2k inverter install on 32A10

[Tropical Tom]

Very nice layout & workmanship! Your skills, ingenuity, & patience are paying off! Good work! 👍🤔🍀🌞

Thanks, I'm satisfied with it but have now seen so many layouts that are better that I grade on a different curve.

I bought this stuff and the kits for installation from explorist.life and after watching MANY of Nate's videos I'm pretty sure he would find nits to pick.

On boats, I have sanded connectors before, getting rid of corrosion to get a good connection. I suspect Nick's reaction to a connector that I sanded would be to toss it. He sands down brand new copper, and because that's not good enough, he then wipes it with alcohol. There's no way I'm doing either of those things.

 

[Flyer32RLS]

Thanks, I'm satisfied with it but have now seen so many layouts that are better that I grade on a different curve.

I bought this stuff and the kits for installation from explorist.life and after watching MANY of Nate's videos I'm pretty sure he would find nits to pick.

On boats, I have sanded connectors before, getting rid of corrosion to get a good connection. I suspect Nick's reaction to a connector that I sanded would be to toss it. He sands down brand new copper, and because that's not good enough, he then wipes it with alcohol. There's no way I'm doing either of those things.

I'm not very confident in some of the things that Nick says to do on his video's. Question some of his suggestions.

 

[Tropical Tom]

The fuses that I ordered were originally supposed to come Monday, then the USPS site started saying Saturday by 9 pm, which it was still saying at 8:50 pm. That didn't happen. Monday it was, despite the update getting my hopes up.

Late Monday, too, so it was pretty darn hot here in SW FL when I set about making final connections and powering up. I did some bumbling around trying to pair things to the app on my phone. It would have been helpful if they told me to read PIN numbers off the sides of things BEFORE I installed them in awkward and inaccessible positions. At one point, the red ALARM light on the inverter started flashing and I heard clicking like a contact being made/broken. I wondered if it was because I was trying to pair without a readily accessible PIN.

Nope. It was the heat. When I got it paired, the alarm on the app said "high temperature alarm" and noted the time. Elsewhere in the app, it said that my battery temperature was 36 degrees Celsius.

Hmm... In the manual, it said that the battery temp sensor was optional so I didn't install it. My batteries are Bluetooth and i can see their temperature and the state of each cell, so after a brief argument with the Department of Redundancy Department, I decided that two temp sensors were not necessary.

Or maybe they are? The ACTUAL temp of my batteries was 32 Celsius. Why the app thought it knew battery temp without a battery temp sensor installed is beyond me.

Or maybe the high temp alarm wasn't about the batteries at all? I assume the inverter has sensors in it too, so maybe the alarm was about the inverter being too hot, not the batteries? I don't know and the alarm message wasn't specific.

Anyway, it seems to be working as an inverter and a charger and I'm working on understanding the app and eventually may hook up my laptop with the USB dongle and "configurator" program, if I figure out why I should do such a thing. I will probably install the battery temp sensor just out of curiousity.

 

[Oregon_Camper]

.... and eventually may hook up my laptop with the USB dongle and "configurator" program, if I figure out why I should do such a thing. I will probably install the battery temp sensor just out of curiousity.

Because the default programming will most likely be for AGM and not lithium. You will need to go into setting and update the charging profile to match your batteries.

 

[Tropical Tom]

Because the default programming will most likely be for AGM and not lithium. You will need to go into setting and update the charging profile to match your batteries.

Yes, it says in the manual that you can use dip switches to get a lithium profile, so I did.

But it ALSO says that you can use "VE.Bus Quick Configure Setup" and a little USB dongle to connect a laptop. And do further setup? I guess.

I have the USB dongle and a laptop and could go download the program, but then what? I'm not sure what else, if anything, is needed.

 

[M and E]

Yes, it says in the manual that you can use dip switches to get a lithium profile, so I did.

But it ALSO says that you can use "VE.Bus Quick Configure Setup" and a little USB dongle to connect a laptop. And do further setup? I guess.

I have the USB dongle and a laptop and could go download the program, but then what? I'm not sure what else, if anything, is needed.

Hi. Noticed you said you are in SWFL. We are too, Estero, inland...not the island.

 

[Tropical Tom]

Hi. Noticed you said you are in SWFL. We are too, Estero, inland...not the island.

We live east of Punta Gorda on Shell Creek.

Here's my almost finished installation. It's working and I'm now doing experiments to find out just how long 216 amp hours of lithium batteries don't last. In almost 24 hours running just the 12 volt fridge and the inverter with no load, half my battery capacity is gone.

Soon I'm going to pull it out and let the sun hit the solar panel and see what that does. It's a 400 watt factory installation.

 

[M and E]

We live east of Punta Gorda on Shell Creek.

Here's my almost finished installation. It's working and I'm now doing experiments to find out just how long 216 amp hours of lithium batteries don't last. In almost 24 hours running just the 12 volt fridge and the inverter with no load, half my battery capacity is gone.

Soon I'm going to pull it out and let the sun hit the solar panel and see what that does. It's a 400 watt factory installation.

Not far at all! We’re going to that new resort up there next week for two weeks. Change of scenery and finalizing our work from the rig strategy. But it’s close enough for Elane to make it back for her tennis stuff here in the subdivision.

 

[M and E]

We live east of Punta Gorda on Shell Creek.

Here's my almost finished installation. It's working and I'm now doing experiments to find out just how long 216 amp hours of lithium batteries don't last. In almost 24 hours running just the 12 volt fridge and the inverter with no load, half my battery capacity is gone.

Soon I'm going to pull it out and let the sun hit the solar panel and see what that does. It's a 400 watt factory installation.

You did all the work yourself?

 

[Oregon_Camper]

.......... now doing experiments to find out just how long 216 amp hours of lithium batteries don't last. In almost 24 hours running just the 12 volt fridge and the inverter with no load, half my battery capacity is gone.

Yep...you will use a little over 100 amp hours per day, for frig only. Here is the test I did in our barn, with no sunlight on our solar panels.

12v Refrigerator Battery Power Test

** Ignore if you saw this on the Alliance Facebook groups...but some folks here don't use Facebook ** I wanted to figure out just how much power our Norcold 12 refrigerator uses in 24-36 hour period. With our Alliance 340RL parked in our barn, so it is getting no solar power, I turned the...

alliancervowners.com

 

[Tropical Tom]

What are the white ones? The green ones? The yellow one?

Per Carter at Alliance, Green face – 30 amp, White face – 50 amp, Yellow face – 20 amp.

 

[Tropical Tom]

You did all the work yourself?

Yes.

 

[Tropical Tom]

Yep...you will use a little over 100 amp hours per day, for frig only. Here is the test I did in our barn, with no sunlight on our solar panels.

12v Refrigerator Battery Power Test

** Ignore if you saw this on the Alliance Facebook groups...but some folks here don't use Facebook ** I wanted to figure out just how much power our Norcold 12 refrigerator uses in 24-36 hour period. With our Alliance 340RL parked in our barn, so it is getting no solar power, I turned the...

alliancervowners.com

That's about what I'm finding: the fridge and inverter bring my 216 amp hour bank down to 43% in 24 hours with no sun.

We're staying two nights at a place this summer with no power and no generators allowed. I'm hoping we're in a sunny spot or it won't go well!

 

[Flyer32RLS]

I'm hoping we're in a sunny spot or it won't go well!

Google Earth and you can see for sure.

 

[Lantley]

That's about what I'm finding: the fridge and inverter bring my 216 amp hour bank down to 43% in 24 hours with no sun.

We're staying two nights at a place this summer with no power and no generators allowed. I'm hoping we're in a sunny spot or it won't go well!

And this is the conundrum of the 12 volt fridge. they may not pose the fire threat of LP fridges, but they also may not work when not plugged in without further modifications and/investment.

 

[M and E]

That's about what I'm finding: the fridge and inverter bring my 216 amp hour bank down to 43% in 24 hours with no sun.

We're staying two nights at a place this summer with no power and no generators allowed. I'm hoping we're in a sunny spot or it won't go well!

We have Solar and 20KWH batteries on the house. It's a 14.5 Kwh array so not really the same as an RV. That said even on very cloudy and even rainy days the batteries charge pretty quickly. I know nothing about RV solar, but wishing you luck! Good job on doing all that work yourself!

 

[Whitey]

You did a great job.

I really like that spot for my griddle, so I'm going to try to mount mine on the back wall above the battery box.
Two pieces of plywood (covered in black cloth) stacked vertically, back plywood will have inverter, front plywood Lynx Distributer, fuse, switch etc.

Anyway... that's the plan

 

[Tropical Tom]

Google Earth and you can see for sure.

I did and the answer turned out to be... complicated. Lots of trees, some sun, but...

My wife looked and there was a site with power available, so she tried to book it. The system wouldn't let her because we already have a site reserved for those days and you can't have two, I guess. So she cancelled our reservation and went to get the site with power, but it had disappeared! We now think possibly because it had been in her shopping cart and that makes sites remain unavailable for 15 minutes. But there was this OTHER site with power that was almost long enough for our rig, so she lied and said we were shorter than we are. Then the story started to get complicated and I lost the plot, but the bottom line is: we will have power at every site on our 6 week summer trip.

So I could have done this at a cooler time of year. But anyway...

 

[Tropical Tom]

And this is the conundrum of the 12 volt fridge. they may not pose the fire threat of LP fridges, but they also may not work when not plugged in without further modifications and/investment.

Or at least some sun. Pulling my camper out into the sun, it more than kept up with the fridge.

It looks like our system will be OK for boondocking but we'll either have to run a generator for an hour or two a day or be very, very careful about power. I don't mind running a generator if it's allowed. We have a pair of the little Honda's that can be wired together to make one bigger generator if needed for air conditioning.

 

[Tropical Tom]

Two pieces of plywood (covered in black cloth) stacked vertically, back plywood will have inverter, front plywood Lynx Distributer, fuse, switch etc.

Most campers seem to have dark gray carpet and you want to go black. As you saw, I just left my plywood bare. I would strip all that carpet off all wood because it can conceal moisture and rot. Of course, then you're looking at old plywood and particle board, which doesn't go well at a show.

I don't care how the insides of compartments look, but I would go the other way and paint/carpet everything in white. I'm... um... of a certain age and have found that, in my dotage, I wish people would turn up the darn lights! To operating room levels! Making the interior of my storage compartments and my garage black is NOT helping! Cataract surgeries helped but the world is a lot dimmer than when I was young.

But you do you!