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Another truck mounted system

mininut2

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Apr 17, 2021
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Location
Hervey Bay, Qld
I am building a truck mounted camper and would like some help please. I will be having a 24v system, comprising of an Electrodacus SBMSO, as a BMS/Charge controller. I will have diversion for a 25litre 36v 1200 watt hot water system. The truck will have 4 x 330 watt solar panels, 3 of them on the roof of the camper and the fourth panel will be our table (because I can't fit it on the camper) which will be placed in the sun when not being used. There will be no shore power, just 8 x 280a RJ Energy cells. I will cook on an induction cooktop and the fridge is a domestic 240v with an inverter compressor. These are the only 240v appliances and will be fed with a Victron inverter. My question to the more knowledgeable is, can I charge the 24v camper battery with a Victron 12v to 24v dcdc converter. The converter would be controlled by the SBMSO (turned on and off) but I have been told that it is not as easy as that. The truck has a 12v 180amp alternator
Thanks for any help
Rick
 
I'm planning for a very similar build.
My idea was to use the Victron Orion-Tr 24/12-30 (360W) and from what I understood it can work by itself with new trucks/cars with "smart alternators".

Not sure how the Electrodacus SBMSO works, I was planning on having a Victron MPPT just for the ease of use and simplicity.
 
Thanks for the reply. I saw a youtube video today and the guy on there was using the Orion to charge his 24v lithium battery from a 12v alternator, so I guess that is not a major problem. I like the idea of the Electrodacus, as it is used as a BMS and with a DSSR20, it is also a charge controller. Through switching in the main controller, it can control all of the Victron chargers, inverters battery potects and any other controllers that you may use. I have an Iveco 4x4 that I will be building the camper on
Rick
 
This Electrodacus sounds interesting.
The Iveco 4x4 is probably the definite vehicle for Overlanding, exactly like Tucks you were mentioning in the other post. I would love that, also because Iveco is from my country, Italy haha. But it's out of my budget and it requires a truck driving license in Europe. I've searched a lot for used but in 6 months of search, I couldn't find anything decent, only very old from the 80s that require a lot of work and money. Which year do you have?
 
The truck that I have was a gift from my son. In 2011 he took a holiday for 12months. While he was away, I ran his company for him and he gifted me the truck. I have had it in my shed for the last 5 years and I am now starting to get it ready for our lap around Oz. In Oz, you can drive a vehicle up to 4495kg on a car licence and you do not have to have the vehicle inspected for registration (MOT in UK). The Iveco can be re-registered for 5200kg but then I would need a truck licence and yearly inspections.
Have a look at the Electrodacus site, lots of good info on the forum to guide you through it. For $159 CAD for the controller and $49 CAD for the 20MPPT control block, they are pretty cheap for what they do
Rick
 
What a nice story! I wish you a great trip around Australia, hopefully one day I'll make it there as well, one of my goals is to do the Canning stock route. I'm sure you'll have no issue with the Iveco. I think it's one of the most capable 4x4 out there with the great gearbox and transmission. Plus it's made to do that with a heavy load up to 7T so it will easily carry 4.5T. In Italy and I think Europe in general we can drive up to 3.5T with a car license, they make the Iveco 4x4 in that version as well but since the curb weight is pretty high, it only has 500kg of payload, which is not enough for overlanding.

I'll look into that controller, seems like it's very powerful and much cheaper than a victron
 
I've had a look at the Electrodacus and it looks very interesting. Once I though I understood everything I needed and had a plan of how to do my system, something new and exciting comes up ?

Anyway, there are still a few things I need to understand, and didn't quite get the limitations of this compared to a regular BMS.
the SBMS0 doesn't have an amp rating as a BMS because it doesn't directly handle the current but communicates with other components, like the Victron inverters, and that could work well in a house setup where all the loads are AC, but in a vehicle system where loads will be 12/24V and many different components, how can it regulate max current and what's the max current?

On the charging side, I think there's the same thing, and I get why you wanted to know how it works with the Victron DC-DC. The Orion-Tr Smart has a remote on-off switch so I guess it can be connected to that.. not sure

On the solar side, I didn't quite understand how we should match panels to the DSSR20 and why do we need to do that? On the manual it says up to 51V and 20A for each module. I guess that's for efficiency.

Also I saw the SBMS40 and 120 version used on some projects but those are not available on his website and the I found an European guy that makes a remodeled version: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/electrodacus-sbms-ble-pack-monitor-ltp-reader--2#/

Not really sure what's the best option. I just want something that works and it's reliable, and from what I've heard these can last a long time and so be more reliable than an MPPT but looks much more complex.
 
OK, I am no expert on the SBMSO, I am still learning but, you could use a Victron BP65, BP100 or a BP220 and control it through the SBMSO. This will take care of the DC side of things. These items are 12 or 24v, so whichever way you go, they will work.
On the charging side of things, you can pump 20amps through each DSSR20, so 2 panels in parallel will be ok (he is testing a DSSR50 at the present time). When the batteries are fully charged, the SBMSO shuts down the DSSR20s and stops any charge to the batteries. This is where I will divert the solar power straight to the element of my hot water system. You are correct about the Orion, in that the SBMSO will stop it from charging at the same time as the DSSR20s.
Matching panels, I have no idea.
SBMS40 is no longer available
Rick
 
OK, I am no expert on the SBMSO, I am still learning but, you could use a Victron BP65, BP100 or a BP220 and control it through the SBMSO. This will take care of the DC side of things. These items are 12 or 24v, so whichever way you go, they will work.
On the charging side of things, you can pump 20amps through each DSSR20, so 2 panels in parallel will be ok (he is testing a DSSR50 at the present time). When the batteries are fully charged, the SBMSO shuts down the DSSR20s and stops any charge to the batteries. This is where I will divert the solar power straight to the element of my hot water system. You are correct about the Orion, in that the SBMSO will stop it from charging at the same time as the DSSR20s.
Matching panels, I have no idea.
SBMS40 is no longer available
Rick
Ok, even considering the BP220 and 2x DSSR20 it's still cheaper than getting a cheap BMS and MPPT.

When the batteries are fully charged it stops charging which means it can't maintain the batteries charged? If I have a load on the batteries while they are at 100% will it have to wait for them to drop voltage before charging them back up again?

I'm not sure if I'm correct on this, but to my understanding, the most efficient solution is to always pull energy from the batteries and let smart charging devices (MPPT and DC-DC car charger) always keep them up, so if we pull the same as to what's put in, the batteries will stay the same and if we pull more they will drain slower.

The situation of having excess solar power I think it applies more to a home where you have lots of panels, I'm not sure there's going to be a lot of access energy to heat water, especially because you mostly need it in the winter months when there's less sun. Although if you manage to slowly warm up the boiler during the day you can have a free warm shower at night without having to turn on a diesel heater, which can be nice, in the mountains after a hike when you were actually not using any energy... so yeah maybe that's not a bad idea actually. What kind of boiler where you planning on having?
 
I live in a place named Hervey Bay, QLD and it is winter at the present time. Today it was 24degreesC and at 6.43pm now, it is 20degreesC. I would think that by 10.00 or 11.00AM my batteries would be 100%. The hot water system is a 25litre with a 36v 1200watt dc element. The element is 2 600watt elements in parallel and I will be having 4 solar panels, feeding through 2 DSSR20s and then each DSSR will feed 1 element each
Rick
 
I live in a place named Hervey Bay, QLD and it is winter at the present time. Today it was 24degreesC and at 6.43pm now, it is 20degreesC. I would think that by 10.00 or 11.00AM my batteries would be 100%. The hot water system is a 25litre with a 36v 1200watt dc element. The element is 2 600watt elements in parallel and I will be having 4 solar panels, feeding through 2 DSSR20s and then each DSSR will feed 1 element each
Rick
Oh you're right in front of Fraser Island, beautiful! That's great weather for winter.

With 1200W of solar is definitely possible, sorry I forgot that you explained it in the first post. I don't think I'll be able to put more than 700W on my roof and since I also plan on cooking with induction that will take a lot of energy out of the batteries. Which Victron inverter are you going to get?
Also why the choice of a 230V AC fridge instead of a 12/24V DC one?
 
You are so right, Fraser is just a barge trip away. I will be using a Victron Phoenix 24v 3000VA. I will be using an induction cook top also. The reason for the domestic 240VAC fridge, is solely price. I have 216litre fridge/freezer that cost me less than $400.00. If I was to get a 95litre 12/24vdc fridge/freezer, it would upwards of $2000.00. Nothing for an rv is cheap in OZ. The Victron is going to cost about $1250.00 and if I was to upgrade to a Victron Multiplus, it would be in the region of $2050.00
Rick
 
You are so right, Fraser is just a barge trip away. I will be using a Victron Phoenix 24v 3000VA. I will be using an induction cook top also. The reason for the domestic 240VAC fridge, is solely price. I have 216litre fridge/freezer that cost me less than $400.00. If I was to get a 95litre 12/24vdc fridge/freezer, it would upwards of $2000.00. Nothing for an rv is cheap in OZ. The Victron is going to cost about $1250.00 and if I was to upgrade to a Victron Multiplus, it would be in the region of $2050.00
Rick
Yes good DC fridges are expensive. I'm probably going to get a Vitrifrigo 95L with external compressor, and that's about 900 euro. I Just don't have space for a big fridge and there's no AC small fridges that I know of.
The Victron Phoenix 3000VA is about 1250 euro here, so looks like is less expensive there considering the exchange. Because of that I was thinking of getting a Giandel and save about 900 euro, and it's also lighter and smaller, obviously not the same quality.
 
After watching this:
I'm not going to get a Daly BMS and the Electrodacus sounds like the best option, even paired with an MPPT.
How is he getting 90V to the BMS if the charge controller is working properly and set for the system voltage?

This was a MPPT failure which shoved 90V to the BMS. Why did the MPPT fail? It appears he had hooked up the solar panels to the MPPT without any batteries in the circuit.

Is this the fault of the MPPT or BMS? No, it was his mistake and it cost him.
 
How is he getting 90V to the BMS if the charge controller is working properly and set for the system voltage?

This was a MPPT failure which shoved 90V to the BMS. Why did the MPPT fail? It appears he had hooked up the solar panels to the MPPT without any batteries in the circuit.

Is this the fault of the MPPT or BMS? No, it was his mistake and it cost him.
That's true, like most times the issue is user error. But protections are there to avoid most of those situations and a BMS that handles overcharge protection should do that no matter what happens before that.
Could a better BMS like Overkill Solar handle a situation like this?
 
That's true, like most times the issue is user error. But protections are there to avoid most of those situations and a BMS that handles overcharge protection should do that no matter what happens before that.
Could a better BMS like Overkill Solar handle a situation like this?
I doubt any BMS that is mosfet based could handle a gross overvoltage situation. From what I gathered, the 24V BMS mosfet is rated to 40V before any arcing would occur internally.

It was user error, connecting solar to charge controller without a battery present. Most likely in full sun.
 
I doubt any BMS that is mosfet based could handle a gross overvoltage situation. From what I gathered, the 24V BMS mosfet is rated to 40V before any arcing would occur internally.

It was user error, connecting solar to charge controller without a battery present. Most likely in full sun.
Got it, so I guess it's always good practice to have a breaker after the solar panels, even for maintenance or for any situation where the MPPT needs to be disconnected
 
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