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Hello
I have Orion-tr 12/12 30A connected to the starter battery of a 2021 Fiat Ducato. When the Orion is not charging I am getting constant input voltage of 12.6V when the van traveling at a constant 40 mph. When the Orion is charging I’m getting constant input voltage 11.8V when the van traveling at a constant 40 mph.
My question is 11.8v ok/normal for my vans starter battery to be this low and stay this low when the engine is running?
Possibly the alternator cannot take the load? Most alternators on vehicles are barely big enough to run their own electrics. Maybe drop your load on the vehicle side see if there are changes, eg lights fan aircon etc.
The input range is 10-17V on the orion.
Is the battery at that voltage or just the alternator output?
I'd guess it's normal and as the voltage is controlled by the ECU on smart alternators, there's little documentation on the web. I spent a few hours yesterday trying to find out more.
Giving a update as it may help some one in the future. I have been running one Orion-tr 12/12 30A for around 3 months with my vans starter battery going as low as 11.3 volts for several hours at a time and have had no problems.
Turn on the headlights or the airco to increase the voltage. Or ask a friendly workshop to set the alternator regulation to "police/taxi/fire engine"
New update. 11.3 volts is not normal.
So I needed to add a 2nd Orion-tr 12/12 30A as I was not getting enough charge from my solar during the winter in Europe. This did not work and I could smell burning. Long story short, I worked out that I had connected the negative wire on the alternator side to the wrong part of the van/battery. See photos. Red is where I had originally connected it. Green is the correct connection. Everything is working correctly now.
Engine shutdown detection with default setting works perfectly.
Getting a constant 13.2 volts when driving, and around 55 amps charge with the use of fans to keep the Orion-tr cooled.
i have installed 2 orion smart chargers 12/30 in parallel on a fiat ducato 2021 with smart alternator, hooked up exactly as you describe above but with wiring of 35mm2 cross section. when engine is off the starter battery reads 13v. when i start the engine, input voltage to orions shows 12.5-12.7V. despite reving up the engine i am not getting more than 12.7V, nowhere near to 14V default treshold value to start the smart chargers.
what are your smart chargers settings? if you are getting 13.2 V while engine running you must have set the chargers start up bellow this value then...
