Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

I blame the flue meds...

You are both wrong.... you say Pi r squared ...... I say Pi are round

JohnBoyZA wrote: ↑12 Aug 2020 20:41 Thank you Tinus, still can't get my head around the DC-DC charging concept, but as you've guessed electrickery is not my game ;-) Will leave this project till December.

Bliksem Peter, didn't know that about the cable area vs diameter Measured voltage without drawing any power, will do similar test when fridge is running and let you know.

Thank you for your inputs!

Always keep in mind that AMPS is what is crucial to charging your batteries. You might pick up 14,2V throughout your entire system, but thinner cables and dry/loose joints will cause your amps to disappear.

Voltage can be a good 14,5+ but if you don't have enough amps (higher amps = higher volume of electrons flowing) then your battery will not charge fully.

I like to think of a hose pipe: the voltage is the pressure of the water coming through, the amps is the volume of water coming through. I don't even know if I'm making sense here, but at least the bottle stores are open again. That's what matters most.

Thanx again guys for the excellent advice. Had a blast - eventually decided to leave the 2nd DC and 'loaned' a solar panel which worked really well!

Why did you set someone's solar panel alight

... I thought the same IanT....hahaha... one way to charge a battery I guess....hahaha

Was wondering who nicked my solar panel.....

Gents, Don't discount Victron. I have DC to DC, MPPT and a battery charger all linked on one app that tells you everything you need. Includes 5 year warranty.

Julle ounes is k#ksnaaks

Grant, did a google, looks awesome, always a bit scared of too much electrickery technology, but this looks really cool. Permanent connection - display to an old cell phone mounted on the dash, maybe? Will revisit as this will be my December project.

Thank you
John

I use Victron charge controllers. I use two seperate units, one an intelligent DC to DC 20 amp (https://www.victronenergy.com/dc-dc-con ... s-isolated) unit (unit charges both my two 120 amp Discoverer AGM/Gel hybrid auxiliary batteries)
and a second intelligent Victron 15a MPPT solar controller (https://www.victronenergy.com/solar-cha ... s/mppt7510) for solar panels.

The reason for using two seperate units instead of one single unit is redundancy. If one fails, you at least have a form of back-up. If your DC to DC charger goes wrong you can at least use you solar charge controller in the interim.

My next next option is to buy an intelligent Victron 500a shunt. The shunt is the ONLY accurate unit that can ACTUALLY MONITOR and measure your battery state.
(https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-m ... tery-shunt)

The Victron Smart Shunt can measure actual amps and will give a history of how many amps reached the battery and when and also what the current amp storage the battery holds it can be mounted anywhere (out of sight even) on the earth lead of the aux battery.(

All intelligent (Smart) Victron units communicate to my normal Smart Phone via a Bluetooth App. It does not have lights like the NL unit that still keeps you guessing by just showing voltage, not amperage.... Do not put ithe Apps on a seperate phone on the dash, if it is on your normal phone, then you always have it on you, it can't easily disappear and it is more likely to always be charged...

Victron is simple straight forward and polarity protected, there is no trickery (that is all inside the box and you cannot access it), not much can or will go wrong. With a 5 year warrantee, you cannot go wrong

This is my current set-up, fix onto the security/safety divider between the load bay and rear passenger area:

I got my Victron stuff from this guy in Kemptonpark (near Pieter Connan's house). He is reasonable with his pricing, VERY clued up and his service is just streets above your generic 4x4/camping type equipment salesman at most leisure/camping/4x4 outlets - http://solarchargesolutions.co.za/