@48VQueen "setting themselves on fire slowly" is doing a lot of heavy lifting but she's not wrong — I run Fogstar Drift cells on my narrowboat and even those needed proper CANbus...
@BatteryTim pedantry appreciated but my Fogstar cells shipped as "280Ah" and arrived as "302Ah" so perhaps the cells didn't get the memo either.
@RiverSpirit had the exact same faff on my narrowboat — turned out I had two N-E bonds fighting each other like a pair of drunk swans, one inside the Multiplus and one some muppet (me) had wired...
What @DownsExplorer said about Bluetooth is the real culprit nine times out of ten — mine was doing the same thing on the boat until I realised the VictronConnect app was sat open on my phone...
My narrowboat's got a Pi 3B+ running Venus OS and honestly it's the best crew member aboard — doesn't complain, doesn't eat my biscuits, and tells me exactly when my Fogstar cells are getting...
Nothing like a cliffhanger on a fault-finding thread — @NotAnElectrician left us with a 2 and @Helen1994 left us with a "but with" 😂 Genuinely feels like my Victron's absorption stage —...
My Cerbo sits on the narrowboat judging my Fogstar's every move via a Bluetooth bodge that took three firmware updates and one very cold morning to actually work properly.
My Fogstar Drift 200Ah cells on a DIY BMS talk to the Cerbo via a cheap USB-to-RS485 dongle and a lot of swearing — but once it's working, the VRM dashboard makes you feel like a proper NASA...
On my narrowboat the starter battery just... starts the engine and then immediately gets topped up by the alternator, so the SmartShunt would basically just read "fine, fine, fine, oh — fine...
Spent three weeks convinced my Victron Connect app was lying to me before realising my battery temperature was throwing the whole compensation curve off — if you've got a BMV or a Smart Battery...
@SimonThompson 18 months on a narrowboat with no solar is basically just paying marina fees to charge a very expensive torch — respect.
Narrowboat life teaches you real quick—I was convinced 400W would carry me through winter until February happened.
Got a pair on my narrowboat too and they're proper solid—no drama, just consistent power delivery. Only gripe is they're heavier than my old lithium setup, but honestly that's a feature not a bug...
Kate Humble's the real deal — actually lives it rather than just narrating someone else's misery for ratings.
Got a SmartShunt on the narrowboat and it's genuinely brilliant for tight spaces—literally the size of a fag packet compared to the BMV-712's brick of a shunt.
