Victron Orion TR Smart 12/12/30 and other electrical ramblings

[DRP]

OR, please critique my electrical system. How'd I do?

Just kidding. That picture was after I tidied up what Pleasure Way put in place as a "system". One of those breakers went off to a somewhat nice DC fuse panel and of course there was the typical Progressive Dynamics converter, transfer switch and A/C breakers. Two 65Ah batteries were below that floor.

I knew going in that all this would have to change. Too much dependence on the grid or having to move or run the gen. I also knw going in that I would probably get carried away, and I did.
I'm OK with that because . . . well, just because.

I will get to the Orion charger shortly. It is the latest piece in the system. They are new on the market so time will tell how well it performs. I will report as I know.

I'll do a couple of posts and pictures of the system and am open to any comments and criticisms. I was a carpenter by trade and five years ago I would not have attempted this. I have learned so much from this forum and Sprinter Source . The big brains around here great.


More to come

 

[DRP]

The first thing I knew was that 36 hours of battery would never be enough.
Out with the lead and hello Battle Born.

I figured three would be enough as I had no plans to run A/C off this system. Making that leap is crazy. We still have our gen at this point but we plan our travel and in the last year have not needed it or the A/C.

I managed to fit the three into the same space as the two originals

The three batteries are 26 lbs lighter that the lead

My worst nightmare

 

[DRP]

I knew I would need some solar. I went with four 100 watt panels from eBay. not because they were cheap (they were) but because they fit where I wanted to put them.

This is where I fall into the sea of blue boxes. I needed something to put those panels into the battery and monitor it. I don't know how exactly I got to Victron. I had a couple of years experience with a Morningstar/Magnum system, but that was it.

I went with a Victron MPPT 100/30. And a BMV 712 to monitor it

I'm not trying to be a Victron fanboy here. It's just easier for ME if all my monitoring and managing happens on screens that look the same.

And its working.

And I haven't let any magic smoke out of the wires.

 

[DRP]

Falling deeper in the pit, it would all need to be rewired and might as well add a new inverter/charger. As I said, no illusions of ever running A/C off this system, and rarely using the micro. I went with the Xantrax 2000 more for where I needed to install it than anything. It has performed to spec the dozen times it has charged/inverted for me

YaY, Its alive!!!

 

[DRP]

Great to really learn and understand this stuff and fun to build. I quickly learned that jumping on the bicycle to go to West Marine for each crimp was for the birds. I bought the tools. Not that much money and it makes it so much easier.

Hmmmm . . . There's still room on the roof. At least there was

I couldn't find the same panels but found Renogy 100 watt in the same dimension. They seem to be consistantly 5-10 watts ahead of the HQST panels

I went with another blue box to control those panels

 

[DRP]

But wait, there's more!!! Because, yes, I've gone nuts. I'm putting together an 200 watt panel that will swing up on the rear of the box and also be deployable.
Added another 75/15 Smart to control that panel and the home fab breaker/disconnect box. Still needs lables

 

[shade]

?

I'll look more later, but thanks for sharing!

 

[DRP]

The newest member and much awaited star of the show

Orion TR 12/12-30 Smart battery charger.

So far I only have about thirty minutes run time on it but it ran constantly at 31-34 Amps for that duration to a 60% SOC battery.
It was very easy to set up charge voltages managed through my pnone and the VictronConnect app
Automatically disconnects when chassis battery falls below user selectable point and hardwire switchable as well
I'll report more on performance as I know

The whole shebang. I still have to get to some labels and running some wire to that new rear panel

All controlled from here

Thanks to everyone who post here so we can all learn

 

[shade]

Since nominal output voltage is 12.2 Vdc does the lithium battery algorithm meet the 14.4 Vdc bulk/absorption and ≤ 13.6 Vdc Battle Born suggests?

You can program an Orion-Tr Smart over a wide voltage range, that should keep most batteries happy.

If you want to look at the interface, the VictronConnect app is free, and it has a Demo mode.

 

[DRP]

Wow, that's quite an impressive set up. I am very interested to hear your thoughts regarding the new Orion-Tr Smart since I am considering one myself and I also have a Battle Born 100Ah battery. I do have a few questions:

Since nominal output voltage is 12.2 Vdc does the lithium battery algorithm meet the 14.4 Vdc bulk/absorption and ≤ 13.6 Vdc Battle Born suggests?

Did you speak with Battle Born regarding your set up and did they recommend any other changes in settings to your new Orion-Tr Smart?

Where did you decide to purchase your unit from? It looks like the few shops that have them are all the same price. Thank you!

Hi Chet,

No more performance reports as we haven't gone anywhere and my 795 watts has no problem keeping up with the DC fridge even in gray weather.

The Orion has canned algorithms as well as user defined. Setting to match Battle Born recommendations is no problem. You are also able to set on/off voltages on the chassis side and also a place for a manual switch on/off. I do need to add this switch. I don't want it charging every time I turn the key on and my 20 watt chassis battery maintainer will kick it on.

As Shade said, get the Victron Connect app if you can and you can play with the settings in the demo library .

Battle Born has been fantastic on customer service and has "blessed" my system. They even took care of a warranty replacement of my original 100/30 controller without question even though I didn't buy it there. I did buy my 2 x 75/15 controllers from them. They called me to ask about my system and pre programed them for me

My Battle Born batteries, BMV712, the Orion and a bunch of other stuff all came from Bay Marine Supply in San Diego. We go to SD a couple of times a year and it is nice to walk into a place that has stacks of the components that we use. @Justin Cook works there, is a member here on ExPo and is a moderator on the Victron forum. I highjly recoment this vendor and they sell the unit the same price as everyone else on the net.

I did just learn something this morning. On the phone display BMV712, you can go into the Tools>Settings>Misc>Temp and set F* or C* If you select F* it will show as such on the hardwired display unit but will revert to C* on the phone display. What I found this morning is if you click on the list icon next to where it says Device List (see picture above) go to Settings and select F* , it will now display F* on your phone YaY!! In the mean time, I learned to convert C* to F*

Cheers,
David

 

[IdaSHO]

Thank you for building proper cables, with proper heat shrink...

Seeing cables taped up like in the first photo drive me bananas..... ?

 

[DRP]

Thank you for building proper cables, with proper heat shrink...

Seeing cables taped up like in the first photo drive me bananas..... ?

Bananas indeed.

The wiring in the first pic is they way a supposed "high end" RV is done

With the time and money we put in these systems, the few extra minutes and $$ is a stupid step to skip

 

[IdaSHO]

Yep, on another wiring note.... I'm still struggling to understand why OEMs are still using split loom.

I love the braided expanding wire loom.

 

[DRP]

Yep, on another wiring note.... I'm still struggling to understand why OEMs are still using split loom.

I love the braided expanding wire loom.

Any particular brand, or just Amazons finest?

 

[IdaSHO]

Ive had excellent luck with ebay stuff, probably the same as amazon cheap stuff.

Cannot imagine how a name brand could be any better.

Just be sure to use a hot knife for cutting. Thats the trick!