Victron Controller with Bluetooth

[thomm225]

So I was forced to buy a Smartphone in 2020 and after learning it, I'm now happy I had to get it

(even though it cost twice as much as my old flip phone for the same service)

I use the Bluetooth with my Polar Heart Rate Monitor when I exercise (Polar App is free) and it works great plus provides GPS tracking for your run or bike ride so you can see after all your results along with Heart Rate Graph)

So do the Victron Controllers with Bluetooth work as well as advertised?

I went ahead and ordered one.......Victron 75/15 (Bluetooth)

[goboatingnow]

Yes they do

[thomm225]

Great.

Thanks.

Of course it will be information overload at first........as compared to my PWM Controller with voltage only display or my ancient analog battery monitor which displays battery charge percentage after you tap on it a few times.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Great.

Thanks.

Of course it will be information overload at first........as compared to my PWM Controller with voltage only display or my ancient analog battery monitor which displays battery charge percentage after you tap on it a few times.

The Victron app is good and fairly straightforward to follow

[thomm225]

Yeah, I mean the display.

Lots of good info so any change will cause some of us to start considering possible reasons as compared to just the battery voltage display I have now on my two PWM's ..

[rslifkin]

I've got a pair of the Victron 100/30 controllers on my boat. Mine are hooked up to a Cerbo GX using VE.Direct cables, but I've used the bluetooth functionality to configure settings when I installed them, etc. The controllers have worked well and the bluetooth functionality made setup very easy.

There are a lot of configuration options on those controllers and they're all nicely displayed and easy to work with from the phone app. There's some monitoring available as well, but you don't get the full load of monitoring options without one of the GX devices to handle the data logging, integration of data from other devices, etc.

[RaymondR]

The app works well and provides a good record and representation of the data. However the Bluetooth appears to take it's power feed from the solar panel which means it does not work after sundown or before sunrise.

I am in the process of attempting to salvage some cells from a Victron Smart battery which had a damaged BMS and consequently two failed cells. I am using 4 ea of the 50 amp hour cells from the Victron battery with a Daly BMS to make a 50 amp hour battery.

The Daly BMS also has Bluetooth and I will be able to make a comparison if the salvage attempt works.

[thomm225]

Nice.

On my last one I didn't have Bluetooth and had to hook up to my laptop and it seemed the Sun was always too bright to see the laptop display properly in the cockpit or at the companionway.

This Bluetooth model will be tons better as I can sit on my settee, cooler, or drummer's throne below and check the solar panels output, battery voltage, panel current etc...

[JBP]

I find the Bluetooth connection somewhat wonky. It has to reconnect each time, it takes a few seconds to reconnect, and doesn't always work the first try, so what should be a quick check turns into 10-30 seconds of waiting. It works, just annoying.

The Bluetooth is not powered by the panels alone, but the controller does go into sleep mode at night.

[Secondshift]

We ( actually I, wife was totally indifferent) liked it enough on our 26' to purchase a larger capacity one for the 33'.

Occasional wonkiness outweighed by an abundance of useful information.


Best Regards

[SteveSails]

I have two Victron 75/15 controllers and Bluetooth works fine on my android phone. Bluetooth is short range so you may need to be within a few feet of the controller to get a reliable connection, and don't forget to turn on BT for the phone before you open the app.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by SteveSails

I have two Victron 75/15 controllers and Bluetooth works fine on my android phone. Bluetooth is short range so you may need to be within a few feet of the controller to get a reliable connection, and don't forget to turn on BT for the phone before you open the app.

Thanks.

I'll be close as my boat is small. Maybe about 5'-6' away max

My Polar Heart Rate Monitor works in a similar fashion but it is very close (on my chest strapped) when I run or cycle with the phone on my arm.

The battery was old though on the polar monitor so when I replaced it everything worked fine even though I used a CR2032 instead of the CR2025 that came out of it. (both 3 volts though)

[noelex 77]

The Bluetooth functionality is excellent, lots of detailed information and adjustment of all the parameters. The only significant criticism is that you can only connect to one device at a time.

Originally Posted by RaymondR

The app works well and provides a good record and representation of the data. However the Bluetooth appears to take it's power feed from the solar panel which means it does not work after sundown or before sunrise.

The Smartsolar series should display the information 24/7.

[gamayun]

I *just* installed the Bluetooth capable Victron 712 battery monitor. The app is nice but wonky. It has to log back in every time I use a different app and it doesn't keep track of the trend data. Maybe I haven't found the right settings yet. It's really nice to see the trend lines, which I'm using to get a more accurate calculation of usage.

[goboatingnow]

The mppt controller Bluetooth is powered by the battery not the panel.

Here’s mine in darkness



As you can see it’s reporting correctly and not in any sleep mode.