Orion 12/12-30 isolated issues

[sameguy]

I’ve got an Orion 12/12-30 in my Four Wheel Camper in the back of my 2012 Tundra to charge the leisure battery. (100AH FLA, but soon to be 280 AH LIFEP04) I’ve got 4ga cable running from the starting battery to the camper, then into the camper wiring which I would estimate at 10 ft of 10ga to the Orion.

I have engine shutdown detection enabled,

start voltage @ 14,

delayed start voltage @ 13.8,

delayed start voltage delay @ 120s,

shutdown voltage @ 13.2

in battery settings I have

absorption voltage @ 14.5

float voltage @ 13.20

bulk time limit @ 10 hr

re-Bulk offset .40v

adaptive absorption time switched ON

Max absorption time @ 6hr

input voltage lockout 12.4v

restart value 12.6v

I bought this Orion used and these were the settings in it so haven’t made any changes.

I am having an issue where The voltage ramps up to 13.9-14.1 under engine RPM. (around 2000 to 2500 RPM) The Orion starts charging but very shortly, like 10 seconds the input voltage falls down under 12 volts and it shuts the charger off. A few minutes later it does it again. At that RPM, the alternator can put out 270 amps so I can’t imagine that is the issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[pwfarnell]

Voltage drop on long cables or a poor connection somewhere in the system such as a poor crimp, loose stud, poor plug and socket between vehicle and camper or you are using the cheap unreliable resettable breakers such as shown below (fuses are mote reliable).

The Orion starts up as voltage is OK with no current flowing. Current increases, voltage drop in the supply system increases, voltage drops too low, charging stops. Rinse and repeat. The voktage drop could be in positive or negative. Get your multimeter out and check for voltage drop. Calculate the voltage drop using one of the on line calculators or the Victron Toolkit app.

Do not use these cheap resettable breakers.