I have my system in the camper in the back of my truck, a 2020 Jeep Gladiator. I’m running 6g wire from my alternator(there is also breaker in the engine bay) to a Victron 12|12 30 dcdc controller and from there it goes to a Lynx distributor using a 50A Mega fuse. Connected to the Lynx is a small fuse box for accessories and also to a 100ah Lithium Ion battery connected via BMV 712 on the negative line and cut-off switch on the positive line.
The issue I’m having is that I’m only getting about 5-8A of charge when driving. I thought maybe it was a bad 40A mega fuse causing it. The fuse was in pretty bad shape so I changed it to 50A. I got a full 30A when I first started it up and drove around for a bit but later in the day I’m only getting 5-8A. The battery is about 60% charged.
I’ve check that all the connections are tight. I used the recommended settings in the App for the battery. It’s been kind of an ongoing issue.
Any ideas on what’s going on? What should I be checking?
Assuming that the 12/12 30A has a similar settings menu to my Orion XS, I do not think that it is your Engine Shutdown Detection or Input Voltage lockout settings as they would simply turn the charger off, but worth a check.
I think I’d be starting with the Alternator and looking at the voltage and current (if you have access to a clamp meter) it produces. Perhaps look at the specs for the Alternator and also check if its a “smart” alternator.
I just went out to the truck and started it, and lo and behold it was reading about 30A bulk charging. But I will bet that it is going to drop again by this afternoon. It’s currently at 69% and it’s 54F outside.
Another thing is if the Orion DC to DC is getting hot then it will reduce the charge to keep its internal temperature at a safe level.
The BlueSea brand of breakers should be OK as they are a good make. However, your 40A breaker is on the light side, these are thermally triggered units and the Orion when it is generating 30A output will be taking in much more than 30A and if it has to boost the voltage from say 13.2V to 14.4V then that is another 10%, so you could easily see well over 35A input and that is just too close to be running a 40A breaker. This may not be causing any problem, it is just good practice to have the breaker around 25% higher than normal current, 50A would be better.
Put on a larger Blue Sea 50A breaker in the engine bay and drove around running errands. It seems to hold around 20-24A at both bulk and absorption charging. I’m wondering how I can cool the controller better to see if that would help even more. It was warm but not “hot” when I checked after running errands. That said, it’s much better than the 1-3A charging I was getting before.
It would still be good to show us screenshots of your settings and the status display showing voltages, currents and charge state.
There was another case recently where the input voltage was dropping down to the engine shutdown voltage. The Orion will reduce the current if the input voltage drops to the shutdown voltage. This may be happening in your case but to advise we would need some details. Their shutdown voltage was set to 13.0V and the input to the Orion fell to 13.0V so the current was restricted. You have put a larger breaker in, this may have lifted the input voltage.
The Orion is on bulk charge and the output voltage is 13.57V so it is not being limited by the battery or voltage drop on the output cables.
The throughput is being limited by either temperature derating or the input voltage. You did not include a screenshot of your engine shutdown detection settings. Is engine shutdown at 13.1V, if so reduce this to 12.8V. Also check for voltage drop between the starter battery and the Orion input.
