How to Program a Solar Charge Controller in a DIY Camper Electrical System 

I am Sri Lankan and I watched your videos.

Thank you ! For your very educational videos. Solar can be very expensive buying the wrong components. Being able to build our system in the correct order without wasting $$ has been great. Great job

Your tutorials are excellent and easy to follow. Please broaden your keywords to include cruising sailboats/sailing, using Victron products and solar panels.

Tx Man. Very helpful. Will proceed with caution... gotta go and read my battery charge parameters.

Ideal instructional video. Just what I needed. I'm hoping to program the optimal values for nine 12v, 100ah AGM batteries in parallel, with a Victron 250/100cc. Thank you.

I just hooked up my 100/15 victron charger to my diy "solar generator" with a 50ah li time battey and a 220w ecoflow solar array. It would charge for about 40-50 sec and stop. I did a bunch of troubleshooting, but then realized at the end, that the battery might already be fully charged. I'm draining the battery tonight and will retest tomorrow

Just installed my 100/20 Victron. I have 5 leadacid RV/ marine batteries wired in parallel. When im on the battery drop down what should i select 😵‍💫

Thanks for the knowledge, my guy.

What about configuring the BMS712 ? i.e. Setting the 100% value - etc - so the "Fuel Gauge" is accurate?

Just hook it up people, the victron is dummy proof and awesome

Nate: very well done, thank you. Subscribed. A question: if I have an AGM that only has bulk and float figures published, what do you do with the absorption screen in the MPPT controller setup? Cheers, KL

Hey nate These videos are very helpful, but can you explain what the VE direct port pin on the victron mppt should be on what pins 🤔

I just burned my 2 solar charge controllers as I had them disconnected from the battery and they had turned of during the night and needed rebooting. I did not think of it and flipped the switch connecting the totally turned of chargers to the battery with them instantly starting to hiss and smoke coming out of them... I immediately disconnected the battery with the switch but that did not help they just continued to hiss and smoke while at same time showing no errors and showing that they was set at the correct 24v battery voltage. The solar panels have been pernmanently connected for 3 years to the 2 charge controllers with no switch, so to unplug them you have to unscrew them, which I did but at that moment the smoking stopped. And I measured the voltages going in, it was 80v like normal. But the battery voltage going out to charge the battery was not normal at all at 77, 7v while the chargers still showed all normal expept for 42v battery (which really was 77,7v). It is quite scary that 2 charge controllers can fail like that and send 77,7v to the 24v battery bank... I have connected and disconnected the battery like that many times before but never when it was full sunshine like yesterday at noon... Most likely that is why it went fine all the times I did it before. My solar array is on a van flat mounted 1280w of panels connected at 80v. Now I think I will order 2 of these Victron chargers as I want redundancy and safety of having 2. I learned my lesson, ALWAYS disconnect the solar panels before connecting a battery to to solar charger on a dead charger that is not booted up...

hi i have a question about the streetlight function. i have a battery in the back of my van , and i also wanna charge my anker powerhouse 757 with solar but it has as problem with day and night so i wanna try to connect my anker powerhouse to the victron mppt 75/10 so i can charge my anker powerhouse ! i can charge with max " 300 watt solar 11/30V 10amp " , the question is how much watts will the LOAD connection output ? with 10amp ( i m a beginner with solar setup ) i just needed something to fix my problem , thank you for your time , mark

I have victron mppt 75/15 for my 80 series Land Cruiser marine group 27 deep cycle house battery. I wonder why victron doesn't have a common flooded lead acid charging profile in the pre set options.

Question please.... Do I run the +/- wires from the charge controller directly to the fuse panel or di I run the +/- wires from charge controller to the batteries then back to fuse panel?. Fuse panel is 3 feet away from batteries and CC. Thanks!

Hi, can I control load from one A) 48V battery to other B) 48V battery via Victron 100/20 without solar input in the way to provide that battery A can not discharge to 0%??

Hi could you show me which link is the VE smart networking please, I'm not sure which one it is..

As Always, another Great Vid Nate & Steph. I guess I’m a little Slow, or just inject (things) that are imagined. Do you have to have (the Dongle) to use Victron Connect ? I have: Multiplus VE MPPT VE DC-DC VE Lynx Vatrer Batteries NON-VE Shunt It should be simple, but I see the Dongle on some of the EL Diagrams, and not on others, and I don’t see it in Kit ordering lists ….

Thanks for all the informative videos, Nate! I understand each manufacturer would have different specs for their charging profiles, but I’d expect the basics to be the same. My manufacturer is saying that all (12v) lithium batteries, including theirs, should just be charged at 14.6v, and that concepts like Bulk, Absorption and Float don’t apply to this battery chemistry. They say to set those all at 14.6v. Can you explain why this may be the case, or why settings closer to what you’re using for the Battleborn batteries could be better for overall performance, safety, and/or battery health? Thanks!

Hi Nate, why is my is on the off mode and can't be turn on?

Excellent information nate. I installed my Battleborn 100ah lithium in my camper system 2 1/2 years ago with my Morningstar PS-30 PWM non'-metered version charge controller. At the time I spoke to Battleborn they gave me charge parameters of 14.4 Absorption for 60 minutes and 13.6 for Float. Do you see and issues with that profile? It is a pain to reprogram the non-metered PS-30, but I will if my parameters affect my performance or battery life significantly. Thanks!

If using 14.6v in the mppt absorbtion would you lower this by 0.2v in the smart shunt to 14.4v

Nate do you have a video on how to program the orion 12 12 30?

Can you use the "load output" to charge an Ecoflow powerbank? And how would you do it? :)

What do we do if the manufacturer does not have float and equalization voltages anywhere in their specs?

Thanks for sharing. Like #18!

Hi , Why did you calculate the amps when you specified the panels are in series . Isn't the amp supposed to remain the same . Confused

Why the indicator light on my smart solar doesn't flash? Does the device have a switch?

Hi hello. Great videos. Thank you for sharing May I ask..... Would this setting be something like same for setting up a dc battery to dc battery Victron charger. Kindest regards

what the max charging rate with a 200 ah in a single battery.? Is it the as two 100ah batteries?

Can I use this charge controller to charge 16.8v 4s battery .

Hey man. I have a epever mppt controller without a screen. I have just bought a 110ah agm battery to replace the old 50ah lead acid one. How do I set up the new battery without a screen? Cheers

3 no ) 12.60v 40amp Lithium ion batterie pack.... absorption voltage 12.60, float voltage 12.60, equalisation 15.50 connection ok sir....?

Unfortunately, the screen view is too small to read on a pro max iPhone

can i adjust program from 50amp charge to 40amp out put using 100/50 bt i hope this video can tell me

Where is episode #17???????????????????????????????????

I’m so confused. These settings are for lithium. What are the charging parameter for a lead acid battery that’s not AGM?

Hi there! I plan to have Victron Energy SmartSolar MPPT Tr VE.Can 150V 70 amp, so how to setup it for 36 volts battery connection type? I need some special devices like additional screen, or I can set this parameter via bluetooth in app?

Thank you ! For your very educational videos. Solar can be very expensive buying the wrong components. Being able to build our system in the correct order without wasting $$ has been great. Great job

Hi Nate, I'm loving your Basics series and feel like I've paid to take an online course, given the quality and knowledge you've put into it - so thanks very much! I just had a question around mixing components to create my system. I am looking to use a Renogy 60A Rover Li MPPT charge controller, along with their 100Ah LiFePo Bluetooth battery (willl add a second in the future), and I wondered, is it possible to still use the VE Lynx Distributor between these components? I understand they won't communicate with each other, but will I still be able to get readings from the Lynx separate to the other Renogy components? Thanks in advance!

Very concise and efficient tutorial. Electrical can be very daunting so thanks for these videos. I will be installing my solar charger in a month and this definitely raises my confidence.

So I have 5 12v 100AH Deep Cycle Lead Acid batteries (SuperStart 31DCM), what amp (settings) do I need to charge those batteries? I have the paperwork from the manufacturer of the batteries, however I don’t understand what it’s telling me. Is there a way I can send it to you and you help me get the right setting?

If only victron’ s videos/manuals were this good

Question, how come the app for the 100/50 shows 13.7 volts but when I put my meter on the batteries it only shows 13.1 volts

Hello I need help on setting the absorption time on my battery bank I have 6 12 volt agm 100 ah batteries brand carrier transicold they work awesome but I think I'm not charging them correctly I'm using a victron mppt 100/50 I have them to do 1.30 hrs now Thank you everyone for the advice! Here is some of the specs on the battery label CCA-1150 . PHCA-2150 Reserve Capacity- 205 minutes Cyclic Charge Voltage: 14.4- 14.8V @ 25*C Float Charge Voltage: 13.5- 13.8V @ 25`C No Initial Charge Current Limit Terminal Torque - 22.6 Nm max (200 in [bs) Nominal Weight -35.3-kg(77.8 ibs) 12V, 100Ah

@loisfaruolo6932 I have a 12 volt Duralast AGM battery Cycling Charge rate 14.4 -15.0 v with a 13.5-13.8 Float charge What type would you say my battery is ? My 30A topsolar controller connected to 200 watt panel is already preset on type 61

My “bulk” light was blinking like yours but it didn’t connect to Bluetooth like my shunt did. Not sure what’s wrong… never mind, I need the smart dongle thing. This unit doesn’t have built in Bluetooth.

hello I have a request, can you help me set the parameters in my victron MPPT 150/35 charger I have 3 pieces of 12V 100Ah Smart Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery w / Self-Heating Function SKU: RBT100LFP12SH-US I wrote to the technical support renogy as advised but they blew me away

Question related to absorption time, in video is mentioned 30min for 100Amp but what if u got 2x 12V 100AMP in series = 24V 100AMP that means 60 min for absorption time or still 30 min??????

Hi Nate I have installed a Victron 100/30 runnng 2x 100watt panels. into 3 x 110amp lead acid batteries. Should I be putting a fuse between the panels and the Charge controller and between Charge controller and batteries. If so what fuse/burn size

Not aure if i can get help on this. But my system is giving me a "low voltage" alarm. I have 300ah lithium battery wirh 400w solar. Its a 12V system but my battery voltage is at 11.05V. If anyone can advice on how i can trouble shoot this id really appreciate it, thank you

Hi just seen your video on solar chargers very interesting.ive got a renogy 170amp lithium battery 200w panel an a victron smart 100/20 . What should the settings be set to for my battery. I’ve chose the lithium setting but should I change the charging valves it’s saying 14.2 v help cheers mike

Hi, I am trying to set up a solar system and I want to use a 16v battery ( I build this battery for 18650). The problem is, all of the controllers that I have seen are only meant for 12v or 24V batteries, how do you think is best to charge this battery using solar/

At 6:25 in this video you mention the VE function for connecting the shunt and state it was covered in the video last week and it would be linked in the comment text below. I cannot find this specific link, can you provide it please. Thank You, Arrowshot

Great video. I'm trying to find the low voltage cutoff settings in the Victron app but am unable to. I didn't see it covered in your video either. Is it called something different? Thanks!

Can the VE MPPT controllers be different volt and amp ratings or must they be the same units

this is a great video , thank you , iv got a unit on its way :) i cant find my battery parameters , exide ek700 any thoughts > id love to set up nicely like you have , many thanks D

What was the fault with the t5 clocks mine dime on some led lights and sometimes come back on .no good at night many thanks Dave

awesome video EXPLORIST life - DIY Campers. I broke that thumbs up on your video. Keep up the excellent work.

Can I get a dc ro dc automatic transfer switch because I av two deferent battery bank

What is i dont know what my battery settings are? its a friends battery we cant see the side of it..

Excellent information! I’ve tried to find this info any place and it’s tough. Even though battle born filled it out for me, there’s a lot I didn’t understand, not to mention that even the two charge controllers they sent out to me differed on some of the information? Especially on absorption time, one said 2 hours and one said 3. I didn’t even understand about the battery capacity size either. I have eight Battle Born Batteries in series parallel at 24 V, so I’m imagining that would be two hours of absorption? And capacity would be 400?

What software do you use to make your wiring diagram schematics?

Great video! Thanks for explaining things in a way a newbie can understand. I do have one question…. I have purchased two 100Ah Battle Born batteries, so, do I need to have one charge controller for each battery or will the single one suffice. It is a Victron MPPT 100/30 like the one you used in this video. Thanks again.

12v-24v-48v BIG QUESTION: I am building a new system, so why go up to a higher voltage when a lot of items in the RV are 12v. 1400w of Solar panels to MPPT is 18-ft MPPT to x4 battery 100amp each (one bank for now) less than 4-ft Inverter less than 4-ft Main 220v panel 10-ft. I know every time you step up or down in voltage you lose about 30% in heat and efficiency. You also need to add another component to get back to 12v (fans, TV, lighting, refrigerator). Stove is gas. So why go to a 24v or 48v system? And not stay at 12v

Hi Nate, love your stuff. My wife and I live off grid in our Toyota Coaster in NZ. I recently replaced the initial solar stuff I bought, when I realised how bad it was compared to VE kit! So now have MPPT 100/50, Smartshunt, Battery Sense & IP65 Charger. The MPPT wH generated/day is great. I'm wishing though, that I could generate/calculate/plot our wH consumed per day. Understanding that some wH are supplied direct from solar, and not batteries, this is not straight forward. Even tracking daily wh consumed from the batteries would be interesting enough. Especially on weeks like we have now, where the cloud inversion blocks 90% solar for weeks at a time! Any thoughts on this? Ta much

Hi I have a question How can I turn the state from off to on. I have a Victron Energy MPPT 100/50 BlueSolar Charge Controller

Why are you setting equalisation on LifePO4 batteries? They should not be equalised by the charger, this is what the BMS does.

Yeah that's the process how it's done with Victron solar chargers as such . But few know how to set two identical chargers one for low load output to inverter and the second one kicks in only when high loads needed from battery , any battery , to inverter. Can be done to......

love it. now, programing the shunt next:)

Hi quick question I have 8 100 amp hour 12 volt LifePO4 batteries, what should I set the batter capacity to. Thank you.

Why would a MPPT solar charge controller kick in and out when charging or when a load is on like a small fridge … charges and then stops . I did added two more 6 volt batteries ( total 24 volts ) and it was running for 2 months before this started .

and what if your reusing Nissan leaf battery's? reconfigured to 48 volts?,, thats what ive been useing for the last 5 years,, and just uesing other ppls settings

I have a 100ah 48v battery, how much time what I need for absorbtion? And should I use fix or adaptive.

I have agm batteries and victron cc what are parameters

I got issue with the charge is disabled due to Engine shutdown detected so my refrigerator is off and the only way works is when I start the van; also loads are disable. I don't know what to do please help me. The only thing I did was to update the app and I get this issue. I really appreciate you help

I'm a little confused on the equalization parameters. So you set equalization to 14.4V but Li-Io batteries don't need to be equalized, so the equalization is disabled?

Purchased the diagram but lost the link to download . Can you help with getting the link again ?

do you have a video for the poor people where they dont have bluetooth or wifi controllers with basic MPPT controllers

Questtion on this MPPT controller. I hae 2 house to start batteries on my boat. Got to the boat and app said they were floating. Showed 20v from 2 100 watt panels 0 amps. When my boat is running my battery monitor shows -1.59 amp draw? Why? The voltage is 14.8 from motors. Shunt i sinstalled correct to a neg bus bar. All house loads are off during readings.

trying to find out the type of battery I should insert into the app. I have 2 Skanbatt SK80Ah 600cca and a Victron mppt 75/15, I don't quite understand the designations in the app on the batteries.

I tried downloading the settings from my 75/15 to my 150/100 & I received an.. "Error loading file. #1 settings file not for this product." I just manually entered the profile on the 150/100. I am curious as to why the download didn't work...maybe I made an error somehow. 🤔

My 150/70 doesn’t allow me to put more than 70 amps in the “Max charge current” setting. With 600 ah of BB shouldn’t I be able to enter 300? I currently have it set at 50amps. Maybe that a software revision change or do I have another setting wrong? Thank you 🙏

Did you do a Victron product overview on the new MPPT Smart charge controller? I see the 150/70 has several more connector points.

Another fantastic video Nate. You are SO thorough! Best video series on solar on YT by far. Well done!!

Maybe a stupid question…I have 2 100w panels hooked to 2 100ah deep cycle marine batteries…in parallel…into a 1500w inverter….should I leave inverter ON even when I’m not using my van?

The battleborn batteries have built in BMS, so you can't overcharge them anyways.

Can you tell me how to setup a 24 votes system

Hi Nate - thank you for the videos. I would love to learn how to install a voltage switch in order to use excess solar power and redirect it to a heating element to a hot water tank so that I can heat up hot water on sunny days when my batteries are fully charged. I have recently installed 1600 watts of solar onto my 73' old wooden boat (built in 1922!) after upgrading my electrical system to Victron equipment. On sunny summer days, I have lots of excess power and would love to use it to heat water instead of burning diesel fuel on my furnace. Any thoughts of putting a video on that, or can you direct me to resources you would recommend? Thanks!

Fantastic video! Thank you for your efforts and quality.

Hey Nate. Great work in keeping this simple for the rest of us! Here’s my question. I have 3x200W panels (10a 20v) and 2x175w (9a 19.5v). In order to maximize the solar panels should I run the 3x200 in series to one mppt and the 2x175 to another mppt? It seems from the math, if I am doing it correctly, that this would best utilize my solar array. Appreciate your feedback.

Any help what went wrong? My Electric guy fit two victron 305w solar panels on roof then conect victron 100/50 mppt to batery and then conect solars to mppt and start updated mppt and after 1min from mppt came smoke!!!😢

Thanks, I cannot find charge parameters for powerxon 250ah agm battery ? I also cannot find setting via victron connect wherr to set minimum voltage ( to save battery life). Using app's latest version as today.

Hi am I getting something wrong? I heard one guy say an AGM 100Ah is max charged at 30amp. Now I'm hearing its OK up to 50amp. What am I missing or was the other info wrong. Thanks

Best of luck on 100,000 Subscribers! 👍👍😊

Nate, I thought you mentioned about another video in the making covering how to program the Victron Multiplus 12V 120 inverter for us non battle born owners.

Hi Nate, following your steps here. My "equalization Voltage" reads "disabled" how do I enable it to set it?

do you need to choose lithium batteries for the Victron MPPT solar charger? I have lion Energy lithium batteries

question if you have an Orion charger and its a 30amp, but you have 6 BB lifepro4 batteries, will the truck change that bank of batteries with 30amp? Also I didn't see a video on your channel that address programing a solar charger like in this video and as it relates to a 3000watt multiples charger and inverter.