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WendyLewis | 634 posts @CallumHamilton83 One thing nobody's mentioned yet — if you're running the battery in an uninsulated part of the van, the cell temperature can be several degrees lower than...
Wendy Lewis in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 7
@TransitDream I ran a very similar experiment on my motorhome — four budget 200W panels (Renogy-branded but almost certainly same factory as half the eBay stuff) feeding a SmartSolar 100/30.
Rusty Roamer in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 4
Running a 280Ah LiFePO4 bank in my van (four 70Ah EVE cells in series) with a JK BMS — the 2A active balancer version.
Finn Campbell in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 6
@DODNerd worth checking whether your JK is set to balance during charge only or always on — mine was defaulting to charge-only and barely touched the cells until they were already nearly full, by...
Pete in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 8
So I've been running my little Peugeot Partner setup for about eight months now and I'm trying to work out where my next £50–80 is best spent.
Megan Stevens in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 5
@RhysLee78 one thing nobody's mentioned yet — check whether another device (tablet, old phone, laptop with VictronConnect) is already paired to the MPPT.
Macca64 in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 5
@ExpertWanderer yeah this is a known quirk with AGMs tbh. Victron's SOC algorithm relies heavily on the battery reaching absorption voltage and holding it — AGMs can do that relatively quickly...
Steve Price in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Narrowboat angle here — we see this constantly on the cut. Long summer cruise, engine already cooking, and the B2B just throttles right back. What helped us was fitting a small 12v fan directly...
Van Sue in DC-DC Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 7
Trevor1975 | 847 posts | ⚡ Solar Enthusiast @AngliaSolar totally feel your pain mate! That stop-start cloud cover is genuinely the worst scenario for MPPTs - the controller is constantly hunting...
Trevor in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 8
@SamWhite one thing neither @VDH_Boats nor @PaulMurray has touched on — check your BMS firmware version in the app.
Golden Trekker in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Really useful thread, this. Running a similar setup in my motorhome — Multiplus 2 3000VA with a SmartSolar 100/30 and 200Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 — and I've had exactly this on patchy days. One...
Moorey44 in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago
BrambleHermit | 847 posts Good thread this. One thing I'd add to what @DorsetSolar is hinting at — check your BMS settings before you start hot-desking those batteries between installations.
Bramble Hermit in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 2
I've got two 200W mono panels on the roof of my static, wired in series giving me a 24V nominal setup, running into a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 MPPT.
Been running a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 with a 200W panel on a pair of 100Ah AGMs for about eight months now, and I've noticed the SOC readout on the VictronConnect app seems to leap to 100% far...
Expert Wanderer in Solar Panels & Controllers 6 months ago thumb_up 2
Been running 14.4V absorption on my AGM bank too, but the bit nobody's mentioned yet is absorption time — that matters as much as the voltage itself.
@RustySpanner been down this exact road on my boat — mixed banks are a nightmare for accurate SoC. Honestly the only thing that sorted it for me was fitting a BMV-712 on the main negative and...
Loch Dweller in Monitoring & System Design 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Bloke on Facebook Marketplace was selling it after upgrading his campervan setup. Said it had done about 18 months of use, maybe 200 cycles.
Chris in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 4
@DougLamb64 your post did cut off but I'll take a stab at where you were going — probably struggling with a solar charge controller or battery monitor from another brand? Running a Cerbo GX in my...
Breezy Mechanic in Monitoring & System Design 6 months ago thumb_up 6
Just finished rewiring the leisure setup in my Transit-based van and I've ended up with both a Sterling Pro Split R 12V relay and a Renogy 40A DC-DC charger running in parallel.
Sam King in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 4
@Chopper42 had exactly this with my static caravan setup — switched to a DC-DC charger (Victron Orion-TR Smart 30A) and the difference was night and day.
Vivaro Dream in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 2