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We will have to disagree on this. They WERE a market leader 20 years ago, but they appear to still be selling the same product from 20 years ago. Not to belabor the point too much, but...... The industrial design of the Bogart is essentially non-existant (they seem to rely heavily on Radio...

Very nicely done! One quick point - you may want to flip the gas struts around, they should be mounted with the rod down to keep the internal seals lubricated, and to stop water running into the body of the strut.

The Bogart stuff was the bees knees in the early 2000's, but unfortunately it has not really been updated since then. At this point it is well behind the curve, in terms of features, usability and value. If you have one installed it wouldn't be worth upgrading, but not something worth...

The relay based Low Voltage Disconnects (such as the BlueSea mLVD) have a pretty major flaw in that they require 100mA or so to keep the relay energized. If you don't have solar or drive the vehicle for a week or two, this pretty much guarantees you will need the LVD, as the LVD itself burns...

Just a guess here (as the documentation from BB sucks and we don't actually know how they work), but you may be seeing a BMS quirk. We do know there are two paths between the battery terminals and the cells through the BMS - a charge path and a discharge path. Each of these paths has a...

Starlink (SpaceX offering) is not operational yet, and at least initially they are targeting and licensed for fixed ground terminals, which are phased array antennas about 50cm in diameter. They hopefully be an option for mobile operation in the future.

How do you plan on installing both the ACR and DC-DC? I am not sure how this would work, or really see any advantage in that.

Mobile satellite internet is not what you think it is. The current 'mobile' systems (Iridium, gloabalstar) are expensive and offer very low bandwidth (2400 baud, think dial up from 1990) maybe more with Iridium Certus, but that is not yet available and will likely be $$$. There are also fixed...

Your reasoning is spot on - as the current drops fairly quickly, the voltage drop will also decrease. You will still get to your target absorption voltage and once you are in absorb the current is low so the voltage drop won't matter. The end effect is that your battery will charge a little...

Salt water has both a lower latent heat of fusion and lower specific heat capacity. Freezing salt water will reduce the amount of energy that the ice can absorb, reducing the coolers ability to keep food cold. A secondary effect is the temperature differential - the larger the temperature...

Those appear to be lithium polymer pouch cells. They are very high energy density (per volume or per weight) but you REALLY need to know what you are doing to DIY a house battery out of these. These are a much less forgiving chemistry and form factor than prismatic or cylindrical LiFePO4...

With a 20A DC-DC charger, 12AWG would be fine but 10AWG would give you some margin. 8AWG is borderline overkill. It is the wire ampacity that matters.

This does work for older vehicles with an externally controlled regulator. However this will not work for newer ECU controlled alternators (for instance most 2016+ Toyotas) where the regulation happens within the alternator itself and the communication with the alternator is digital. You...

I have the older Victron BMV-700 with a separate blue tooth dongle. It has worked beautifully over the past 5 years or so. I have not had to contact Victron support, but their community website is very useful and they are very forthcoming with documentation and protocols. The Renogy...

Great advice.

Wow.

Would it not be a good exercise for your daughter to be researching this? She is the one who will be using this, and it would be a good first step for her to contact the department to see what software they use and what their computer recommendations are.

SolidWorks does not run on MacOS, but other CAD programs (Autocad, Fusion 360 etc) do run on a Mac. Typically engineering programs provide student licenses for programs like SolidWorks, you don't run them remotely, you check out a license from a license server and run it on your local...

It sounds like you don't need a DC-DC charger, which is great. My post was addressing the idea that DC-DC chargers were 'terrible' and served no purpose, by pointing out there are cases were they definitely help. If you are aux battery and starting battery are of the same type and both under...

That is a good point, but you will probably enjoy living out of a $100K house for the next 5 years than a $25K house. I imagine a wood framed system would take a lot more upkeep than composite construction, but maybe that is part of the fun and not a concern.