Recent content by ianganderton

Had an email from Epever detailing their new solar charge controller https://www.epever.com/product/tracer-cpn/ Looks interesting. Solid aluminium case with lots of heat dissipation fins. Waterproof and Bluetooth for control Epever have fulfilled the solidly good enough and cost effective...

Before buying any parts for a system make sure you have a good plan and an understanding of its capabilities and limitations. Come up with a way of drawing and sharing system diagrams that works for you and the people who are going to look at them for you. Needs to be able to include cable and...

It will be interesting to see how it feels once it’s on. I’d be a bit concerned about how it will feel with the wind getting under it while driving at +100Kmh

Flexible panels don’t seem to do well permanently mounted. They are prone to hotspots and damage that renders them useless Solar pv panels do best when they are cool. Their colour and need to be in the sun is not very conducive to this. A gap under the panel to allow airflow is pretty...

The science doesn’t lie Any voltage quoted is just a nominal voltage. The reality is that all batteries vary in their voltage depending on how much energy their chemistry is storing The spreadsheet I shared show the normal Lifepo4 voltages. While there will be some variance with different...

Lifepo4 batteries have a range of different voltages they display depending on state of charge and load applied 12V is a nominal voltage. It’s a largely descriptive term for 4 Lifepo4 cells in series Have a look at this spreadsheet. It shows the different voltages relating to different state...

The problem is not with your charger but your lead acid battery. As the charge goes up above 80% a lead acid battery’s internal resistance goes up and it takes a lot more force to slowly get the last 20% in So end of this story is the solution is to change your battery chemistry to Lifepo4...

This ? I’m always wary of parasitic draws. Everything is always alright till it’s not. Thinking it through, if set up correctly the charger will only charge when the battery it’s charging needs it. It sounds like the primary problem is the constant activation of the vehicle systems due to...

interesting, they are really popular here in NZ and I haven’t heard of any problems. They just aren’t as pretty as the blue stuff ?

Looks good, that’s how my 4 x 120W panels are wired up Have you sussed out how to calculate your solar pv voltage? 600W of solar / 12V nominal battery voltage = 50A of charge So a 50A solar charger that will take the input voltage off your array (that you now know how to tune!) Epever’s...

Epever tracer 50A would be a good option if you get the right array voltage 2 strings in parallel, 3 panels in each string in series would be the most sensible option. Easy to get y connections for 2 strings

Is that the case with lithium? I thought it was just Lead acid to prevent sulphation?

Victron chargers will charge flat lithium batteries But only if they can access them The battleborn batteries have a battery management system (BMS) that completely disconnects the battery on low voltage to protect it from long term damage. This disconnect is what the battle born tech is...

I'd recommend ditching the breakers and using good fuses. Those breakers have a terrible history of not stopping current when needed Class T is the best fuse to put on a powerful LifePo4 battery, second best is a MRBF terminal fuse Then use a decent quality battery disconnect switch and...

Highlights the danger of uncover connection. With a battery connected that could be a fire right there