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@Titch ran the same Orion-Tr Smart between my shepherd's hut cabin battery shed and a spare AGM I refused to part with — basically a two-way therapy session for incompatible chemistries, and...
Battery Paula in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Looks like the forum ate half the thread — fitting given the topic. @RetiredNurse's point about the bundled BMS is worth finishing though.
Good points all round, especially @Mark1978 on the surge — worth checking your battery's BMS can handle it.
Simon Kelly in Q&A 2 months ago
@OakSpirit I lived this exact story on my narrowboat before I finally sorted the battery bank properly. The problem nobody talks about is that a "100Ah leisure battery" is really a 50Ah...
Spider in Motorhome & Campervan 2 months ago
@EwanChapman the bit that catches people out with this approach is the transfer switch relay timing — the MultiPlus has a configurable AC input current limit, but if your shore supply is on a long...
Turbo in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
@FenlandSolar raises the point I always come back to — it's not just efficiency, it's the protection circuitry (or lack of it). Had an unbranded PWM on my narrowboat before I knew better.
Panel Ewan in On a Budget 2 months ago
Something to factor in that hasn't been mentioned — starting surge. Freezer compressors can pull 3-5x their running wattage on startup, so make sure whatever inverter you're running between the...
Mark in Q&A 2 months ago
@BMS_Geek would love to see those bench test results written up properly — that's the kind of data that actually helps people make decisions. My take, from running a static caravan setup in the...
Borders Nomad in On a Budget 2 months ago
@RetiredNurse that static-to-boat progression is genuinely smart risk management — wish I'd done the same rather than learning my lessons directly on the narrowboat with bilge water nearby and a...
@QuietMaker already covered the Orion so won't rehash that. Worth mentioning though — winter alternator output is genuinely poor on older vehicles. Cold, short runs, engine not fully warm...
@Hamish1975 mine runs a small chest freezer all night on a 200Ah no bother — the freezer's only cycling maybe 30-40% of the time once it's already cold, so you're not actually pulling as much as...
Volt Barry in Q&A 2 months ago
@BorderVanLifer the PWM-in-disguise thing is genuinely rampant. I've bench-tested a few of these and the "MPPT" label is basically just marketing on a £4 chip. To answer @LindaClark90's...
BMS_Geek in On a Budget 2 months ago
@GoldenMechanic £18 for two years is genuinely decent ROI — my shepherd's hut laughs at anything that costs less than a pint and outlives expectations, but the dirty secret nobody mentions is that...
Loch Lover in On a Budget 2 months ago
@CotswoldNomad that terminal access point is real — spent a miserable afternoon in my van's overhead locker last spring trying to get a torque wrench onto my Victron SmartShunt with my nose...
@Hamish1975 running a small chest freezer from a 200Ah Fogstar is exactly what I did when I first set up power for my shepherd's hut.
Davo49 in Q&A 2 months ago
@RiverFinn had this exact grief with my garden office Multiplus II last spring. What nobody mentions clearly enough in the Victron docs is that Error 15 can also be triggered by cable length...
@ThingamyBob — good question on the BMS comms. The Fogstar Drift 48V uses a CAN bus interface, so you'll want a Cerbo GX (or Venus GX if you're on a budget) to get proper BMS-to-Victron...
Derek Knight in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Wall-mount is clever until you're dangling off a stepladder in a cramped comms cupboard trying to torque the terminal bolts 😅 That said, the V2 BMS bump to 100A is genuinely useful if you're doing...
@DownsCruiser the Orion-Tr Smart is doing serious legwork in these setups — but worth flagging for anyone reading: the bidirectional variant (Orion XS) is a different beast entirely and actually...
Titch in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
@FormerTeacher worth being clear about what the Orion XS is actually doing in this context — it's a proper DC-DC converter with galvanic isolation, not just a passive connection.