Manual - SmartShunt

To access and change setting parameters do the following:

For information on how to connect with the VictronConnect app to the battery monitor, see the The VictronConnect app chapter.

In the settings menu you can find the following 3 symbols:

Save settings to file - This will save settings for reference or for later use.

Load settings from file - This will load earlier saved settings.

Share settings file – This allows you to share the settings file via email, message, airdrop and so on. The available sharing options depend on the platform used.

For more information on these features, see the VictronConnect manual.

This parameter is used to tell the battery monitor how big the battery is. This setting should already have been done during the initial installation.

The setting is the battery capacity in Amp-hours (Ah).

For more information on the battery capacity and the related Peukert exponent see the Battery capacity and Peukert exponent chapter.

The battery voltage must be above this voltage level to consider the battery as fully charged. As soon as the battery monitor detects that the voltage of the battery has reached this “charged voltage” parameter and the current has dropped below the “tail current” parameter for a certain amount of time, the battery monitor will set the state of charge to 100%.

The “charged voltage” parameter should be set to 0.2V or 0.3V below the float voltage of the charger.

The table below indicates the recommended settings for lead acid batteries.

The “Discharge floor” parameter is used in the "time remaining" calculation. The battery monitor calculates the time it takes until the set “discharge floor” has been reached. It is also used to set the state of charge alarm defaults.

For lead-acid batteries set this to 50% and for lithium set it lower.

The battery is considered as fully charged once the charge current has dropped to less than this “Tail current” parameter. The “Tail current” parameter is expressed as a percentage of the battery capacity.

Note that some battery chargers stop charging when the current drops below a set threshold. In these cases, the tail current must be set higher than this threshold.

As soon as the battery monitor detects that the voltage of the battery has reached the set “Charged voltage” parameter and the current has dropped below this “Tail current” parameter for a certain amount of time, the battery monitor will set the state of charge to 100%.

This is the time the “Charged voltage” parameter and the “Tail current” parameter must be met in order to consider the battery fully charged.

Set the Peukert exponent parameter according to the battery specification sheet. If the Peukert exponent is unknown, set it at 1.25 for lead-acid batteries and set it at 1.05 for lithium batteries. A value of 1.00 disables the Peukert compensation. The Peukert value for lead-acid batteries can be calculated. For more information on the Peukert calculation, the Peukert exponent and how this relates to the battery capacity, see the Battery capacity and Peukert exponent chapter.

The “Charge Efficiency Factor” compensates for the capacity (Ah) losses during charging. A setting of 100% means that there are no losses.

A charge efficiency of 95% means that 10Ah must be transferred to the battery to get 9.5Ah actually stored in the battery. The charge efficiency of a battery depends on battery type, age and usage. The battery monitor takes this phenomenon into account with the charge efficiency factor.

The charge efficiency of a lead acid battery is almost 100% as long as no gas generation takes place. Gassing means that part of the charge current is not transformed into chemical energy, which is stored in the plates of the battery, but is used to decompose water into oxygen and hydrogen gas (highly explosive!). The energy stored in the plates can be retrieved during the next discharge, whereas the energy used to decompose water is lost. Gassing can easily be observed in flooded batteries. Please note that the ‘oxygen only’ end of the charge phase of sealed (VRLA) gel and AGM batteries also results in a reduced charge efficiency.

When the current measured falls below the “Current threshold” parameter it will be considered zero. The “Current threshold” is used to cancel out very small currents that can negatively affect the long-term state of charge readout in noisy environments. For example, if the actual long-term current is 0.0A and, due to injected noise or small offsets, the battery monitor measures ­0.05A the battery monitor might, in the long term, incorrectly indicate that the battery is empty or will need to be recharged. When the current threshold in this example is set to 0.1A, the battery monitor calculates with 0.0A so that errors are eliminated.

A value of 0.0A disables this function.

The time-to-go averaging period specifies the time window (in minutes) that the moving averaging filter works. A value of 0 (zero) disables the filter and gives an instantaneous (real-time) readout. However, the displayed “Time remaining” value may fluctuate heavily. Selecting the longest time, 12 minutes, will ensure that only long-term load fluctuations are included in the “Time remaining” calculations.

This setting determines the behaviour of the state of charge (SOC) value following a battery monitor reset. A reset occurs when the battery monitor is powered down and subsequently powered up again. This occurs during initial installation or disconnection, such as on a boat when the DC system is disconnected via the main DC breaker.

With this setting, you can manually set the state of charge value. This setting is only active after the battery monitor has, at least once, been synchronised. Either automatically or manually.

This setting is only available when accessing the battery monitor via the VictronConnect app.

This option can be used to manually synchronise the battery monitor.

In the VictronConnect app press the ”Synchronise” button to synchronise the battery monitor to 100%.

See the Manual synchronisation paragraph for more information on this setting.

This option can be used to calibrate the zero reading if the battery monitor reads a non-zero current even when there is no load and the battery is not being charged.

A zero current calibration is (almost) never needed. Only perform this procedure in case the battery monitor shows a current while you are absolutely sure that there is no actual current flowing. The only way to be sure is to physically disconnect all wires and cables connected to the SYSTEM MINUS side of the shunt. Do this by unscrewing the shunt bolt and removing all cables and wires from that side of the shunt. The alternative, switching loads or chargers off, is NOT accurate enough as this does not eliminate small standby currents.

Ensure that there really is no current flowing into or out of the battery (disconnect the cable between the load and the shunt), then press CALIBRATE in the VictronConnect app.

Performing a zero current calibration.

When enabled, the alarm will activate when the state of charge (SoC) falls below the set value for more than 10 seconds. The alarm will deactivate when the state of charge rises above the clear value

When enabled, the alarm will activate when the battery voltage falls below the set value for more than 10 seconds. The alarm will deactivate when the battery voltage rises above the clear value.

When enabled, the alarm will activate when the battery voltage rises above the set value for more than 10 seconds. The alarm will deactivate when the battery voltage drops below the clear value.

This setting is only available if the Aux input has been set to “Starter battery”, see chapter Aux input.

When enabled, the alarm will activate when the starter battery voltage falls below the set value for more than 10 seconds. The alarm will deactivate when the starter battery voltage rises above the clear value.

This setting is only available if the Aux input has been set to “Starter battery”, see chapter Aux input.

When enabled, the alarm will activate when the starter battery voltage rises above the set value for more than 10 seconds and the alarm will deactivate when the starter battery voltage drops below the clear value.

This setting is only available if the Aux input has been set to “temperature”, see chapter Aux input.

When enabled, the alarm will activate when the battery temperature rises above the set value for more than 10 seconds. The alarm will deactivate when the battery temperature drops below the clear value.

This setting is only available if the Aux input has been set to “temperature”, see chapter Aux input.

When enabled, the alarm will activate when the battery temperature falls below the set value for more than 10 seconds. The alarm will deactivate when the battery temperature rises above the clear value.

This setting is only available if the Aux input has been set to “Midpoint”; see chapter Aux input.

When enabled, the alarm will activate when the midpoint voltage deviation rises above the set value for more than 10 seconds. The alarm will deactivate when the midpoint voltage deviation drops below the clear value.

This setting is available if the aux input has been set to "Temperature", see the Aux input setting.

The available battery capacity decreases with temperature. The temperature coefficient (delta T) is the percentage the battery capacity changes with temperature when temperature decreases to less than 20°C (above 20°C the influence of temperature on capacity is relatively low and is not taken into account). Typically, the reduction, compared to the capacity at 20°C, is 18% at 0°C and 40% at -20°C.

The unit of this value is “%cap/°C” or per cent capacity per degree Celsius.

The typical value (below 20°C) is 1%cap/°C for lead acid batteries, and 0.5%cap/°C for LFP batteries.

This setting sets the function of the auxiliary input. Select between: None, Starter battery, Midpoint or Temperature.

If you wish to use the battery monitor to monitor individual DC circuits rather than as a whole-of-system battery monitor, you can change the "Monitor mode" setting in the "Misc" menu from "Battery Monitor" to "DC Energy Meter".

If "DC meter" is selected, you can select the following types:

Solar charger, Wind charger, Shaft generator, Alternator, Fuel cell, Water generator, DC-DC charger, AC charger, Generic source, Generic load, Electric drive, Fridge, Water pump, Bilge pump, DC system, Inverter, Water heater.

When connected to a GX device, the type, the current and the power is shown in the user interface, and this information is also available on the VRM Portal.

When the GX device is also configured as type “has DC System”, the GX does more than just recording and visualisation:

See the GX device documentation for more information about these advanced features, especially refer to the Distributed voltage and current control chapter.

This setting can be found at the bottom of the history tab.

This setting can be found in the settings of the VictronConnect app itself. Leave the battery monitor by clicking on the ← arrow. This will bring you back to the device list of the VictronConnect app. Now, click on the menu symbol next to the battery monitor listing.

A new window will open which allows you to reset the PIN code back to its default: 000000. To be able to reset the PIN code you will need the enter the battery monitor unique PUK code. The PUK code is printed on the product information sticker on the Battery monitor.

This setting can be found in the settings of the VictronConnect app itself. Leave the battery monitor page by clicking on the ← arrow. This will bring you back to the device list of the VictronConnect app. Click on the menu symbol and then click on the settings symbol. Here you can select the “Display temperature unit”. Selecting Celsius will display the temperature in °C and selecting Fahrenheit will display the temperature in °F.

The serial number can be found in the battery monitor product info section of the VictronConnect app or on the product information sticker on the battery monitor.

Bluetooth is enabled by default in the battery monitor. If Bluetooth is not wanted it can be disabled. This is done by sliding the Bluetooth switch in the product settings.

A reason to disable Bluetooth could be for security reasons, or to eliminate unwanted transmission from the Battery monitor.

As soon as Bluetooth has been disabled the only way to communicate with the battery monitor is via its VE.Direct port.

This is done via the USB to VE.Direct interface or via a GX device connected to the battery monitor via a VE.Direct cable or the USB to VE.Direct interface. For more info see the VictronConnect app via USB chapter.

Bluetooth can be re-enabled by connecting to the battery monitor with VictronConnect via the VE.Direct – USB interface. Once connected you can navigate to the product settings menu and re-enable Bluetooth.

For more information also see the VictronConnect manual.

VictronConnect product info screen.

In the battery monitor Bluetooth interface product info the PIN code can be changed.

In the battery monitor product information screen, you can change the name of the battery monitor. By default, it is called by its product name. But a more applicable name might be needed, especially if you are using multiple battery monitors in close proximity of each other it might become confusing with which battery monitor you are communicating. You can, for example, add identification numbers to their name, like: Battery Monitor A, Battery Monitor B and so on.

Both the battery monitor and its Bluetooth interface run on firmware.

Occasionally a newer firmware version is available. New firmware is released to either add features or to fix a bug. The product overview in the VictronConnect app displays the battery monitor and the Bluetooth interface firmware version. It also indicates whether the firmware is the latest version, and there is a button you can press to update the firmware.

On the first installation, it is always recommended to update to the most recent firmware (if available). Whenever you connect to the battery monitor with an up-to-date version of the VictronConnect app, it will check the firmware, and if there is a newer version available, it will ask you to update the firmware. The VictronConnect app contains the actual firmware files, so an internet connection is not needed to update to the most recent firmware as long as you are using the most up-to-date version of the VictronConnect app.

A firmware update is not mandatory. If you choose not to update the firmware, you can only read out the battery monitor, but you cannot change settings. Settings can only be changed if the battery monitor runs on the most recent firmware.

For more information on firmware updates also see the VictronConnect app manual Firmware update chapter.

To set all settings back to default select “Reset to defaults”. Please note that this only resets all settings to their default values, the history is not reset.