Video nenà dostupné.
OmlouvĂĄme se.
2. Upgrading Solar Controller to an MPPT Lithium compatible with Bluetooth status & configuration
VloĆŸit
- Äas pĆidĂĄn 14. 08. 2024
- As a pre-requisite for installing the Lithium battery, in this episode, I replace the PWM Solar Controller with a MTTP which supports Lithium and is configurable via Bluetooth.
Even if you're not installing Lithium, there may be some benefit in upgrading your solar controller, especially if you have more than 100W of panels whether you have a campervan, motorhome, caravan, boat or indeed any other solar setup.
In this short video I'm installing in an Elddis CV20 campervan which came with a PWM solar controller.
MTTP or Maximum Peak Performance Tracking solar controllers can give 10-30% more usable energy, particularly on overcast days.
The app and Bluetooth feature are handy for tracking information on performance and current state and also allow you to make sure the settings are correct for your setup.
The solar controller I used is the Victron SmartSolar Charge Controller 75/15 - more information on that particular controller on the link below:
www.victronene...
The controller was chosen as a recommendation by a number of people from the CV Owners Facebook group and suited my needs. Other makes/models are available. Before purchasing you should make sure whatever you choose is fit for your particular purpose and vehicle.
This is part of a series of videos will follow covering each stage and component. I'd recommend watching the full series and the final video to get the most benefit before you embark on this type of project.
When working with electrics, please ensure you're confident in what you're doing and switch the power off before making any changes, make sure connections are secure and appropriate size fuses or breakers are used to protect your van and equipment.
If you decide to do this yourself, this video is just a guide on how I have gone about it to suit my specific purposes and may not be the best way of going about it. Any mods you undertake you need to personally assess the risk before going ahead and whether it's needed or right for you.
Everything I purchased is a personal purchase and not sponsored in any way.
Thank you for watching our videos. We hope you find them useful đ.
Follow David, Rachel and Roxy đŸ, our Labrador, as our story unfolds of our adventures and travels in our Elddis CV20 campervan/motorhome đ to campsites, stopovers, day trips, motorhome shows and more, predominantly across the UK đŹđ§.
Check out our CZcams channel and hit the Subscribe button (Itâs free to do so). Please also feel free to like, share, leave a comment and hit the bell to get notification of our new content so you keep up to date.
Our CZcams Channel: / leisurebit
â¶ïžYou can also visit our website for more information:
LeisureBit Website: www.leisurebit...
â¶ïžFollow us on Social Media:
Join our LeisureBit Community on Facebook - / leisurebit
Facebook: / leisurebit
Instagram: / leisurebitcv
Twitter: / leisurebit
â¶ïž Things weâve bought for our van and some of the photography and video gear we use:
Check out our Amazon Store: www.amazon.co....
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
â¶ïž Our current Motorhome/Campervan:
Elddis CV20 Classique Auto (2021) which is a Fiat Ducato based 2 berth Campervan we bought from Cleveland Motorhomes in January 2022.
Thank you for watching LeisureBit â€ïž
#LeisureBit
Again nice and informative David. Interesting to see more setting information as I swapped ours and will need to check through a little further. Also interested in the smart shunt - again fitted but not fully wired or configured yet as just installed a second leisure battery but not gone to lithium. Your original controller looks like a different one to the one that was fitted to ours and it definitely wasn't wired to the vehicle battery despite the handover saying it was.
Thanks as always for taking the time to make and share these vlogs with everyone - always interesting. Thank
Thanks Tim - I was going to do a video once the charger was also fitted on setting them all up (SmartShunt fitted already as you spotted but will cover that on the further install) - provides some useful information and a number of tweaks to make to get it right for your setup so you get the most relevant info - hopefully that one will be useful - thanks again for your support itâs really appreciated - all the best, David đ
Thanks David. There I was thinking we'd get the van and off we'd go - and we probably still will, mostly. It looks like though there will be lots of weekend projects. I've even ordered a voltmeter! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the comment - really appreciated and sorry for the delay in responding - it definitely keeps you busy but is a lot of fun at the same time too - all the best, David & Rachel đ
Hi David. Found this vlog very interesting. We had a solar panel on our last caravan and found it a great help, as it meant I hardly ever had to connect the van to the mains for battery charging. We couldn't get solar on this latest caravan, and I'm really missing the "security" of having it there to maintain the battery almost all by itself. Seems your latest addition is not only going to prove convenient and useful, but is also a bit of "future-proofing" too. Good one.
Cheers. George and Trish
Thanks George and Trish, they do come in handy and once youâve paid for it should give energy for years to come. Know what you mean regarding keeping the battery topped up. Thanks as ever for your support, all the best, David & Rachel đ
Interesting David...we still haven't used many of the settings on ours yet but same as yourself we plan to add extra solar in the future
So long as itâs working ok probably donât need to adjust many of the settings, interesting to see how much (or little) solar energy is being generated thought but imagine after a short while you wouldnât check as much eh - all the best, David đ
Hi David, as a complete novice when it comes to anything electrical, I would have definitely benefited seeing exactly how you made the 12volt safe to work on and then the actual swapping over of the system itself. Looking forward to the next step in the journey
Hi Tony, I will do a separate short video as really good point on that. One challenge is especially with solar the dealers fit them differently but how to disconnect the battery etc would be useful I think as probably the simplest and safest way unless you are certain on which fuse etc. Appreciate the feedback, all the best, David đ
Very informative as usual David, not sure how MPPT works better than PWM but i know it does :-) all too technical for me but i understand the basics, so maybe something we will look into at a later date, not too expensive though tbh as maybe worth doing, as any improvement is, well, an improvement :-)
You might get an MTTP with yours you never know, think some people have đ - all the best, David đ
@@LeisureBit Had a look at the one Gen 8 CV40 that was at the NEC and it had a MPPT controller fitted, so maybe they have done a upgrade to all the gen 8 vans, which would be nice :-)
Hopefully then it gives you the best outcome - would make sense to use them wouldnât it - all the best, David đ
Hi just watched your videos very interesting an easy to understand. Question would you think a 10 year old panel would deteriorate to the point youâd buy a new one or fit it to my new van .cheers mike
Really good question Mike - you will probably find for the same or similar size now you would get more power (for less cost than 10 years ago) so worth considering that - most panels should still have a reasonable output (80% or more) after 20 years so you would expect 90% at 10 years. I think I would get a new one but if itâs working well saves a cost doesnât it for a bit of time removing it. All the best, David đ
Hi again David, I wonder if you have looked into temperature cut offs? I note that the App interface for the MPPT allows you to set a low temperature shutoff for charging the battery, set as a default to 5 C for lithium, but now I have looked into this further I wonder where is this measuring a temperature from? I don't think the MPPT has an inbuilt temperature sensor, so in principle it should come from the leisure (lithium) battery itself, but my battery (at least) is not smart enough to communicate it's temperature. Similar question with the blue smart battery charger, which also has a setting in the App, and does apparently have an inbuilt temperature sensor but this seems to be intended for temperature compensation when charging non-lithium batteries, and is anyway likely to be a good bit warmer than the ambient around the battery. I'm told my battery has an inbuilt BMS which will prevent low temperature charging but rather than rely entirely on that, I'd like the chargers to shut down themselves when it's cold, to avoid damaging the battery, and I'm not sure that fiddling around on the App does this... Any input welcome... Don
Hi Don, I believe the victron ones do have an internal temperature sensor however I believe this is influenced by how much current is flowing through so any residual heat from inefficiency would potentially create an inaccurate reading. The VE Net networking helps with this as you can use for example a Smart Battery Sense or temperature probe plugged into a smart shunt near the battery to get a more accurate reading. Thatâs my understanding but worth double checking before buying anything additional to make sure it works with your mppt if you choose to do that. It does the same with battery voltage where it measures from the shunt for example as more accurate.
Totally agree on not relying on the BMS to do everything.
Does that make sense? Let me know if you discover anything else.when checking.
All the best, David â€ïž
Hi David . New Victron MPPT fitted in place of the Truma. The now redundant blue/white cables to the vehicle battery have been traced down close to the PDU. If I disconnect the terminal block at this point can I now install a Battery Maintainer and connect one cable at the block going to the vehicle battery and the other to the leisure battery. Does that make sense
Hi Steve, I would assume so as they should be the feed to the vehicle battery - would make sense if they do as you could re-use whatâs there as would save time and effort re-running wires.
All the best, David đ
@@LeisureBit . Thanx again
Hi David. I been enjoying your informative van âupgradeâ views but wanted to ask are you not concerned about the dealer not honouring any warranties on your van because you have made changes to it? I too have recently acquired a new Ducato based campervan and am wanting to do some upgrades just as you have but have concerns about warranty issues. I apologise if this has been asked before. Keep the great work. Have subscribed đđ
Hi Nick, you raise a very valid point, clearly if you make changes to things itâs no longer as per the supplied spec, so you wouldnât then expect that to be covered by the warranty. What I would expect is common sense, so for example if your roof light was leaking and you had fitted a replacement battery, I wouldnât expect a manufacturer to quibble providing you hadnât modified what had the specific problem or provided what you do doesnât have an indirect effect. Like everything, you should weigh up the pros and cons and risks before embarking on work and if you are concerned, check with the dealer on the implications of change, or get an approved service engineer to carry out the work. Hope that makes sense. All the best, David đ
Would the Victon controller also charge the vehicle battery? I know you've got a different solution, but for starters if the wiring is there why not?
You can get some controllers which charge both batteries, the original one did but wasnât Lithium optimised or MPPT. I used the battery maintainer as from research it was safe to use with the van having start - stop. Itâs amazing how good a job it does at keeping the vehicle battery topped up. I believe you can buy some all in one charger, b2b and maintainer (and inverter) which might be worth looking into for a simpler setup, downside I suppose is if one part fails it may mean everything has failed rather than having the component parts.
I often wondered why the B2B doesnât allow a maintenance mode to simplify things as would be easy to add that in when they manufacture.
Hope that helps/makes sense - all the best, David
Hi David great video
We have 2 lead acid leisure batteries and 100v solar panel what size controller do you think we need. Thanks
Thank you - so you mean 100w solar panel? If so probably same size as mine 75/15 unless you plan to add a lot more later and then itâs worth going for a bigger one. Hope that helps.
All the best, David đ
@@LeisureBit
Thank you, was thinking the same size, the batteries are 100 A/h. And I think the solar panel is 100w
Hi David I have just swapped over my controller but for some reason it keeps blowing the fuse to the Leisure battery any ideas
Good Morning - are you using a dedicated wire to the leisure battery? - let me know a little more and we will try and figure it out - what size fuse are you using? Worth checking the wire isnât damaged anywhere too - assume you have a fuse on the other end of the wire?
@@LeisureBit thanks for the quick reply⊠I have literally taken out the old controller swapped the wires nothing worked after a little more investigation found the fuse blown and every time I put the wires from the battery back into the controller blue it was a 10 amp Iâve tried a 15 amp and itâs still blow was all work before
You have the + and - the correct way around as sometimes the controllers have them in the opposite direction. Do you have a multimeter?
@@LeisureBit yes definitely the right way round âŠbut no sadly no multimeter
Hi David. Iâll be replacing my two 110ah lead acid leisure batteries for one 280ah Fogstar lithium battery. Presently installed is the Truma dual battery solar charger with both leisure and cab batteries connected as per your original set up. I want to change out the solar charger to an MPPT but also connect up my cab battery which is obviously not lithium. Is this possible with this MPPT you have fitted. Does the App allow you to put in two different battery set ups. Hope this all makes sense. Fogstar have confirmed that the Truma, if set to gel is compatible but I want to get the most out of my lithium leisure battery so I guess a new solar charger and a new battery charger is the way to go. Your thoughts would be very much appreciated. Rgds Steve
Hi Steve, Iâm using a battery maintainer connected from the lithium battery to the vehicle battery to keep that topped up so same outcome but slightly different approach if that makes sense?
All the best, David đ
@@LeisureBit . That was quick. đ. We use the MH fairly regular so maybe I donât need the cab battery connected to solar or a maintainer. So did you just cap off the battery cables and left them in situ adjacent to the MPPT. . Thanx again David.
@@stevemckeever2661 yes, thatâs right just insulated them incase I wish to put it back as it was originally or use the cable again for something else. I removed the fuse at the other end (vehicle battery end) to make sure nothing happens on the cable. Thatâs how I left it as I had finished the job with that. All the best, David đ
@@LeisureBit . Thanx again David.