question

Does anyone know how to receive technical support from Victon? Is there a telephone number I can use to reach an application engineer or a sales engineer?

The questions I previously posted (above) are not something I would expect a forum member to know the answers to, but I would expect that a Victron application engineer could track down the answers quite redily.

Where / how can I get answers for these questions? Do I need to go through a vendor / distributor to get answers to technical questions? Do Victron employees read these message boards? Thanks in advance for any help in figuring out how to get a response from Victron.

Reading through the Victron Community Support guidelines I discovered that this forum is apparently not intended to be answered by Victron staff and that I should contact a distributor with technical questions.

I will attempt to get answers to these questions through other channels, and, if I am able to do so, will post the answers here as I think they would be useful to other members - I do think that the questions above are very relevant to anyone considering using the buck-boost as part of an integrated Victron system (ideally these details should be part of the installation and technical documentation).

Here is the response I got from the excellent US-based distributor:

1. Does the buck-boost integrate with the CG controller - ie will the charging from the alternator that is controlled / facilitated by the buck-boost show up on the energy summary inside the CG controller or is it simply assumed to be a "DC load"?

The Buck-Boost has no integration with the other Victron components (it does not talk to the rest of the system) so the alternator would be shown as a "DC load"

2. Is there a way to change the settings of the buck-boost using one of the Victron components or do you have to use a windows computer and a USB cable to do so? Specifically, I would like the ability to increase the maximum allowed charging from the buck-boost in case of higher than normal demand for a short while and then change it back. Ideally this would be accomplished through the CG controller and not a windows computer.

The Buck-Boost has no integration with the other Victron components so changes would need to be made with a Windows PC

3. Where is the buck-boost output voltage (item 20 in the configuration screen) sensed? Is it at the output terminals of the buck-boost or at the battery. For example, I want to place the buck boost in the engine compartment next to the alternator and use the buck-boost to increase the voltage to 24 volts to charge a 24 volt Lithium battery. The cable run from the buck boost at the front of the vehicle to the battery in the back would result in a .4 volt loss along the cables when charging at maximum charge rate (and a small or zero voltage difference at low charging rate). Would the battery receive the voltage set in the buck-boost configuration (item 20), or would it see .4 volts less than this value? If the buck-boost does sense battery voltage and not output voltage, how is this information sent to the buck-boost?

The Buck-Boost has no integration with the other Victron components so the voltage is sensed at the Buck-Boost. Also there is no remote voltage sense input as found on some other DC to DC converters

As the Buck-Boost does not integrate in any way with the other Victron components I am going to investigate using a DC to DC converter from another manufacturer (with the remaining components from Victron) as there is another well-known DC to DC converter manufacturer that provides the same functionality for about half the cost.