Technical Diesel Alternator upgrade

[Reg 65]

Well I tried the victron app but my chromebook wouldn't locate either, and it kept freezing I looked on the reviews of the victron app for chromebook and a lot of people were having problems with it. Wheras everybody liked the victron hardware.
I'm just using a voltmeter plugged into the cig lighter which I also use to monitor the smart alternator. I can see the voltage of the battery bank rise depending on how much sun there is. But we rarely see the sun here at the moment and when we do its so low its just skimming the surface of the panels.

 

[deejays]

I have been using the Victron app for some years now - without issue. I am using a Samsung Android phone. The Victron Smart Shunt monitors time and charge/discharge current to provide you with an accurate indication of battery state of charge - AH used, AH left, time left at existing discharge rate etc. Well worth having - I see it as an essential part of the off-grid experience. I live in southern Australia, and today the temperature got to 42C!!! Bloody Hell - actually!

 

[Reg 65]

, I disconnected the sense wire from the negative battery terminal as I was sick of the start/stop mechanism.

My start stop started working today for the first time in 4 years. (2021 Ducato Euro6) I guess it must be the solar panels I have just added that are keeping the 510ah battery bank fully charged. So I also disconnected the sense wire from the negative battery terminal. That brought on an error message on the dashboard panel saying the start stop is not working. So I reconnected the sense wire which gets rid of the dashboard message but activates the start stop again. There was a guy on ebay selling a gadget that electronically presses the button disabling the start stop. But its not there now.

 

[lycopersicum]

Two resistors (and a fuse) -- or, actually, a bunch of diodes -- could be used to present a slightly lower voltage on the sense wire and trick the start stop into thinking the battery is not full. But I have no idea of the consequences this could have eg overcharging.

Alternately you could configure your Victron controller to lower the float or absorption voltage -- this will decrease the effective capacity of the battery, but maybe not enough to matter? Depends how low you have to go.

 

[deejays]

My start stop started working today for the first time in 4 years. (2021 Ducato Euro6) I guess it must be the solar panels I have just added that are keeping the 510ah battery bank fully charged. So I also disconnected the sense wire from the negative battery terminal. That brought on an error message on the dashboard panel saying the start stop is not working. So I reconnected the sense wire which gets rid of the dashboard message but activates the start stop again. There was a guy on ebay selling a gadget that electronically presses the button disabling the start stop. But its not there now.

It would be worth testing the effect of disconnecting the sense wire. It should disable the stop/start and also give you a fixed voltage output on the alternator. If so, then the ideal system would be to place a DC2DC in the system so that the starter and house batteries are isolated from each other and both correctly charged. If the Ducato behaves similar to the AUDI S4 and just nags you with a stop/start warning and nothing else, it may be the way to go.