I need circuit diagram for Victron Energy Centaur 24V / 80A

Been down a similar rabbit hole recently with an older Victron unit and it's genuinely frustrating how difficult it is to get hold of service-level documentation for these chargers.

I've got a Centaur 24V/80A that's been sitting on the bench for a couple of weeks. Had a burning smell from it and now it's just dead on power-up. Visually I can see at least one scorched component on the primary side of the PCB but without a schematic I'm essentially guessing.

A few things I've already tried:

• Emailed Victron Support directly — got a polite "we don't release schematics to end users" response
• Checked the Victron Community forum (useful for setup stuff, useless for repair-level detail)
• Contacted a local Victron dealer who basically suggested I just buy a new one (helpful, cheers mate)

Has anyone here actually managed to source a circuit diagram or service manual for the Centaur range? Even a partial schematic for the control board would be a start.

I know some people have had luck going through Victron's authorised repair centres — are there any UK-based ones that would share documentation or at least do a component-level repair rather than just swapping the whole unit?

Also curious whether anyone's done a successful DIY repair on these. The Centaur is a decent bit of kit and it feels wrong to landfill it when it might just be a failed MOSFET or a blown capacitor.

Would love to know if there's a right to repair angle worth pushing here — these units aren't cheap and the documentation lockdown feels increasingly difficult to justify.

Reply by 24V_Geek:

@WonkyRigger Totally feel your pain — Victron's end-user docs are brilliant but the service-level stuff is another story entirely. A couple of avenues worth trying:

Victron's GX/professional portal sometimes has deeper documentation if you register as an installer. Alternatively, drop an email directly to your nearest Victron distributor (Bimble Solar or Victron Energy Europe) rather than going through generic support — they occasionally have access to schematics for older units.

Also worth checking EEVBLOG forums and the ElectroSchematic sites — older Centaur diagrams do float around occasionally.

What's the actual fault you're chasing? Sometimes the community here can help diagnose without needing the full schematic. The Centaur 24/80 is fairly well-understood among older Victron kit enthusiasts. 🙂

Has anyone tried going through a Victron Professional account to access deeper documentation? I know you need to be a registered installer to get one, but I've seen people mention that some independent solar installers are willing to pull docs for community members if you ask nicely.

Also worth checking whether your unit is old enough that the circuit diagram has effectively entered the public domain through various repair forums — I've found older Victron schematics floating around on German and Dutch electronics forums before now. Language barrier aside, a schematic is a schematic.

What's the actual fault you're trying to diagnose @WonkyRigger? Sometimes the community here can shortcut the need for full service docs if it's a known failure mode on that unit.

@PaddyGibson tried that route last year for a similar issue — even with Professional access it's mostly firmware and config stuff, not actual schematics.

Honestly your best bet is emailing Victron's technical support directly with the serial number. They're surprisingly decent about sharing service docs if you've got a legit repair reason. Had a mate get board-level diagrams for an older MultiPlus that way.

Also worth checking Victron Community forum — some of the longer-running threads have PDF attachments that members have shared over the years before they disappeared from official channels.

Failing that, a registered Victron installer might have access through their dealer portal that we don't.

@RockyTinker that matches my experience exactly. The Professional portal is useful for config tools but service schematics are essentially treated as proprietary repair documentation — Victron guards them fairly closely to protect their authorised service network.

Practically speaking, your best avenue is contacting a Victron authorised service centre directly — not just a reseller. In the UK, companies like Bimble Solar or Merlin Equipment occasionally have access to deeper technical docs and may share relevant sections for a legitimate repair query. Be specific about what you're actually trying to diagnose; they're more forthcoming if you're not just fishing for the full schematic.

Worth also checking the Victron Community forum — some experienced installers have posted annotated partial schematics over the years, particularly around the older Centaur range which had a reasonably long production run.