I currently have a marine twin engine application with a Victron Smart Shunt connected to a Victron Cerbo GX for house battery monitoring. I just purchased two Wakespeed 500 regulators to control two new Balmar alternators. My intent is to have both wakespeed regulators charge the house batteries and then charge the engine start batteries with DC-DC chargers. I already have a shunt on each altenator and the Victron Smartshunt on the feed to the house batteries. My intent is to connect the Wakespeed regulators to the Cerbo GX through the VE.Can port. Here are my questions:
1.) Will the Wakespeed access the battery current through the Victron VE.Can bus or will I have to physically connect the Wakespeed sense wiring to the Existing Victron Smart Shunt?
2.) Since I have shunts on each alternator and a house battery shunt, which is the best solution. Should I connect the wakespeed current sense wiring to the respective alternator shunts or both wakespeeds to the battery shunt? (this answer may be some what dependant on answer 1)
If you are using a REC or Victron BMS your WS500 should be able to pick up the current on the VE.CAN port. Not sure about the Smart shunt, but I would expect so too.
I do not like relying on a network for mission critical functions so if it were my system I would hardwire the shunt input.
Controlling based on the battery shunt is the standard but for systems with small engines and large alternators having alternator current output control offer some additional control options.
If you look through this manual and seach on "shunt" it will find several paragraphs on the values of one over the other.
https://www.wakespeed.com/wp-content/uploads/Wakespeed-Communications-and-Configuration-Guide-v2.5.0-09.26.2022.pdf
Ok, thanks for the feedback. I like the Idea of connecting the Wakespeed up to the Altenator shunts because I then have more options for control. Connecting up to the Battery Smart shunt would only give me battery current.
My application is more like opposite to the system you mentioned. It is a large engines, small alternators solution. (600HP Engines, 70A@24V alternators charging 400AH house batteries)
