Votronic solar charger.

Mr and Mrs Tupcox

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Hi help if any one has used this charger could you confirm if I connect negatives from hab and starter batt to the single negative connection point .
See pic.IMG_20201203_143459.jpgIMG_20201203_143619.jpg
 
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The Battery -ve is essentially the chassis in just about every setup, so it it just as the Votronic diagram shows ... +ve to Starter Battery.
Ignore the negative as you already have the -ve of the starter and the leisure connected together (via the chassis).
 
I moved to Votronic from a cheap dual channel pwm for which I had laid in a twin core cable direct to starter battery.
I could have used the negative from the nearby main psu but didn't because the leisure battery at that time was not 'directly' earthed to the chassis.
When I installed a high capacity split charge circuit I put a large earth cable c500mm long from leisure to chassis earth.
When installing the votronic I moved it from the psu area with a 5m long 4mm² connection to nearer the LB with 1.5m 6mm² supply.
I toyed with the idea of combining the two cores for starter to reduce voltage drop but as run had already been reduced by 5m and current is 1A max, decided that the hassle at battery end swapping over and linking to fuse wasn't really worth it.
I'm really pleased with the Votronic it strikes me as a bit of kit specifically designed for basic motorhome use.
 
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All wired up now ..time will tell if its any good .
Been speaking with the photonic universe today and wildebus has been very helpful to.
.
 
I think youll be happy with it - after I put mine in I saw LB much better voltages much faster and starter's been fine in these extended winter lay ups Covid has given us.
 
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Well happy this morning we have blue skies and sun.
And the new charger has done its job.
Last night . Both sets of battery banks was
inverter battery bank was 12.4 v
SB was 12.7 v

After few hr of morning sun
Both now at 13.4v using a test meter.
Just waiting delivery of the plug and play monitor which I said I would never buy..😂😂
 
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I have the dual 250 model, (next one down in size to yours) and i only have a positive to starter battery as per the diagram. So long as the starter and leisure battery banks all use a common earth it won't matter
 
Whats the Aes light for can not find anything about it on my instructions.
Now batts charged its come on
 
Auto energy selection. You can connect an AES compatible fridge to it and it will switch to 12V from gas when enough solar harvesting.
 
AES means Automatic Energy Selection and refers to fridges.
If you have an AES fridge you could connect it to the charger and when the batteries are full the fridge would run.
When the batteries drop back the fridge would revert to gas.
In effect now the batteries are full you can use the solar output for something else - could be a immersion heater for example.

Edit - Wildebus beat me to it - damn!
 
Here's the instructions - which make the point that AES output on the controller is really only intended to power a relay if heavy current is to be drawn.
 

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Hi help if any one has used this charger could you confirm if I connect negatives from hab and starter batt to the single negative connection point .
See pic.View attachment 57711View attachment 57712
I replaced a dual battery pwm controller with a 250w Votronic mppt one. As I had both +ve and -ve cables for starter battery there already, I connected both -ve's to the LB -ve just so that I didn't have a loose wire. As others have said, -ve's should be common (to chassis) so this shouldn't make any difference, just keeps the wires tidy.
 
Thanks all .
As my bank of batteries are not connected to the van in any way .they are just to run our inverter charged by solar only.
I contacted photonic universe technical department.explained my system and they told me to connect the neg from starter to the negative point with main bank .
As pic

1+11
 
Thats the one i now use and there superb, i bought mine after wildbus informed me my old german unit was a diode split charge regulater and not giving the 14.4 volts, he was correct and im charging along happy now even in dec. :)
 
Thats the one i now use and there superb, i bought mine after wildbus informed me my old german unit was a diode split charge regulater and not giving the 14.4 volts, he was correct and im charging along happy now even in dec. :)
Only Had few hr clear weather after fitting it. .and today is a fog out .but its found a few amps .😂
 
That's the power of MPPT at low light levels - having a large array must help.
 

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