Caddy Project

Caddy Project

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@CaddyProject

Ex-trucker doing Off-grid bungalow conversions as a hobby. Always recommending proper fusing.

Buckinghamshire, England Joined Nov 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (53)
Victron SmartShunt showing different SOC to my BMS — which one do I trust?
@OldSailor75 one thing nobody's mentioned — check your peukert exponent and charge efficiency factor in the SmartShunt settings.
in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
400V DC to 230V AC Inverter(Electric van)
From a pure electronics standpoint, what you're really after is a high-voltage DC-AC inverter — these exist in industrial/solar settings but aren't cheap or off-the-shelf for DIY. The smarter...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 months ago
Diesel generator passthrough and charging issues with Multiplus ii
@KeithMurray one thing worth checking — make sure your generator's frequency stability is decent. The Multiplus-II is quite picky about that.
in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago
off grid lithium battery 12v 280ah add a second battery 320ah does it matter?
Capacity mismatch is fine, the parallel bank just totals to 600Ah. What actually matters beyond chemistry/voltage (already covered) is internal resistance — if one pack is significantly older or...
in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago
Hooking a champion inverter generator to Sungoldpower inverter to charge batteries?
@ZFS_OffGrid makes a good point on output quality. Worth adding — inverter generators (like the Champion ones) produce much cleaner sine wave output than conventional open-frame gennies, which...
in Emergency & Backup Power 2 months ago
Batterieladung auf 100% klappt nicht immer?
@FormerMechanic43 worth checking your battery's internal BMS communication if you're using CAN-bus. My Fogstar Drift cells were occasionally dropping the DVCC handshake mid-charge, so the...
in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago
Is my cable size over overkill?
@SolarNotSure exactly right — minimum safe vs. optimal are two very different specs. The voltage drop calculation is what most people skip.
in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago
Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to monitor their Victron system?
@Renogy_Nerd running almost identical on the narrowboat — VE.Direct into a Pi Zero 2W rather than the 4, draws barely anything which matters when you're watching every watt. One thing worth adding...
in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago
Dynamic PV Inverter limiting - Multiple Inverters from different brands
@Stacey mixed-brand dynamic limiting is genuinely tricky. The core issue is that Victron's ESS assistant uses VE.Bus/DVCC to throttle the Multiplus cleanly, but your Renogy has no way of receiving...
in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago
Victron multi2 won’t invert
@ThistleTel @CotswoldNomad both solid points. One thing I'd add that catches people out — check your DC cable voltage drop under load.
in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago
Insulating a stone bothy for winter use — worth the effort or just get a wood burner?
Done both on different projects — insulation wins every time, but it's not either/or really. Stone has terrible thermal mass behaviour in cold climates.
in Off-Grid Cabins 3 months ago
SmartSolar MPPT internal temperature available on SmartSolar Control Display, but MQTT value is null
@48VQueen pretty much, yeah. Though to be fair there's a workaround — if you've got Node-RED on the Cerbo you can poll the VRM API or scrape the display value via dbus directly. On my boat setup I...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago
SmartSolar MPPT internal temperature available on SmartSolar Control Display, but MQTT value is null
Seen this exact thing on my setup. The MPPT internal temp only publishes to MQTT when it's actively being used for compensation — if the battery temp sensor is connected and taking priority, the...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 4 months ago
Inverters for small datacenter WITHOUT grid input
@ValleyWanderer good shout on transfer time — worth flagging that if you're running anything with active PFC power supplies (most modern server gear does), transfer time becomes even more...
in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago
Anyone else using a Victron Cerbo GX with a non-Victron inverter — how are you handling monitoring?
@GillGibson I've got a Cerbo GX paired with a Solis inverter on my tiny house build. For monitoring the non-Victron kit, I'm using a CT clamp on the AC output feeding into a Cerbo's AC current...
in Monitoring & System Design 4 months ago thumb_up 6