New updated Victron Orion 50A DC-DC Charger

[a892374923874]

Thought I'd share that I recently swapped my DC-DC charger to the newest model from Victron launched last year. I have also swapped over the original EHU charger connections to charge the engine battery not the leisure battery. The Leisure battery is a lithium 125Ah.

• The old model would charge at a fixed rate of 30A, which was not configurable. It also generated considerable heat.
• The new Orion has fully adjustable charge rates up to 50A, is much smaller, lighter, connects to a Cerbo GX and generates almost no heat.
• It also proportionally reduces the charge current if the source voltage reduces towards a configurable value, and switches off below this value. This is brilliant.
  • It means that when the engine is on, the leisure battery charges at full rate - 50A.
  • When the engine is off, and the mains charger is charging the engine battery at approx 15A, the leisure battery starts charging. As the source voltage stabilises, the new Orion reduces the leisure battery charge rate down to match what the mains charger is capable of. In this case 15A.
    • This means the engine battery gets properly charged via the OEM charger.
    • The leisure battery gets properly charged by the Orion which has a lithium profile.
    • The OEM charger charges the AGM engine battery. It does not need replacing or a lithium profile. This is great in my Beach, because accessing the mains charger is tricky and needs a lot of trim panel removal.

In summary, I'm very pleased with the new DC-DC charger. Hopefully this is useful info to someone.

 

[Aspire4969]

Nice. So you’ve left the factory DC—DC charger in place but the feed that would normally charge the leisure battery now feeds the supply for the Orion? Or are you taking a feed before the factory DC-DC charger?

I presume that the leisure batteries still charge up when on ehu?

 

[a892374923874]

There's no DC-DC charger or Lithium as standard in my 2019 Beach. I swapped out the factory AGM leisure battery for a 125aH LiFePO4 and replaced the split charge relay under the passenger seat with an older version of the Victron DC-DC charger. This thread has my original upgrade.

For EHU charging, there is a factory charger, which is difficult to get at in the Beach. It is also designed for AGM not LiFePO4, which means it would try to overcharge my expensive new leisure battery. The 12V charge cable from it terminates under the passenger seat, so it was easy to move it across to charging the AGM engine battery.

The DC-DC charger is fed from the engine battery, but it only starts charging the leisure battery when the engine battery voltage is over about 13V, or when the wire energising the old split charge relay is active. So, basically, when the engine is running, or the mains charger is on.

 

[Aspire4969]

sorry yes of course I meant split charge not dc-dc charger.

I see now. Makes sense. Quite an elegant work around.

 

[Betsycalifornia]

Does your control panel still show the voltages etc? Thanks.

 

[a892374923874]

No VW control panels in the Beach, apart from a tiny one to control the diesel heater. I have a Cerbo GX which runs Node Red and use a Node Red Dashboard running on an old phone to show me Solar PV, State of Charge, Consumption, Engine Battery voltage, Alternator charge current and cumulative daily values.

 

[egena]

Appreciating this was last year but wanted to share and support the upgrade from the Victron Orion Tr 12/12/30amp to the newer Orion XS 12/12/70amp.
The 30amp unit is excellent and works very well but the newer model (50amp or 70amp) are super tiny, generate half the heat and work flawlessly up to their 50amp or 70amp range.
Not only that, but they also allow you to configure how much it pulls from the alternator as well as how much it delivers to the batteries.
Its quite a fabulous thing!
Handy Tip: VW fit the California with 16mm² (5 AWG) cables that can comfortably handle the loads up to 70amps. Just ensure the battery, or any extras you do, use 16mm² minimum and have a 80amp fuse on each battery terminal for safety.
Sounds daunting but its a very simple process, truly.

 

[wildslammer22]

Appreciating this was last year but wanted to share and support the upgrade from the Victron Orion Tr 12/12/30amp to the newer Orion XS 12/12/70amp.
The 30amp unit is excellent and works very well but the newer model (50amp or 70amp) are super tiny, generate half the heat and work flawlessly up to their 50amp or 70amp range.
Not only that, but they also allow you to configure how much it pulls from the alternator as well as how much it delivers to the batteries.
Its quite a fabulous thing!
Handy Tip: VW fit the California with 16mm² (5 AWG) cables that can comfortably handle the loads up to 70amps. Just ensure the battery, or any extras you do, use 16mm² minimum and have a 80amp fuse on each battery terminal for safety.
Sounds daunting but its a very simple process, truly.

Another happy Orion XS user here, great bit of kit and the smaller form factor makes it pretty easy to fit under the seat. I’ve managed to fit it and a Victron 75/15 MPPT under my passenger seat along with 100ah LIFEPO4 battery.