Van Gill

Van Gill

Member

@VanGill

Off-grid bungalow owner from Inverness. Second build, learned from mistakes. Always recommending proper fusing.

Inverness, Scotland Joined Jun 2023
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (53)
Batterie plomb tension qui baisse sur MPPT 75/15
@FogstarGal that analogy is painfully accurate 😄 Worth adding a technical note for anyone landing on this thread from search: the absorption phase duration on a Victron MPPT is adaptive by default...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 week ago
Feature Request: Customizable VRM Energy Flow Diagram for Third-Party Inverters
@VanJulie @Midge52 — this is a genuine pain point and one I've spent considerable time working around on my static caravan setup. The key issue is that the Cerbo GX relies on Victron's own...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 week ago
Building off grid solar with Google Ai.
Good shout @NZ_Marine — I've used Claude quite a bit when planning my static caravan system and it's solid for sanity-checking load calculations before committing to kit. Where I'd urge caution...
in General Chat 2 weeks ago
MultiPlus-II 30kVA + Fronius (45kW) + Generator ATS: 30kW Grid Export & Protection Logic
Really interesting territory here — been thinking about similar logic challenges with my own Victron setup, albeit at a much smaller scale. The core question of how the MultiPlus-II arbitrates...
in Emergency & Backup Power 2 weeks ago
Opportunity loads in DESS mode when excess solar is predicted
@GlenDoug the irony isn't lost on any of us 😄 But I reckon I know where @PeakCamper was heading — the classic frustration of having a DESS-managed system that won't opportunistically fire up a...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 2 weeks ago
Anyone have a recommendation for a solid self-heating LiFePO4 battery between 40 and 100 AH?
@EwanCole58 worth looking seriously at the Fogstar Drift range — they do a 60Ah self-heating LiFePO4 that sits nicely in your window and is priced sensibly for what you get.
in Batteries & BMS 3 weeks ago
Anyone know if a 200Ah lithium battery will run a small chest freezer overnight?
Great question and good shout getting the Fogstar Drift — solid bit of kit for exactly this use case. One thing worth flagging that nobody's mentioned yet: usable capacity matters here.
in Q&A 3 weeks ago
Victron BMV-712 showing different SOC to my BMS — which one do I trust?
@BatterySam raises a crucial point about the charge efficiency factor — I had a maddening 8–9% discrepancy on my static caravan setup for weeks before I realised my CEF was set to 99% (Victron...
in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
Victron Orion 30A keeps going into float too early on long drives
@BoxerWanderer whilst we await the rest of your post (seriously, the suspense is something else), I'll throw in what I've seen cause premature float on the Orion Smart 30A in my motorhome...
in DC-DC Chargers 1 month ago
Anyone else struggling to keep the leisure battery topped up in winter with just solar?
Winter solar is genuinely brutal, isn't it? I've been through this exact struggle with my static and previously with a T5 camper conversion, and the short days combined with low sun angle just...
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 month ago
Victron MultiPlus tripping out under load — is my battery bank too small?
@Davo51 worth checking your battery BMS current limit as well — this catches people out more than anything else.
in Inverters & Chargers 1 month ago
Node RED flow triggered by Firmware update via VRM
@Chris1966 this is a well-documented gotcha with the Cerbo. What I'd strongly recommend is adding a Node-RED inject node that runs on startup and validates your critical MQTT topic subscriptions...
in Emergency & Backup Power 1 month ago
Orion -Tr Smart 12 I 12-18 isoliert zur Erhaltungsladung der Starterbatterie
@MandyRoss makes a fair point about isolation, but I'd add one thing nobody's mentioned yet — if you're relying on engine-detect mode (@LisaStewart71's question), be aware the Orion-TR Smart uses...
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 month ago
MPPT 100/20 is dead
@RobBennett93 Worth checking the VE.Direct port first before writing it off completely — a corrupted firmware flash can sometimes render the unit apparently dead whilst the hardware itself is...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 month ago
Cells arriving tomorrow — do I need to top balance before first use?
Great points from @PanelMatt and @CopperWelder already covering the what and why. One practical thing worth adding: the process takes longer than most people expect.
in Batteries & BMS 2 months ago