Victron Blue Smart Charger (Not solar)

[john61ct]

Yes, Andersons are great.

Weather-resistant boots and/or enclosure for storage while not in use would be nice but they do great without as is usual.

I would never let the connector isdue influence my choice of charger, changing them or building / ordering pigtail adapters is trivial compared to the important issues.

If you really want waterproof, Deutsch (TE/Amp) is the way to go.

 

[TantoTrailers]

How do you like your tailgate escalator? I've never tried one.

Tell us more about those contraptions mounted to the sides of the bed.

Exact truck bed my buddy has. The bed escalator is useless, it has never been deployed. He also had the side steps that you could "kick" and have them come out but those stopped working as things rusted up.

The gadgets on the sides are a bed extender, they flip over onto the tailgate and then lock together to form a basket allowing an additional 2' of closed in bed space.

I will have the IP67 tomorrow for my rig, looking forward to getting a proper charge on my battery!

 

[shade]

Andersons are a love/hate relationship.. I ususally hate em until I love em.. went to go plug in my portable panel on first day out last week and noticed considerable corrosion on the plug.. sigh, damn thing is always hot and this is gonna happen if I'm not careful.. then I plugged it in and it self cleaned all off and I went bipolar and was suddenly very pleased w/em..

they are like USB in that I can never plug it in without looking carefully at it and making sure everything is aligned.. and their boots and environmental protection offerings are marginal at best.. but then again they are 100x better than any ciggy plug and daisy chain fine w/out reversing polarity on you.

Ever try doping them with a thin bodied corrosion inhibitor like Ballistol?

 

[john61ct]

NO-OX-ID is highly recommended

 

[shade]

NO-OX-ID is highly recommended

NO-OX-ID Electrical Contact Grease- Conductive Lubricant | Sanchem, Inc.

NO-OX-ID electrical contact grease prevents the formation of corrosion deposits & keeps metals free from rust & corrosion. Buy electrical conductive lubricant now!

www.sanchem.com

I think I still have a tube of something similar used for high amp panel lugs. As long as it's used sparingly, I don't think it'll make a mess or lead to arcing across the poles.

 

[john61ct]

Also Corrosion-X, Fluid Film, Lanocote, Boeshield T9, Craig Labs T5

Contralube 770 says its dielectric

 

[shade]

Also Corrosion-X, Fluid Film, Lanocote, Boeshield T9, Craig Labs T5

Contralube 770 says its dielectric

I've got Fluid Film by pail & can, and Boeshield T9 in a bottle. For Ballistol users, I highly recommend buying the non-aerosol tin and dispensing it with a small needle oiler. I still use the aerosol for some things, but the needle bottle is the perfect way to put the right amount exactly where you want it.

 

[dwh]

http://www.armitelabs.com/products/LP250_Anti-Seize_Thread.html

 

[luthj]

Andersons need plugged/unplugged occasionally in corrosive environments to clean the contacts. So they aren't suitable for constantly connected applications.

 

[pdxfrogdog]

I reached out to Victron customer support. Their current bluetooth AC chargers will be getting a firmware update early next year to support user-programmable charge parameters.

I've just received a Blue Smart IP67 (12/25A) charger and after updating firmware, I can confirm the charging parameters are fully customizable from within VictronConnect. You have to dig for them a bit in the device settings by turning on advanced, going into advanced settings, then turning export mode on. After all that you can create a custom charging profile which gives access to just about everything I can think of.

 

[ADVdreams]

Thanks for posting this great knowing that that the parameters are fully configurable. I am looking to order a Orion Tr 12/12-30A dc-dc charger.

My house battery is currently charged via blue sea ACR, however this has lead to charging issues short life of the house battery discussed in other threads.

My question is how would one most effectively incorporate the ACR with the dc-dc charger?

The simplest would be to remove the ACR altogether however I would like to keep the battery combine feature if the ACR for self rescue engine boosting.

Also some odd things about the Orion from the manual it seems like the charger will activate above 7V supply voltage. This pretty much requires an ignition interlock or on off switch.

It would also be interesting to allow some bulk charging via the ACR because in theory the alternator and cabling as sized can exceed 30A ... and then switch over to proper 3 stage charging on longer drives.

I was thinking a dual pole relay to interlock the ACR and the dc-dc charger to ensure that both aren’t charging at the same time.

Interested to hear recommendations on the installation, aside from wanting to retain some of the ACR functionality, the cables connected to the ACR are too large to be used to connect to the Orion.

 

[dreadlocks]

Orion's are not configurable unless you get a Smart One.

You throw an ACR in the garbage bin if you use a DC charger.. you wont charge your house battery more than 30A unless its massive, and having an ACR does not negate the need to carry Jumper leads.

 

[dreadlocks]

I suppose if your only ever concerned about starting this vehicle in particular.. I use my cables far more on other people's vehicles than my own.. plus they come in handy for other things, like directly jumping the starter, if a relay or wiring fault occurs.. or if you gotta limp out with a bad alternator by soaking off someone elses vehicle as needed.

just seems like more stuff to fail that provides almost nothing extra in return.

 

[ADVdreams]

I understand where you are coming from, I asked for feedback and keeping things simple is a good strategy ... I have a ML-ACR 7622 with the remote combine switch. My house battery is a firefly (AGM) and supposedly capable of high charge acceptance, i don’t have a shunt to prove but I don’t see a component in my system that would limit current to 30A or less.

I am happy with the system however it has been pointed out that regardless of battery design, I should be fully charging the battery whenever possible, the Orion Tr smart DCDC seemed to fit the bill for road charging for a reasonable cost. (I have solar panel and controller for stationary charging)

My primary concern is now is that the charge parameters are not configurable via the app. Is this model not considered a “smart” unit?

Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC Charger Non-Isolated - Victron Energy

The Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC charger is a professional DC to DC adaptive 3-stage charger with built-in Bluetooth. For use in dual battery systems in vehicles...

www.victronenergy.com

 

[dreadlocks]

How Fast Can an AGM Battery be Charged? - Marine How To

TEST EQUIPMENT USED IN THIS ARTICLE BUY MHT RECOMMENDED TEST EQUIPMENT - AMAZON Baseline Discharge 49.3% SOC PREFACE: This article looks at the *charging times & achieved state of charge of an AGM battery

marinehowto.com

TLDR:

Doubling 20A to 40A saves you a whopping 12m of charge time.