Victron smart shunt -> 2024 Vita

[Pointyears]

My 2024 Vita came with 200 watts of solar (2x100) along with 2 group 31 lead/acid batteries below a step. I have a 200w panel to install, but I wanted to see what kind of a baseline I got before installing because the information from the Zamp controller is a bit sparse so I bought a victron IP65. Then of course, post-install monitoring.
Between two batteries, the rooftop solar, and the exterior wall mount auxiliary solar input, the battery bay is a holy mess of cabling and I can't figure out how to appropriately install the victron.
Any suggestions? The sparse instructions don't cover this sophisticated/insert pejorative scenario.
Thanks!

[creativepart]

The shunt goes between all the possible negative loads and the main negative connections to the battery bank.

It’s difficult to tell from your photo but that negative terminal on the battery on the right in your photo could be the main load negative. It looks like there is more than one cable coming off that terminal from multiple loads of your RV.

If so, connect all the cables coming to that terminal (except the one going to the other battery) to the load side of the shunt. Then connect a new cable of equal gauge between the battery side of the shunt to that terminal on the right side battery.

You want the shunt between all the negative loads and your battery bank.

In my motorhome I had a negative chassis cable, a negative solar charger cable and a negative inverter cable. This made for too many cables on the shunt’s load side so I installed a negative buss bar to hold all the load cables and ran that to the load side of the shunt.

[dkoldman]

Here is a photo of my setup if you are still trying to figure this out.

I replaced two 125ah AGMs with one 300ah Lithium. I did other things too, but you can see my Smart Shunt and how it is wired. Since I only had one positive post when I eliminated the 2nd house battery, I went to ACE hardware and got a slightly longer bolt to handle the 3 main lugs. Works great.

I love the Smart Shunt, but I wish the Bluetooth signal was as strong as my Victron DC2DC charger. I can be in the house and connect the phone to the DC2DC charger but I need to go outside or in the garage to read the Smart Shunt.

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by dkoldman

I wish the Bluetooth signal was as strong as my Victron DC2DC charger. I can be in the house and connect the phone to the DC2DC charger but I need to go outside or in the garage to read the Smart Shunt.

I bought a Victron Energy VE.Direct Smart Dongle for $40 and that plugs into your Smart Shunt and it is definitely stronger BT for greater range.

It's an easy install. Though I installed mine in the motorhome to be able to read the phone app anywhere in the coach. I don't know how it would work in your home.

https://www.amazon.com/Victron-Energ.../dp/B01CGFF8Q2

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by creativepart

I bought a Victron Energy VE.Direct Smart Dongle for $40 and that plugs into your Smart Shunt and it is definitely stronger BT for greater range.

It's an easy install. Though I installed mine in the motorhome to be able to read the phone app anywhere in the coach. I don't know how it would work in your home.

https://www.amazon.com/Victron-Energ.../dp/B01CGFF8Q2

I did not know about this. I put in my cart while I think about it.

I can read my Smart Shunt now from anywhere in the RV or outside of the RV. My guess I have a 40 - 50' perimeter around my battery and it works fine.

I would think that to be ok, but I can be in the house watching TV about 80 - 90' away and my DC2DC will come up and connect. The Problem is since the engine is OFF the DC2DC is also ODD but I can see the input voltage from Chassis, that may be all I need, but it would be nice to be in the house and see the all of the Smart Shunt data. I don't foresee doing all of the Cerbo VE Direct stuff.


For $40 it may be worth it? Not sure why the Smart Shunt does not do better? It should have plenty of power. Maybe interference from the batteries? or in my case enclosed in compartment under steps? My DC2DC is in outside compartment by door.

[Morich]

Originally Posted by Pointyears

My 2024 Vita came with 200 watts of solar (2x100) along with 2 group 31 lead/acid batteries below a step. I have a 200w panel to install, but I wanted to see what kind of a baseline I got before installing because the information from the Zamp controller is a bit sparse so I bought a victron IP65. Then of course, post-install monitoring.
Between two batteries, the rooftop solar, and the exterior wall mount auxiliary solar input, the battery bay is a holy mess of cabling and I can't figure out how to appropriately install the victron.
Any suggestions? The sparse instructions don't cover this sophisticated/insert pejorative scenario.
Thanks!

Are you aware of the online info that is posted by Winnebago to help sort the cables and wiring on motorhomes?
Notice those red, blue, yellow markers on the ends of the battery cables? Those actually are markers to let us figure where the other end of the cable might go!

Then if you get into needing to ID some of the smaller wires, there is an ID chart to "decode" those markers stamped on the wires and that can be a big help!
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ical_guide.pdf


They have stopped giving us the basic schematic drawings of the coach 12V after the 2010 models but there can be some good info on the installation drawings here:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File..._c24p_wire.htm
It's a lot of hunt and peck this way but there are some good circuit ID given that we can decode from the chart listed above.

[Morich]

Originally Posted by dkoldman

I did not know about this. I put in my cart while I think about it.

I can read my Smart Shunt now from anywhere in the RV or outside of the RV. My guess I have a 40 - 50' perimeter around my battery and it works fine.

I would think that to be ok, but I can be in the house watching TV about 80 - 90' away and my DC2DC will come up and connect. The Problem is since the engine is OFF the DC2DC is also ODD but I can see the input voltage from Chassis, that may be all I need, but it would be nice to be in the house and see the all of the Smart Shunt data. I don't foresee doing all of the Cerbo VE Direct stuff.


For $40 it may be worth it? Not sure why the Smart Shunt does not do better? It should have plenty of power. Maybe interference from the batteries? or in my case enclosed in compartment under steps? My DC2DC is in outside compartment by door.

Shooting through too much metal may be the big problem as it kills radio. Remember driving through bridges and how it used to drop the AM signals?

The RV with fiber type body may not be a big problem but if we put something down in a metal box under the step, it may not get out!
The old tinfoil hat thing actually works!

[dkoldman]

I found this video

https://youtu.be/fwLtgYq8pLI?si=smyd0XImV0K86BJZ

It covers everything A - Z

I like how you can see both units of the Bluetooths on the Victron App.

[Pointyears]

Originally Posted by Morich

Are you aware of the online info that is posted by Winnebago to help sort the cables and wiring on motorhomes?
Notice those red, blue, yellow markers on the ends of the battery cables? Those actually are markers to let us figure where the other end of the cable might go!
Attachment 190485
Then if you get into needing to ID some of the smaller wires, there is an ID chart to "decode" those markers stamped on the wires and that can be a big help!
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ical_guide.pdf
Attachment 190486

They have stopped giving us the basic schematic drawings of the coach 12V after the 2010 models but there can be some good info on the installation drawings here:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File..._c24p_wire.htm
It's a lot of hunt and peck this way but there are some good circuit ID given that we can decode from the chart listed above.

Nope, didn't know any of this. I'm a noob to the RV ownership game. Thanks!

[Morich]

Sounds like the normal situation when we start a new game. I've found Winnebago does much better on the info side than many and it is one of the things that has me solidly in their camp!
some sites to ease you into finding a ton of info. It varies with year and 2010 is a breaking point on many as that is when they changed up some stuff. to different forms.
Winn home site and under "owners" tab for owners manuals:
https://www.winnebago.com/owners/own...erator-manuals
Parts as a way to see how they may have put it together as it sometimes helps us get it apart! Maybe you DO need to know a part name or number?
https://catalog.winnebagoind.com/menu/Parts.htm
Wiring:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ram/Wiring.htm
If you get into looking at small wires, don't skip over the wire ID list at the bottom as the wires are labeled:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ram/Wiring.htm
Plumbing is a different way to look at that than we find in the parts section.
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...m/Plumbing.htm


Good luck the trek of learning. Sometimes we don't know what we don't know!
Funny they don't teach this RV stuff in school!!!!

[Pointyears]

Originally Posted by Morich

Sounds like the normal situation when we start a new game. I've found Winnebago does much better on the info side than many and it is one of the things that has me solidly in their camp!
some sites to ease you into finding a ton of info. It varies with year and 2010 is a breaking point on many as that is when they changed up some stuff. to different forms.
Winn home site and under "owners" tab for owners manuals:
https://www.winnebago.com/owners/own...erator-manuals
Parts as a way to see how they may have put it together as it sometimes helps us get it apart! Maybe you DO need to know a part name or number?
https://catalog.winnebagoind.com/menu/Parts.htm
Wiring:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ram/Wiring.htm
If you get into looking at small wires, don't skip over the wire ID list at the bottom as the wires are labeled:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ram/Wiring.htm
Plumbing is a different way to look at that than we find in the parts section.
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...m/Plumbing.htm


Good luck the trek of learning. Sometimes we don't know what we don't know!
Funny they don't teach this RV stuff in school!!!!

Yeah, I'd found the 3D wireframe diagrams before when searching for information, but the wiring color/letter codes were totally new to me.

[Morich]

Yes, it is easy to miss many of the details at first. Look to the bottom left for notes on where to find other info as there are many, many details if we spot where to go next. Things like the details of light fixtures and how to use the diagrams for electrical. I work with different drawings from different sources and find that all have some specific quirks in the way they present things on their inhouse drawings.
On the Winnebago drawings, one biggie is how they deal with drawings that are so large they require as much as six pages for the total view.
The idea is somewhat simple, once we get the idea!

If a drawing is so large that it can't be fit on a single sheet, they set it up so that we can trace a line off one side of the first sheet, go to the next as if they were laid out on a large table or the floor, side by side!
At the top of each sheet, there are numbers. If we chase the circuit to the point it goes off that sheet, we need to note the number at the top.
For example if it runs off the sheet at 16, we need to move to the sheet that has 17 at the top to continue the chase.
But that can be when we use the other bits of info they give us. If we are chasing a circuit that has an ID on the drawing or from the stamp on the physical wire we can sometimes cut the time, if we look at the wire ID chart. That chart tells us the "from" and "to" locations of a wire!
So if we know a wire like LR goes from a fuse to the mode solenoid, we don't always have to chase it across three sheets of drawings! Instead we may want to jump from one point directly to the mode solenoid!
But the main trick is using it often enough to get familiar with how each company does their drawings and info.
That is where I favor Winnebago as they DO give us lots of info, unlike the auto industry, where that info is held pretty close as way to force us to go to their shops!

In the years after 2010, Winnebago has cut way back on the drawings info for the 12VDC coach wiring but it is still somewhat supported. Just not as easy to find and we have to do more guessing to get it found!

But, like I used to tell the old boss? If it was simple they would have somebody else do it!

We could always take it to a shop but that has it's own set of problems!