Victron Solar Connection to Passenger Seat Leisure Battery OK?

[1Pearman]

Hi, having fitted my own solar setup to my previous vans (not Cali's) and reading up on how it should be done for the T6.1 Ocean i've fitted a Victron 100-20 MPPT under the front passenger seat with the positive going to one of the leisure battery terminal connections, and the negative going to the chassis side of the battery monitor (I drilled a hole for the connection bolt through the large silver part between the earth cable and the battery monitor). I'm then going to route the solar cables under the van into the engine bay for a plug connection in there for a portable solar panel setup. I tried it out quickly at the weekend and found it charge fine and whilst the Cali display showed a positive AMP input, the 'hours remaining' seemed strange and went from >60h to something like 6h when i connected the panel up. I think this also turned my fridge off to protect the batteries because I noticed it was off later in the day when i went to get some food out. Just wondered if there's anything wrong with how i've connected it or if anyones seen the display do this before? Most people go to the rear battery but because I want the connection in the engine bay I've used the front one.
Thanks

 

[dspuk]

Shouldn't make a difference. The one to watch is more amps in rather than hours remaining which is based on draw vs battery levels at that exact point in time and AFAIK nothing to do with your solar setup but managed and calculated by the VW software.

 

[1Pearman]

Thanks @dspuk that good to know. The only issue with the hours remaining is that I think it was this that shut my fridge down because it wanted to conserve battery? Can't think what else would have turned it off as it's never happened before. Strange that this would go down to 6hrs from >60hrs when i plugged the solar panel in and was getting a couple of Amps charge showing as positive Amps on the display.

 

[Ruddster]

Excuse my ignorance but why shouldn't you wire the solar charge unit (MPPT) to both battery terminals?

 

[WelshGas]

Excuse my ignorance but why shouldn't you wire the solar charge unit (MPPT) to both battery terminals?

On the T6.1 the Leisure Battery/ Batteries are monitored by a Battery Monitor module wired between the Battery -tve terminal and Chassis Earth.
Therefore the Solar -tve should be wired to the Chassis Earth NOT the battery -tve as this would bypass the Battery Monitor and confuse the Control Panel

 

[Ruddster]

Makes sense - thanks for clarifying. Is there an easy spot to wire too or is it a case of drilling a hole as per the original post?

 

[1Pearman]

You can use the battery clamp bolt, or any other good chassis ground point, or do as I did and drill a hole in the flat metal part in between the battery monitor (white square module attached to the -ve battery terminal) and the cable that comes off it. It's maybe 1" square flat copper plate (silver surface). Doing it to this part kept my wiring neater.

Update to my original post too.....Had the solar panel out for a few hours and fridge has remained on. My conclusion is that the fridge turning off was an instance of the widely reported issues with the control panel turning it off randomly. I did note another big drop in the 'hours remaining' number, and noted the -ve Amp went to -ve 4 so I assume this may be related to the fridge cycling on and the disply only giving a 'real time' figure.

 

[Ruddster]

Thanks for that. I've since watched a YouTube video where they used the bolt behind the battery as you suggest and apparently that is what the solar panel supplier had told them to do when using their kit on a 6.1 Beach.

I have also seen some very odd readings in terms of time left from the control panel.

Thanks for all the help will get an MPPT controller ordered