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Ran a similar setup on the boat for two winters — eight 272Ah cells I pulled from an old electric pallet truck, cost me about £220 including the top-balance session. The BMS choice is where people...
Boat Mel in On a Budget 2 months ago thumb_up 2
Reply by YorkshireSolar: @SaltyTinker — your post seems to have got cut off there, but I reckon I know where you're heading with this! I've had my Cerbo pushing data to a Pi via MQTT for about a...
Yorkshire Solar in Monitoring & System Design 2 months ago thumb_up 7
@Rodney3 eight months of bliss then betrayal — sounds like my ex, and also like a temperature shutdown; have you checked whether it's tripping the high-temp alarm or an overload code in...
Anne Butler in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 2
@RussMartin had this exact headache with my emergency backup setup. Check your BMS communication cable — the ribbon connector on the JK units can work loose and trigger phantom protection trips.
Moor Camper in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago thumb_up 4
@ZoeGrant For a 200Ah LiFePO4 on a 140A alternator, the 30A is worth serious consideration. The 18A will feel sluggish if you're doing shorter drives and need meaningful charge recovery — you're...
Russ Thomas in DC-DC Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 3
@Mark1978 worth adding — how confident are you in your BMS settings? A lot of people set their cell overvoltage protection right at 3.65V, which means the balancer is fighting against cutoff...
Camper Tel in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Great thread! I run a similar hybrid approach — EU22i paired with 600W of solar and a 200Ah LiFePO4 bank in my garden office setup. One thing I've found really useful that hasn't been mentioned: I...
Liam Fox in Emergency & Backup Power 2 months ago thumb_up 3
Running a 200Ah AGM setup in the motorhome and the performance drop over the past few weeks has been genuinely shocking.
Curly in General Chat 2 months ago thumb_up 1
@LisaStewart71 worth checking whether the two Drifts are actually balanced with each other before you dig too deep into the BMS.
Macca97 in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 7
Picked up a Fogstar Drift 100Ah LiFePO4 last spring for the motorhome, wired it into a Victron SmartSolar 100/20 setup with a 200W Renogy panel on the roof.
Wendy Fisher in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago thumb_up 5
@DuctTapeDave94 one thing nobody's touched on yet — check your actual clipping losses before assuming you need to upsize. With three 200W panels you're nominally at 600W but your 100/30 caps...
Taffy29 in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 6
Been having a frustrating few weeks with my 280Ah LiFePO4 build in the van. Running a JK BMS (the 200A 4S one) and it's been tripping out overnight when temperatures drop below about 4°C.
Wardy26 in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago thumb_up 4
Running almost the same setup here — Orion-Tr Smart 30A plus a Victron SmartSolar 100/30, all talking via VE.Smart Networking on Bluetooth. The key thing I found is setting your Orion's charge...
XU_VanLife in DC-DC Chargers 2 months ago thumb_up 7
Reply by @KangooWanderer: @Moorey40 ha, guilty as charged here too — though mine's a Kangoo van rather than a static, hence the username!
Kangoo Wanderer in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 3
GeorgeHarris | 847 posts @CrispyWelder good choice on the CFX3 45 — cracking bit of kit. Real-world draw in a UK summer is roughly 30-40Ah per day once it's up to temperature, though that climbs...
George Harris in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago thumb_up 5
Good thread this. @FormerMechanic15 one thing I'd add that nobody's touched on yet — watch out for the two controllers "fighting" each other when the battery's getting close to full.
Gazza22 in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 months ago thumb_up 4
Picked up a pair of 110Ah AGMs from a local caravan dealer for £40 the pair — bloke said they'd done "light use" for a couple of seasons.
Spud79 in On a Budget 2 months ago thumb_up 1
@VanMark split-charge relay is basically asking your alternator to do a full sprint every time you start the engine — modern smart alternators absolutely hate that, and your wallet will know about...
Kangoo Build in On a Budget 2 months ago
Great buy @PeteDixon89! To add to what @TimGraham's saying about the app — once you're connected, deliberately stress-test the protections rather than just reading the idle stats.
George Harris in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Gazza82 | 847 posts @Compo89 Yeah, had almost identical grief with a cheap 4S unit on my shed build.
Gazza82 in Q&A 2 months ago thumb_up 2