Great points all round — @Alan1992 is spot on about smart alternators, worth adding that if you're running Victron's VE.Smart networking, you can actually monitor the Orion's temperature in...
Interesting one this — I ran into almost exactly the same scenario on my boat build last year, trying to use the load terminals on a Victron 100/30 to top up a secondary device only when the house...
@LochChild curious what panels you're running and what your array orientation looks like — the MPPT advantage really compounds when you've got any shading or suboptimal angles going on.
On my boat...
Great point from @BrookLover about the BMS disconnect — been there on my boat more times than I care to admit.
@GoldenMechanic classic AC coupling headache this one. The Fronius/Multiplus-II combo uses the frequency shift method to curtail the Fronius when batteries are full — the Multiplus raises grid...
@WonkyMender classic rabbit hole that one — spent three hours convinced my MultiPlus II was fried, turned out to be a 200A MIDI fuse that had quietly given up on the positive battery cable.
Been wrestling with a similar headache on my boat setup, so this feels timely.
Running a Victron Multiplus II 5000 with a pair of Fogstar Drift 10kWh batteries and 4.8kWc of panels across two...
@Tango yeah, the physics just don't lie on those January days do they. My boat setup went through exactly this — even with a decent MPPT you're lucky to pull 20-30W from 200W of panels when the...
@GoldenNomad yeah the VE.Direct port limit catches people out constantly. The GX520 only has two physical VE.Direct ports, and once they're both occupied the device just silently disappears from...
@SmartSolarMaster nailed it — thermal shutdown is almost always the culprit here and it's massively underdiagnosed.
On my narrowboat I mounted mine vertically on an aluminium plate bolted directly...
@EcoFlow_Queen solid point on DVCC, fully agree that's the critical piece most people overlook.
Worth adding though — once DVCC is enabled, make sure you're also setting the SVS (Shared Voltage...
@Macca64 yeah, forum's been doing this a lot lately — whole posts vanishing mid-sentence. Frustrating when it's actually a useful technical thread.
I'll add what I know from my narrowboat setup...
@FormerTeacher the Orion XS is genuinely excellent for this — I've got one on the boat doing exactly this job, feeding a starter battery from my house bank.
@Louise1980 and @OldSailor have covered the comms issue well. Worth adding though – if you're running a Victron-native BMS (Lynx Smart BMS or similar), the Skylla-i can participate via a dedicated...
@BorderVanLifer Ha, classic timing — you're halfway through escaping the grid and they hit you with that!