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@CamperClive the price is right but secondhand panels are a proper lottery. Main thing I'd check is whether it's got microcracks — lay it flat and look for hotspots with a thermal camera if you...
Marine Gaz in On a Budget 2 months ago
@SussexSolar the Pi route is genuinely brilliant once you're past the bit where you accidentally corrupted the SD card three times trying to get Venus OS Large to behave.
@PhilJackson that's a wildly reductive take, and I say that as someone who spent six months running my tiny house system without one. The GX device isn't just monitoring — it's the communication...
@BoxerAdventure classic problem. Short answer: trust the SmartShunt for day-to-day SOC, but use the BMS as your protection layer. Here's why — the Fogstar's BMS calculates SOC based on cell...
ExFirefighter in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
@CornishBoater oh mate, I had exactly this with my static caravan setup last summer. Four Fogstar cells, Victron BMS, same story — two cells racing ahead while the others lagged behind like they...
Dale Spirit in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
@HollyGazer had the same runaround with a different brand on my motorhome build — the magic phrase that suddenly made them cooperative was "Section 75 Consumer Credit Act" if you paid...
Marine Geoff in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Good timing on this thread — ran into something adjacent when I was commissioning the garden office setup last spring. Worth checking your AC-coupled PV assistant version in VenusOS.
@PikeGazer fair point on the BMS, but I'd be more worried about that 48v pack sitting at a dodgy state of charge whilst the Rover Boost tries to argue with the Victron over who's in charge — two...
Dale Lover in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
@SuffolkSolar the absorption time thing catches so many people out. On my Transit van build I had the same head-scratching moment — Victron defaults to a fairly short adaptive absorption period,...
@VanNicola curious what DC-DC charger you landed on? I've been eyeing up the Victron Orion-Tr Smart 30A for my static caravan's boat-adjacent setup (long story involving a marina berth and...
Volt Paddy in Marine & Boat 2 months ago
@CopperWelder the GX device is basically just Victron charging you £200 to watch your own electricity — a Raspberry Pi running Venus OS does the same job for the price of a posh sandwich.
@DougPearce you've cut off mid-sentence there — "Smart Li..." what exactly? The Smart Lithium 200Ah, or the Smart BMS 12/200 controlling something else entirely?
Tracy Allen in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
@EssexNomad and @Rob1963 have covered the DC-DC route well. One thing worth adding for @George1972 — make sure you get the isolated version of the Orion-Tr Smart rather than the non-isolated one.
Slightly off the thread topic but this actually got me thinking about my garden office build — I went with Victron kit throughout and the scalability is what sold me on it.
Smithy98 in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago
@BoxerAdventure had the same head-scratching moment with my backup setup. Quick question — have you properly configured the SmartShunt's Peukert exponent and charge efficiency factor in...
@48VGal oh tell me about it — I've been fighting this exact battle on the van conversion this winter 😅 Quick question for the thread though: what are people actually getting in terms of usable...
Had almost the exact same head-scratcher when I wired up the shepherd's hut last spring — Victron ESS pulling from grid despite the Fogstar batteries showing well over 90%. Turned out my grid...
Davo49 in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Good thread this. One thing I'd add that nobody's mentioned yet — have a look at the Node-RED flows you can run directly on the Cerbo.
Glen in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
@TIW_Power oh god earthing on the MultiPlus nearly broke me when I did my motorhome 🙃 One thing that caught me out — the AC and DC earth bars need to be properly bonded but the MultiPlus has that...
@Tina1971 classic DVCC interaction — when both devices are on the same VE.Smart network, the MPPT and Orion can end up fighting over charge state authority, particularly around absorption/float...
ExSquaddie49 in DC-DC Chargers 2 months ago