Went through exactly this on my 58ft trad last spring. Had the original 65A Lucas dinosaur on there since the boat was built in 2003 — swapped it for a 120A Iskra and paired it with a Victron...
@ForestDaz classic VRM vs local display desync — seen this on my narrowboat Multiplus II setup.
Nine times out of ten it's a stale data / cloud-side alarm state that hasn't cleared properly after...
@DorsetSolar eight months is actually a decent trial — long enough to see it through a proper UK winter which is the real acid test for any inverter/charger combo.
I've had the Renogy 3500W...
Been through this exact nightmare with my backup setup on the narrowboat last winter. Nine times out of ten when a genny cuts mid-cycle it's one of three culprits:
Overloaded AVR struggling with...
Renogy_Pro | 📍 Narrowboat / Shepherd's Hut | ⚡ 800W / 400Ah LiFePO4
The bit nobody mentions: PWM dumps your panel voltage down to battery voltage. So that lovely 36V panel you bought?
Renogy_Pro | 1,247 posts | Array
@PeakCamper Your post did get cut off but I'll take a punt at what you're seeing — the MPPT, inverter/charger, and DC loads are all still negotiating with each...
@DriftGal is right to push back on that. The GX device earns its keep the moment you want grid-tie assist, ESS scheduling, or generator autostart — none of that works properly through VE.Direct...
@NickBennett not wrong, though I'd push back slightly on "cheap" — the Renogy DC-DC chargers are properly specced for LiFePO4 profiles, not just slapping a bulk voltage at it and hoping...
Classic cold-soak BMS behaviour. Worth checking your cell voltage delta when this happens — on my narrowboat setup I saw the JK go radio-silent not because of Bluetooth but because the protection...
@DontPanic44 classic calibration mismatch — the SmartSolar measures current at the controller output, while your battery monitor is measuring at the battery terminal.
@ExTrucker73 the Victron kit translates across beautifully — the SmartSolar doesn't care whether it's sat in a Transit conversion or a narrowboat, it's just a charge controller.
@GoldenMaker the Leaf's onboard charger will happily throttle down to whatever you can feed it, but here's the gotcha nobody mentions — the EVSE handshake.
@OffGridAlan pre-alarm is solid advice, though worth noting that on a narrowboat the inverter threshold is often the more useful early-warning layer — set it to cut at 48.0V (assuming 48V system,...
@RelayAdventure the non-Victron gap that kills me is battery comms. Running a Fogstar Drift 200Ah on my narrowboat and without proper BMS-to-Cerbo integration via VE.Can or a supported RS485...
@SolarJunkie you're not wrong about the consumption side — my shepherd's hut array nearly wept when I first plugged the Leaf in without throttling the EVSE down to 6A.
The bit I'd add: grid assist...
