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Sailors (like you find on cruserforum.com) prefer to parallel first because they like one house "battery" not just a bank. Much of the reason is because you can spend the extra money for a REC BMS, that will then tie directly in with the Wakespeed alternator regulator and the Victron Cerbo GX...

Your all-in-one has three separate things in one box: Inverter, Solar Charge Controller, and Charger. Exceeding the max input voltage from the PV array is not damaging the Inverter itself, but it is damaging the Charge Controller, or at least could. It almost certainly would over an extended time.

A bit off-topic, but one of the things that drove me crazy about lead-acid was that the manufacturers used such odd-ball specs and then gamed the system. Most batteries were rated in for a "20h C-rate", meaning that the Ah rating was an indication that if you drained it that Ah divided by 20...

(y) I did exactly this on a 4S2P bank that I built a few months ago for a friend's boat. I did capacity tests on all 8 cells, then put the four lower ones together and the 4 higher ones together. Watching them charge and discharge is just as you would expect, with the higher one lasting...

Just to be clear: Docan (or any of the sellers available to us) don't have cells that are for a different purpose. ALL of these cells are manufactured (by Eve in this case) for EV use. I don't know exactly what you are saying, but don't be thinking the Docan cells were built for something...

I don't doubt that there are some products with that warning. But it sounds almost like you are looking for that warning. There are lots, and lots, and lots of stories here in this forum of people having implemented methods to keep their cells warm. Take a look at this thread...

Well, I think we are going to have to agree to disagree. I don't think some of what you are saying makes any sense. Ok, we definitely have a problem here. If your inverter only has an ON state and an OFF state, you are going to have a spark in the switch whether you use the resistor or not. The...

Not sure which controllers you are talking about. The thermostats? Or do you mean the solar charge controllers I installed in 2017?

Not to pick nits, but "within hundredths" could mean 99mV, right? That would be 9.9 hundredths of a volt. Not particularly well balanced. Is that what you mean?

Schneider should probably be in your list of Tier One. I have Schneider, but would probably put it lower than Victron, Midnight, and SMA. I don't know anything about Samlex or Fronius.

I need some clarification: Is the logging added to the SmartShunt, the BMV-712, or both? I do not have the battery monitor. Just the SmartShunt, and I would kill for logging.

And on top of the other benefits of nickel plating, it's fun! I had some flattened copper pipe bus bars for my tiny 25Ah 8S battery, so I plated them. I also had some bare copper ring terminals installed in my battery box, and I managed to plate them in-place by using the existing wiring in...

Wow. You are replying to a post I did about 18 months ago, so I had to re-read it a few times to get myself back to what I was doing then. The Thornwave shunt had a few problems that I couldn't overcome (subject for another thread, probably), so I removed it from the system. Instead, I...

A neighbor to our cabin has been bugging me to help him put in solar. I finally contacted him to understand what he was thinking, and he started out saying that his wife was really enamored with SolarFlower (at first he said Solar Sunflower, so I was really confused). I finally found...

Well, I would be willing to bet they are talking about charging to 3.65V as reducing the life. It harms the battery's life if you repeatedly go up to 3.65V or down to 2.5V. I have not seen anything that says it harms it to charge at 3.5V or 3.4V and hold a absorption until the cell stops taking...

To add: The website is pretty short on any details (technical, cost, etc.), but I found a couple of reviews. One said that the SolarFlower+ is $65k not including shipping and installation. I think this neighbor doesn't consider cost to be a big issue, otherwise this is crazy expensive for a...

There's a pretty thorough discussion here about putting two packs of different capacity in parallel. I think the bottom line is that there are several people who are making such a parallel system work. My gut EE sense would be that it would be best to have the banks somewhat close to each other...

It sounds like you are wanting cells, rather than a battery. Within a week just ain't gonna happen. If you want good, grade A and matched, you will pay a bit more, but this forum does seem to have a favorite source: Shenzhen Luyuan Technology. Amy Wan is the person everyone here works with, and...

I think that is pretty close to what I've read elsewhere, like at Battery University. Lead-acid batteries temporarily lose capacity when it is really cold, and regain it when it gets back up to 25°C. High temps cause permanent loss. I did some searching just now, and it seems most of the data I...

I think that trying to avoid any Chinese equipment will be very difficult, no matter where you are in the world. Victron equipment (which is also very good) used to be all manufactured in the Netherlands, but I'm not certain that is still the case. In the U.S., I think most PV panels now come...

I'd say there are many of us waiting to see your report. I hope you do receive them by 8/24, but I hope you will report even if you don't.

Having a Cerbo GX is certainly no reason not to have a shunt. In fact, if you have the Victron Smart Shunt, it can provide a better battery voltage reading and battery SoC to the Cerbo, which is pretty important. With the Smart Shunt reporting the battery voltage, the Cerbo can use DVCC...

Oh. Got it. Good idea.

If you are really wanting to set bench power supply voltages or calibrate a BMS, you really need a good multimeter that is both accurate and precise. Those are different things. Lots of the cheapo meters are neither. I have a couple of the cheap ones, and they are good for many things. One of...

Actually, the world of lead acid batteries is a bit more complicated than that. SLA also includes "Maintenance Free" or "Valve Regulated" batteries, that are actually just flooded lead acid batteries (yes, they slosh) that don't have caps for you to open and add water. I believe that most...

Wow Jim! I hadn't thought of that. You may be onto something there. Michael said something about the cells being packed by the shipper, not by the seller. If all these CATL cells were shipped as one big bulk shipment, and then once they got thru customs the shipper (at his US office / warehouse)...

Sure. It's up to you. I mentioned above that this pack of little cells is - for me - just something to play with. When I eventually pull the trigger on 8 280Ah cells for my cabin, I almost certainly won't use flattened pipe. But for this pack, it's good enough.

I'm curious. If you go to the "Battery State" page, and then go to "Protection of information"(sic) on the 3rd tab within the Battery State page, does it show any fault types as non-zero? On first blush, this looks almost like your balance lead connector is loose, but I've not actually seen...

I certainly hope it doesn't kick in at 3V. That is not a good balancer strategy. If it is really a smart BMS, I would hope you would be able to set the balance limit voltage, which should be at around 3.4V. Unless they've changed their product line, the only active balancers I remember seeing...

You've got 121 posts as I read this, and it seems like half of them are in this thread. Even then, instead of making one post with several points, you've done a bunch of posts in a row. Seems you are padding your stats, and don't really have anything to say to @Mike 134.

Most RV's have lots of 12VDC lights and perhaps even some small appliances. I assume you don't have those if you are going to a 48VDC system. Otherwise you'll need to include a buck converter (48V to 12V) big enough for those 12V loads.

Yeah, I've been signed up for the same, but it sounds like it won't matter, as the packages just show up with no warning.

If you want to charge the LFP from AGM start batteries, add a good Victron DC-to-DC charger to your list, rather than just hooking the two together. I don't know anything about the VRC-200, but skimming the product page they have a bolded statement that it is not a replacement for the...

You know, one of the reasons I don't want to dismiss the idea of putting AGMs and LFPs in parallel is that if/when a common port BMS shuts off connection to the LFP, the charge controller and inverter remain powered. This wasn't one of the things mentioned in the video. Another thread here was...

An update for you @HRTKD. I posted a question on a random 120mm 12V fan on Amazon. I got several answers including one that said he had four of these fans running in his RV, where he knows the voltages get up over 14V on the alternator. Another said he had some of them hooked up directly to a...

Hey @Steve_S - Sounds like we have quite a bit in common (besides both being named Steve!). I used a Midnite Solar E-Panel as well, but the one that was designed to attach to the side of the Schneider CSW4024 Inverter/Charger. Really a solid product. I also used Canadian Solar panels, but I...