On a lighter note!

Was going to build a frame and door around the LPG pipework, but having fitted the table post next to pipework I decided to see if my table would fit, it did!

Pipework covered less weight! 

Victron MPPT 75/15

Been a couple of sunny days, leisure Battery charge improved to 12.58 (12.2 pre) already so it's doing its job! 

Just waiting on call back re app not showing solar readings etc. Although in the app my battery shows as 12.38! So it's out of date. Along with solar readings that are shown are way down than actual readings taken on multimeter (13.6)

Given up Victron suggested I contact supplier of Bluetooth module I have still waiting for reply! 6 days and counting. 

If I don't get reply I'll be back to victron! 

Meanwhile

Did a reset as per victron help site no joy! 

Still only shows some info on app " trend" of charge from solar. But it's easier just to use my multimeter all working fine!

So removed the dongle as it not doing its job!

More hassles 09/06/22

Over last couple of days battery not getting it's charge! Cannot find reason! 

So disconnected everything! One at a time first from fuse box, the propex seems a bit dodgy so disconnected via fuse box

Oven, fridge, water all ok 

Checked battery leads. 

Refitted Bluetooth dongle and a restart on mppt. 

Readings all ok PV, liesure battery and feed, but not showing any improvement! 

Reinstall of the victron app 

Solar was basically flat lining! Liesure battery down to 12.13! 

Checked connected battery leads.

Had 2 earth cables one from main battery one to chassis. Disconnected main battery earth. Checked readings nothing on mppt! Chassis earth cable is still connected to main battery so removed secondary earth from chassis. Reconnected main battery earth

Bingo! Earth point was clean so no idea why it should effect mppt operation. 

However the mppt yellow light is flashing away happily ( charging) and within a couple of minutes liesure battery voltage up by 2 ! 

Checking in an hour or so as it's cloudy and probably rain! 

Fingers crossed. 

Victron Bluesolar MPPT 75/15

20/05/22

Arrived a couple of days ago.

Wired it up easy enough. 

Not built in Bluetooth, so ordered Bluetooth dongle. Took a while to connect but got there in the end ! Opened app all I can see is the current state of leisure battery, wasn't showing any solar input 🤔😭

Nor anything else! 

Checked connections etc all ok. 

Refitted old mppt yep ok 😵‍💫

Refitted solar wires and sat to have a think! 

Emailed Victron and Company I bought it from. 

Then remembered I'd found my multi meter, worth a try! Solar panel chucking 14 odd volts out!!!! Checked leisure battery voltage 12.6 up from 12.3 yesterday! Great at least it's working! All other readings correct! 

So why does the app not show this? 

Hopefully victron / supplier can explain

Picture was taken half hour ago so will check again tomorrow to see, either way it's doing its job. 

Hopefully I've missed some configuration!

New Battery

Fitted new leisure battery yesterday 19/05/22

Bloody thing is 1" shorter and 1 1/4" higher! Why are they not standardised? Same power etc. 

So going to have to re jig cover!!!!! 

Battery saga continues!

15/05/22

Seems the liesure battery is on its way out! Dropped several volts overnight yesterday even to solar panel all ok and it was sunny! 

More copious reading of tinternet beginning to look like knackered leisure battery after all! 

Seems the battery only good for around 4/5 yrs, this ones 6! 

We had a VW T2.5 for 8 yrs leisure battery was fine when it was sold! 

So never crossed my.mind that it would fail this soon! 

On hindsight, we've not used this van much over the last couple of years due to covid and ill health on my part. So didn't occur to me that the battery wasn't getting maintained. 

Now that for the time being anyway, I've just wired it to the solar panel via mppt unit. So that will keep it topped up in future.

We've mains hookup for when we're parked up for a week. So no worries regarding charge etc. 

When I refitted the battery it was fully charged at 12.8 today no load and disconnected 12.2! 

propex heating

Heater control flashing red X3

10 mins on YouTube

Easy fix, cause low voltage surprise surprise! 

Turn heater control to right to heat 1 second intervals and back on 3rd time turn to heat and stop within few seconds it will clear and heater will fire up

Link below highlight and hit open!

https://youtu.be/qBEjaWIYxPo

solar/ liesure battery

06/05/2022

Something is not right still! 

Liesure battery loosing power again. 

All connections checked.

Time to Google 😂

After around an hour of reading checking this and that came across a campervan electrics blog, several ways of working were shown one had the same mppt controller as I have, but 2 ways of wiring it! 

The controller came without instructions 3 sets of 2 connections, solar panel ( tiny picture of what is a solar panel ) battery again small black embossed picture of a battery last one just a light bulb above connection. 

When I got the van it was pre wired to solar panel with the " bulb" connection wired to the interior led lights. Made sense to me lol. 

BUT the digram I found called that connection "load" which means all 12v accessories ! I knew that 😂 

So stating the bleeding obvious, it makes sense that ALL 12v accessories needed to go thru that terminal !

Could this be why I've been having liesure battery issues ? Sounds likely enough. But only since swapping to solar only! So I guess SP unit took care of it all mostly as once or twice liesure battery was lower voltage than it should be but not drained and when we're parked up we use mains electricity. 

So put the liesure battery on charge.

And moved all 12v accessories over to the  "lightbulb terminal" easy enough by using the busbar. 

Tidied up the HT leads going into solar charger and re run 2 new HT leads + & - to the "lightbulb" connection. 

With fingers crossed fired up the propex tick! Fridge..... Bugger! Nowt, slightly loose connection to fuse box sorted tick, oven tick ,

Cold water supply tick! 

Great sunny day so solar panel doing its job. 

Just remembered there was an issue with the liesure battery cut off switch! Faulty So removed when sorting ! 

Damn 12 v voodoo !

So will monitor daily to see how things progress!

11/05/22

Quick check of in & out terminals, I heard the propex " clicking" turns out a slightly dodgy earth cable. 

"Q" re route and tighten of spade connection seems to have done the job.

Leisure batter V reading 12.4 

Will still monitor for a while just incase it's also the leisure battery starting to fail (6yrs old)