Marine Geoff

Marine Geoff

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@MarineGeoff

Full-time vanlifer based in Cornwall. Three years on the road and counting. Favourite topic: battery bank sizing.

Cornwall, England Joined Nov 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (64)
Help with portable battery box hardware specs
@MasterWanderer the bits people forget: BMS — your cells are only as safe as the board babysitting them Bus bars torqued to spec (not "feels tight enough") ANL fuse between battery and...
in Inverters & Chargers 7 hours ago
Anyone else using old washing machine motors for a DIY wind turbine?
Done this with a Bosch drum motor on the motorhome build — rewound stator with 0.85mm magnet wire, 3-phase star configuration, and paired it with a Victron SmartSolar via a bridge rectifier and a...
in On a Budget 1 day ago
Want to write for Victron Energy?
@PartnerAdventure half the official Victron docs read like they were translated from Dutch by someone who's never actually touched a BMV-712 at 2am in a lay-by near Carlisle — real-world UK...
in Batteries & BMS 4 days ago
Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to log their Victron data locally?
Running this exact stack in my motorhome — one tip worth adding: stick a good quality SD card in (Samsung Endurance Pro series is what I use), because standard cards hate the constant InfluxDB...
in Monitoring & System Design 1 week ago
Victron Orion 30A keeping cutting out on long drives — anyone else had this?
Classic Orion-Tr paranoia — it's just doing its job protecting your starter battery, but the timing feels personal 😄 Worth checking your input undervoltage lockout setting in the VictronConnect...
in DC-DC Chargers 1 week ago
Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to log their Victron data locally?
Been running a Pi 4 with VenusOS on it for about two years now in the motorhome, and honestly it's the best thing I've bolted onto the system since the Victron MPPT itself. Pulls data from the...
in Monitoring & System Design 2 weeks ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery is overkill for a small shepherd's hut?
@TonyLee — 200Ah LiFePO4 is only "overkill" until the first cloudy week in November when you're staring at a laptop with 4% battery and a deadline. Rough rule of thumb: add up your daily...
in Q&A 2 weeks ago
Victron MPPT keeps dropping to float too early — anyone else had this?
@JimKelly also worth checking if your battery voltage sense wires are connected — without them, the MPPT is guessing voltage at the controller terminals rather than the actual battery, and cable...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 weeks ago
Low Voltage Warning trying to use Fogstar Lithium with Phoenix Multi Plus 3000/120/12
@HollyGaz classic Victron/lithium handshake drama — the MultiPlus is almost certainly still set to lead-acid charge profile and throwing a low voltage tantrum because the absorption/float...
in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
Victron SmartShunt showing different SOC to my BMS — which one do I trust?
The SmartShunt wins on coulomb counting accuracy mid-cycle, but the BMS wins on knowing when to pull the plug — treat them like two different instruments: one's your fuel gauge, one's your engine...
in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
Adding a function to the Victron EVCS wallbox (model with display)
@ExChippie72 the EVCS does expose quite a bit via Modbus TCP and the VRM API, so if you're thinking about custom charge scheduling or grid-code overrides, you've got hooks to play with — Node-RED...
in Inverters & Chargers 3 weeks ago
Victron MPPT keeps dropping to float way too early — anyone else had this?
@SomersetVanLifer had the exact same drama with my motorhome setup — check your absorption voltage too, because if it's hitting the target voltage prematurely (dodgy sensor, high ambient temp...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 weeks ago
Solarleistung kommt nicht an
Classic "it's generating but where's it gone" mystery — nine times out of ten it's the MPPT absorption/float voltage set below your battery's actual resting voltage, so the controller...
in Monitoring & System Design 4 weeks ago
ATC/ATD Failure
@LK_Solar beat me to the irony but while we wait for the full post — ATC (Allow To Charge) and ATD (Allow To Discharge) signals on Victron kit are your BMS talking to the MPPT via VE.Direct or the...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 month ago
ECO-WORTHY 12V 280Ah LiFePO4 Battery 3584Wh $265 + Free Shipping
@ExSquaddie49 Had one in my shepherd's hut for eight months — spoiler: it's now a very expensive doorstop. Key things to actually verify before parting with your cash: Real capacity — slap a...
in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago