Routing the Cable to install a EcoFlow 800w Alternator Charger

[Vinczz]

Whoops. I missed that you had a Beach. I ended up connecting mine to the an open connector behind a 100 fuse on the positive bus bar, also under the passenger seat.

Like you, I have it set to the default 13V, and it's been working PERFECTLY. Expectations exceeded! When the smart alternator rolls back the current (if the leisure battery is already topped up), I can just invoke Max. Charge (a T6.1 feature, but I think there are tricks to impose this on a T6?) and the alternator goes back to pushing 14.4+ volts, and charges the EF in a jiffy. HOWEVER, I really haven't needed to do that at all. It's all just self-managed perfectly. I also have been getting the full 800W (in both directions!), but have scaled it back to 400W for day-to-day, and can crank it up if/when needed. I figure the car has a built in 300W inverter, so pulling 400W from the EcoFlow (while not using the inverter) should be keeping the alternator load within VW expectations.

Adding this has also added an amazingly fast and useful electricity hookup to my Beach. When camping this weekend, I plugged in the EF Delta to AC, and set the Alternator Charger to Reverse Charge, and both the EF Delta and Leisure AGM were topped up in just a bit over an hour (the Delta was down to 20%, and the AGM ~ 50% _usable_)

Triggering the max charge (on T6.1) is not so good if the leisure batteries are already 100% charged. Ideally, the California should have a float mode for the leisure batteries. The problem is that if the leisure batteries are 100% charged, their voltage is around 12.7V. If we set the start voltage of EAC to 13.0V, the Ecoflow battery will not be charged.
I tested the start voltage of EAC with 12.6V and it looks to work perfectly because the EAC is intelligent, it will quickly stop charging if the voltage is lowered. EAC adapts automatically the charge power to avoid emptying the connected battery (leisure in my case). This setting works also great with my solar panel. If there is not enough sun, the EAC will not empty the leisure battery, it will just take the few available watts.

 

[jaydisc]

Triggering the max charge (on T6.1) is not so good if the leisure batteries are already 100% charged. Ideally, the California should have a float mode for the leisure batteries. The problem is that if the leisure batteries are 100% charged, their voltage is around 12.7V. If we set the start voltage of EAC to 13.0V, the Ecoflow battery will not be charged.
I tested the start voltage of EAC with 12.6V and it looks to work perfectly because the EAC is intelligent, it will quickly stop charging if the voltage is lowered. EAC adapts automatically the charge power to avoid emptying the connected battery (leisure in my case). This setting works also great with my solar panel. If there is not enough sun, the EAC will not empty the leisure battery, it will just take the few available watts.

Yes, if Leisure is EXACTLY at 100%, Max Charge could overcharge it, but pretty much between 80-100%, an intelligent charger would be charging Leisure at a Varta recommended "absorption" voltage of 14.8V. So, there is nothing to fear from Max Charge unless Leisure is exactly 100% and has been, which should be pretty rare unless you've already been running Max Charge, and in that case, the EcoFlow be fully charged too.

So if you are in that (what I expect to be) rare situation where you're at exactly 100% on Leisure, reducing the EAC Start Voltage below 12.8 will get it working, but a healthy, fully-charged Leisure should be at 12.8V once the car stops, and with Start Voltage at 12.7V, it will use 5-10% of its charge to charge the EcoFlow before pausing when it dips below 12.7V.

Even if your battery is a bit more aged, and a full charge is 12.7V, it's probably still not a good idea, especially if you have solar. Here's why with solar:

Here is a screenshot of what happens when receiving ~200W of solar with the EAC set to 12.7. What you can observe is that the Leisure battery PARTICIPATES in charging the EAC (note the Leisure Power Out is 23W):



Inversely, with the Start Voltage at 12.9, there is overhead remaining so the EAC is not stealing charge from Leisure, AND the Leisure has enough headroom to also receive a light charge while the EAC hogs most of it:



So yeah, if you want to micro-manage Start Voltage (I do!), know the risks, but for anyone else, don't set Start Voltage below 12.9V.

 

[Aspire4969]

@jaydisc, nice dashboard. I might nick that

 

[Vinczz]

Yes, if Leisure is EXACTLY at 100%, Max Charge could overcharge it, but pretty much between 80-100%, an intelligent charger would be charging Leisure at a Varta recommended "absorption" voltage of 14.8V. So, there is nothing to fear from Max Charge unless Leisure is exactly 100% and has been, which should be pretty rare unless you've already been running Max Charge, and in that case, the EcoFlow be fully charged too.

So if you are in that (what I expect to be) rare situation where you're at exactly 100% on Leisure, reducing the EAC Start Voltage below 12.8 will get it working, but a healthy, fully-charged Leisure should be at 12.8V once the car stops, and with Start Voltage at 12.7V, it will use 5-10% of its charge to charge the EcoFlow before pausing when it dips below 12.7V.

Even if your battery is a bit more aged, and a full charge is 12.7V, it's probably still not a good idea, especially if you have solar. Here's why with solar:

Here is a screenshot of what happens when receiving ~200W of solar with the EAC set to 12.7. What you can observe is that the Leisure battery PARTICIPATES in charging the EAC (note the Leisure Power Out is 23W):

View attachment 146823

Inversely, with the Start Voltage at 12.9, there is overhead remaining so the EAC is not stealing charge from Leisure, AND the Leisure has enough headroom to also receive a light charge while the EAC hogs most of it:

View attachment 146824

So yeah, if you want to micro-manage Start Voltage (I do!), know the risks, but for anyone else, don't set Start Voltage below 12.9V.

Thank you!
I’m impressed with your dashboard!
How did you make it?

 

[Aspire4969]

Thank you!
I’m impressed with your dashboard!
How did you make it?

Looks like he's using Ecoflow integration into home assistant. I'm using this one but there are a few out there I think. https://github.com/tolwi/hassio-ecoflow-cloud

 

[jaydisc]

Hey guys, rather than get too off-topic, I made a Home Assistant thread:

Home Assistant

I thought I'd make a thread to share what I'm doing with Home Assistant and my California, and encourage others to also share their setup, ideas, issues, etc. relating to Home Assistant. So, here's a couple desktop screenshots of my dashboards (obviously these just scale down to 1-column on a...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

I WAS using EcoFlow cloud, but the HA EF BLE integration has had a lot of development recently, and uses Bluetooth, so internet/cloud resilient!

 

[Jules Russell]

Hi, has anyone successfully installed an EcoFlow 800w alternator charger in a Cali Ocean 6.1, routing the cable from cabin area via firewall to the Starter battery, I’m struggling to start this myself, I would appreciate any guidance or suggestions for this to be done by a competent auto electrician
Regds
Mike

Hello,
I have a T5.1 and bought the Ecoflow alternator charger on an Amazon prime event and my husband was going to fit it, but after a couple of months of it still boxed untouched, I approached Advanced In Car Technology in Poole for advice. They confirmed that they could fit it (I have used them previously to fit a multi function steering wheel and Alpine Halo 9 system & was really impressed with their work) and booked it in.
The alternator is mounted behind the passenger seat to the fixed cabinet and the charger sits between the 2 front seats when charging.
The company are very professional and workmanship is second to none and am very pleased with the outcome.
They are 175 miles away from my address, but combined a holiday with the fitting so it was more cost effective to travel there.
You can see their YouTube videos for reference.
I hope that this helps
Best wishes,
Jules

 

[neogeowu]

this is my car

 

[Vinczz]

Did you drill a hole in the inner lateral wall?