question

laggerhead avatar image
laggerhead asked

Is there a secret stash of schematics somewhere???

I spent most of today going through Victron’s website and across the internet looking for a starting point for a schematic.

It seems like every person is having to reinvent the wheel for every single job. I see tons of schematics posted, but it’s usually people looking for feedback and they are not in finished state and done by people with an unknown level of expertise so I’m not comfortable using that as a starting point. I’m hoping to install lifepo4 batteries to replace my aging AGM‘s and of course will be updating much of the electrical systems at the same time.

I’m on a catamaran with two 120 amp Valeo alternators, four MPPT controllers for solar, and a portable generator that can feed shore power when needed. I’ll be putting in four 330 amp hour batteries, and likely 2 Multiplus II inverter/chargers, Cerbo GX MK2, Smart BMS, etc.

My needs are utterly common and would likely apply to many, if not the majority of sailing cats and yet I can’t find a good schematic anywhere.

Victron post schematics by product, but wouldn’t posting schematics by end use be helpful in informing customers what products they might need? Anyone has any good leads I would be grateful!

schematics
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2 Answers
Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image
Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) answered ·

Hi @Laggerhead,

There are a good range of system schematics available in the market segment of the website;

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Web_MARINE-Systems_2023_10.pdf

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Here is a diagram with 2 alternators, but since it was released we have released a new model Orion XS buck boost that would recommend instead of the one shown.

There are lots of cases where there are 'alternative' components that could be selected, and it really takes experience to know which one is the right one for which situation (or interaction with other system components).


The other excellent resource is the system schematics booklets, located in the technical information of the downloads page.

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There are literally billions of possible combinations, so the only way to find one that has your exact combination of devices is to pay an experienced system designer (or design it yourself).

There are lots of professional reference schematics available now from Victron though, so there should be a schematic available that covers 80% of the components for 80% of the types of installations. With some research, and experience its possible to combine those reference designs in the necessary long tail billions of potentials.

I agree that discoverability could be improved though. I'll have a think about that.


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laggerhead avatar image laggerhead commented ·

Thank you for that thorough response! I’ll dig around where you’ve recommended and see if I can find something close.

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wjf avatar image
wjf answered ·

@Laggerhead Have you come across this? https://www.victronenergy.com/support-and-downloads/systems Its a good start...


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laggerhead avatar image laggerhead commented ·

I spent a good amount of time clicking around there. Nothing dealing with 2 alternators. You would think they would have things like top five catamaran schematics, top 5 monohull schematics, top 5 RV schematics, etc.

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