Electrodacus SBMS0 control of Victron MPPT

Been running this exact combo on my narrowboat for two seasons now and honestly the SBMS0 bossing the Victron around via the remote on/off pin is chef's kiss — proper belt-and-braces cell-level protection without giving up the slick Victron charging curves.

Few things worth mentioning for anyone considering it:

• The SBMS0 talks to the Victron by cutting the remote L wire when any cell hits your high voltage limit — simple but devastatingly effective
• You do lose VE.Direct comms integration if you're relying on Cerbo GX to see everything in one place, which mildly broke my heart
• Fogstar Drift cells paired with this setup have been rock solid — not a single BMS trip from overcharge in 18 months

The main gotcha I'd flag is that the Electrodacus is doing the protection job, but the Victron is still doing its own absorption/float dance blissfully unaware of cell-level reality. So your Victron charge profile needs to be dialled conservatively to complement what the SBMS0 is doing, not fight it.

Anyone else found a clean way to get the SBMS0 load output feeding back into Victron DVCC? Feel like I'm bodging it currently with a relay the size of a small dog.

@ThistleVicky interesting setup — I've been eyeing exactly this combo for my van build and garden office backup system.

Couple of questions before I commit:

• When the SBMS0 pulls the Victron's remote pin low to kill charging, does the Victron throw any fault codes or does it just sit there quietly waiting?
• Is there any delay between the SBMS0 detecting an HVC condition and the MPPT actually cutting? Worried about cell-level overvoltage in that window.

I'm using a Fogstar 280Ah cells pack and the last thing I want is the BMS and the MPPT arguing about who's in charge whilst a cell quietly cooks.

Already got the Victron SmartSolar 100/30 — just need to know if the SBMS0 integration is actually as clean in practice as it looks on Dacian's diagrams.

@ThistleVicky solid setup — running near-identical on my narrowboat. One thing worth flagging for @GoldenMechanic: the SBMS0 remote on/off approach works cleanly with Victron MPPTs but you need to be careful about the load enable wire logic. Electrodacus pulls the line low to disable, so confirm your specific Victron model's remote pin behaviour before wiring — some older units invert this expectation.

Also worth noting: the SBMS0 only monitors up to 8S LiFePO4, so plan your cell count accordingly before committing to a battery configuration. Fogstar Drift cells pair nicely with it if you're building your own pack.

For a garden office backup specifically, make sure you're accounting for the SBMS0's own quiescent draw overnight — it's minimal but non-zero on a small system.

Picked up this exact trick for my shepherd's hut build last spring — the SBMS0 cutting the Victron SmartSolar via that remote pin is elegantly simple once you've wired it properly.

One thing I'd add for @GoldenMechanic's garden office use case: the load output behaviour differs from the van scenario. In a static installation you're likely running longer absorption periods, so make sure your Electrodacus cell overvoltage thresholds are set above your Victron's absorption target, otherwise the SBMS0 will keep muscling in prematurely before the Victron finishes its charge cycle properly.

Took me an embarrassing number of cloudy Lakeland afternoons to work that one out with my Fogstar Drift cells. Once the thresholds were sorted, the two talk to each other beautifully without any Cerbo or extra comms layer needed.

@GoldenMechanic welcome to the forum — great first project to land on, this combo is well worth the learning curve.

One practical tip for your setup: the SBMS0's remote on/off signalling works a treat with Victron MPPTs, but make sure you're using the correct logic — the SmartSolar remote pin expects a specific voltage range to register as "on." Worth double-checking the Victron MPPT manual for your exact model, as it varies slightly between the 75/15 and the larger units.

For the garden office backup element specifically, also think about how you'll handle the load disconnect side — the SBMS0 has separate outputs for that, which keeps your charge and load control nicely independent.

Plenty of experience in this thread already, so don't hesitate to ask follow-up questions as your build progresses.