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We have a 24v system for our off grid home, and we also have a few strings of LED landscape lights that are 12v hooked up to some car batteries around our property, completely isolated from our 24v main system. I'd like to integrate these strings into the Streetlight Function on our VE components so that these lights can draw 12v from the 24v system with a step-down converter, and be automated with the Streetlight Function.
Can anyone help me clarify how I can do that please?
Add a 24V-12V DC-DC converter. I use an Orion in my 24V off grid system. It has an integrated remote on/off switch.
https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Datasheet-Orion-DC-DC-converters-high-power,-non-isolated-EN.pdf
Connect your 12V lights to the 12V output of Orion.
Connect the LOAD output of 24V charge controller to the remote switch connector on the Orion. Configure Streetlight mode on the charge controller to switch Orion, and thereby ypur lights, on and off.
"Connect your 12V lights to the 12V output of Orion.
Connect the LOAD output of 24V charge controller to the remote switch connector on the Orion. Configure Streetlight mode on the charge controller to switch Orion, and thereby ypur lights, on and off."
Here's what's going on for me:
1. I have connected the lights to the 12v output of the Orion.
2. My 100/50MPPT does not have a LOAD output.
3. I do not see a "remote switch connector" on the Orion.
4. I can configure the settings on our VE 100/50 MPPT however there does not seem to be any way at all to connect them to it!
Please can you help me?
Are you thinking of using the load output of the solar regulator or did you have something else in mind?
Okay, so I've now tried and tried again and failed! I have purchased the Orion 24V-12V DC-DC converter (not the smart one), but my MPPT does not have a LOAD input on it... it's the 100/50 so I bought a 75/15 just to run the LOAD function on the 12v LED landscape lights that we have been running apart from our entire VE system/bank/array. No dice. The 75/15 has a LOAD output, and streetlight function but when I hooked it up I got an ERROR 66 on both it and my 100/50 MPPT. I do not know how to wire the 75/15 it would seem since it has BATT/PV/LOAD so knowing it needs power and will not be having solar panels attached to it, I wired the batteries to the input on the Orion > then the output on the Orion I connected to the PV of the 75/15 > then the lights we want to do the streetlight function were hooked into the LOAD outputs to power them. It worked, no problem but I could not get the 75/15 onto the VRM so I could see it and control it from the REMOTE CONSOLE (our entire reason for buying the Orion and second MPPT so it could connect to Cerbo GX and we could control the lights from anywhere).
All of this is getting frustrating and expensive. The store I bought the Orion and 75/15 and TX cable provides zero customer service for the things you buy there so I have no one to ask and they will not take these items back. This entire exercise has cost us about $700 so far and I'm discouraged.
I cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong here.
Please HELP!
The internal clock in the MPPT is very approximate and timed by input power from the panels. If you're driving it from an Orion with constant output it won't work as you want.
A couple of suggestions:
Add a 12V battery and small panel. Panel goes to 75/15, charge the 12V battery with the 75/15 and the Orion. Lights to the load terminals.
If you're clued up on microprocessors/arduinos, use one of these with an SPD to control the lights by switching the Orion on and off via the LH terminals. Sell the 75/15.
Use a timed relay driven by the 24V batteries or AC to switch the Orion on/off with LH terminals. This means fiddling with the relay clock every now and again. Sell the 75/15.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the comment. I’m not wanting the lights on constantly so no constant output required. I was doing as u suggested in the past with a mini circuit and it’s own battery but I upgraded to this system plan because I do not want to have a secondary little battery. We need to run the lights from our house bank, hence the Orion/75/15/TX cable so that we can have the lights fully automated and never run out of power as our house bank has good solar.
Help?
But whatever you do streetlight is simply on/off.
