L/Battery - go large or go lithium?
- Thread starter Chris1983
- Start date
-
- Tags
- dc - dc charger victron vsr
If you've got the ignition signal wire in place, I'd use it. Then you don't have to worry about tweaking various settings on the charger. With the signal wire, it's literally just a case of connecting it to the Victron DC-DC, turning off engine shutdown detection and never having to think about it again!
Whatever you say amigo. I’ll look shortly
That’s the input/ outputs.Presumed green was if I wanted to have a switch wired in for total on/ off.
Then input was positive and negative of starter battery.
And output positive and negative of leisure battery.
Where would ignition wire go?
Or am I getting confused with non isolated version?
The 'remote' inputs can be used for a manual switch or a ignition signal wire - it would just go into the H port.
Have a read of the (comprehensive!) manual, it should answer a lot of stuff.
There's no negative back to the starter. Or there shouldn't be. It's done via the chassis ground.
All you'll have is a negative from the split charge relay to a chassis ground under the seat. That's your negative back to the starter battery, via chassis ground.
For the new set up, wire the negative input to a chassis ground, that will complete the connection to the starter battery.
Ideally you would have the non isolated Victron charger, they don't have a negative input.
No. Just 2 negative wires to the same ground point under the seat. Simples.
The ignition signal goes to one of the green inputs - see the manual for details.
How often are you driving the van and using the LB? If driven reasonably often, but you are not camping and using the LB, you may want to consider a switch for the DC-DC otherwise the LB is constantly getting topped up needlessly. Same for the solar.
Use the van every other day typically.
From what I’d read, I prob should have gone non isolated.
But if, as you say I don’t in fact need a wire back to starter, and can get away with the grounding to chassis, that’s good.
I note the current ground wire is to a bolt in seat base, not the ‘centre of seat base’ like some have suggested, is this okay?
Is that also using the LB every other day? Or less frequently? If the LB has longish periods without use (say 2 months plus) it’s best stored at around 50% to maximise life hence turning off the chargers. If it’s regularly used then no need and crack on.
Absolutely no need for the non-isolated version (not available in the 18A version anyhow). One extra negative wire and it’s the same thing. The reason for the isolated version is for vehicles/boats that don’t use the chassis as ground and need individual negative cables to the batteries. But for the van just connecting both negatives to the chassis completes the circuit.
The seat base ground will likely work fine but could be prone to a degree of movement and/or wear. It’s also not specifically designed as a ground point. The ground point is between the two front seat base bolts. You can see my passenger one circled on the pic below (my drivers side was cut out by the converters when they put the heater pipes in!).
I would think you will be lucky to return the larger cabling as that was custom made was it not?
Ah, okay no problems, presume I can’t use the negative? As too big compared to current positive?
Use leisure battery prob twice a week, sat off on break/ nights etc. and then camping every other month.
If I were to use switch, could I do both, have ignition wire in, AND a manual switch? What would that look like?
No real need for a switch then if you are using it that regularly other than allowing the battery to discharge a decent amount then recharge when needed rather than constantly topping up (think iPhone and then delaying charge beyond 80%).
You would have a simple switch in the ignition signal cable and auto sensing turned off. When switch is open Orion won’t sense ignition signal so won’t start. Reverse when closed.
No issue with the negative leads from Orion to ground being larger than positive. 6, 8.5, 10 or 16mm2 will do fine - whatever you have or are getting.
Similar threads
