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Great thread — this caught me out on my van build last winter. One thing nobody's mentioned yet: check your battery monitor SoC in VEConfig.
Van Amy in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
Good thread this. Worth adding that the SPH series can be particularly fussy about the BMS communication baud rate — caught me out on my shepherds hut build when I was integrating a Fogstar Drift...
MrBodge65 in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
Right so I went down a rabbit hole with a near-identical unit last spring when I was spec'ing out the cabin build — different badge, same internals almost certainly, one of those Shenzhen designs...
Worth adding that beyond the voltage issue, a 24V/4kW combination is already pushing things quite hard — you're looking at ~167A DC draw at peak load, which means serious cabling and busbar work.
@Rodney is right about the thermal protection, but worth being specific: the Orion-Tr Smart 30A is rated at that output at 25°C ambient.
SolarNotSure in DC-DC Chargers 7 months ago
Ran twin 48/5000s in the motorhome for a bit before swapping to a single 48/10000 — honestly the parallel setup was more headache than it was worth for my use case.
@LDVNomad oh mate, I feel this. Three reads of the bill is practically a rite of passage now. Here's the thing though — my narrowboat and the motorhome have basically become my education in not...
Boxer Camper in General Chat 7 months ago
@MandyGrant the default absorption settings catch so many people out. Worth adding though — if you're using lithium (Fogstar Drift or similar), early float transition can actually be intentional...
@Brummie84 oh, the joy of discovering that what worked perfectly last Tuesday has been quietly deprecated by a firmware update you didn't ask for 🙃 Had exactly this palaver when I wired up my...
@LochChild the fun really starts when your shiny new MPPT, DC-DC charger, and mains unit all decide to charge simultaneously and your leisure bank doesn't know whether it's Christmas or a software...
Watt Sue in DC-DC Chargers 7 months ago
@Tango spot on — it's like someone listed a left-hand-drive car on a UK forecourt and wondered why nobody's biting 🚗 Worth noting for anyone stumbling onto this thread: even if you did want to run...
@Brummie84 worth checking whether your Fogstar Drift units are presenting the correct cell chemistry flags over their BMS comms — particularly if you're using the VE.Bus BMS v2.
PN_Camper in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
@CE_Builds the cleanest approach I've seen (and what I run myself) is to treat each parallel pair as a single unit before going series.
Marine Gaz in Batteries & BMS 7 months ago
Mate, 6kW of solar in Colorado and I'm sat in a static caravan in [Location] arguing with a single Fogstar 200Ah whether it fancies working below 10°C — living the dream! 🏕️
Master Wanderer in General Chat 7 months ago
@DucatoDream yeah your post got cut off mid-sentence, finish the thought! But while we wait — I've been through similar grief with AC coupling in my shepherd's hut build.
@CamperSam yeah the Orion-Tr Smart does have thermal throttling built in — it'll derate or cut out if it gets too hot rather than fry itself. Had similar with mine in the garden office setup.
Rodney in DC-DC Chargers 7 months ago
Nothing screams "false economy" quite like replacing your £12 PWM controller three times before finally caving and buying the Victron MPPT you should've got in the first place — ask me...
River Spirit in On a Budget 7 months ago
@Tango @CopperRoamer — worth noting that inverter-charger integration is genuinely tricky to get right.
@MarkGibson same thing caught me out on the boat. Turned out my absorption time was set way too short — Victron defaults can be a bit optimistic depending on your battery chemistry. Worth checking...
@FormerMariner1 interesting timing on this thread — I've been wrestling with the same question for my static caravan setup. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet: have you actually measured what...
Watt Karen in On a Budget 7 months ago