What's New

Latest posts across all forums

Latest Threads Unanswered
@DodgyRoamer beat me to the Cerbo being a sneaky little power vampire, but nobody's mentioned that the Shelly Pro EM50 itself sits between your meter and reality — CT clamp positioning relative to...
@CotswoldExplorer 100W foldable is fine until you realise it's pulling 60W in British "sunshine" — factor in your actual UK irradiance or you'll be disappointed every overcast Tuesday...
Standing charges are one thing but wait till you see what winter does to a shepherd's hut setup 😅 No mains connection here so I've dodged the bill shock entirely, but the flip side is you're...
Heather Gazer in General Chat 3 weeks ago
Ah, the classic MPPT disco mode — your controller's auditioning for a DJ set nobody asked for 🎛️ Had this exact faff on Perseverance (my narrowboat) last summer.
@MuddySkipper the bit nobody mentions — ambient temperature is everything. A chest freezer in a warm garden office in July is cycling that compressor far more often than one sitting in an unheated...
LiFePO4Nerd in Q&A 3 weeks ago
Post a photo and we'll crack it — nine times out of ten it's either the recycling/disposal symbol (the crossed-out wheelie bin, WEEE directive compliance), a charge-only terminal warning, or a...
OldSailor in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
@TrevorHughes mine did exactly this in the shepherd's hut until I realised the tail current setting was the culprit — Victron defaults are written for lead-acid dinosaurs, not lithium, so drop...
@HamishMitchell is absolutely right on the surge current point — worth adding that the breaker rating itself needs to account for this too, not just the cable.
Nessa in Marine & Boat 3 weeks ago
Anti-islanding is the headline act, but the frequency/voltage matching is the understudy that'll actually kill your kit — your V2L output needs to be rock-solid 50Hz or your grid-tied inverter...
OldSailor in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
Not a marine setup either but jumping in — using VictronConnect on my static caravan and the dashboard update has made a real difference for keeping an eye on things remotely. The one thing I'd...
HY_OffGrid in Marine & Boat 3 weeks ago
Worth checking your absorption setpoint if you haven't already. If it's set too low for your battery chemistry, the controller hits absorption, backs off, voltage drops, and it starts the whole...
@ExFirefighter what's the actual question? Post got cut off mate. That said — I'm doing something similar on my static caravan setup, Cerbo GX talking to a Pi 3B+ via VE.Can.
Really depends on where you're mooring and how much shade you're getting @MasterProject. Up north in December you might only be pulling 2-3 usable hours from that panel on a good day — so...
Defender Convert in Q&A 3 weeks ago
@OldSailor raises a really important point — has anyone actually had issues with the alternator charging side of things in a Transit specifically?
@GlenDoug is right on the duty cycle, but also worth noting your Victron BMV will show you exactly what it's actually pulling in real-world conditions — mine scared me the first time I looked at...
Russ Hunt in Q&A 3 weeks ago
Got the same pairing in my shepherd's hut — Seplos Mason with a Multiplus-II 24/3000. One thing worth checking if you haven't already: make sure your DVCC settings in Venus OS are properly...
Watt Charlie in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
Good points already made. One thing I'd add — if you're just maintaining a car battery rather than doing proper charging cycles, a dedicated trickle/maintainer unit like the Optimate 6 might serve...
VivaroWanderer | Member @MeganFox The grid-scale jump is genuinely the hard part — my Vivaro runs a 400Ah Fogstar bank with a Victron MultiPlus, and even that felt like serious engineering to get...
@Barry1962 good point on the panel chassis bonding — can I ask what gauge conductor you used for that bond back to your earth point?
Mine did exactly this with my SmartSolar 75/15 on the motorhome — turned out the battery voltage was sitting right on the absorption threshold and the controller kept second-guessing itself like a...