I’ve got a little problem with one of our Orion 12/30 dcdc chargers on our Catamaran. We have 2 x Orion’s, one is running from the port engine alternator and one from the starboard engine alternator, 4 x Victron Smart mppts, 720ah of lithium and a Multiplus 12/3000/120 plus Bmv700. Yesterday morning the lithium bank was down to 13.2v @ 80% charged, all mppts were in bulk charge, started both engines and set off, both Orion’s wre in bulk mode as absorption hadn’t been reached yet but within a few minutes the starboard Orion went straight into float mode bypassing absorption time while all other units mppts and the port Orion was still in bulk charge mode, at this point the lithium bank was at 13.8v and hadn’t got to absorption voltage, is there a problem with this Orion? This whole system has been installed for about 18mths now and running very well until this little hiccup, can anyone shed some light on what could be wrong.
The normal reason for this to occur is a basic wiring issue not the Orion. A wire coming loose, fuse coming loose or a switch or breakers failing in the circuit between the Orion and the lithium battery will create a voltage drop due to increased resistance. This means the Orion measures a higher output voltage than the battery and thinks the battery is full. This can occur on the positive cable or the negative cable or the common negative cabling between the lithium batteries and the starter battery. Use a multimeter to measure voltages and find the problem. Check all connections are tight.
Thank you, that was exactly what the problem was, found a very loose earth wire connection between the Orion and the Lithium earth busbar, clean and tighten it and back to normal, thankyou for the reply.