Victron Energy: Alternator/Solar Charging - LFP Battery System

shade

Well-known member
The 40 lb panel arrived on a 50 lb pallet, complete with several footprints all over the cardboard. Fortunately, the solar shop must know that FRAGILE! and GLASS! stickers attract feet like Elon Musk attracts insightful comments, and they packed the panel face down so there wasn't a gap between the stomping surface and the pallet.

We opened it up and saw no damage, and it was putting out 40V as designed, so I think it's ok. It's surprisingly light for its size.
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
Yeah, for some reason the gorillas in the shipping docks seem to walk on any flat surface...

For the same reason, stickers that say "DO NOT FORK THIS SIDE" seem to cause the opposite to happen?
 

shade

Well-known member
Yeah, for some reason the gorillas in the shipping docks seem to walk on any flat surface...

For some reason, stickers that say "DO NOT FORK THIS SIDE" seem to cause the opposite to happen?
The driver was really cool about it, and his tread pattern didn't match any I saw on the cardboard.

I watched a guy unplug a 480VAC / 200A plug while it was hot. During the OSHA investigation, he said he didn't know what the big DANGER - Disconnect Power Before Unplugging sign on the disconnect box meant. A different guy (cousins, perhaps?) lowered 20 tons of steel on his hand because he didn't know that he shouldn't push the Down button on the pendant control while his other hand was resting atop a stand he was lowering 20 tons of steel onto; no signs about gravity were involved.

I think there was a lot of lead paint used in that community over the years. Glad I moved.
 

TantoTrailers

Well-known member
From the looks of that jeans wedgie on the guy in the tan shirt my guess is he is puckered up pretty good, no fart concerns from that guy.
 

shade

Well-known member
I've been busy, but not with truck projects.

I saw a post from @Justin Cook about a Sterling product that I may want to use instead of a Victron BatteryProtect, though.



I like the idea. Any thoughts yea or nay on integrating this into the rest of my power system?
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
Does the sterling support an external signal? There times when the total voltage would be fine, but the pack would need disconnected, such as high/low temp, or a single cell out of range.

I believe we deiced the victron BMS was not able to do this, but a dumb latching relay, getting its control signal from the BMS would be my preference. A single control/config location, which makes field diagnostics a lot easier.
 

shade

Well-known member
Does the sterling support an external signal? There times when the total voltage would be fine, but the pack would need disconnected, such as high/low temp, or a single cell out of range.

I believe we deiced the victron BMS was not able to do this, but a dumb latching relay, getting its control signal from the BMS would be my preference. A single control/config location, which makes field diagnostics a lot easier.
I still have to see if the Victron BMS or the BMV-712 would be the control interface. The 712 has a relay, so that may be the simpler route.
 

Justin Cook

Member
Does the sterling support an external signal? There times when the total voltage would be fine, but the pack would need disconnected, such as high/low temp, or a single cell out of range.
Unfortunately, the Sterling does not support external signal input :( It has a wired remote available for it for manual control (and a technically-minded person could certainly figure out the pinout configuration of the RJ jack that it uses, and construct a custom cable taking advantage of that) but there's no official support from Sterling for that.
 

shade

Well-known member
Unfortunately, the Sterling does not support external signal input :( It has a wired remote available for it for manual control (and a technically-minded person could certainly figure out the pinout configuration of the RJ jack that it uses, and construct a custom cable taking advantage of that) but there's no official support from Sterling for that.
Boo on Sterling, then.
What about using a different latching relay that supports an external input signal, such as what the BMV-712 can deliver?

If Victron is ok with their inverter switching scheme, it'll probably be fine, though.
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
Blue Seas remote battery switch? 500A, low standby draw. Can be ordered in NO or NC, and will default to that position if the signal is lost.
 

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