronConnect or an external control display.
4. Connect the PV.
https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Manual_SmartSolar_MPPT_75-10_up_to_100-20/29694-MPPT_solar_charger_manual-pdf-en.pdf

The easiest way to do this is with the fuses at the solar controller from the panels and the battery. Just return them in the proper order: battery first, then the solar cable fuse (should be very close to the controller).

This is the Battleborn guide to setting up a Victron controller. For non-Battleborn batteries, you can simply substitute the proper numbers from your battery manual.

https://battlebornbatteries.com/programming-a-victron-smartsolar-charge-controller/

Here is the shunt guide from Battleborn. https://battlebornbatteries.com/configure-victron-bmv-700-bluetooth-dongle/

elbolillo · June 9

Marceline said:

@PandL_explore mentioned that they had disconnected the battery and they were boondocking. Also that the SmartShunt lost its settings and reverted to AGM. Under those circumstances it seems unlikely that shunt would automatically synchronize correctly (page 17 of the manual).
We have seen case after case of this default setting (SOC 100% when a battery is first connected) causing issues. IMO the best thing to do is turn off "Battery start synchronized." But at the very least, people should be aware of this quirk.

As @pthomas745 mentioned, the Smart Shunt shouldn't lose settings when it loses power. Something else must have caused the lost settings. And if the settings are not correct for the particular battery chemistry, the SOC will never be correct.

If all the settings are correct for your particular batteries, you can leave the default setting of the Battery start synchronized to On and the smart shunt will automatically sync. I have not changed this setting and even after multiple disconnects of the batteries, after the batteries discharge some and then are charged the SOC syncs correctly. I personally have never had issues with this and feel that you can attribute many of the issues regarding syninc of the SOC to incorrect settings.

Just my personal experience.

Marceline · June 9

elbolillo said:

If all the settings are correct for your particular batteries, you can leave the default setting of the Battery start synchronized to On and the smart shunt will automatically sync. I have not changed this setting and even after multiple disconnects of the batteries, after the batteries discharge some and then are charged the SOC syncs correctly. I personally have never had issues with this and feel that you can attribute many of the issues regarding syninc of the SOC to incorrect settings.

Just my personal experience.

Just because that dumb setting has not caused you any problems, does not mean that it hasn't caused problems for others. We've seen plenty of examples of people struggling with incorrect SOC readings because of this. I'm not going to waste time combing through past posts, so I'll just make an example.

Joe keeps his camper in an off-site storage facility with no power. Joe mostly boondocks and rarely uses shore power. Because of this, Joe thinks it will be great idea to buy a lithium battery. Joe installs the 100aH lithium battery in his camper and has even learned enough to know that he needs to change the settings for his solar controller and smartshunt for the lithium battery. What he doesn't know is that when he installed his lithium battery, it was only 70% charged (70aH). The SmartShunt says the SOC is 100%. "Woo hoo! I've got 100aH!" he thinks. He's going camping so he turns on his fridge. The compressor consumes about 30aH to bring the fridge down to 40deg from the ambient temperature of 85deg. The solar power produces about 15aH before the sun goes down. So now he's 70-30+15 = 55aH left in the tank. But the SmartShunt tells him he has 85% SOC so he's not worried. He tucks himself in, feeling good about his new battery. He watches TV. The fridge is running. He uses another 15aH overnight before the sun comes up. Now he's at 40aH but the SS says SOC is 70%, so he's not worried. It rains all day, so solar production is close to zero. Sunday morning the fridge stops working. SOC says 40% - why isn't the fridge working? (SOC is actually more like 10%) A few hours later, the CO/propane detector starts squealing and the lights don't work. He thinks something's wrong with his brand new battery.

The SmartShunt doesn't "automatically sync" unless the battery reaches certain charging parameters, and Joe's battery is never going to get there. So he never realizes that his SOC was wrong from the moment he left the storage yard and it's been wrong all weekend.

It's better for a device to display no data than inaccurate data.

elbolillo · June 10

And you just hit the nail on the head with the biggest problem. If you never charge a LiFePo4 battery to 100% then you are asking for problems.

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Victron app displaying strange smart shunt data

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