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The Ikea "TILLREDA" portable induction cooktop works well - it's about one of the cheapest you can buy in Australia, at $69 AUD. It's a single element, nominal 2000W. They sell a built-in model as well, which for some reason is more than double the price but has the same power; it seems...

Revisiting this topic: I don't buy that reasoning - assuming the materials are the same, why wouldn't the 100A rated MIDI fuse have the same fusing element (i.e. the section within the fuse that actually fuses on overcurrent) as a 100A rated MEGA fuse? If anything, I'd expect the larger fuse to...

Ta; alas I've not been able to catch up with my son (well, his van at any rate!) to measure the current draw from the D+. I'd expect it to be quite low of course. (then again, what do they say about assuming things? :-)

G'Day RF; the DC-DC charger has been running fine for since installation; it was invaluable over the 2020 winter (southern hemisphere), and will no doubt get some exercise in this coming winter. The 'low current' switch to 50% rated current is good news; actually could be useful. The manual...

Another random tidbit on circuit breakers: even quality breakers will get very hot near their rated load. I replace the garbage no-name breaker from my previous post with a Mechanical Products MP Series 17 200A breaker. When testing at my system's maximum load of around 2000W (ca. 180A via the...

A data point on the garbage no-name Chinese breakers: I just tested a "200A" marine-style DC breaker from ebay (can you see what's coming?) that overheated and partially tripped after around 5 minutes with a 110A load (inverter pushing out ~1400W). When operating properly the breaker dropped...

FWIW, you'll be fine to use the controller you have. It may be worthwhile to totally ignore the term "grounding" when it comes to the controller itself - it's going to be either switched-negative (what you have; positive input+output are bonded together) or switched-positive (negative...

It's a work-in-progress and likely will never be complete, but I've created a "SBMS0 missing manual": https://github.com/bdlow/sbms0 Specifically, the EXTIO functions are covered and may help. It's a public git repo, so contributions (pull requests) are welcome.

I'd have expected physically smaller fuses to have greater power loss than larger fuses - that is, a MIDI fuse to have greater voltage drop than a MEGA fuse of the same rating. However Victron's MIDI, MEGA and ANL fuses, and fuse holders data sheet says otherwise...

I'd wondered what would happen when a panel directly connected to a battery went dark, would the panel draw power from the battery? Turns out, no: I connected a voltage and current-controlled power supply to a set of three parallel Victron SPP041751200 175W panels, at night, with the current...

FWIW the only reason I can think of as to why Victron did this is basically laziness: this junction box is obviously designed for up to three strings and probably come with diodes preinstalled for three strings (three diodes), and Victron just slapped it on and wired it in for the two strings...

Yes, original. I agree re. quality of the soldering; the joints appear solid but they're not pretty.

Here's a picture of the junction box on the back of a Victron SPP041751200 175W panel: Notice the three diodes - yet only two panel sections (three tabs). The panel physically is an arrangement of 4 x 9; electrically connected in 2 banks of 18 cells each. I'm wondering why they've installed...

By "shore power" I expect you mean that you connect your mains-powered charger to the batteries so as to charge them; and that your appliances are all run off the battery. For lead-acid or LiFePO4 batteries you can leave your appliances connected whilst charging. If your appliances draw more...

For the NCV3, the auxiliary electrical connector (EK1) provides engine running (D+) (10A) battery direct (25A) ignition on (15A) ref: Sprinter Body & Equipment Guideline (BEG) 2016/2017, section 7.4.7. The best location to connect a DC-DC charger above ~20A is at the busbar / distribution...

Here's one example of a connection to the starter busbar/fuseholder: DIY installation tutorial: Enerdrive DC2DC+ charger + Sprinter van + Lithium house battery You'll also likely need / want to connect to the 'engine running' D+ signal that's present on terminal 1 of the "auxiliary electrical...

@Michael B Caro - Amy@Luyuan also noted these are A- cells, "intact performance parameters, but there may be a little flaw in appearance" (I appreciate the honesty - and from her perspective, not having customers disappointed when the cells arrive is important). I completely agree that for my...

Thanks for starting this! Perhaps this data would be better placed in the wiki part of the site? It would be useful to collate longevity reports alongside the manufacturer/product info where the cell manufacturer is clearly known, and in a "lucky dip" section where the cell isn't known. e.g...

I'm about to bite the bullet on 16 x 202Ah cells from Luyuan (Amy, redirected from Xuba; have been quoted 72.90 ea. + 214 shipping to AU, total USD 1380). Amy has stated these are CATL cells. I'd like to hear from anyone who has been operating a bank of these ubiquitous blue-shrink-wrapped...

I was just looking at the other RCNUN DC-DC converters and realised one practical problem: switching it on and off. You probably only want the DC-DC converter to run when the engine's running; devices like the Victron and Renogy DCDC chargers have a "D+" (alternator running) enable input that...

I would expect that RCNUN DC-DC constant current "charger" you posted earlier to do the trick - essentially as you've noted, its purpose would be to limit the current drawn from the car. The implication of separate "lithium" and "lead acid" versions seems to imply a voltage limit as well (i.e...

tl'dr: you can directly connect the car to charge the LiFePo4 battery, or via a DC-DC power supply, if and only if you have some way of disconnecting it when the LiFePo4 is fully charged. i.e. a BMS. You may or may not get a full charge depending on the behaviour your car's electrical system...

Chandra/@maharzan - did you end up purchasing from EVLithium? How'd it go?

It's winter here in the southern hemisphere. That means shorter and more overcast days and less solar energy charging my son's 2013 Sprinter's LiFePO4 house battery. To augment the solar system we recently installed a Renogy DCC1212 DC-DC charger, the 40A version. Before installing it, I wanted...

As gnubie noted, it's mainly convention. Switches, fuses, etc are usually conventionally placed on the positive side of any DC circuit (and the Active of an AC circuit), and many people - incl. me, tbh - would assume a switched positive in any given situation. i.e. you stick a meter probe on...

When a current is flowing via a reactive load, say a 1-2kW inverter, or indeed, a fault current through the inductance of a few metres of cabling, when the circuit is interrupted you can get very high inductive transient voltages across the thing doing the interrupting (usually some sort of...

I don't see what the second arrangement with the 'ground-fault' breaker gains: in scenario 1 (traditional, chassis tied to NEG) a fault in the A-B circuit to either chassis or PV panel negative would draw a large fault current from your POS bus (sourced by the battery), that would open the 80A...

Agreed all may be well if you fuse separately; caveat: more junctions within parallel cable paths mean more potential variation between the resistance of those paths, and thus less equal current distribution - not a problem if any single cable is good for the entire load and you're doing this to...

Heh, if you're going to do something well, may as well overdo it! Sounds like you're taking a sensible approach in so far as each individual cable would be safe in a pinch. As you note, adding capacity to reduce power loss can be a good efficiency measure even if not required for safety. TBH, I...

@pierre , tbh I'm of the opinion it doesn't matter for vehicles either. The term "positive ground" or "negative ground" doesn't actually refer to the case of the device, rather which side is switched. It's a rather bad choice of labelling if you ask me. They should have used "high side...

G'Day Bartek, From what I can tell, you don't have either side earthed / grounded - so you can use either type of controller, it doesn't matter. Even if you do end up tying your battery negative to "earth" (the metal shed), so long as your panels stay isolated then you'll still be good with...

To expand on @fat_old_sun's comment: a "positive grounded" aka "common positive" controller simply means that the solar panel positive and the battery positive and the controller's load terminal positive are all connected in common; i.e. the controller is using low-side switching using...

It may not be an issue for your installation, but you might find that the sum of the parts is less than the whole - that the capacity of two parallel cables is less than the capacity of a single cable of the same effective cross sectional area. Differences in the quality of the terminations and...