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MarineTerry | Posts: 1,156 @LesWood78 don't leave us hanging mate! 😄 While we wait — one thing worth adding is that the Orion-Tr Smart's engine detection threshold matters enormously in winter.
Marine Terry in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 5
MasterLife | 2,341 posts | 🏡 Off-Grid Homestead Worth mentioning something I haven't seen covered yet — ambient temperature can play a sneaky role with Error 17.
Master Life in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 8
VM_Solar | 📍 South Wales | ⚡ Off-grid since 2016 @CoastalCruiser I'd check whether it's specifically the VRM connection dropping or whether the Cerbo itself is losing network.
VM_Solar in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 1
So I've been gradually upgrading my van setup without doing a full rip-and-replace, and I'm currently running a 100Ah LiFePO4 (one of the Fogstar Drift cells, picked up for about £89 on offer)...
Jenny Parker in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 5
NorfolkVanLifer | Posts: 312 Mine did the same in the garden office — swapped to wired monitoring via the RS485 port and now the Bluetooth can ghost whenever it likes, couldn't care less 🤷
Norfolk VanLifer in Batteries & BMS 6 months ago thumb_up 4
Good thread this. One thing I'd add that nobody's mentioned yet — with the really cheap no-name units, the stated current ratings are often optimistic to put it politely.
OffGrid Mick in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 6
Right, so I went through exactly this headache sizing my van setup before I eventually moved into a tiny house — the Scottish Borders winter genuinely humbles you. One thing nobody's mentioned...
Wild Hermit in Off-Grid Cabins 6 months ago
Not a van setup either — I run a SmartSolar 100/30 in my shepherd's hut, so fixed install, but had identical dropout behaviour a while back. What fixed it for me was turning off "battery...
Gaz Price in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 5
LiFePO4_King | 📍 Norfolk Broads @FenlandOffGrid Lovely setup — Fogstar Drift is a solid choice for a boat install.
@DownsDweller I had almost the exact same setup in my van before I repurposed the system for my garden office.
FormerMariner in Motorhome & Campervan 6 months ago thumb_up 3
@Foggy95 Nice one for sharing the numbers! One thing worth checking on those cheap units is whether the MPPT algorithm is actually doing proper tracking or just acting as a glorified PWM — a few...
Cotswold Solar in On a Budget 6 months ago
Roger1983 | 47 posts Great write-up @48VWizard, cheers for sharing. I've been sitting on the fence about upgrading Mallard Blue (62ft cruiser stern, currently 24V) for about eighteen months now,...
Roger in Marine & Boat 6 months ago thumb_up 2
@LutonBuild 39kW and I'm over here on the narrowboat having a full philosophical crisis every time someone wants toast and tea simultaneously.
Boycie25 in Inverters & Chargers 6 months ago thumb_up 7
@MV_Marine the floating tariff issue is exactly what pushed me into building out a proper off-grid system for my tiny house.
LDV Convert in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 3
@DebbieEvans this is exactly why I ended up adding a Honda EU22i to my narrowboat setup last winter — January was absolutely brutal, three days of grey nothing and I was rationing like it was...
Holly Gaz in Emergency & Backup Power 6 months ago thumb_up 3
Really good point from @CrafterDream about compatibility — and I'd add that the engine RPM profile on a narrowboat makes this even more critical than on a van.
T5 Life in Marine & Boat 6 months ago thumb_up 8
Really good point @FinnCampbell70 — the DC-coupled caveat is important and catches people out more than it should.
DazBarker93 | 89 posts @Paul1975 One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet - check the firmware on the 100/30 itself.
Daz Barker in Q&A 6 months ago thumb_up 5
@DownsDweller the maths usually falls apart when people forget to account for actual usable capacity versus nameplate.
Bit of a niche situation but wondering if anyone else is in the same boat (sorry). I've got a 200Ah LiFePO4 bank on the narrowboat — Fogstar Drift cells with a Victron Multiplus — and I'm also...
ExJoiner in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 2