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Been running a 280Ah LiFePO4 bank (4S, EVE cells) in my van for about eight months now and I keep having an issue where one cell – cell 3 if it matters – dips to around 2.75V before the JK BMS...
Oak Tel in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 2
HazelPaddy | 634 posts | Solar & Batteries @PanelGraham One thing nobody's mentioned — check your busbar connections between the parallel groups.
Hazel Paddy in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 5
@DownsDweller the other thing nobody mentions is winter derating — LiFePO4 drops usable capacity noticeably below 5°C, and charging slows dramatically at low temps.
Stormy Mender in Motorhome & Campervan 4 months ago thumb_up 6
Been doing a fair bit of research after setting up a small Victron/Fogstar system in my garden office, and now I'm curious whether the same logic applies to a narrowboat setup.
Macca97 in Marine & Boat 4 months ago thumb_up 6
@EmmaPowell74 oh I feel your pain. Spent most of last January convinced my narrowboat battery bank was dying because the shunt monitor kept showing wildly pessimistic SOC readings.
Wez Fisher in General Chat 4 months ago
@BatteryTony 400Ah sounds reasonable on paper but winter is where LiFePO4 really earns its keep — and where undersizing bites hardest. Key thing people miss: usable capacity drops noticeably when...
ExFirefighter42 in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago thumb_up 3
@ValleyNomad @FormerTeacher Hard-won knowledge this. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet — when you're heating matters as much as how much you're burning.
Valley Nomad in Off-Grid Cabins 4 months ago thumb_up 7
@EwanLamb yeah this is totally normal for the UK tbh. Overcast days kill your voltage more than anything — panels in series helps keep Voc up which is good, but diffuse light just tanks the...
Volt John in Q&A 4 months ago thumb_up 5
@VitoDream those no-name units are a lottery aren't they. I've got a similar situation in my shepherd's hut — ended up with something called "PowMr" which at least has a halfway decent...
JA_Solar in On a Budget 4 months ago thumb_up 5
Taffy42 | 156 posts @WelshVanLifer snap — narrowboat here too, and Pylontech US3000Cs talk to the Multiplus II via CAN bus so beautifully you'd almost forgive Victron for the price tag.
Taffy42 in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago thumb_up 7
Hey @BenJackson — worth checking your battery capacity setting in VEConfigure. If it's set lower than your actual 200Ah, the MultiPlus calculates a skewed SOC and can trigger the dynamic cutoff...
Russ Stevens in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago thumb_up 3
Picked up a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 earlier this year and paired it with two 200W panels wired in series on the roof of my Sprinter.
Ewan Lamb in Q&A 4 months ago thumb_up 6
Tommo10 | Posts: 847 Had the exact same headache with mine, @HarryJackson. Turned out the Bluetooth antenna on the JK board sits really close to the balancer circuitry, and when the active...
Tommo10 in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 6
Picked up a secondhand MultiPlus 12/3000/120 a few months back and it's been brilliant — right up until the temperatures dropped last week.
Graham Cole in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago thumb_up 5
@BrianLewis79 the app integration point is interesting — does it play nicely with anything beyond just the SmartSolar itself?
Luton Adventure in Marine & Boat 4 months ago thumb_up 7
DonnaGibson67 | 847 posts | ⭐ Trusted Member @PikeRuss yes, had exactly this with mine! Turned out my phone's Bluetooth was the culprit rather than the SmartSolar itself — Android has a habit of...
Donna Gibson in Q&A 4 months ago
@KevLee ten minutes? rookie numbers — I spent a full afternoon ringing Victron support before realising the Pytes BMS was just doing its job and the MP2 was completely innocent 😅 Worth checking...
Battery Gill in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 9
Had the exact same head-scratcher with my Victron setup — turns out the VE.Bus BMS deliberately hides the battery monitor in VictronConnect because it becomes the battery brain itself, so you're...
VE_Electric in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 9
My Victron SmartSolar once told me my tiny house battery was "float" at 9am in January — mate, that's not float, that's hypothermia.
Cotswold Cruiser in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago thumb_up 7
GeorgeSmith97 | 203 posts | 🔋 Still Learning @CopperGaffer Had almost identical grief last January with my 304Ah bank in an uninsulated outbuilding.
George Smith in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago thumb_up 8