Hi all,
I’ve finally got my Vans OFF-GRID system to where i want it 
Still a little bit of tidying to do of the wiring harness and routing containment, but component wise it’s there i think. The van is a VW Grand California, short wheelbase, so space is deffinately at a premium, so i wanted a compact but fully featured install, and having worked on control & power electronics and in various industries i knew i did NOT want to install everything directly into a small cupboard that made access, fault finding or modifications difficult and uncomfortable.
So, i designed everything i could to sit on a removable alluminium back plane panel, and all connections to the van itself are via automotive rated connectors (mostly Deutsch DT/DTM etc) meaning the entire panel clips out without tools, and can be worked on, and critically, undergo unit-testing on a bench and not buried in a van…..
Basic system specs are 5kWh of 24v lithum batteries, tucked in custom alluminium trays/extrusion frame in a rear cupboard. This actually takes up less space than the two gas/lpg bottles that used to fill this entire cupboard. Tucked neatly behind them is the smart shunt and primary battery fusing
The original small “electrical & services” cupboard on the other side in the rear is now filled with all other components
Mounted on the right wall of the cupboard is the 3kW inverter
The slide out (on latching/removable drawer slides) panel on the lhs holds most of the other subsystem components
Components:
CerboGX for control / moitoring & integration
2 x 100/20 MPPTs - one permanently connected to 100W solar panel on roof, one to an external solar input plug on the rear of the vehicle where we plug in a portable solar array. Unfortunately, this van has a small roof that is already full of other stuff, mainly two large skylights that make i nice and bright inside, but that seriously limit the solar collection possible from a integrated solution. The portable array allows us to basically plug in a lot more insolation capture area as nesessary when parked up.
Orion XS 1400 DCDC - power transfer from 12v vehicle alternator to lithiums when engine is running - our “winter” method of charging our energy storage
Orion TR 24-12-9 Trickle charged the std fit 12v leisure battery when it falls below a critical state of charge. In this factory build motorhome, the fridge, lighting and heating all run off the std lead acid leisure battery, and when parked up in winter when the factory roof mounted solar can’t keep up, this dcdc simply trickles charge out the lithiums and into the leisure batteries once they become discharged below 60% SoC.
Smart Charger 24-16 - When we are plugged into an external 240Vac Electric Hook Up, this charges the lithiums if necessary
“glue logic” box - custom bit of electronics that glues everything together - some proper “bodges” in here, for example turning the 12v leisure battery voltage and current measurements into a spoofed variable impedance so they can be put into un-used TANK inputs on the cerbo, reading the vans two CAN busses (CI & PT CAN) and using that data to do stuff (like enable the Orion XS), impedance matching & protection between the 24-12 dcdc and the vehicles 12v system, level shifting & isolating some digital signals, and rescaling / transimpedance amplifiying the vans std tank level sensor outputs
In the very back of the cupboard are the std OE electrical systems, such as the 240Vac fusebox and 12v isolator etc, and a new 240Vac distrobox that allows the output of the Inverter to switch itself into the vans A/C network automagically, so when we have an external EHU it runs of that, when we don’t it runs of the inverter
Probably the hardest task, with a lot of swearing and having to remove a lot of trim panels and do a lot of wire harness “fishing” behind bits of furniture was putting the Cerbo display right next to the OEM one on the outside of the bathroom wall, which is a hollow alluminium extruded section. This makes the victron install look factory (actually the display looks, imo, better than factory, and really was in the end worth all the hassles to do it
So that’s it really, nothing particularly amazing in the scheme of things, but i think a decent bit of systems integration given the small space and constraints inherent in tryiing to add this as seamlessly as possible to the already existing van fit out, so we now have a van that basically allows us to be off-grid with indeffinite electrical resource, which is what we wanted!
almost more equipment then a spaceship.. I like that