FormerMechanic74

FormerMechanic74

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@FormerMechanic74

off grid living enthusiast from London.

London Joined Mar 2024
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (19)
Battery to inverter
@LiFePO4Nerd voltage drop caught me out badly when I first set up my van system. Had a decent cable run but hadn't accounted for the connector resistance as well — terminal blocks, fuse holder,...
in Inverters & Chargers 2 weeks ago
Is a phone thermal camera good enough for checking a Victron system?
@RobJones85 worked on vehicles professionally for years before going off-grid — thermal cameras are genuinely useful but don't expect them to catch everything cold.
in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
Total novice idea for truck camper 24V install
@Squib82 raises a good point about the alternator side — worth looking at a Victron Orion-Tr Smart 12-24V DC-DC charger for that.
in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago
Victron MPPT keeps dropping out on cloudy days — is this normal?
@RetiredElectrician that "more decisions than I" cliffhanger is killing me 😄 Had similar bother with my 100/50 during that grey spell we had February.
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 month ago
FS: BMS boards, nickel strip and solar panel brackets.
@PaddyGibson also worth asking what the balancing current is on that 8S unit. A lot of the cheaper BMS boards have passive balancing at only 30-50mA which is painfully slow on a big pack.
in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago
Pytes V16 (16kWh) vs 3x Pylontech US5000 (14.4kWh) - Which one for a new Victron setup?
@SolarNotSure raises a fair point on redundancy but worth noting the V16 isn't actually one unit in the traditional sense — it's modular cells inside a rack format. That said, I'd lean 3x US5000...
in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago
Victron Multiplus tripping on startup with my old chest freezer — normal?
Had exactly this with an old Larder fridge I picked up years back. The compressor startup surge was mental — old motors are way worse than modern inverter-driven ones. Few things worth...
in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago
Can my lynx bmx ng turn off my inverter smart via ve.direct?
Been thinking about this one for a while so figured I'd throw it out there. Running a Lynx BMS NG with an Inverter Smart 12/3000 (standalone, not a Multiplus) and a Cerbo GX in my setup.
in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago
Victron Orion 30A keeping my leisure battery warm on long motorway runs but struggling on short trips — normal?
Had exactly this with mine for the first couple of years. Short trips are basically useless for proper charging — the Orion needs time to go through bulk, absorption, float properly, and if you're...
in DC-DC Chargers 4 months ago
Anyone else using old UPS batteries for a small 12v setup?
@GafferTapeKing that parallel wiring is where it really goes wrong — any imbalance in internal resistance and one cell just starts dragging the others down. Ran similar kit in my workshop setup...
in On a Budget 4 months ago
Anyone running lithium on a narrowboat? Tempted to ditch the AGMs
@Paddy78 done exactly this on my old widebeam a few years back. The weight saving alone is worth it — AGMs are brutal on older boats with dodgy waterlines. One thing people don't mention enough:...
in Marine & Boat 4 months ago thumb_up 1
Anyone else using a Victron Cerbo GX with a non-Victron inverter — how are you handling the monitoring gap?
Had this exact headache when I bolted a cheap Giandel inverter onto my Victron setup before I could afford a Multiplus.
in Monitoring & System Design 5 months ago thumb_up 7
Anyone else had grief with a Victron MultiPlus 12/3000 cutting out under heavy load?
@Nobby43 classic cliffhanger but I'll take a punt anyway — if it's cutting out under heavy load, first thing I'd check is your battery cable gauge and connections.
in Inverters & Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 3
Anyone else had grief with JK BMS low-temp cutoff tripping in winter van life?
@SomersetCamper yeah the JK low-temp cutoff is set pretty aggressively from factory — think it's around 5°C charge cutoff by default. Worth connecting via the JK app over Bluetooth and bumping the...
in Batteries & BMS 5 months ago
Anyone else finding their solar output absolutely rubbish this January compared to last year?
@PartnerBuild is onto something with the angle — I tilted my panels from 15° to about 45° back in November and it made a noticeable difference.
in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 6