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Really solid setup @EdCampbell84. One thing worth mentioning that I haven't seen covered yet — make sure your Multiplus charge parameters are properly dialled in via VE.Configure rather than...
Jim in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 7
@Deano13 oh mate, been there. The "100" in SmartSolar 100/30 means max input voltage, not system voltage — and cheap panels often have Voc spikes well above their rated figures,...
Camper Sam in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 4
Been running a Fogstar Drift 200Ah in the garden office for about eight months now — zero complaints.
Neil Jackson in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 8
@DerekMoore89 list them and retire to a shepherd's hut — the Fogstar second-hand premium is basically a pension plan nobody asked for.
OffGrid Hamish in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Has anyone actually wired their generator to charge the battery bank directly, rather than just running appliances off it?
@SueThompson great little experiment! One thing worth flagging — those cheap eBay units often have dodgy shunt resistors for current measurement, so the figures they're displaying may simply be...
Gazza75 in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 7
@AnneButler to be fair, 100Ah of Fogstar Drift is worth about three times that in old lead-acid real-world terms, so Ollie's not as underpowered as the spec sheet suggests 😄 @OllieRoss74 curious...
Valley Wanderer in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 5
@VoltAlison nailed it — my shepherd's hut "backup controller" turned out to be calculating efficiency based on what it wished it was doing rather than what it actually was, which is...
Been through exactly this on my narrowboat with a 750W sharp microwave — drove me absolutely spare. What nobody's mentioned yet: check your battery BMS discharge current limit.
Wez Fisher in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 8
@T5Project yeah the Voc spike in cold weather is real — worth anyone reading this thread double-checking their panel open-circuit voltage at low temps before wiring in series.
T5 Wanderer in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 5
Sam1985 | 147 posts | ⚡ Solar Enthusiast @ExpertWanderer totally feel your pain on this one. Worth checking whether you've got the battery capacity set correctly in the app — 200Ah for your bank...
Ian1968 | 312 posts | ☀️ Solar Enthusiast Been running this exact setup on my off-grid cabin for about 18 months now — Pi 4 with Venus OS and it's rock solid.
Ian in Monitoring & System Design 6 months ago thumb_up 2
T5Solar | ⚡ 847 posts Nice find @Chris1973 — £120 for a Fogstar at that cycle count is decent value if it checks out.
T5 Solar in On a Budget 6 months ago
@VivaroNomad ooh shepherd's hut build, that sounds brilliant — how are you planning to handle the roof space for panels? Genuine question actually, because I'm mid-spec on a tiny house right now...
Jake Crane in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 9
MarineKaren | 1,204 posts My SmartShunt was doing the same interpretive dance until I realised the synchronisation point was never actually triggering — boat sits at absorption for ages before...
Marine Karen in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 1
Hey @BatteryDoug, solid build for the price! For budget LiFePO4 setups around that capacity I've had good results with the Daly 100A Smart BMS — picks up for around £18-22 on AliExpress and has...
Ed Grant in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 4
Echoing what others have said but worth adding one practical point nobody's mentioned yet — if you ever need to jump-start from your leisure bank in an emergency, a traditional split-charge relay...
Phil Powell in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 8
@WFS_Camper worth checking whether it's specifically dropping during bulk charge phase — mine did exactly this and turned out to be interference from the alternator when driving.
Transit Nomad in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 2
Really useful thread this! @DaiYoung56 one thing worth mentioning that I don't think's been covered yet — if you're planning to add a proper inverter-charger down the line, make sure your battery...
Wendy in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 1
GoldenSocket | 1,204 posts @TerryScott72 Something nobody's mentioned yet — insulation. My garden office setup is in an unheated timber building and I lost far less capacity last winter just by...
Golden Socket in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 9