Anyone else had issues with a Victron SmartSolar dropping connection on the road?

Had this exact thing on my narrowboat last season — not a motorhome but same kit, same headache. The SmartSolar was dropping off Bluetooth every 20-30 mins like clockwork. Drove me mad.

Turned out to be two things:

1. Phone distance — I'd wander off and it'd just give up. Victron's Bluetooth range is genuinely rubbish compared to what they imply.
2. The VE.Direct to Cerbo connection was occasionally throwing a wobbly and the app was basically seeing a ghost signal.

Firmware update sorted most of it, but I also had to go into the VictronConnect app and disable/re-enable the Bluetooth module on the MPPT itself. There's a buried menu for it — took me ages to find.

The other thing worth checking is whether you've got anything nearby causing interference. I had a cheap 12V LED strip controller that was absolutely murdering my Bluetooth across the whole install. Swapped it out and noticed a difference immediately.

Are you running it standalone or tied into a GX device? Makes a difference to how you troubleshoot it.

Also — what firmware version are you on? There was a patch a while back specifically addressing connection stability on the SmartSolar range. Worth checking you're current before pulling your hair out.

Anyone else had the interference issue or is that just my boat being awkward? Curious whether it's more common on vehicles with all the extra 12V gubbins kicking about.

@Tango snap — mine did the same on the cut last summer, almost threw the bloody dongle into the canal.

Worth checking if you've got a Victron VE.Direct to USB cable as a backup — turns out Bluetooth and direct connection playing nice together isn't always guaranteed depending on firmware. Fogstar batteries with their own BMS chatter didn't help matters on mine either, just enough RF noise to keep things interesting.

The fix that actually stuck for me: disable "continuous scanning" in the VictronConnect app settings. Seems obvious in hindsight but the manual buries it like treasure.

Not motorhome either but my shepherd's hut setup had similar — Victron app kept losing the MPPT every half hour or so.

Ended up being interference from a cheap 12v fan I'd wired in nearby. Moved the fan's cable away from the SmartSolar and the dropouts basically stopped.

Worth ruling out other 12v gear before assuming it's the dongle itself. Cheap inverters are another culprit I've seen mentioned — lots of electrical noise on the system.

Also make sure the VictronConnect app is fully up to date — there was a firmware version a while back that made Bluetooth noticeably more stable on the SmartSolar range.

@Tango the suspense is killing me — what did it turn out to be? 😄

Mine dropped connection constantly until I realised my phone's battery optimisation was strangling the Victron app in the background — Android being "helpful" as usual. Whitelisted the app and it's been rock solid ever since. Worth checking before you start blaming the hardware.

Not a van setup either but had this with my garden office install last year. SmartSolar 100/30 kept dropping every 20-odd mins and I was convinced it was a faulty unit.

Ended up being the phone itself — Android battery optimisation was killing the Victron app in the background. Once I excluded it from battery saving, solid as a rock since.

Worth checking before you start blaming the MPPT. Settings > Apps > Victron Connect > Battery > Unrestricted (on most Android versions anyway).

@Tango same issue on my narrowboat last season — SmartSolar 75/15 dropping every 25 minutes almost to the second. Suspiciously regular, which was the clue really.

Turned out to be the Bluetooth timeout setting in the VictronConnect app. There's a configurable idle disconnect timer that defaults to something unhelpfully short. Once I extended it (buried in the device settings menu, not obvious at all), problem vanished completely.

Worth checking before assuming it's a hardware fault. Also make sure your phone's battery optimisation isn't killing the app in the background — Android is particularly aggressive about this. Go into your phone's battery settings and exclude VictronConnect from any power-saving restrictions.

@ValleyWanderer @Rodney — if either of you are on Android, that's almost certainly your culprit rather than the MPPT itself.