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Simon Phillips asked

Smart solar 150/100 with Tristar Diversion controller settings

Hello all

I plan to use a Morningstart Tristar pwm diversion controller in solar system with a Victron 150/ 100 MPPT to divert excess energy to a DC immersion heater . I am struggling to understand the settings esp on the morning star. The manual and vids for Tristar suggest that it should be set to absorb above the absorb level of the Victron ( in my case with Victron AGM's this would 14.4 V for Victron and 14.6v for Tristar my question is if Victron holds voltage at 14.4 and decreases current as it does in absorb. Am I right in thinking the voltages will never reach the Tristar diversion threshold so will never divert anything . And it If I set tristar at 14.4 v will there be anything to divert as Victron will be trying to drop the current in absorb ? Does anyone have any experience of this set up and ant advice on level to set Tristar at ?

regards Simon

MPPT Controllerssmart solar set-up helpsystem design
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espen avatar image
espen answered ·

You have not written any details about your system, so first of all: your Tristar controller and dump load needs to be scaled to handle all the power from the solarpanels/Victron MPPT and other charge sources.

On the Tristar, you set the correct battery charge voltages. On the Victron MPPT you set the absorption and float voltages above the absorption voltage you have set on the Tristar. (Also turn off temp. compansation on the Victron MPPT.)

The Victron MPPT will then always be in bulk(or off). the Tristar is handeling the correct battery charge and will divert excess power to the dump load.


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Simon Phillips avatar image
Simon Phillips answered ·

Thanks Espen , now I look at it I dont think this is going to work as I have a big array for a boat 1630 watts and biggest DC immersion I can get is 600 watts so while that i will be below 60A for Tristar it wont cover all the possible amps so could flood the batteries . Now I understand how it works I will find another way to handle the divert .

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espen avatar image espen commented ·

You can use several TS-60 in paralell. And you can use AC immersion heaters as dumploads. In the Tristar manual there is an explanation about how to calculate AC immersion heaters over to DC.

Else, Do you have an inverter, like Multiplus in your system? With a Multiplus you can have an immersion heater connected to AC Out2, and for example use an assistent to auto turn on/off ACout-2 based on SOC or bat.voltage. or use the Aux input on the multi to manually turn on/off ac out2, or you can also connect aux input on multi to for example relay on a bat.monitor or Venus to have a remote option to turn on/off. Or a combination off the options above.

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