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Got a request for info, so I figured I'd bring this over here. I use a bunch of victron bits in my RV now and have added a raspberry pi running the victron venus image and I have a second pi that rocks a 4g card to provide internets. First up, the Internet Pi: This is a Pi 3+ that has a sixfab...

After this weekends upgrades, I need to do a little bit of wiring cleanup. Before I really dig into that, I wanted to evaluate how things are working. It's been a beautiful day, about 70 outside. I ran one of my A/C units for about an hour just to really give things a chance to heat up.... and...

I believe the factory covering is sufficient. Since I've got them locked together, I don't believe that I'll have rubbing wear issues.

My process involved a couple shots of whisky and a few clicks on amazon. True story. Before that, I took a look at cost per watt, various panel reviews and the final cost. $80 per rich solar 100w poly panel with free amazon shipping won the day. I really liked the idea of the higher power 250w...

I built a simple clamp using plywood and four threaded rods. I protected the batteries from the rods with some white pex tubing that was handy.

Ok, finally have a matching set.

My batteries arrived today. I haven't opened them yet, but Paid on Oct 26, Arrived Dec 3. Considering there was a holiday in there, just a bit over a month isn't bad at all.

Double door RM1350. What's really ironic here is that I also have a compressor based CFX95 cooler that's fantastic. The absorption fridge is actually far more expensive from the factory. Anyhow, it appears that I can get a kit to convert it from JC refrigeration. I'm really liking the idea of...

I'm going to disagree for a few reasons, but I will happily point them out. First up: energy. From the rec pro product page: The draw is "5.8 Amps and 78 Watts" That's really not that much energy. Seriously, think 1500 watt space heater vs 100 watt heating pad. To drive this further, the pad is...

Added foam insulation between the tension bars. Stuck until I get the hdpe spacers in so I can add the heaters, finalize the insulation and built the outer box.

Oh, I suppose I should comment on performance here. I use a firetv in the living room and have a roku tv in the bedroom. Both seem to work just fine over this system. I've successfully used it for video meetings and general online work as well. I've had issues in two locations. First, on the...

Allrighty, I've been making changes to my rig after using it all summer/fall. I figured this may be handy for anyone going the big camper solar route. My rig is a 37 foot Montana High Country 5th wheel camper. I'll try to keep this all electrically related for the moment. The house battery: My...

Testing overnight showed my expected results. That makes my happy since the battery seems to be working as planned. No change at all in AC load. I am starting to suspect it'll remain a constant. Of course, it looks like it's going to rain later so it'll be a bit of a shabby solar day. The test...

This is the first time that I've tried this with so much battery capacity. Previously, I only had around 3.5kwh of storage and I rarely ran it down more than a couple of Kwh. It's also the biggest constant load I've run... ever. That means that in general, my battery was topped off part way...

I've been using a gigavacs for some time, works very well. I just changed my main out for a 24v so I could feed it directly from my battery pack. If you want a no-power option, there are some high end tyco contactors that use power to open or close. Of course, the danger there is that you could...

So I'm just planning out my battery box builds for the new pack. After doing some winter camping with a crappy shore feed, I knew I had to add some battery heating for the new build. My batteries live in the unheated compartment of my 5th wheel camper.... The Batteries: 16x 280ah Lifepo4 cells...

I'm a fan of super lube silicone grease, it's an excellent dielectric grease.

New lesson today - It turns out that you cannot configure anything but the on/of/charge setting and the current limit on a multiplus using the bluetooth ve.bus adapter. You MUST have a usb interface to fully configure the multiplus.

Mine is fine without the aux battery for slides/leveling/etc. I do have a small SLA on my breakaway brake system. That uses a small charge controller and I just feed it off my 12v converter. The only time that battery gets used is if the camper tries to run away and the breakaway safety cable...

A good DC-DC converter/charger is the way to go. Even with SLA's it's helpful. On my rig, (2012 2500HD diesel and 5th wheel) I just added a Victron 12/24 DC-DC converter to directly charge my 24v solar bank. You'll need to size the voltage output to whatever you want. Note - I've put my...

Just to link things together a bit. I've now replaced the old Tesla pack with the LifePO4 pack. Battery order was: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/ordering-16x-280ah-cells-from-shenzhen-luyuan.13862/ Wrote up a bit about the RPi and monitoring here...

You *might* want one if.... You want to automatically have the charger turn off when the engine is off You plan to run a non-12v system (I use one for 12v to 24v) You want to regulate how much power is exiting your vehicle (fixed to the value of the charger) You want to check status/performance...

I almost forgot, thanks for your comments on this. It was helpful when I was deciding if I should just give up on ordering over the annoying verification.

Not so! If you do get a DC-DC charger like the victron, it will provide boost conversion to allow for the full range of charging. However, if you have enough battery capacity, even a full day of driving wouldn't fully charge. Example: I have a 12-24 charger. It provides 10a @24v (ok up to 28v...

This is one reason why I like the higher panel voltage that's accepted by MPPT vs PWM. PWM controllers - typical input voltage is like 17VDC for a 12V battery and 28VDC for a 24V battery. If the PV is less You can start generating usable power a bit earlier in the day =- Realistically, it's...

I love my BMV-712, simple, bluetooth app works great. Completely worth the $200 IMO. Easy to check status when I'm at the camper control center.

My combiner switch has a couple of modes. 1. each leg works normally but the multiplus is inline on one leg. 2. Both legs of the panel are bridged and fed from the multiplus. Only one leg from shore power is connected to the multiplus. The second is disconnected. To be clear, the multiplus is...

Yeah, you're good to put it wherever, just make sure that nothing grounds to the battery terminal - aka no connections between the shunt and the battery terminal.

The manufacturer specs said not to mount to metal - likely to prevent shorting. The hdpe is .187 thick. 12x24 pieces were about $15 each from amazon.

Welp, I used this system over the summer. Things I learned: 1) I love my dometic 12v fridge/freezer. I added it in when camping and used it as my outdoor fridge/ice bin at the beach. I'm going to add some accessory anderson connectors for that stuff. 2) I need to upgrade the inverter. I mostly...