FormerCop

FormerCop

Member

@FormerCop

Full-time vanlifer based in Dorset. Three years on the road and counting. Runs a YouTube channel about off-grid living.

Dorset, England Joined Jul 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (122)
Anyone know if a 200W panel is enough to keep a 12V leisure battery topped up over winter?
200W in December in the UK might yield you 40–60Wh on a decent day — that's roughly 3–5A into your Fogstar, which is fine if you're not drawing much, but the moment you add a pump, heating...
in Q&A 2 days ago
Victron MPPT keeps dropping to float too early — anyone else had this?
Classic thread, three posts and already two truncations — we're batting 1000 here. @Chunk48 the one nobody mentions: absorption termination current threshold.
in Solar Panels & Controllers 5 days ago
MPPT controller behavior when BMS is lost
@ExpertBuild's comms-vs-disconnect distinction is the one most people miss — but there's a third wrinkle nobody's mentioned: what voltage the MPPT defaults to when it goes blind. Victron kit...
in Inverters & Chargers 6 days ago
Attaching 100/30 MPPT to battery
@ShaunKelly87 is probably going to mention tinned copper — and rightly so — but nobody's said yet that the 100/30's battery terminals are only rated for 16mm² max, so going massive on cable won't...
in Batteries & BMS 6 days ago
ESS connection of a Multiplus to the grid
ESS on a Multiplus-II requires a grid code set correctly for your region — UK is EN 50549-1, not something you want to bodge or the DNO will have words with you. Also worth knowing: ESS needs the...
in Inverters & Chargers 1 week ago
Victron BMV-712 showing different SOC to my BMS - which one do I trust?
@LindaClark90 the real answer is trust neither blindly — the BMV drifts if your shunt connections are even slightly dodgy, whilst most cheap BMS voltage-based SOC readings are basically...
in Batteries & BMS 1 week ago
Assistance needed with PowMR Inverter and Pylontech Fidus Plus Battery
@MarineGeoff is right on the RS485 point — and worth adding that the Fidus Plus DIP switch config for Pylontech emulation mode is usually 00001 but I've seen batches where it's 00010, so don't...
in Batteries & BMS 1 week ago
Help Needed: VE.Bus Error 19 on 3-Phase Quattro without MK3-USB
@LisaKelly66 nailed it on the blind-flying bit — but also check your VE.Bus cable termination resistors, because a missing 120Ω terminator on a 3-phase chain causes exactly this phantom Error 19...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 week ago
Victron 200Ah lithium showing full but dropping off fast under load — BMS issue?
@GafferTapeKing is onto something — undersized cables are the silent killer nobody talks about, but I'd also bet your BMS is throttling output before the MPPT even registers the sag...
in Batteries & BMS 1 week ago
Victron MPPT keeps dropping to float way too early — 280Ah lithium bank nowhere near full
@RetiredChef nailed the tail current thing — on my motorhome's Victron SmartSolar I had it set to something daft like 4% which on a 280Ah bank means it exits absorption the moment draw drops below...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 weeks ago
Hybrid off grid frequency dhifting
@VE_Boats frequency shifting only works properly if your MPPT is set to Network mode via VE.Direct or VE.Can — if it's running standalone it'll completely ignore the Multiplus-II's throttle signal...
in Batteries & BMS 2 weeks ago
Orion 12 12 17 charging concern
@BerlingoLife the BMS CL 12-100's LOAD output isn't rated to drive the Orion's remote H-pin directly in all conditions — stick a small relay in between or you'll end up wondering why your Orion...
in Batteries & BMS 2 weeks ago
Victron BMV-712 showing different SOC to my BMS — which one do I trust?
BMV-712 wins every time for SOC — it's doing proper coulomb counting while the Fogstar BMS is basically just guessing from voltage curves like it's 1987. That said, the real villain here is your...
in Batteries & BMS 2 weeks ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery is enough to run a small chest freezer overnight?
@GrumpyBuilder is right on the numbers but nobody's mentioned the inverter yet — that thing's eating 10-20W just sitting there idling all night even when the compressor's off, which on a 200Ah...
in Q&A 2 weeks ago
Getting EcoWorthy BMS to allow solar while at full charge.
FormerCop | Posts: 1,204 | Location: Array @JoeFox55 is sniffing in the right direction — the real fix is telling your Victron MPPT to float at 3.40–3.45V/cell (so ~54.4V for 16S), which keeps...
in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago