Recent content by svsagres

If you have the victron compatible version of the REC, just toss the Victron Venos OS onto the Raspberry Pi.

Properly designed, your contactor/batteryprotects should never operate. Through the Cerbo, the BMS voltage and current limits will be forwarded to the inverter/charger, so it will follow those commands. If I was you, I'd look at slightly reorganizing your setup, with the inverter/charger, and...

Just make sure that you do not have your inverter behind a batteryprotect, as the batteryprotect can only handle current flowing in one direction while your inverter/charger can obviously push current in both directions. If you have the control and venusos going, then it’s entirely likely that...

That’s often done. I know that on some larger vessels they have a dedicated battery forward, as it means they don’t need to run heave gauge wiring from the engine compartment (usually) to the forward cabin/vee berth to power the windlass.

The biggest issue with your windlass is what is going to happen when it stalls out due to a fouled anchor or similar. It’s basically going to go to a near short circuit. You’ll likely pop the fuses. Also, the high inrush current can erode the contacts on the control solenoid. I was worried...

You can’t use a battery protect for the multiplus, as the current flows both ways while the BatteryProtects can only handle current in one direction. My charge bus is controlled by a BlueSea 7713. I like it for a couple of reasons: It’s 500a rated, it only consumes about 7ma while holding, I...

In this kind of a system, the settings are sort of all one and the same. Yes, you set a low voltage cutoff on the inverter, but as long as it's getting commanded by the BMS (via the VenusOS running on the Raspberry Pi they mention) the BMS limits will override whatever is configured...

I don't think you need the absorption set for that long, as I recall my settings are only a couple of minutes. As I recall, it will stretch it out if it needs to balance the cells. That said, I also don't know that you'll see much of the shoulder at 3.45 for it to balance reasonably. On my boat...

Some things aren't worth saving a buck on. My main DC Distribution block on my boat is a BlueSea SafetyHub 150. 4 high capacity for my port/starboard distribution panels (and the DC->DC charger for my starter battery) then a series of six ATO fuses for all the bits and bobs in my electrical closet.

The bigger issue is the logistics of carrying gasoline. Gasoline is takes more care and thought to carry on a boat compared to diesel/kerosene as it will evaporate with explosive vapours. Diesel doesn’t. If I was on a larger boat where I actually needed a genset, I’d consider the advantage of...

When we’re not at the dock, it’s an 85A alternator with a Wakespeed Regulator bolted onto our poor little Yanmar 1GM10 (single cylinder 10HP engine), with a wakespeed external reglator. The dirty little secret when it comes to sailing, at least in our part of the world, is that if you have any...

I mean, we could, but I also admit to a bit of vanity and don't really want her to look like a floating power station. The reality is that we're probably motoring 4 to 5 hours a day when we're actively using her, so that's more than enough to keep the batteries topped up. When we're doing a...

On my Ericson 27, there just isn’t much room for solar panels. I’ve got 120W on the dodger, and another 200W portable that I can unfold. The rest of the boat is primarily sailing hardware. Plus, the dirty secret when it comes to sailing on my part of the world is that realistically, you’re...

When faced with this decision, we went the DIY route, also doing a 460Ahr 2p4s (ie two 230Ah batteries in parallel) but we went with a REC ABMS. Why? Because I wanted my BMS to fully integrate into my system. I’m all in on the Victron Ecosystem, and having my battery integrate with my...

Except that it works fantastically in the real world. My boat is proof of it. It’s damned accurate, and basically runs itself. All I do is change the DVCC override when I want to put the boat into “storage mode”