Good afternoon,
We were led to believe that the Orion XS 1400 could be used to as a DC to DC single charger to charge a single battery - unfortunately, all the available information seems to be directed at dual battery systems - I cannot find any wiring diagrams or ‘Victron Connect’ settings which are applicable to such an application and the user manual is pitched above our expertise level . . . any help would be appreciated!
We are fitting-out a prototype gyroplane with a ‘normal’ (13,8V & 30A) alternator. We would like this to charge a 12V 100 Ah LFP battery, with an 11V to 14,6V operating voltage, via the Victron XS 1400 in charger mode. The LiFePO4 battery manufacturer specifies 14,6V & 10A required for charging.
Please could one of you Victron gurus assist with all the Victron Connect settings (Input current, Output current, Battery settings [Bulk, Float, Absorption, Storage, Equalisation, etc.] engine shutdown detection, input voltage lock-out, etc.) which would make this charging-system work?
With grateful thanks.
So you are not using a starter battery on the alternator?
All Orion Smart are meant to be battery-to-battery chargers. You could use them in conjunction with a fixed output alternator, but a regular one will try to charge its starter battery, if there is none, the output voltage will go up.
Why did you choose an XS 1400. Thats way overkill for just 12V to 12V charging, at 10A output, a 12-12/18 would have done it, or just the regular XS even.
What exactly do you want to know, that is not described in the manual? Input current limit is given by the input cabling/fuse/power source. Output current limit is given by the output cabling/fuse/charged battery. Battery charge settings are given by the battery to be charged. Engine shutdown detection you need to set for your alternator/how it behaves with the output voltage. Input voltage lockout i never needed since engine shutdown detection is reliable enough if set correctly
We will be introducing a dual voltage (12 / 24) system at a later stage - where this XS 1400 unit will be necessary - so introduced it now for this task!
We need to know how the XS unit can output 14,6V when input (alternator) is 13,8V - is there step-up transformation built into the XS unit?
Are there any wiring diagrams somewhere on the support material / manuals / software downloads which we might have missed?
You mentioned that: “All Orion Smart are meant to be battery-to-battery chargers. You could use them in conjunction with a fixed output alternator, but a regular one will try to charge its starter battery, if there is none, the output voltage will go up.” What do we need to do to avoid this happening?
What we mean to convey is that we don’t understand what is meant by manual descriptions and statements - e.g.: “Input current limit is given by the input cabling/fuse/power source. Output current limit is given by the output cabling/fuse/charged battery.”
Its a buck-boost converter essentially
I dont know what you have found so far, so i cant tell you what you have missed. Everythings on the website, for example the manual
Use a starter battery. Or use a constant voltage output alternator but keep in mind thats not how an Orion is supposed to be fed
I cant explain all aspects of electrical systems, but a good point to start with basics is the Wiring Unlimited book
This means that you can limit the input current should your electrical system on the input not be sufficient enough for the full current. In your example you mentioned a 30A alternator, so i would set the limit at least to 30A. Since you mentioned a charge current limit of the battery of 10A, we dont need to worry about decreasing the input current further in this case (most alternators wont be happy with running full load for hours) since the output current limit of 10A is much lower
Many thanks for your detailed assistance, Chrigu, much appreciated!