Search results

Under most situations the net watt-hours will be essentially the same (to within a few %) between series and parallel. If you plan on running a portable panel in addition to your roof mount panel and don't want to use a separate controller - then you need to wire in parallel. If your roof...

This is a good explanation, but it would be good to clarify on battery voltage + 5V point. The requirement that the panel voltage be 5V above the battery voltage is somewhat artificially implemented by Victron and only applies at sunrise - once the MPPT is active it may track panel voltages...

If you are compressing the flat bed deck tubing, then you may want a larger and thicker backing plate that spans the aluminium tubes. On my flatbed, the four bolts are each backed up by a 6" x 6" x 1/4" aluminium plate under the flatbed deck (which is also made up of Al extrusion deck planks)...

A few centimeters of #6 AWG wire is no issue at all, your wire is already oversized for the job, and you don't care about voltage drop anyway as you have a DC-DC charger. This is not at all a problem in your system as your wire is all more than sufficient, but in general it is more important...

Yes, you can tie those to the same bus bar.

Electrically you can and should use the same ground and tie it to the chassis, that way any AC fault where a hot wire comes in contact with a metal part of the camper will trip the breaker/GFCI and not just energize your frame with 110V. However, mechanically it may be better to use physically...

I built my own LiFePO4 battery a number of years ago: https://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/15342-low-cost-diy-lithium-camper-batteries/ I upgraded that system to use a bluetooth BMS that provides all the details and lets you configure all the settings...

The settings in the built in BMS are usually designed to prevent rapid damage, not to provide the optimized values. Think of them more as circuit breakers than regulators, they trip to prevent damage, but that usually means something else is not right. In generally use, your BMS shouldn't...

I would second what Vic (H.) says, 14.6V is too high for the lithium batteries. Yes the built in BMS will protect them from real damage, but it should be thought of more as a backup system. A bulk charge around 14 - 14.2V is better, and then you don't want them to float. Certainly not a...

The SOC is not based on the voltage, it is based on the amps being drained multiplied by the time (ie Amp-hours). Assuming you have 150Ah of batteries, an SOC of 90% means you have pulled 15Ah since the last time it was fully charged. The BMV doesn't know what the actual capacity of your...

When the voltage drops, what is the current that the loads are drawing (the BMV will tell you)? There is a slight possibility that something is drawing more current than it should causing the voltage to sag, but this is unlikely. If the connections are all good, then a battery issue seems...

I have had two sets of semi-flexible panels on the roof of campers, unfortunately both have failed (3 panels in total). The first panel was an earlier and expensive panel VHB taped to the top of the my old pop-top landcruiser. It failed for no apparent reason. This was an aluminium backed...

Where was the voltage measurement taken? If you have a bad connection (ie high resistance) to the battery and you have a load running it would cause a voltage drop, giving you an unreasonably low voltage reading. It could also be possible there is an issue with your batteries. While you do...

I understand why they did this - the one thing lithium batteries have a bad rap for in the community is cold weather performance (which I personally think is overblown) and they are trying to counter this with some creative marketing. However, the fact that they were borderline dishonest in...

Not trying to shoot the messenger, but that battleborn article is largely bollocks and has been discussed here before. Read the comments at the bottom, they essentially rigged the test so that there is no way the lead acid batteries could even come close to realistic performance. You would...

That is the trick right, to get the longer life cycle, you are typically using about twice the battery, so they do last longer, but there is more of them to recycle. The total number of amp hours you get out of the battery over its life using either depth of discharge is about the same.

One thing to remember is that running the battery down to 0% SOC does NOT mean 0 volts, it is pulling the rated capacity (which will decrease over time) out of the battery. Typically this means taking the resting voltage down to about 10.5V. I agree that the USBattery chart seems a bit...

Is the 50% 'usable capacity' the right guideline for a truck camper? One comment or point of discussion for the 'How Much Battery do I Need' post - I know that only using 50% of your lead/AGM battery is a common rule of thumb, but I am wondering if it is the best guidance for a truck camper in...

I thought that had been fixed with the newer RedArc units? If not I think they will send you a replacement temp sensor that will trick it into charging at lower temperatures.

Good synopsis! So much easier than with cylindrical cells. If you want an upgrade on the BMS, definitely consider these: Bluetooth BMS It is the same thing these guys sell, for half the price and has built in bluetooth monitoring of SOC, individual cell voltages etc. Also, don't sweat the...

The ABS will only kick in if it detects that a wheel that should have been turning is not turning, so in this case you must have locked up at least one of your wheels, so ABS did its thing. Pretty sure the 3rd gen Tacoma has 4 channel ABS so it will only pulse the brake that is locked. The...

You may be overthinking this :P. If you have snow or ice on your solar panels, brush them off with your snow brush. If there is enough sun to produce solar power the panels will quickly get warm, even through a layer of ice, and melt what ever snow/ice is on them. They are at best 20%...

It also has a lithium float voltage of 13.6V, which is not ideal for long term performance as lithium doesn't like to be floated. Not a huge deal but for such a 'fancy' system you would think it would have user configurable settings.

Agreed - the manager doesn't seem like a great option. That is also one heck of a markup, most people would be better to go the DIY route.

To look on the bright side - the fact that you had a reaction means the your immune system responded to the vaccine and is producing antibodies. If you had no reaction then there would be a chance you didn't react to the vaccine and had a lower level of antibody production and immunity.