The Victron Lynx Shunt - Settings, Features and Flaws
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- Опубліковано 22 лип 2024
- Here is another episode of going through all settings of a device we're using. The Victron Lynx Shunt is installed at the PowerWall 2.0 and connects the Seplos and QSO battery to the inverter and solar.
I really thought this is a great product (especially considering the price!) but it also has its flaws and challenges. I hope Victron fixes them with a firmware update soon.
As always, all information and screenshots are on my website under My Settings here available:
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Victron Lynx Shunt:
off-grid-garage.com/battery-a...
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Elevator Music:
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/ zet237 - Наука та технологія
Andy. Try this.
1. VRM portal
2. Left top corner. (3bar button)
3. Device list
4. Scroll all the way down.
5. Firmware update ( would you like to update the firmware of the devices connected to your GX device? )
Press and cross your fingers. Let us know.❤
Yes exactly. This is the way.
I go into the VRM once a week to check for new updates for all my devices but the Lynx shunt never got one.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia Meh to bad. I don't have a lynx shut so I could not tell. Tho I thought you should know of all people where to update.
Thanks for letting us know.
Another valuable video! Thanks, Andy!
Awesome educational content,again, Andy!
Thanks Ed. We have a bit of a collection now built up for people to get started and get an understanding what the settings are for.
Very good review of settings. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for this video. The lynx shunt is now with The correct settings!
Glad it helped!
Thanks Andy. Cheers!
i love Victron, solid reliable stuff.
Expensive reliable stuff, I would call it. I really love the FW updates, constant product improvements for existing devices I bought years ago and the of course the remote control of all devices and the VRM.
No other manufacturer gives you that.
That waiting tune is a great hint, for improvement to vitron .. was funny and entertaining
Thanks Denny, yeah, the lynx shunt has lots of room for improvement... 😊
Was watching this video when the power went out. No worries, I switched over to my back up battery system and was back up and running and got to finish the video!
How last century, apart from the loss of grid notification on my phone I wouldn't even notice if the grid went off ;-)
@@TheRonskiman Pretty great considering I live in a rental in the city.
@@TheRonskiman These days the only way I know whether the power has gone are messages from the neighbours asking if my power has gone off too. :)
@@pedromoonunit430 That is my dream system.
@@larrybell4599 More than doable. I have no electrical engineering experience, but did the lot from fitting the panels to rewiring my consumer unit. Biggest hurdles are money and enough space for the required number of solar panels to allow you to go off grid. The rest is just time and learning (The fun bit). Andy's channel is great, also check out the DiySolarForum too.
Very good info, thank you.
Thank You for the testing. Danke.
Gerne!
Thanks Andy
Thanks Andy, another great video, I also have the Lynx Shunt 1000 and to be honest I think it is an expensive fuse holder, I sometimes have a low battery warning appear on my Multiplus, shuts down the Multiplus for 10 sec and restarts? yet to discover the cause but as you say the SOC disappears , you would think for the price they would have a way to backup this information on the device. Keep up the great work,
Oh, wow, it even shuts your system down 😙
The software on the lynx shunts sucks and needs lots of improvement. It should not be too hard with the FW upgrades they can do.
On the discussion about the smart shunt's SOC calculation... a great demonstration of the difficulty in actually figuring out the SOC of a LFP battery bank. It's virtually impossible to figure out just from the voltage due to massive differences in voltage (at the same SOC) that occur depending on whether one is charging, discharging, and by how much.
Fortunately, though, figuring out the SOC is mostly just informational. Except for one particular situation, none of the equipment actually needs to know the SOC and can just use voltage trips. That one situation is when a hybrid inverter is managing AC-coupled solar panels off-grid, where it needs to maintain a battery buffer (SOC cannot be higher than around 90% or lower than 10%) in order to be able to use it to soak up differences between generation and loads (because the frequency servo controlling the micro-inverters moves slowly).
--
I'm having fun with my little side-project. I am rewiring my back-deck Pergola system to run my office and machine room off-grid. It was previously just grid-tied. I decided to go with 24VDC instead of 48VDC just for safety, since its only supposed to be a fun little side project that is separate from the main system. Even so, I'm having regrets. I might just rewire it for 48V... nearly all the equipment can handle either.
In anycase, the Pergola generates about 5kWh/day at the moment and the two rooms eat around 6.5kWh/day, which is perfect... I want the rooms to burn slightly more power than the Pergola generates so it doesn't curtail solar generation. I support the small battery system (about 5kWh of storage) with a Victron 12A charger that runs off the mains, configured only to support the loads when the battery voltage gets too low.
My expectation is that once I optimize some of the losses, the charger will only have to push 0.5 - 1.0kWh/day on average, about 1/5 the total. Hopefully less.
Over winter you may have to do something similar with a generator or a charger run off the utility to keep the battery bank from going empty. Having fallback support like that which is completely automatic makes life a lot more convenient.
-Matt
48v is just so much better- obviously half the current through everything which is just awesome.
48v is never going to give you any more than at very worst a very slight zap, perfectly safe.
You have to press down on the positive and negative terminal on a 48V system very hard to feel anything. If you have dry skin, nothing...
But hey, we have the option here with 12V, 24V and 48V 😊
Love the elevator music touch, nice
Need to do something in these 40s until the shunt has loaded (almost) all numbers 😄
Heya, yes victron makes very nice tools
Thumbs up 👍 yep keep it going 😊
Hello, what's your thoughts a year later? You recommend it or a SmartShunt? RV use, 24v.
I have the Lynx Shunt in my system, and it shows DC power, so not sure what you mean? Accessed the shunt via Victron connect, then Cerbo, then devices, it connected pretty quickly, but voltage was missing, not that I ever connect this way. Firmware version was the same as yours.
Yeah, it shows DC power but does not add it to the Consumption number near the graph. Only AC power will accumulate there. DC power consumption is ignored in this figure.
Hi Andy. Are you sure the Lynx Shunt can detect a blown fuse in the Lynx Distributor? As I know this is not working.
The option is in the settings, but I haven't tested it yet. I'll take out a fuse and see if it triggers anything.
Andy, can you please provide MultiPlus settings you have for your system? Thanks
As I have changed my setup recently to enable AC-solar coupling, I have now completely different settings.
I have shown them here when I connected the micro-inverter: ua-cam.com/video/HilbXFCX3L8/v-deo.html
Did I coin the phrase 'Very expensive fuse holder' ? 😁
What? Uhmmm.... That's pretty much what it is.
Доброго часу. LYNX SHUNT має два однаковых гнізда VE.Саn. Одне для зв'язку із GX, а інше глушиться резистором RJ45. Питання? Куди можна використовувати інше гніздо, яке заглушено буде RJ45, невже можливо паралельне підключення декількох LYNX SHUNT? Навіщо продублювали гнізда VE.Can? Дякую за відповідь.
Just a comment on the Peukert exponent. I am using 1.02 for my Peukert exponent. Even though you are correct for the battery alone remember there are possibly line losses for high currents in some systems. More current equals more line losses. My testing for my system under normal working loads is somewhere around 1.02 - 1.03 for my Peukert exponent due to my line and connection losses between battery and inverter.
Any voltage drop means more current is required for the same load (watts) but it doesn't matter which part of the loop (in a series circuit) where current is measured. For most of the SOC the current doesn't reduce usable capacity (like SLA), it only affects the last ~2% of SOC that's below ~2.7V/cell when slow (C/50) discharge, vs hitting 2.5V when fast (1C) discharge.
Any line or connection losses between the battery cells and the shunt (which is external in my situation) will contribute to the Peukert effect. Think high current through connectors or cables near their current carrying capacity that produce heat and power losses that the shunt cannot read. These small power losses are not accounted for by the shunt. To prove it perform this test, under a high current condition take a voltage drop measurement between the battery negative terminal and the shunt negative terminal. If no voltage drop is present your shunt reading is accurate. Any voltage drop under high loads will contribute to the Peukert effect value used by the shunt to calculate ah consumed.
That makes sense. I'll try 1.02 as well as mu shunt calculation is always a bit off when fully charging the battery again.
Haha.😂 expensive fuse holder. That's a good one. Thanks for the video. Trying to troubleshoot mine now. Not getting b power to go through it. And yes I have fuse in it. Haha
On the cerbo, under settings, system setup, is your “Has DC system” enabled? Based on your screenshots it is not, that has to be enabled on any VenusOS device to show the DC load. I assume it is set on your main system and you forgot to enable on the cerbo.
That's exactly what I enabled on mine, and I only knew about it because of one of Andy's previous videos, I also think he's forgotten to enable it. The shunt doesn't even know where the power is going, it just measures it, the Cerbo takes measurements from the inverter and other sources and anything missing is assumed to be DC consumption.
It does not make a difference though. It will show you the actual DC load but does not add this to the Consumption at next to the graph. This only works with the Smart Shunt and the BMV, not with the lynx shunt though.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I only have the Cerbo running directly on the DC though, so it's not significant consumption, I will be adding the battery heating later though.
Morning from Thunderstorm Victoria. It is very wet down here.
Send some rain up to SEQ pleeeeease!
@@FutureSystem738 Sending now.
@@chuxxsss Thanks, we got around 25mm yesterday evening, so worked very well. You’re a legend.
@@FutureSystem738 We got just under 30 mm. Was good to clean the cars.
How come your charged voltage is 55.0 rather than 55.2 assuming 16 x 3.45v ?
The charge controllers charge to 55.2V, that is correct. 55V is the charge voltage set in the shunt when it resets to 100%SOC together with the other two parameters necessary.
I use a battery adapter for my camera when streaming & long recording (dummy battery with cable replaces original battery). A USB(5V) to ~8.1V DC-DC designed for my Sony camera, and a 230V AC to USB or similar power source. I could use a large USB power brick or modify to make a 12V to 8.1V DC-DC. YMMV
Nice touch this "elevator music"😁. I really like Victron stuff but Lynx is not one of the parts I would buy however.
Have you ever considered testing the 123SmartBMS system?
Its software nests in the Cerbo and shows each connected battery over USB port (or hub if more than 2).
Advantage is you can connect 18 batteries in seriesin order to max out the 66V of the Multiplus and will have some extra kWh's in your sets.
For me it will me two strings in parallel with a total of 34,7 kWh gross and about 30kWh nett capacity 😁
The Lynx needs a proper FW update to make it worth the price.
So, when you connect several BMS via USB, they act independently in Victron and are not reporting as one BMS obviously. What would be the benefit of connecting several of them to Victron?
I have not tested the 123BMS but had a look at it a few times in the past. I found it very confusing with all these modules, relays and not straight forward for beginners.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia I found the use of it very easy and srtraightforward and yes, you can see the SOC of different batteries but having equal ones, I see the advantage however of looking at each pack.
Yesterday my promised 40 EVE cells were pursponed without telling me upfront so I lost a precious day for nothing 🧐.
Then I decided to make lemonade when served lemons and cancelled the whole order in order to go for 6 Pylontech US5000 batteries with included bms and Victron certified CANbus comms.
I need to get this ESS job done quickly to start with installing a Nibe heatpump too.
I want to be ready for the winter.
Can i ask for some help from you?
I want to buy and design system with Victron MultiPlus-II 48/5000/70-50 + BMS + lead-acid batteries (i will change them in future with lithium batteries) for reserve power (blackouts in Ukraine). So, i don't understand whether i can connect my bms to Multiplus inverter, and do i need to buy lynx power in, distributor and shunt?
p.s. i have a limited budget, so i want minimal setup to start with
Can you explain why the low soc is coupled to te discharge floor like how stupid is this if i like want to shut down my inverter around 40% so I can keep my dc lights on during the night, then te discharge floor will be set to 40% and I will have no idea how long my battery will last, I have the bmv 712 so I have a display so it displays a small battery to see the soc of the battery, setup like this it is saying that my battery is 0% at 40%. I have been bothering Victron about it but they won’t fix it. Can we all just bother them until they fix it.
The purpose of this is to give users a certain energy buffer for either emergency situations or if they want to discharge their battery only to 20% and not lower. So at 20% the battery monitor shows 0%.
I think, the settings makes more sense for lead acid batteries where you should not go below 50%SOC. For lithium batteries, I would set this to 0% to get the real number.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia that is true and I understand that but what if you want to use the relay so you disconnect heavy loads of the system at say 40% so you can make it trough the night with dc loads like you phone charger. If you setup your relay like that it will automatically set your discharge floor to the number that you set your relay to disconnect, that doesn’t make any sense. Please try it yourself.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia the battery monitor doesn’t show 0% it actually shows 40% just that you don’t see remaining time, and the small battery that is show in the bottom right corner of the bmv 712 show that it needs to be charged. That all makes sense but I don’t understand why a low state of charge relay in normal or charger mode sets the discharge floor to what you set the relay. They are software coupled. If you look online there are plenty of people complaining. I contacted Victron and got a nasty short reply “contact your supplier” not happy about service
@@OffGridGarageAustralia Another example solar is free energy right. So if you would want run a heavy load like a fridge that you would want to disconnect if you have idk 60% and have switch over to propane. The stupid relay would set your discharge floor to 60% it doesn’t make sense.
Knowing what you know now, would you reccomend using the Lynx shunt in a new system?
Well, if you have a pure ESS system and no DC load, the Lynx shunt will work. But for everything else no, I would not recommend it. Use the Smart SHunt or the BMV instead as they show DC load as well.
@@OffGridGarageAustralia Thanks Andy I think I will just use the smartshunt.
Does a victron rig need an internet connection to function?
No
No, but a very useful addition to have. Adding a connection to VRM gives one the addition of statistics over time.
Note v1.09 has been released, but later redrawn. Do not use it,
use v1.08 instead.
It is also no longer necessary to use v1.09. It was only created
to allow configuration on the CCGX. But since CCGX version v1.30,
which will be released in October 2015, the CCGX can also configure
Lynx Shunts with v1.08 and earlier.
The problem with v1.09 is that the Lynx Shunt can end up in a reboot
loop, which makes it impossible to use. It might even work fine at
first, but then after a later power cycle end up in a reboot loop.
I've never seen a FW update for the shunt coming through so far.
✌️✌️✌️
My Lynx Shunt died last week, wasn't too fussed as it was a massively overpriced inaccurate piece of junk. Debating whether I need to add my superior SmartShunt to the system or whether I can just rely on the Seplos BMS for SOC etc? I read Victron don't recommend installing a shunt of any kind with a BMS managed battery. How true that is I don't know?
You can have as many shunts as you like in your system but can only make one the battery shunt in the system. You can try the Seplos BMS and shunt first before you buy a new shunt.
Depending if you have a 10C or a 10E Seplos, it may or may not work for you.
🐸🐸🐸
Connecting to the mother ship is why I am only doing local storage. Experimenting with Home assistant. I hate anything cloud.
Well, you're using a device now and leaving a comment on a cloud service 🤔😊
@@OffGridGarageAustralia the difference is that if UA-cam goes down or has a hiccup my solar still works. I remembered you did a victron update and you were down for a day.
My system here in the northen hemisfere are almost identical to yours, but i got two Lynx Power in, a Lynx Shunt and Two Lynx Distrubitors.
When i shifted to the lynx from the smart shunt i really got the feeling of a wery expensive fuseholder (i noticed you got the wrong type of fuse in it aswell... not the "cheap 325A the manual states for a 1000 Ah system...)
You may ask victron to make another print with the same possibilyties as the smart shunt?
(I used thate for 6 months and it was perfect, but it will not fit into the nice Lynx system, it kinda brings the whole idea down...
Hvor i Norge bor du? 4580 her..... ;-)
@@TommyFleseland Stord, Øvrebø om du søker opp systemet :)
There is a thread in the Victron Community forum and several people have complaint about the shunt. The official answer from Victron is, that the shunt would not measure the DC load precise enough and the only solution is to use an additional smart shunt or BMV for your DC load. Which would then makes the Lynx shunt obsolete altogether because both, the Smart Shunt and the BMV are measuring/calculating DC load precisely.
Yes, very expensive fuse holder!! I use only smart shunts to check my battery consumption and SOC..
Mine died this week. Massively inaccurate. Lacking in features. As you say massively expensive fuse holder. I don't have the inclination to try and fix it other than perhaps to get more for it when I sell it on. Looking forward to ripping it out.
I have Victron Lynx Shunt in my setup. I also have the Victron SmartBMS 712 as well, but it is only capable of handling 500A.
I noticed the lower voltage measurement differences on Victron Lynx Shunt. This is no big issue as there is a workaround, as explained below.
Let me explain the reason why i introduced the Lynx Shunt to supersede the SmartBMS. This is mainly to leverage the 1000A busbar capability. To keep the system voltage drop low and running as cool as possible.
My LFP battery bank is configured for 2000A capacity, consisting of 4x 500A flexible busbars system connected in parallel on the Lynx Shunt. Each 500A busbar is connected to 4x 120Ah LFP, each capable of continuous 150A output with a 270A peak output current. We have 4x sets of these running in parallel, 16x in total, so the real output of LFP has max peak of 4320A, with a sustained output of 2400A. This high current handling capacity ensures ultra cool operation and is capable of taking on high loads and ultra fast charging with zero bottleneck.
On the Lynx Shunt, to match this high current capability i am running a 1100A fuse consisting of a 500A+600A fuse, which mainly serves to protect the conductors and busbars. The battery is more capable than this limit. Obviously don't want to push beyond the 1000A Lynx shunt limit too much either, but 10% is reasonable headroom.
To address the voltage difference, i have added a Victron Smart battery sense for voltage and temperature directly to the LFP battery. This provides a very accurate voltage reading for reference.
On the CERBO GX, if i set the BMS to SmartBMS 712, with the presence of the Victron Smart Sense, its voltage reading will actual automatically takes priority over those from the 712 in the shared voltage sense for all Victron SmartSolar controllers in the VE Smart Network. But unfortunately 712 can't handle 1000A, but i have plans to relocate it to one of the 4 battery bank, which only needs to handle 500A. Meanwhile to get the system working we need to switch BMS selection in Cerbo GX to Automatic, which will pick up the Lynx Shunt automatically.
Unfortunately once the above is activated, all the SmartSolar controller sees is the shared voltage from the Lynx Shunt, which is noticeably lower than both the SmartBMS 712 and Victron Smart Sense voltages...with the latter two being identical.
The workaround is actually quite simple. Now that we know what Lynx Shunt reads and what the actual battery voltage is, via Smart Sense, we can calculate the offset voltage and make adjustments to each SmartSolar charging algorithm. In my case, i have observed a consistent 0.08v difference. So in order for each SmartSolar to properly charge the LFP without overcharging, i just need to reduce the fully charged voltage down by 0.08v. And I monitor the performance. I have seperate power meter and hall effect current probes installed on each of the 4x battery bank, so I can use Bluetooth to monitor and cross reference as well. This workaround solution works well.
The only drawback of using Lynx Shunt is the loss of decimal accuracy when monitoring the real-time updates from VRM. But for the high current capability upgrades, this is a reasonable trade off. I hope Victron can address this small issue via firmware future updates.
But meanwhile, i can always check on the Victron SmartBMS 712 readout, which has the decimal accuracy. Since all 4x battery banks are connected in parallel with identical capacity, this 712 readout is representative of the rest. 😊👍
So i would say although the Victron Lynx Shunt is not perfect, it is still one of the best options out in the market if you require a 1000A busbar capability in your setup. Remember, running the system cool translates into high efficiency and reliability. 👍👍👍
I was telling you this 7 months ago as we were experiencing autumn for the first time with our solar, it was amazing how much less it was compared to when i started in late summer, but you were drunk with solar power and werent hearing any of it. But thats ok, we're on top of it already, our fine friends in rainy UK have been experimenting with the latest in turbine (wind) energy generation and also a bit of hydro, we'll need it all to survive offgrid year round, wind, water, sun! and one day earth! harvest the spin of the earth for energy! Easily , you just burry some cables underground, they go superconductive, you put some magnets in orbit and voila, free energy out of thin air! Or you could just get more panel...
Like# 367
Oh come on Andy, Where does it end? Winter comes around, :We don't have enough solar, we need to upgrade. Summer and we have too much power, what can we do with it? Oh no winter, we don't have enough solar, we need to upgrade. Yeah you have a problem. I think you need to take an over seas holiday and leave your mobile phone at home.
Thirty FIRST 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
More solar , more betterer
Yes, more to come...
Your explanation of current threshould is wrong. Please read the manual ;-) Thanks for a good video 🙂
The price of Victron equipment has kept me away from its ownership. pricey stuff.
It is expensive, but you also get a lot for it, frequent FW upgrades, remote access, the VRM and great quality.
First
Congratulations.
You're the best! ;)
🥉
Thank you all!
This victron stuff looks overly complicated with multiple devices. Also expensive.
Makes perfectly sense to have multiple devices depending on your needs for your system.