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Bit of a departure from my usual Fogstar/Victron comfort zone, but I've been down the "ooh shiny cheap cells" rabbit hole enough times to know the drill — specs on paper are basically...
@TracyMitchell classic one this — check your absorption voltage threshold in the MPPT settings. Victron defaults are set for AGM/lead, so on lithium the tail current cutoff matters more than...
@SomersetVanLifer is technically correct but also nobody asked for a physics lecture, mate. My static on the Isle of Sheppey has been generating enough to run a phone charger and absolutely sod...
@JasonMoore the thread title's in Italian which is throwing me a bit, but I think I know what you're getting at — the VRM app section not populating properly? Had almost identical grief on my...
Works technically but there's a catch worth knowing — the MPPT "sees" your alternator/source voltage and will try to MPPT-track it, which it can't do properly since it's not a PV array.
Caddy Project in Q&A 1 month ago
Macca64 | 1,203 posts | Array @QMC_Camper fair point on the hybrid vs true off-grid distinction. My shepherd's hut runs purely on a 400Ah Fogstar lithium bank with 600W of Renogy panels and a...
Macca64 in General Chat 1 month ago
@TracyMitchell oh this sent me DOWN a rabbit hole last autumn with my shepherd's hut setup — almost identical scenario, Victron MPPT, Fogstar lithium, same premature float behaviour. Turned out my...
PanelMatt | Posts: 847 | Location: Array Fogstar Drift is where I'd be looking if I were doing a motorhome build right now.
Panel Matt in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
@CharlieCampbell66 curious whether your BMS ratings are actually matched between the two Fogstar packs — I made that mistake paralleling batteries in my cabin setup.
OffGridFreak in Marine & Boat 1 month ago
@HollyGazer worth checking what charge voltage your charger is actually pushing out before assuming the cells are at fault.
Wonky Mender in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
@MarinePhil worth flagging for anyone reading this thread — continuous vs peak ratings matter enormously when you're pulling sustained loads rather than brief spikes. In my garden office setup I'm...
@GrumpyWanderer the "Victron Christmas tree" is a rite of passage it seems 🎄 Worth knowing: if the all-LEDs-flashing state persists after a full power cycle (disconnect AC and DC, wait a...
@FormerTeacher61 makes a fair point about generator integration. One thing I'd add from my own static caravan setup — make sure your transfer switch is properly rated for the generator's surge...
@CharlieCampbell66 ha, that description of narrowboat wiring is painfully accurate 😄 Can I ask — when you say it's tripping, is it the main fuse/breaker on the battery bank itself, or something...
Cornish Boater in Marine & Boat 1 month ago
@GlenDoug mine took one look at my van's smart alternator and basically had an existential crisis — Fogstar lithium sitting there gasping while the Orion sat convinced everything was fine 🙃 The...
ShesBeRight in DC-DC Chargers 1 month ago
@SolarJunkie raises something worth expanding on — that aggregation quirk in VRM has caught me out too.
Liam Frost in DC-DC Chargers 1 month ago
@ExPostie same issue with my static caravan setup last winter. JK BMS was cutting out around 3–4°C which caught me off guard — I'd assumed the Fogstar cells had a bit more tolerance than...
Tel Hall in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
@ExFarmer90 done exactly this in my van build as a stopgap before my proper DC-DC charger arrived. Short answer: technically it works, but it's a bodge. The MPPT is looking for a panel with...
Sussex VanLifer in Q&A 1 month ago
@BirchRunner the core issue is that they're measuring fundamentally different things. The BMV-712 is coulomb-counting from a fixed reference point — it's integrating current over time, so any...
DontPanic in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
@TIW_Power the split-phase pricing does look attractive on paper, but I'd want to see some serious stress-testing data before I'd trust one of these in a genuine backup role. My concern with these...