I have factory solar and external additional solar panels. Both systems have a seperate victron mppt controller. Outputs are wired in parallel to the battery. I noticed that only one controller will take the load. They do not share. Apparently this has been an issue as far back as 2019. Vicron has been working on a synch method which supposedly is now implemented early 2020. However to use the feature you have to set up a network. For this you need a victron device such as the victron blutooth power monitor many of you are currently using. I did not realise this until I read blogs on the Vicron forum.
I now am ordering the monitor to see if this synch software actually works.
Without, when the controllers see float less than 1Amp load they will go to sleep. But if the battery gets discharged, only one of them will wake up. Apparently it is random which one does. In my case i noticed it as my external mppt took up load but the factory unit showed 0Amps. If i disconnect my external, the factory mppt comes on line.
Has anyone with multiple mppt's set up a network with the power monitor and saw full sharing of the controllers?⁸
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Our solar is on our truck's rack, and it remains connected to the Tab while we drive. I figured we'd have solar charging boosting the alternator output, and maybe even enough to run the 3-way.
However, it didn't work that way. The Victron Controller would cut the solar off after a time (I couldn't see the pattern), and we were left with just the alternator charge. I finally 'solved' it by disconnecting the alternator charge line to the Tab, and had the solar do all the charging (all day driving in sunny weather).
I'd like to see them address this situation also, as it seems that two charging systems should be able to co-exist on the battery bank. A case for it would be in marine setups, where I'd think this would be common, charging from the vessel's power unit as well as the solar. Though I can see how, in this case, it might be difficult or impossible, since the Victron system has no control over the alternator charge output.
2014 S Maxx
2011 Tacoma 4cyl ... edit: 2022 Tacoma 6cyl - oh yeah!
A_Little_T@b'll_Do_Ya
Sm@ll World: 2021 320S Boondock, 6V Pb-acid
Shunt, Roof & Remote solar & 30A DC-DC Chargers
managed by VE Smart Network
Sm@ll World: 2021 320S Boondock, 6V Pb-acid
Shunt, Roof & Remote solar & 30A DC-DC Chargers
managed by VE Smart Network
You can connect any number of controllers, even of different types, i.e. PWM or MPPT, to a battery and they will work just fine. Here is Will’s explanation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSj6-JSxoD4
Paul
2021 T@B 320S Boondock “The T@B”
Towed by a white 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 Supercab, 3.5L V6 Ecoboost “The Truck”
What I don't know is how long this continued, and unfortunately, while we didn't have the fridge running on battery to really test it, it appears we might have had enough amps to do it, and maybe still charge the battery, depending on the sun. A panel with more than 100W might have been a better choice for this.
I also found the following performance characteristics curves for our Renogy panel..
Which shows some useful info on the panel's generated voltage versus watts of power. This is useful when considered together with the following info from the Victron SCC manual..
Sorry for the tiny print, but note the highlighted line stating that the panel voltage must exceed the battery voltage by 5V before the charge controller turns on; plus if it drops to less than 1V greater than battery voltage, it will turn off.
So, for example, if the battery voltage is 13.5V (receiving a charge from TV) and the panel voltage drops below 14.5V (around 75W on the chart), then it will turn off. And to turn back on would require 13.5V + 5V = 18.5V or the full 100W of power on the green curve. This might be difficult, depending on sun, clouds, angle of sun, etc, and would require less than full power without the car's charger attached.
We had hooked up the panel first, before starting the vehicle charger, so both were running fine when I captured those screens with both car & solar contributing. I hope to look at this again some day, but we mostly don'tdoffend on solar & I'd have to get my wife behind the wheel some day.
Looking forward to learning more about this from you all. 😉
TV: 2005 Toyota Sienna LE (3.3L V6)
RV: 2018 T@B 320S, >100 mods
With clouds / trees hampering effective collection of energy it get's very confusing to design an efficient network to the software designers and users. Fortunately software is relatively easy to fix and update in the field nowadays. To our earlier question of whether to connect similar voltage panels together before the controller or buffer the outputs with a separate controller this issue alone may be a good reason. A problem with solar collection is that rarely all panels are equally exposed to the sun or have similar electrical responses in the best cases with a RV. A house is easier but talking to a friend who has designed and uses his own 10KiloWatt farm this problem is also not easy to always optimize.
Sm@ll World: 2021 320S Boondock, 6V Pb-acid
Shunt, Roof & Remote solar & 30A DC-DC Chargers
managed by VE Smart Network