Hi everyone
My motorhome has a solar feed currently dedicated to my leisure battery setup. I want to use the solar feed to charge the starter battery when the motorhome is stored if I run a switched feed into the cable from the starter battery to the Orion smart 30 would the unit think the engine was running and power itself up or would I need to put an isolator switch on the cable between the starter battery and the smart 30. (There’s always the chance I’m overthinking this).
You have an MPPT charging the house/leisure battery.
And an Orion Smart 12/12-30 between starter and house battery already installed? Or you want to add one?
What are the chemistries of the starter and house battery, both lead acid?
Hi
Yes its a smartsolar 75v 10amp, the Orion is installed, lead acid leisure battery’s and lead acid starter battery.
?
Ok. The Orion is currently connected with its input towards the starter battery and with its output to the house battery? If so, then you cant easily reverse that. I see two viable options
Connect the MPPT tot he starter battery permanently. It will then charge the starter battery first, once thats charged enough, the Orion will then start charging the house battery as well.
Replace the Orion with a Cyrix combiner. Since both batteries are lead acid, you could use a simple relay combiner between the two, allowing for charging both ways, depending on which battery has the higher voltage.
While you could use a relay to switch input and output around on the Orion, i dont think theres a benefit compared to the other two options