[Spruce]

Mine is the 75/10 ,
I section 4.2 it explains the settings , i cant see a reason why its not working
Always on should sort me , with no waiting time .
All the other settings seem to have a 2 minute wait period before coming live , if that means each time the pump is powered then that is of no use to me .
If it means to initially make the change to live then that would be ok , but does that mean that i have to have say the light connected and on for the 2 minutes for it to go live ?

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/victronconnect:mppt-solarchargers#load_output

Where does 4.5 RX port function come into it on your controller.

Just setting theload output program to 5 should be enough. What about the 'street light' settings?

There is a reason for that 2 minute delay. If gives the controller time to adjust it settings. So its probably better to continue the way you are doing.

[P @ F]

Yes i see , upon reading that again i think that it could be Rx or streetlight related , its that or its broke !
I have been at it with a multimeter on all settings and i am getting no power through the load at all .
If i had to guess i would say moving the 0% value on street light up a bit might well switch it to "on" mode .
 

[Spruce]

Yes i see , upon reading that again i think that it could be Rx or streetlight related , its that or its broke !
I have been at it with a multimeter on all settings and i am getting no power through the load at all .
If i had to guess i would say moving the 0% value on street light up a bit might well switch it to "on" mode .

Or just switch the street lighting slider to off.

It looks like that function is related to sunrise and sunset and takes a couple of days to dial itself in, provided of course you don't switch the panel off every night. Of course if you switch the function off then it shouldn't matter if you switch the panel off at night.
These things are clever technology aren't they?

[P @ F]

 

Funny you should say that , thats exaxtly what i went back out and tried at 8pm , by 8.04 i had the evidence !!
I get the info on the real time screen , but could not see any log of total amps out on any of the others , maybe that kind of stuff is included with the wifi kit you can get to stream to pc .

[P @ F]

I was switching the panels off once the sun went out , but that was while i was using the meters and they would pull power all night , now it all just stays on as it will then charge while im lazy chuckin  ZZZ's    

[P @ F]

What does concern me though is , apart from my inability to spell exactly is , the battery voltage had dropped a fair bit , although i had been out there with the van interior lights on , maybe this is the case , as we know my lights like to eat power as this is what its all been about !
I think letting it rest now until tha mora is a good idea , but then to put my % charged charger on it to see what kind of reading that throws up , i was meant to do it the other day after it was showing as fully charged on the dongle app .

[Spruce]

What does concern me though is , apart from my inability to spell exactly is , the battery voltage had dropped a fair bit , although i had been out there with the van interior lights on , maybe this is the case , as we know my lights like to eat power as this is what its all been about !
I think letting it rest now until tha mora is a good idea , but then to put my % charged charger on it to see what kind of reading that throws up , i was meant to do it the other day after it was showing as fully charged on the dongle app .

I wouldn't get too worried about it atm. You just need to keep monitoring the battery voltage. Start to be concerned when the voltage reading is around 12.4/12.5 after rest as you need to take action and bench charge. Its not only your interior lights that will be sucking power from your battery. Every time you remotely lock and unlock the van those motors do consume power. (If my charger is on float mode and I unlock the rear door of the van with the key the charger doesn't kick in. If I use the remote c/l to unlock then the charger kicks in and stays on for quite a while. My c/l is on my van battery but I do have a bi directional split charge relay, so when I charge my leisure battery, the van's starter battery also gets topped up. I'm fortunate as I just plug my charger in when the van is on the drive way.)

You may also find that the unit also uses a bit with keeping tabs on the system and having the dongle will also use slightly more power.

The other thing is that drawing power from the battery does mean that it needs to stabilise again. When the battery has been charged a true reading of its state of charge can only be taken after its been at rest for 4 hours. It will be the same when you draw current. The system needs to rest for that same time period. If you open the doors with the central locking you put paid to that reading as its no longer accurate.

Then you do have that 'magic eye' on/in the battery. If that is showing green then you have a battery at +-75% to fully charged. If it goes black then extra charging is needed. The Magic Eye functions are based on the specific gravity of the acid. It is one of the most accurate methods for determining the state of charge of a battery.

.
 

[P @ F]

Im not overly worried to be honest as its now back to showing 13.16v , its not in float but that is probably due to the dongle and the controller pulling there little bit of power as you say .
Even after the messing about yesterday i have decided not to use the load at all , well at least until i find out how the power is supplied , if you remember the other day you said that it may take what it can direct from panels and make up the shortfall with power from the battery ?
If this is the case and my controller works as the Epever Tracer then MPPT conversion could go out the window .
But at least i know how to switch load on now anyway   
Also with using the chinese meter at least i will still get a total power used value at the end of each day , lets not forget that i also have 2 redundant meters now , so if i really want to include the draw of the drill i can wire one to that also .

[Spruce]

Im not overly worried to be honest as its now back to showing 13.16v , its not in float but that is probably due to the dongle and the controller pulling there little bit of power as you say .
Even after the messing about yesterday i have decided not to use the load at all , well at least until i find out how the power is supplied , if you remember the other day you said that it may take what it can direct from panels and make up the shortfall with power from the battery ?
If this is the case and my controller works as the Epever Tracer then MPPT conversion could go out the window .
But at least i know how to switch load on now anyway   
Also with using the chinese meter at least i will still get a total power used value at the end of each day , lets not forget that i also have 2 redundant meters now , so if i really want to include the draw of the drill i can wire one to that also .

That thought had crossed my mind as well at some point during the mental churn.

[P @ F]

Ok , so am i reading this right ?
As the dongle does not give usage out from the battery , i see that i had 30 Wh in via dongle app and just over 120Wh out via the chinese watt meter , so solar has replaced 25% of my usage today , am i right ?

Got some thoughts on re siting the panels or maybe just the big one to get a better angle , but not sure if i would benefit ?

[Spruce]

Ok , so am i reading this right ?
As the dongle does not give usage out from the battery , i see that i had 30 Wh in via dongle app and just over 120Wh out via the chinese watt meter , so solar has replaced 25% of my usage today , am i right ?

Got some thoughts on re siting the panels or maybe just the big one to get a better angle , but not sure if i would benefit ?

Sounds right to me.

25% input seems pretty good for a winters day. If you are on float tomorrow morning the alternator has replaced the rest.

The trouble with aiming your panels directly at the sun is that when you move the van the panels won't be facing the sun. So what you gain one minute you lose later. That would be why the RV's etc have them flat. There is also less chance of the wind getting underneath them and peeling them off the roof as you are driving down the road. The gusts of wind generated passing some lorries must be taken into account.

[P @ F]

The last reading i took was at 3.45 , the battery was reading bang on 13 volt , now at 8.30 it is at 12.88 volt .

[Spruce]

The last reading i took was at 3.45 , the battery was reading bang on 13 volt , now at 8.30 it is at 12.88 volt .

Thats fully charged.

[nathankaye]

Ok im sorted now for these poor sunny days.
My van had some electronic works done to it by the previous owner. It had a orange strobe light on which I cut off and taped up the wires and forgot about it. The switches are on the dash board as the van has a fan fittedon the roof as well.
Now as far as I could tell, these were wired up by the company who did the fibre glassing as well. 
So I have wired it up with a blocking diode and connected it to the leisure battery which I can take on and off at will.
So driving back home I can turn it on.     Which should help finish charging the battery after the solar panels.

[P @ F]

On paper i cant see a reason why that wont work Nath , but im unsure as to which battery will take the charge from your alternator , twin battery one source is not a thing i know about , it could go one of 3 ways i reckon ...

1. Van battery takes the full hit , once full it passes on to the leisure battery .
2. The charge is split equally between the two .
3. Leisure takes the full hit , using van battery as a bridge , then charges the van battery .

I think Spruce has done his homework on this part !

 

[P @ F]

All i know is that i went to that dreaded place today where i keep getting battery failure , i whacked the hazards on and went about my biz , cant lie though my arse was making Maltesers !
Jumped in and it fired up and away , by the end of play i was down to 12.6V , a 10 mile drive home put me back to 13.2V , that was at 3pm , re checked at 7.45pm and has dropped back to 12.9V over the nearly 5 hours , which should mean im fully charged , but the best bit is that i have a 10 mile run back to work in the morning just to make sure !
The battery has not seen domestic charge since 15 January , which is on the way to what i have been searching for , if you are going to spend any money in the future i would at this point recomend that it be on a Numax multifunction battery and do what i have done , of course , it is still early days , so watch this space matey   

[Spruce]

On paper i cant see a reason why that wont work Nath , but im unsure as to which battery will take the charge from your alternator , twin battery one source is not a thing i know about , it could go one of 3 ways i reckon ...

1. Van battery takes the full hit , once full it passes on to the leisure battery .
2. The charge is split equally between the two .
3. Leisure takes the full hit , using van battery as a bridge , then charges the van battery .

I think Spruce has done his homework on this part !

What Nat is doing is manually switching his connection on and off between his van battery/alternator and his leisure battery.

A split charge relay will do it automatically for him. With manual switching there is always the possibility that he forgets to switch the connection off.

The 'hit' will always be to the battery with the least charge. Its my guess that if his van battery is in good condition, it will almost always be more fully charged than his leisure battery. If he left that switch on with the engine off, then the starter battery will end up draining into the leisure battery. Having a Voltage sensing realy will tend to give preference to the charge of the starter battery over the leisure battery for good reason.

 I would just need him to verfy that the wiring he is using is fused and is of a good current capacity to carry the charging load.

As I've said before, I've seen my initial charge into my leisure battery up at 22 amps after a heavy day. Thinner gauge wiring will tend to regulate that initial surge, but  overheating cable can cause many issues.

[nathankaye]

Its early days yet and todays trial was good but my leisure battery only dipped to 12,7 once during the day but I had good sun input so the leisure battery was floating around 12.9.  So i didnt need a big charge from the van battery but i did use it to top up my 12v 27ah battery that i use for my electric reel, whilst on my coffee break.

Good point Spruce, i will wire in a fuse as im not sure if one exists on the wiring at the moment or not.
I have fitted a blocking diode to prevent reverse charge/drain from my leisure batter as well as fitting a amp/volt meter to it as well. These meters also have a one way flow.  However I manually connect the end onto the leisure battery for when I want to use this charging method. When its not in use, its coiled up and hung on a hook inside the van. So when i get home, i sort the van ready for the next day and will be disconnecting it, hopefully also ensuring that I wont forget to turn it off and drain the starter battery.

[P @ F]

How did you get on today ?
Have not looked at mine yet as no work done today 

[nathankaye]

How did you get on today ?
Have not looked at mine yet as no work done today 

Quite pleased with myself today.   My battery yesterday was fully charged at 13,5 (at night anyway) so i was off to a good start.
Im pleased at the moment with my solar panel setup (kinda haha) had about 25v coming in and then the weather picked up slightly.  But i had a packed lunch today, so ate that in the van with the engine running to give a boost to the battery and again on the 15min home journey.  So tonight my battery is  showing 13,3       and my van battery is showing a healthy reading as well.
So much so, that I have connected the mppt to my back up battery, that i use for the pump inside my van tank for trolley transfer.  That battery is at 12.8,  so im hoping a little early sun can give an early boost to that one.

But tomorrow is a different day and friday van goes for MOT   (not looking forward to that day)