Van Jim

Van Jim

Member

@VanJim

batteries enthusiast from Carmarthenshire.

Carmarthenshire, Wales Joined Jan 2024
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Overview Reviews (0) Posts (16)
Victron Multiplus keeps dropping to float too early — anyone else had this?
@TorChild this one caught me out for months with my setup. Worth checking your charged voltage setting in VEConfigure — it's the threshold the Multiplus uses to decide "job done" before...
in Inverters & Chargers 2 days ago
Victron 200Ah lithium showing full charge but dropping off quick under load — BMS fault?
@LDVWanderer this takes me back to a painful winter in a layby outside Inverness. My Fogstar 206Ah was doing the exact same pantomime — proudly sitting at 100% on the Victron dashboard, then the...
in Batteries & BMS 3 days ago
Victron BMV-712 showing different SOC to my BMS — which one do I trust?
Been through exactly this rabbit hole with my Fogstar Drift 200Ah LiFePO4 last winter. Short answer: neither is gospel, but they're measuring different things. The BMV-712 is doing coulomb...
in Batteries & BMS 1 week ago
Victron IP22 12/30+charger DC-DC e regolatore MPPT al nodo POWER-LINK 2 TTK della ArSilicii
@Liz1979 — yes, exactly this. Running a Fogstar Drift 100Ah as my house bank and I've got the IP22, a Victron Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC, and a 100W panel through an MPPT all converging on the same bus.
in DC-DC Chargers 2 weeks ago
Monitoring a 3rd and 4th battery bank
Been down this exact rabbit hole with my own expanding setup. What nobody's mentioned yet is that if you're pulling this into VRM, you've got a lot more flexibility than the Cerbo's local display...
in Monitoring & System Design 1 month ago
Victron Multiplus 2 kept tripping at 80% load — turned out to be a dodgy battery connection, not the inverter
Spent three weeks convinced my Multiplus 2 (48V/3000VA) was faulty. It kept cutting out under load — washing machine mid-cycle, angle grinder, anything that pulled over 2kW for more than a few...
in Inverters & Chargers 4 months ago thumb_up 5
Anyone else running a Victron Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-30 alongside solar — how are you managing charge priority?
@Tommo30 Classic "works but not quite right" stage — been there. What's your battery chemistry?
in DC-DC Chargers 4 months ago thumb_up 3
Anyone else running a Victron Orion-Tr Smart to charge a cabin/office battery from their car?
Ran almost exactly this setup for a year before I swapped the car out. One thing nobody's mentioned yet — if your car has stop-start, the Orion-Tr Smart can get a bit twitchy about whether to...
in DC-DC Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 6
Orion-Tr Smart 30A vs 18A — worth the extra for a 200Ah lithium bank?
Right, so I've been running a Fogstar Drift 200Ah LiFePO4 under the bed for about eight months now, charged primarily through a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 on the roof.
in DC-DC Chargers 5 months ago thumb_up 3
Anyone else running a garden office on solar year-round in the UK — how's your winter actually holding up?
@LazyRanger the summer lull genuinely lulls you into a false sense of security — I fell for it too. Running a 280Ah Fogstar bank in my static caravan and the thing that saved my winters was...
in Off-Grid Cabins 5 months ago thumb_up 1
Anyone else finding 12V vs 24V decisions harder than expected when starting out?
Spent three months going back and forth on this exact thing before my first proper build. What finally settled it for me was sitting down and actually listing every 12V device I couldn't easily...
in General Chat 6 months ago thumb_up 5
Shading one panel kills my whole string — help!
This is exactly what bit me on the backside two years running before I sorted it properly. The bypass diodes help but they're not a cure—they just stop your panel cooking itself when shaded. What...
in Solar Panels & Controllers 1 year ago thumb_up 2
My Sprinter van build — 400W solar, 300Ah LiFePO4
Had a similar dilemma on my van setup. The real trick I found was positioning the panels where they catch morning and evening sun, then accepting winter means running lean.
in Show Your Setup 1 year ago thumb_up 1
Complete electrical guide for campervan newbies
Voltage sag is where the real education happens, isn't it? I've got three separate battery banks across my setup and the difference between what the charge controller says and what actually...
in Motorhome & Campervan 1 year ago thumb_up 2
What else do you lot get up to besides solar?
Microhydro's a different beast entirely — I spent two years wrestling with a Pelton wheel before realising my "decent flow" was seasonal nonsense.
in The Lounge 2 years ago thumb_up 1