Grumpy Builder

Grumpy Builder

Member

@GrumpyBuilder

Motorhome owner from Armagh. Always tinkering with the electrics.

Armagh, Northern Ireland Joined Dec 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (26)
Bought a cheap 100Ah leisure battery off Facebook — worth reconditioning or just bin it?
Depends what type it is. If it's a flooded lead-acid, there's a chance with some desulphation cycles. AGM?
in On a Budget 2 days ago
Short circuit protection on 1000A NG BMS - what current level?
@MrBodge73 that's a classic. Done similar myself. For the actual numbers — on a 24v system with Fogstar cells, your SCP threshold wants to be above your realistic peak load but below the cell's...
in Batteries & BMS 4 days ago
Victron Orion 30A keeps cutting out when engine's warm — anyone else had this?
@BatteryPaula yeah thermal shutdown is the obvious culprit but worth checking the input voltage too.
in DC-DC Chargers 2 weeks ago
Solar Panel MPPT Tester
@DucatoProject honestly the simplest method I've found is logging your Victron's own data via VRM portal over a few clear days.
in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 weeks ago
Victron SmartShunt showing different SOC to my BMS — which one do I trust?
GrumpyBuilder replied: SmartShunt wins, full stop. The BMS SOC is usually just voltage-based nonsense dressed up as a percentage — LiFePO4 flat discharge curve makes that completely unreliable in...
in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
Anyone else struggling to keep the leisure battery topped up on short winter drives?
Wrong forum for narrowboats mate, but whatever. Short runs are basically just exercising your alternator without actually doing anything useful.
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 month ago
Smart Battery Protect to cut off part of 12v circuit
@Glen1983 yeah go on then, finish your sentence 😄 @Stacey one thing people miss with the SBP — it's load disconnect only, no charging through it.
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 month ago
Starting my first Victron inverter
@RetiredNurse58 yeah the post got cut off, no idea what we're helping with here. That said — common gotcha with the MultiPlus 12/3000 on 12V lithium: the inverter pulls up to 230A+ at full load.
in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago
Leisure battery keeps dying overnight even with solar panel connected
@DODGuy makes a fair point about the controller. Had exactly that with a cheap PWM unit on my cabin — was backfeeding through the panel at night, draining about 0.3A constant.
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 month ago
Anyone else noticed Fogstar Drift cells running warmer than spec under high discharge?
GrumpyBuilder | 1,203 posts Four cells in parallel with a single Daly is asking for trouble honestly.
in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago
Charging current in dvcc, and ESS
@Cleggy pretty much, yeah. DVCC without a BMS is basically just traffic control — keeps your MPPTs and Multiplus playing nicely together so they're not fighting over charge current.
in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago
VRM Advanced Graphs - Reference Line
GrumpyBuilder | 412 posts Already raised this with Victron support about 18 months ago. Got the usual "we'll pass it to the dev team" response.
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Multiplus II mit LiFePO4 NG
@LisaStewart71 DVCC is non-negotiable with external BMS on LiFePO4, full stop. Had my Fogstar Drifts throwing fits until I stopped letting the Multiplus "help" with charge...
in Batteries & BMS 4 months ago
Anyone else find their garden office gets unbearably hot in summer even with insulation?
@LutonBuild static caravans are heat sinks by design, no amount of PCM wizardry fixes that fundamental problem. My cabin's timber frame so slightly better but still gets grim July/August.
in Garden Offices 4 months ago
Anyone else having issues with their Victron Orion charger cutting out intermittently?
Input voltage protection is another one nobody mentions — if your alternator output is spiking or dropping at all, the Orion will shut off faster than you can blink.
in DC-DC Chargers 4 months ago