Orion Xs 1400

DIY
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1

Have 24v Victron Lithium batteries and charging them with a) 2x 12v D 12/24 Orion from 12v alternator and then now i have installed 80A 24v alternator to charge the 24v house bank as well. The alternator heats up a lot (130°C ) while running when connected directly, but it charges the system no problem. So decided to purchase 2x Orion XS 1400 to see if they would reduce the heat generation (limit them to 35 amp each).. Then realized that when the alternator is running “open circuit” it goes up to 40 volts. That means the Orion units give a “fault” notification due to too high input voltage, so they are of no use. Any ideas how to sort this out? External voltage regulator?

2

You need a lead acid battety on the alternator output to act as a buffer to always provide some load on the alternator. The Orions are battery to battery chargers, not alternator to battery chargers. All manuals, wiring diagrams and schematics show a buffer battery on the alternator output.

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3

Theres fixed output alternators available, for example 28V fixed. They dont need a battery or anything.

Which alternator did you use exactly?
It may have a S or Ignition connection, each could be used to sense battery voltage. If they are not connected, then the alternator will raise its output voltage in an attempt to raise the voltage on the sense connection, to compensate for wire losses.

But as pwfarnell said, Orions are designed to be used as battery-to-battery, so even with a fixed voltage alternator theres no guarantee that it would work

4

What size led acid battery would be sufficient? The system i have is 80 amp 24v Alternator (Standard Volvo Penta) and then i would need to connect it to Led acid batteries and from there to two Orion XS 1400 Units. I assume i cannot just place any size led acid between even though its just to buffer the alternator?

5

I am not sure how you would size this because normally the engine start battery being big enough to start the engine is big enough, probably larger than needed. Something like 40Ah would be probably be OK.