I need a definitive answer from someone that really knows what they are talking about.
It’s always being bandied about that the solar panels must be disconnected before the batteries, otherwise the Victron SmartSolar MPPT Controller will be damaged. Well, I find it pretty hard to believe that this unit is designed to self-destruct if its outputs are disconnected from the battery by any means; fuse, switch or otherwise. before the solar panels are disconnected.
I want to use a common port BMS with a LiFePo4 battery setup, and from what I’ve read, the BMS will break the battery connection to the MPPT at some point which, in turn, will damage the MPPT charge controller.
I do know the manual for the SmartSolar MPPT 100|30 states “First: connect the battery. Second: connect the solar array (when connected with reverse polarity, the controller will heat up but will not charge the battery). Torque: 1,6 Nm” but, scratching around the net I found the website pkys.com, and in their right-up on the Victron SmartSolar they state “You need to make the battery connections first so it knows what battery voltage you have. In the programming you can tell it the battery voltage and then in the future it won't matter what order you make the connections”. Now is this statement correct? If it is correct all this stuff about damaging the charge controller is just people talking parrot fashion, and there is no problem using a common port BMS on this charge controller; so long as one does the initial battery voltage programming of the charge controller first!
Any engineers responsible for designing these Victron charge controllers on this board??????????
