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Split-charge relay alongside a B2B is like wearing both a belt and braces — then also stapling your trousers to your shirt, just in case. The Orion-Tr Smart already handles the protection side...
Forest Daz in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 6
Great choice @RussWilson — the EU22i is a cracking bit of kit. One thing I'd add that nobody's mentioned yet: keep an eye on your charger's input power factor when running it off the Honda.
12VWizard in Emergency & Backup Power 5 months ago thumb_up 2
@DonnaGibson67 finish your sentence, the suspense is killing me! 😄 What did catch me off guard when I made a similar switch on my Hymer was the BMS behaviour under heavy load.
Vicky Fisher in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 4
WillHall | 156 posts Worth noting that the Orion-Tr Smart's engine detection feature is genuinely useful here — it'll only pull from the van when the alternator is actually running, so no risk of...
Will Hall in DC-DC Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 5
@BazKnight57 had the same drift issue on my 48V setup — what actually cracked it for me was forcing the system to do a proper full charge cycle to let the Cerbo resync its SoC.
@IanMartin60 yes, seen this exact behaviour on my garden office build. The JK's Bluetooth module has a known sensitivity to sub-5°C — the internal oscillator drifts slightly and the BLE...
Pennine VanLifer in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 3
Good news is the duty cycle's where the real variance hides. Mine sits around 30–40% in a reasonably cool van, but stick it in direct sun or pack it with warm food and watch that climb sharply.
Camper Sam in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 8
WillWebb | 203 posts @MandyMorris had a similar scare with my shepherd's hut setup last winter. Turned out my battery was sitting at a low state of charge going into the outage — BMS tripped on...
Will Webb in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 4
Really interesting thread — I deal with condensation constantly on the boat so I know the pain, though the causes are slightly different. One thing that's helped me massively is positioning a...
Boat Gemma in Off-Grid Cabins 5 months ago thumb_up 2
HO_Marine | 412 posts | ☀️ Solar & Motorhome Done exactly this on my motorhome — two mismatched Renogy panels wired in parallel into a Victron SmartSolar.
HO_Marine in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago thumb_up 4
Reply by MountainBarry: @AnneOliver The hybrid approach is where it gets interesting. My cabin setup taught me that the crossover point — when solar surplus tips into genuinely useful territory —...
Mountain Barry in Marine & Boat 5 months ago thumb_up 3
CraigDavies | 1,891 posts | 🔋 Numbers Before Romanticism @BoxerWanderer Right, before you tell us the full spec I'm going to guess: MPPT controller that's hilariously oversized for the panels...
Craig Davies in Garden Offices 5 months ago thumb_up 6
@BazKnight57 had the same drift nonsense in my shepherd's hut until I wired a dedicated BMV-712 as the sole SoC source and told the Cerbo to trust that rather than trying to average across two...
Hey @FormerMechanic, can't say I blame you — when the price is right, the price is right! One thing worth noting with the isolated version specifically: since you're on site hookup most of the...
Forest Wanderer in DC-DC Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 5
Useful thread — doing something similar in my van but been wondering if the same logic translates to a home backup situation. One thing nobody's mentioned yet: what panel wattage are you pairing...
LDV Nomad in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago thumb_up 1
@OffGridFreak interesting idea but I'd pump the brakes a bit here. Even a "slow" 3.7kW charge is going to absolutely hammer a 400W array — you'd be pulling from your battery bank far...
Tina Henderson in Garden Offices 5 months ago thumb_up 4
Great setup @Gazza82! One thing I'd flag specifically for narrowboat use — make sure your cable runs are kept as short and symmetrical as possible between those two batteries in parallel.
TU_Power in Marine & Boat 5 months ago thumb_up 9
DailyWanderer | 312 posts | 🏕️ Cabin Dweller My Victron SmartSolar didn't care one bit when I lobbed a mismatched 300W panel alongside my existing 200Ws — it just quietly got on with life like a...
Daily Wanderer in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago thumb_up 8
Hey @OddJobBob79, just to add something different to what @GrumpyWanderer and @DaiBennett have already covered — have you checked your DC ripple voltage under load?
Misty Trekker in Inverters & Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 7
Yeah @OffGridTerry's right about the BMS comms being the main frustration. @Brummie88 one thing worth trying if your battery has a JBD or JK BMS — there are community-built integrations that can...
Dai Wright in Monitoring & System Design 5 months ago thumb_up 9