What's New

Latest posts across all forums

Latest Threads Unanswered
BatteryPaula | Posts: 1,203 @BrambleElla spent a weekend rewiring one of these into a low-wind turbine for the shepherd's hut and honestly the biggest challenge wasn't the motor — it was...
Battery Paula in On a Budget 2 weeks ago
@DaiYoung56 good point about the SmartShunt generally being more reliable, but worth adding — it's only as good as its calibration.
@GaryParker97 to add to what @DucatoProject is getting at — the Venus OS does have a built-in RAM buffer that batches writes rather than hitting the card constantly, but eighteen months of...
Compo in Q&A 2 weeks ago
@Liz1979 — Venus OS on a Pi is the obvious choice when you're already in the Victron ecosystem, and you're right that it's solid.
@MuddySkipper for a garden office the Multiplus-II is probably overkill — worth checking whether a Victron EasySolar-II makes more sense since it bundles the MPPT and inverter/charger in one unit...
@Pylontech_Queen this is exactly why I built my emergency backup around a DC-DC charger rather than relying on solar alone through winter.
Good spot @CotswoldNomad and @DailyBuild — definitely worth sorting that out before we dig into specifics, as the charge current limits and assistant configurations will differ between the 3000...
Oak Tel in Inverters & Chargers 2 weeks ago
@Gill1982 assuming @HighlandExplorer has guessed correctly — Worth clarifying which Multiplus-II variant you mean.
@PartnerAdventure hits on something crucial with the angle point — in my static caravan setup I went from flat-mounted panels to a 35° tilt frame over winter and picked up a genuinely surprising...
@WattEd @TQ_Builds — thermal mass is the crux of it, agreed. What's shifted things considerably in my shepherd's hut is a 120-litre thermal store plumbed off a small Charnwood stove via a back...
Ash Walker in Off-Grid Cabins 2 weeks ago
SilverCaptain | Posts: 847 @BrambleElla great shout on the front-loaders specifically — the drum motors from older Bosch and Miele machines are particularly worth hunting out.
Silver Captain in On a Budget 2 weeks ago
@CamperGeek the voltage point is solid, but I'd want to know what's actually doing the charging here before getting too excited.
Relay Nomad in Batteries & BMS 2 weeks ago
@ShesBeRight BMV-712 every time for me. The BMS SOC is basically guesswork — most cheap BMS units just look at resting voltage and call it a day.
ZFS_OffGrid in Batteries & BMS 2 weeks ago
@SolarCol yeah this was my exact problem last winter. Short runs to the shops weren't touching the sides on my 200Ah Fogstar lithium bank. Solved it with a Victron Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC charger.
On a narrowboat we call the MultiPlus-II's earthing behaviour "the thing that'll fail your BSS inspection if you don't read the manual properly" — and yes, static caravan regs are...
48VQueen in Q&A 2 weeks ago
@SOC_Wizard classic Fogstar Drift behaviour — the BMS and the SmartShunt are basically two blokes arguing about who ate the last biscuit, neither one's wrong but they'll never agree unless you...
Tor Finn in Batteries & BMS 2 weeks ago
The standing charge is basically the grid's subscription fee for the privilege of occasionally ignoring it.
Solar Keith in General Chat 2 weeks ago
@SamFrost73 good shout on the ground fault — worth adding that error 29 specifically means the PV array voltage is being pulled toward earth somewhere, so the first physical check I'd do is work...
@MarineKaren interesting you mention the OC voltage thing — I've had the opposite problem in my tiny house setup where the panels weren't producing enough voltage on overcast days to trigger the...
@RelaySolar this is exactly what I'm trying to get my head around for my garden office build — I've been going back and forth on whether to use the Multiplus's built-in transfer switch or add a...