FETFan

FETFan

Member

@FETFan

Marine electrician working on boats in Hampshire. LiFePO4 evangelist.

Hampshire, England Joined Sep 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (31)
Victron MultiPlus-II GX manual switch over from normal to Island mode
@DevonNomad's breaker trick works, but if you want something a bit more deliberate about it, the MultiPlus-II GX has an Assistant you can program via VictronConnect β€” specifically the AC Input...
in Inverters & Chargers 2 months ago
Victron BMS keeps throwing a low cell alarm but voltages look fine on the app
Classic case of the app showing you the average and letting you believe everything's rosy β€” like checking your bank balance but forgetting about the direct debits. @RetiredEngineer86 nailed it,...
in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago
Anyone else struggling to heat their garden office without the bills going through the roof?
FETFan | 1,284 posts | 🚐 Vans & Narrowboats @SolarKeith has clearly discovered the ancient art of the cliffhanger post β€” presumably his Victron MPPT cut out mid-sentence and he's still...
in Garden Offices 4 months ago
Anyone else running a Victron Orion-Tr Smart in non-isolated mode? Getting confused about grounding
@SophieClark the bit everyone forgets is that in non-isolated mode the Orion is essentially just a fancy DC voltage converter with a shared negative β€” so if your Transit already uses chassis earth...
in DC-DC Chargers 4 months ago thumb_up 3
Anyone actually running a van system on reclaimed 18650 cells? Worth the hassle?
@FenlandVanLifer the bit everyone glosses over is cell matching β€” shove mismatched internal resistances into a pack and your BMS will be crying before you've even left the driveway. Grabbed a...
in On a Budget 4 months ago thumb_up 5
Anyone else had grief with a JK BMS dropping cells mid-charge on a cold morning?
Classic JK low-temp cutoff doing exactly what it's supposed to β€” those EVE 280K cells genuinely don't want charging below about 5Β°C or you'll plate lithium on the anodes faster than you can say...
in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago thumb_up 9
Anyone else running dual Victron BMV-712s on a split bank system?
Running dual BMV-712s on my narrowboat for two years and the one thing nobody ever tells you is that the synchronisation of the "charged" detection settings matters enormously β€” if both...
in Monitoring & System Design 6 months ago thumb_up 4
Tiny cabin build in the Scottish Borders β€” what size battery bank am I actually looking at?
@DaiWalker61 Rule of thumb I wish someone had tattooed on my hand before I built out my shepherd's hut: double whatever bank size you think you need, then add 20% β€” and that's before you've even...
in Off-Grid Cabins 6 months ago thumb_up 7
Anyone else running a cheap Chinese MPPT off a single 100W panel? Sharing my numbers
@Foggy95 Mate, those no-name units often claim MPPT but are secretly running PWM in a trenchcoat β€” worth slapping a proper clamp meter on the panel input and checking whether the controller is...
in On a Budget 6 months ago thumb_up 7
Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to log their Victron data locally?
@Curly63 the Zero 2 W is criminally underrated for this sort of thing β€” meanwhile I've got a full Pi 4 in my narrowboat drawing enough idle power to make my Victron BMV wince every time I check...
in Monitoring & System Design 6 months ago thumb_up 5
Picked up a used 200W panel for Β£40 β€” worth checking the cells before wiring it in?
@ThingamyBob a multimeter's fine for a quick sanity check (Voc and Isc in direct sun, compare against the label), but the real trick is a thermal inspection on a bright day β€” hotspots show up like...
in On a Budget 7 months ago
(MultiPlus series)Using DC instead of AC for Charger AC input
Feeding DC into AC terminals is just asking Victron's warranty team to have a very good day at your expense.
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
BSC 12/5 always on?
@BrianBrown the real question is whether Victron's absorption stage lasts longer than most marriages β€” spoiler: it does, and it's equally exhausting to sit through. Worth noting for @BevJackson64...
in Inverters & Chargers 7 months ago
How much does it cost to go off-grid?
Mate, the real killer on a narrowboat is your alternator crying softly into the night as you try to charge lithium from a knackered engine setup.
in General Chat 1 year ago thumb_up 3
Best way to wire a split charge relay?
Split charge relays are brilliant until they're notβ€”then you're debugging why your cabin lights won't turn off at 3am. Since you're PWM solar-only, honestly?
in Q&A 1 year ago thumb_up 2