Votronic

[MarkJ]

Hi

If you want a single box to do mains, solar and B2B charging, and trickle charge the vehicle battery, I can’t find much to beat this fella:

Votronic VBCS 12V Triple Charger 45A DC-to-DC, 30A Mains, 350W Solar

The ultimate all in one 12V charging system for campervans & motorhomes. 45A DC-DC charger, 30A mains charger & 350W MPPT solar controller in a single unit.

www.12voltplanet.co.uk

Quite expensive and all eggs in one basket, I know. But it ticks my boxes.

Any snags, anyone know?

 

[wildebus]

Hi

If you want a single box to do mains, solar and B2B charging, and trickle charge the vehicle battery, I can’t find much to beat this fella:

Votronic VBCS 12V Triple Charger 45A DC-to-DC, 30A Mains, 350W Solar

The ultimate all in one 12V charging system for campervans & motorhomes. 45A DC-DC charger, 30A mains charger & 350W MPPT solar controller in a single unit.

www.12voltplanet.co.uk

Quite expensive and all eggs in one basket, I know. But it ticks my boxes.

Any snags, anyone know?

The biggest thing to watch out for with these type of units - and I am not singling out this Votronic unit specifically, but this comment applies to just about every combo unit I have seen that includes an MPPT Solar Controller - is this:

The maximum voltage allowed is very limited, which means two things:
1) you can typically only use "12V" Panels, as they have Voc (open circuit Voltage) of around 20V. A "24V" Panel - which is what most large panels are - can have a Voc of twice that, around 40V.
2) If you have multiple panels, they must be connected in Parallel only, and never in Series. Any panels connected in Series will result in the Voc's of the panels adding up and so will exceed the limit.
It is perfectly fine to have a run of Solar Panels in parallel and they will perform fine, but you have to ensure they will never get connected in Series (this is rarely a limit with standalone MPPT Controllers)

The Voc limit of the Votronic above is 36V, which is pretty typical of these combos.
Depending on how the units are designed, exceeding the voltage will either just cause it to:
a) shut down while the overvoltage is occuring
b) blow a fuse and will work again once fuse replaced
c) blow the unit up. Goodnight sweetheart.

No idea if the Votronic is a), b) or c) but I wouldn't want to find out which one in practice

 

[MarkJ]

Right, noted. Mind you, I don’t suppose it’s worse than the EBL fitted in my current van - seems very fragile to me.

I had been attracted to Victron stuff, liking the idea of integrated solutions for control and monitoring, but didn’t think they did a b2b charger. But I just came across this:

Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC Charger Isolated - Victron Energy

The Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC charger is a professional DC to DC adaptive 3-stage charger with built-in Bluetooth. For use in dual battery systems in vehicles...

www.victronenergy.com

Not sure what ‘isolated’ means though.

 

[wildebus]

Right, noted. Mind you, I don’t suppose it’s worse than the EBL fitted in my current van - seems very fragile to me.

I had been attracted to Victron stuff, liking the idea of integrated solutions for control and monitoring, but didn’t think they did a b2b charger. But I just came across this:

Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC Charger Isolated - Victron Energy

The Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC charger is a professional DC to DC adaptive 3-stage charger with built-in Bluetooth. For use in dual battery systems in vehicles...

www.victronenergy.com

Not sure what ‘isolated’ means though.

The Smart B2B is a very new product from Victron.
It looks pretty good and it is Bluetooth compatible so can be configured and monitored using the Bluetooth App like the other Smart Products. It is also a decent price, especially for a Victron unit
The current potential downside (for me anyway) is that it doesn't have a VE.Direct Port so cannot be monitored by the Venus OS and VRM setup. This will be in a later version Victron say. As it physically does not have that circuitry, it would mean if you did want that feature (admittedly the great proportion of buyers will not care) you would need to change the unit.
Personally I am waiting for the VE.Direct version to try but I would say it is a nice charger as it stands and would certainly not hesitate to tell customers to consider it.


Isolated means you don't have to have a common ground - there is a +ve and -ve in, and a +ve and -ve out, and the -ve's are not directly connected on Isolated units. For a Vehicle, not that important generally (this is a feature for a boat really I would say).

Another all-in-one unit available from a respected manufacturer is the Redarc BMS30 - another Mains/Solar/B2B combo but also with an integrated Battery Monitor. Again not a cheap unit by any means and just like all the other Combos, the Solar Panel input Voltage is limited.