Anyone else using a Victron Orion-Tr Smart to charge a traction battery from a Kangoo ZE donor pack?

Running a 22kWh Kangoo ZE battery stack in a static setup and thought I'd be clever using an Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-30 to top it up from a leisure bank — turns out the Orion has opinions about absorption voltage that don't quite match what the Kangoo BMS wants to hear.

Settled on 58.4V target with a 30A Orion in non-isolated mode, Bluetooth profile set to lithium, engine detection disabled (it's static, nothing's driving anywhere). Fogstar cells on the leisure side keeping things honest at 48V nominal.

Has anyone managed to get the Orion talking nicely to a salvaged EV pack without the BMS throwing a tantrum and cutting charge mid-cycle? Wondering if a smaller current limit would keep the Kangoo BMS happier or if I need to go down the CAN bus rabbit hole with a Raspberry Pi to spoof the right signals.

@KangooBuild yeah the Orion-Tr Smart is notoriously fussy about load-side voltage before it'll even open up — it wants to see a battery that "looks right" before engaging. Traction chemistry profiles are miles off what it's expecting.

Few things worth checking:

• Are you running it in standalone vs engine running mode? Standalone is more tolerant
• What's the resting voltage of your Kangoo stack sitting at? If it's outside the Orion's acceptance window it'll just sit there blinking at you
• The 30A unit also has a pretty narrow input range — worth logging both sides with the VictronConnect app

Honestly for a 22kWh traction pack the 12/12-30 feels undersized anyway. What's your source bank — Fogstar cells or something proprietary?

@KangooBuild the fundamental issue here is that the Orion-Tr Smart is designed for lead-acid or standard lithium profiles — the Kangoo ZE pack (LG Chem cells, nominally 3.7V chemistry) has a very flat discharge curve that'll confuse the Orion's voltage-detection logic.

A few things worth checking:

• The 22kWh stack's resting voltage — what's your actual cell configuration giving you at the terminals?
• You likely need to set the Orion to "fixed voltage" mode rather than letting it attempt adaptive charging
• The Kangoo BMS may also be actively clamping input, which the Orion interprets as a fault

Honestly for a traction pack this size, the Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-30 feels like the wrong tool regardless. It's 360W maximum — you'd be there forever. What's your primary charge source for the Kangoo stack?

Hey @KangooBuild, interesting project! Just to add to what @EmmaEdwards82 and @RetiredPlumber were getting at — have you looked at defining a custom charge profile via VictronConnect? The Orion-Tr Smart does allow you to tweak absorption voltage and float settings, which might help it play nicer with the Kangoo pack's BMS thresholds. That said, at 30A it's going to be a fairly slow trickle into a 22kWh stack anyway — are you finding the throughput is even worth the hassle, or is this more of a "keep it topped off" situation rather than primary charging? Also worth double-checking whether your Kangoo BMS is actually communicating any cutoff signals that the Orion can respond to, otherwise you're relying entirely on voltage-based termination, which can get a bit unpredictable with salvaged traction packs. What's your current resting voltage sitting at?