…unless I turn off engine shutdown detection. Brand new 2024 Ford F550. Of course it has a smart alternator. The default “factory” settings never seem to allow more than about 17amps of charge to the battery bank. (Two gopower 300ah batteries in parallel).
On Victron factory defaults, I stay stuck on float level charging.
The positive and negative leads to the Orion XS are both connected directly to the driver side battery terminals.
My current charge state on my lithium bank is 13.1V, so it wants to take a charge, truck AGM batteries (2) are resting at 12.75v when truck not running.
I’m in a truck camper (Bigfoot) with good ground to frame.
I’m sure there will be clarifying questions, ask away! Living full time in this rig, all brand new (just sold our other one in which I installed 2 Battleborn batteries and Victron controllers.) Not impressed with the gopower control components and software at all, so far.
Where do you read the battery voltage, and do you get the same readings from the shunt and batteries? Remove the ve.direct cable and set up the charger as stand alone, with external management you have no idea if its in bulk, absorb or float.
At 13.x volts you should be in bulk mode with 50amps .
Thanks, Ludo. This version of the Orion does not have a VE direct cable. When I measure battery with my multimeter at the batteries, it’s fairly consistent with what is showing on the Victron software. I keep playing with settings, and when I turned off float , And put the storage voltage at 14.5, I began to get 30 A of charge. Still nothing above 30 A.
Thanks Mathius. It just seems like there’s a jumper at the plug-in location for The VE direct cable. Attached are five photos. Two of the Victron XS and the three screens from the software. You’ll see that I’ve made some significant modifications in the control app, as this is the only way I can get anything more than 19 or 20 A of charge back to my battery bank. Stuff that I’m reading online makes me think that there’s some kind of a conflict with the smart alternator. This is a 2024 Ford F550. Two batteries, two alternators. I sure would be thrilled if I could get this thing working the way supposed to with a 50 amp input to my battery bank when I’m driving. I’ve also read in a couple of places that were rather than connecting to my truck battery negative terminal, I should go directly to the frame. I haven’t tried that yet.
Any guidance would be appreciated. And I’m glad to get on a phone call or a video call with anybody that thinks they can help.
You should remove that breaker and replace it with a normal Mega or midi fuse.
Those breakers tend to have a high internal resistance and cause problems.
Just lowered to 14.6 as per your recommendation. Charge amp’s immediately dropped from 35 to 22. Batteries correct trendy only about 35% charged. Something else?
It also began rapidly bouncing back and forth between bulk and absorption on about a 3 second cycle.
@M_Lange@Ludo
Really appreciate your time and help on this! Not there yet, but making progress and learning from you and our experiments as I go.
I’ve ordered the fuse and fuse holder you suggested, Ludo and can install/do more work in a day or three (more on that in a moment) but out of curiosity, I ran my ohm meter across that circuit breaker and had no resistance. But it’s a cheap quick swap out so why not?
Because my battery bank is so depleted, and no time to plug into shore power at the moment, I left my voltages high as, for whatever reason that setting is getting me 40-32 amps vs the recommended setting diving me in the 20amp range.
But I had a mountain bike crash yesterday that put me in hospital with bruised rips and a damaged spleen, no surgery needed but it will be a few days before I can pick this back up.
I hear lots of stories about the challenges of getting good charge amperage from the XS with high capacity Ford dual alternators, so I’m guessing that it is that relationship where the challenge is, or there is a glitch in my XS.
Also a reminder that these two gopower 300ah LPO batteries were installed without a communication cable or the specified resistors, because the batteries were placed too far apart for GoPowers cable to connect. I’m sourcing another cable in the right length and they are sending me the resistors, but I won’t have that stuff in hand for a week or so. They tell me the only real function will be battery balancing. Currently the batteries rest at about a 28ah capacity difference, but frankly GoPower’s app is so kludgy , and so poorly reviewed that I doubt the truth of any reading it is giving me.
In terms of voltage drop, I detect none from truck battery to the XS and about 1v drop across the XS. When truck is sending current to it.
I’ll replace the fusing in a couple of days, but I’m not optimistic, given I saw no resistance across the breaker.
Other thoughts?
I also hear that some folks have had breakthrough when they wire the ground directly to the frame, rather than the truck starter or accessory battery. Thoughts?
Fixin stuff is part of my getting well.
I’ll get the new fuse and fuse block tomorrow Not really convinced that there is any real resistance across the current breaker. My understanding is Victron commonly recommends this breaker.
Thoughts?
Thanks Ludo. I checked that breaker while charging at about 30 amps from the Victron. It was cool to touch. As was the XS. No lose connections. It has 0ohms resistance on my multimeter. Does it still make any sense to swap it out? Or should we be pursuing other potential pathways?
