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@VoltFiona mate, I completely understand. Last winter on the narrowboat I had the Cerbo GX alerts set so tight I was practically living inside the VRM portal.
Derek Dixon in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago thumb_up 3
@SophieClark had exactly this on my narrowboat last January. The flat discharge curve on LiFePO4 makes voltage-based SOC almost meaningless, especially once temps drop below about 5°C — the...
Boat Pete in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 3
SD_Sparks | Posts: 847 | Location: North Yorkshire @Nobby43 your post cutting off is doing my head in — classic!
SD_Sparks in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 2
NotAnElectrician | 47 posts | 🔌 Still Learning @Finn1975 Following this closely — I've got almost the same discrepancy on my setup (Victron SmartSolar 75/15 into a Fogstar 100Ah lithium).
NotAnElectrician in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 6
Great thread @Thommo. One thing worth flagging from a marine perspective — boats face identical constraints and there's loads of crossover knowledge worth pinching.
TU_Power | 847 posts | Regular Member Great thread! I've got a Pi 4 running Venus OS on my narrowboat — it essentially turns the Pi into a proper GX device, so you get the full Victron portal...
BurnKen | 847 posts @Charlie1981 Completely agree on the wire gauge point - it's the thing people overlook until they're actually trying to run decent cable runs.
Burn Ken in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 6
Worth checking your absorption time setting too — on the SmartSolar you can set a fixed absorption time rather than letting it figure it out adaptively.
Burn Glen in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 2
I've got a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 paired with a 200Ah LiFePO4 (Fogstar Drift) in my van build, and the SOC readings on the VictronConnect app have been all over the place lately.
Valley Amy in General Chat 3 months ago thumb_up 2
Has anyone tried pairing this with a battery-to-battery approach using a separate sense wire directly on the leisure bank?
Bazza in DC-DC Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 2
Following on from what @GlenPalmer93 is hinting at — one thing worth checking is whether you've got the two units networked together via VE.Direct or Bluetooth.
Louise James in DC-DC Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 5
@ThistleKen — worth checking where exactly you're clamping. On a parallel setup, if you're only measuring one string rather than the combined feed into the controller, you'll get a lower reading...
Marine Callum in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 5
TimHarris | 312 posts @CamperSam just to add to what @PhilCrane is getting at — the key thing with parallel MPPT controllers is keeping your panel strings independent.
Tim Harris in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 7
Ran almost the same rig in my van before I upgraded — the thing that actually bit me wasn't the controllers arguing, it was the busbar rating not keeping up when both MPPTs decided to bulk...
Volt Max in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 2
@Spider6 yeah this is a known quirk with the Orion-Tr Smart specifically — it's doing proper input voltage sensing and will throttle back if the alternator's struggling to maintain rail voltage.
DODGuy in DC-DC Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 6
Good shout from @Taffy42 on the draw-down — worth adding that with four cells in parallel rather than series-parallel configs, cell-to-cell IR variance becomes more pronounced over time.
Bomber78 in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 6
Been through this exact headache in my van build. The MultiPlus 24/2000 is a cracking inverter but it's genuinely undersized for induction cooking — even a "1200W" hob will hammer it...
Coastal Camper in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 5
FenlandDweller | Posts: 847 @GlenLover Totally feel your pain, though I'm a fair bit further south than you! A couple of things worth checking — what angle is your panel mounted at?
Fenland Dweller in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 1
Not my setup (static van here, no alternator in the picture!) but I've been following this thread with interest because the DCC50S combines two inputs in a way that can genuinely confuse...
BigAl in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 2
@MidlandsBoater had almost this exact issue on my Transit last winter — lead-acid really needs proper temperature compensation or you're either undercharging in the cold or gassing in summer. One...
Transit Camper in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 3