GC 600 Solar Charge Controller upgrade.

[T3Z-GB]

Today I had some time to upgrade the solar charge controller to the Victron 75 | 15 with the short term goal of adding another and then an additional 100-120watt Solar panel on the roof to double the solar charge.
After I plan to add a I from 1200 watt Inverter in the electrical cupboard with an automatic change over from the inverter to shore power if it’s connected.
The purpose of this is to have 230v in all the electrical outlets as Iv a number of devices that need a proprietary charger.

Attached a couple pics, keep in mind it was an overcast rainy day all day.

 

[Mr T]

Looks neat. I had this controller in my Cali Ocean which I fitted, have you swapped this in because the original controller won’t handle an additional panel?

 

[T3Z-GB]

Swapped it out for 3 reasons.

1st I don’t know the spec of the existing panel and VW don’t know themselves, I need that to know what solar pannel to add. if using 1 controller.
2nd yes the existing controller is a 10a and wouldn’t handle an additional 100w panel.
3rd I plan to add an additional Victron solar controller, because of the 1st reason, No limit to the number of controllers you can have simultaneously charging battery.

Apart from all that, as you know you can wirelessly link the controllers and monitor the individual charge and combined.

 

[Mr T]

Thanks for the reply. Odd that you can’t get the spec of the Victron fitted by VW. I have seen some people add the Bluetooth module to the Victron but that costs more than the MPPT you’ve fitted!
Certainly food for thought, thank you!

 

[T3Z-GB]

Thanks for the reply. Odd that you can’t get the spec of the Victron fitted by VW. I have seen some people add the Bluetooth module to the Victron but that costs more than the MPPT you’ve fitted!
Certainly food for thought, thank you!

It’s the solar panel I can’t get the specs for from VW, they don’t have the voltages and amps etc that you need to take into consideration when adding an additional panel in series or parallel.
I could have added the Votronic Bluetooth dongle to get the stats, but the app kinda sucks and it’s not full featured like the victron, you also need to hardwire devices (shunt, Dc converter etc) using an RJ45 type connector of sorts? for any form of device synchronisation or communication and it costs more than the Victron mppt.
hopefully that all makes sense.

 

[Mr T]

It’s the solar panel I can’t get the specs for from VW, they don’t have the voltages and amps etc that you need to take into consideration when adding an additional panel in series or parallel.

Yes that makes sense. I’m sure I read somewhere recently it was an Italian company supplying the solar panels. Think it was on the German forum as some people were retrofitting it.

 

[T3Z-GB]

Thanks for that. Will take a look, Might save the cost of another controller.

 

[yossarian]

It’s the solar panel I can’t get the specs for from VW, they don’t have the voltages and amps etc that you need to take into consideration when adding an additional panel in series or parallel.
I could have added the Votronic Bluetooth dongle to get the stats, but the app kinda sucks and it’s not full featured like the victron, you also need to hardwire devices (shunt, Dc converter etc) using an RJ45 type connector of sorts? for any form of device synchronisation or communication and it costs more than the Victron mppt.
hopefully that all makes sense.

Looks like you can assume around 22V / 100W / 4.6A call it 5A for grannie.

 

[Mr T]

The company that supply the solar panels are "Solbian Solar" in Graz from what I can tell from discussions on the caliboard.de forum.

 

[andy_c]

T3Z-GB - thanks for the info to date, I think a few of us are waiting with baited breath to hear how you’re upgrade path is going - I’d certainly greatly appreciate it as I’d like to follow a similar route for my GC 600.

 

[T3Z-GB]

Andy_c

Been super busy but in summary I’ve installed a 1600va Victron inverter, 30a DC2DC and an additional 75|15 charge controller, For storage there is a 200a Victron Battery.

On the roof Solbian built 2 custom solar panels which provide an additional 150w, so all up 254w solar including the original panel.

The inverter supplies 240 Volts to all the sockets and have re routed the 12v fridge to the lithium battery.

The original house battery only supplies power to the lighting.

I have the cad drawings of the panels and will post a detailed photographers of the installation.

All I can say is I never have to worry about power.

Standby.

 

[T3Z-GB]

I’ll also update on what Iv done to the table, and cabin divider.

 

[Eber123]

Hello,

That is some achievement. Well done.

I thought there was not a lot of space left on the GC 600 roof to install additional solar panels. I have to have a look tomorrow.

The way I understood you. There are now "2 electric circuits". That will overcome a lot of technical issues and problems with the VW setup.

It is really not my expertise, but it seems to difficult to just add more battery power and a decent charger to the GC.

Regards,
Eberhard

 

[T3Z-GB]

These are the additional panels I have. There is actually space for 3 additional on the roof.
One of 52w the other 98 watt. Using sun power cells at 24% efficiency.

I’ll post full details when I have a little free time.

 

[andy_c]

Awesome work T3Z-GB, very jealous. A few questions if you don’t mind:

1) You scrapped the original votronic solar controller and have now installed a total of 2 x 75|15 Victron solar controllers if I’ve understood correctly?

2) I’m a bit lost on the battery and circuit configuration:
A) You’ve left the original 94Ah Varta AGM engine compartment based leisure battery and split charger system with the bench located AGM automotive battery in place and as is?

These charge off the alternator via the split charger as before?

The original leisure battery powers the internal lights but nothing else?

Does the original solar panel and the first of the upgraded Victron controllers feed only this also?

B) You’ve installed a separate second electrical circuit that you’ve inverted with the Victron inverter and have re-routed the fridge and all power sockets (cigar, three pin, usb) and the remainder (eg water pump, etc?) of the leisure electricals to this and powered it by a Victron 200Ah LifePO4 Smart battery?

I’m guessing you added the Victron VE.Bus BMS to this battery?

C) you’ve installed a Victron Orion-Tr DC2DC charger taking a feed from the alternator to the LifePO4 battery in parallel (?) to the AGM split charger system?

Thus you are not mixing chemistries?

With this configuration you’re still able to charge all batteries from the alternator and using the dashboard “charge boost” button when stationary?

D) Finally (! ) you’ve added two additional custom built Solbian panels to provide 150W solar charging to the LifePO4 battery via the other Victron solar controller?

I’d be really appreciative and grateful if you could confirm or correct the points above as I’d love to get cracking (I’ve been so frustrated by VW’s own goal in the off-grid capability).

Are they any other key components that are not mentioned here or gotchas you think worthy of a mention?

Massive kudos once again and many thanks in advance for leading us all on this!

Kr

Andy

 

[Mr T]

Very interested in some of this too @T3Z-GB Yet to take delivery of my GC600 but one thing that concerns me is the single leisure battery. I don’t have long ‘off grid’ requirements but would like to cope a 4 day weekend (no hook up) with fridge running etc. without worrying or driving anywhere.
I’m guessing an additional battery would be a minimal requirement to achieve this? I have factory fitted solar but doesn’t sound like that’s anywhere near enough?
I like the idea of running the fridge off a separate additional battery. How easy is this sort of wiring change?
Thanks for sharing!

 

[andy_c]

I’ve been trying to understand more about the challenges of mixing chemistries and combined charging and have found the following Victron reference design which probably identifies incorrect thinking on my part on how separate the charging portion of T3Z-GB’s configuration actually is but will appreciate the explicit correction via comments to the above.

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/1.6KVA-12V-MultiPlus-230-Volt-system-example-4-PIN-VE-Bus-BMS-Lithium-Orion-Tr.pdf