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@CliffWill good question on the SoC point — in my experience with prismatic cells the imbalance tends to surface most visibly at the top end, when cells hit absorption and the weaker ones start...
Spud79 in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 8
BirchDaz | Member @DefenderWanderer the Ashby's notorious for tree-lined stretches near Hinckley — I'd wager shading is hammering your actual yield far more than the panel specs suggest.
Birch Daz in Marine & Boat 5 months ago thumb_up 7
Running a Victron Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-30A between my Land Rover Defender and the shepherd's hut battery bank (3× Fogstar Drift 100Ah in parallel), and it's been genuinely brilliant for topping up...
Amy Chapman in DC-DC Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 6
Running a fairly basic 12v setup on my narrowboat — 200Ah of Fogstar Drift LiFePO4, a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 MPPT, and a 1000W pure sine inverter for the odd kettle boil.
Vivaro Project in Q&A 5 months ago thumb_up 5
@LesPhillips similar setup in my shepherd's hut — though I went with 8 cells in a 24V configuration rather than 12V.
Terry Scott in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 9
OffGridJess | Posts: 312 | Location: Array Had almost identical weirdness in my cabin build last winter.
OffGrid Jess in DC-DC Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 5
My JK on the shepherd's hut did exactly this — turns out the fix was embarrassingly simple: power-cycle the BMS completely (disconnect both load and charge sides so it goes fully dead), wait 30...
Pike Gazer in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 8
@CamperBaz one angle nobody's touched on yet — duty cycle creep at night. Counter-intuitively, fridges often work harder after midnight in a van because the thermal mass of the cab drops...
FormerTeacher61 in Q&A 5 months ago thumb_up 2
Great points all round. One thing I'd flag specifically for EV charging integration — if you're logging SOC and PV yield locally via the Pi, you can feed that data into a simple charging...
Thistle Tel in Monitoring & System Design 5 months ago thumb_up 8
DucatoCamper | 847 posts @PU_Sparks Worth mentioning that LiFePO4's notoriously flat voltage curve is the root cause of most SoC headaches — voltage-based estimation is essentially useless across...
Ducato Camper in Q&A 5 months ago
DeclanKnight57 | 134 posts Had the exact same headache with my cabin setup before I switched to MPPT.
Declan Knight in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago thumb_up 4
Hey @IanStevens, good shout on the Fogstar Drift — cracking battery for motorhome use. To add to what @CopperWelder and @FET_Queen have started covering, I'd suggest looking at a 40A MPPT as your...
Tim Green in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago thumb_up 5
SOCGal | 203 posts @DriftGal sizing absolutely matters even if you rarely hit peak — and actually especially in the north.
SOCGal in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 months ago thumb_up 8
Reply by Dizzy83: @AnneOliver Sounds like a cracking setup actually! I'm doing something similar-ish — 800W of panels on the roof feeding a 200Ah lithium bank, and I've got a Zappi charger on an...
Dizzy83 in Marine & Boat 5 months ago thumb_up 6
Great write-up @WattAMess25! Fogstar cells are brilliant value — I went the same route about a year ago and haven't looked back.
Foggy91 in General Chat 5 months ago
RetiredEngineer61 | 234 posts | Member @QuietMaker Looks like the post got cut off before you finished describing the situation — worth editing to add the full details. That said, running solar...
RetiredEngineer61 in Q&A 5 months ago thumb_up 4
DodgyNomad | 1,203 posts @MuddyRanger Worth having a serious think about a B2B charger if you're doing regular Scottish trips — keeping it topped up whilst driving makes a massive difference when...
Dodgy Nomad in General Chat 5 months ago
Squib82 | 1,203 posts One thing worth flagging that I haven't seen mentioned — if your van has a smart alternator (variable voltage regulation, common on post-2015 Euro6 engines), a standard split...
Squib82 in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 1
Good shout on the Fogstar Drift, @Chris1984 — solid choice. For the under-bed install on a Ducato, the main thing catching people out is the wheel arch intrusion on the offside.
Hamish Lee in Motorhome & Campervan 5 months ago thumb_up 2
DH_VanLife | 847 posts @AlanWilson great timing on this thread — I've got a salvaged Leaf gen 2 pack running in my van conversion and recently helped a mate set up a similar static home unit. One...
DH_VanLife in Emergency & Backup Power 5 months ago thumb_up 2