Yoda's Victron MultiPlus and Solar Install - just hope I don't mess up.

[howson]

Very nice, clean work Keith.

Only question I have looking at the picture is related to the positive connection on the left side of the Distributor. Is there a way to protect it? All the rest of the positives look protected.

[Yoda]

Very nice, clean work Keith.

Only question I have looking at the picture is related to the positive connection on the left side of the Distributor. Is there a way to protect it? All the rest of the positives look protected.

Good catch
I can try and get a bit of heat shrink over it or get it taped. Any other suggestions?

[howson]

Yoda
I like working with heat shrink as it makes the final result look so clean. The goal is protection, but it's satisfying when it looks good, too, don't you think?

[bellis]

Yoda
I like working with heat shrink as it makes the final result look so clean. The goal is protection, but it's satisfying when it looks good, too, don't you think?

I strongly agree. Heat shrink provides great protection; is more resilient than tape, and makes it look like a pro job. Especially if you can get red for hot and black for negative...

[Yoda]

Very nice, clean work Keith.

Only question I have looking at the picture is related to the positive connection on the left side of the Distributor. Is there a way to protect it? All the rest of the positives look protected.

bellis

Does this look better?

It was a real Pain to get it over the bolt as all I had available was the 4/0 cable - tool several try's to stretch it out without tearing. I also installed the two negative battery cables to the Lynx poser in bar, Only connection left is for the MPPT positive feeds to the far right lug. Will work on that today so I can at least button up the Lynx.

Keith

[bellis]

bellis

Does this look better?

It was a real Pain to get ti over the bolt as all I had available was the 4/0 cable - tool several try's to stretch it out without tearing. I also installed the two negative battery cables to the Lynx poser in bar, Only connection left is for the MPPT positive feeds to the far right lug. Will work on that today so I can at least button up the Lynx.

Keith

Looks good to me!

[Jlawles2]

bellis This might be helpful in the future: https://www.amazon.com/Star-brite-Li.../dp/B0000AXNOD and it comes in colors.

[bellis]

bellis This might be helpful in the future: https://www.amazon.com/Star-brite-Li.../dp/B0000AXNOD and it comes in colors.

I have never seen that before. Thanks for sharing.

[Yoda]

Made some more progress yesterday.

First up. Used the ground bar I installed to fix the blue nut issue, I tried to drill in a straight line, but it is a bit cramped to get to this location.


I then wired in the MPPT power feeds going through their respecting circuit breakers to the Lynx power in bar- far right double connection . One is 10 awg PV wire and the other is 8 awg PV which is a real beast to work with. I found it is very brittle too. I wanted to double it over to use a larger 6 awg lug, but a lot of the wires broke when making the bend. I would say max bend is probably 90 degrees. The first MPPT controller is now fully wired and grounded.

Its tight but the Lynx cover still fits. I keep checking it as I add stuff. There is one more connection and that is the power feed fro the CERBO GX. That will be the last component I install.

I then wired in the power feed to my secondary fuse block that powers my CPAP 12V plugs and the reverse lights I added. I installed an inline 30A fuse for safety. Need to tie it up too.

However thanks to the picture I discovered I have a problem with the primary 2/0 power feed. Its racked off the bar due to being impinged on the next connection bolt to the right. I think I will move it to the right one space. There is a bit more room. I will probably haft to fight the cable a bit too. If I were do this over I will get a flag 2/0 lug - may do that anyway depending on how the fix goes.

Tomorrow I get the vacuum back out and clean up the metal shaving before proceeding. Then finish wiring the secondary fuse block and start on the SOO cable (120V) wiring. To do that I need to add bracing/hangers in the pass through to hold the cables straight and neat. But I need to find my rivet gun for that.

More later
Keith

[howson]

@yoda
I'm tired so maybe I'm not seeing this correctly--but why is the cable with the arrows I added so big? Looks like 2/0? Ultimately it's feeding the OEM 12v circuits that use a 6ga wire to power the original circuits in the trailer. What am I missing?

[Jlawles2]

Yoda Also why is the negative wire feeding the 5 negatives on the exposed bus so large?

Werre these left over cables just put to use?

[Yoda]

@yoda
I'm tired so maybe I'm not seeing this correctly--but why is the cable with the arrows I added so big? Looks like 2/0? Ultimately it's feeding the OEM 12v circuits that use a 6ga wire to power the original circuits in the trailer. What am I missing?

Your eyes are good it is 2/0. Its just what I had and was on the drawing earlier in the post. But you gave me an idea to make the connection work better. I have the old battery cables and they are in good shape so I can down size to the 6 awg and make it work from the switch. Could downsize going too the switch too. Thanks for catching that Howard
Keith

[Yoda]

Yoda Also why is the negative wire feeding the 5 negatives on the exposed bus so large?

Werre these left over cables just put to use?

Joseph - good question
It goes back to grounding the MultiPlus cabinet (chassis). There is a good discussion earlier in this thread on component grounding. In a nut shell the MultiPlus chassis (cabinet) needs a grounding cable the same size as the input power. This covers the ultimate disaster of the positive battery feed cable (4/0) shorting to the cabinet. With this size ground 4/0 the fuse will blow before wires melt, etc.

However based on the frame ground discussion, the MultiPlus chassis ground to the frame needs to be separated a ways from the negative buss bar ground to avoid any interference with power leakage that could affect the shunt. I also needed a new frame ground for the other component chassis ground MPPT controllers (one green wire installed in picture), etc. along with the birds nest of other grounds (GD factory white wires) that were hidden under the big blue nut buried in the foam I found. Why thydid not use a small buss bar I don't know. They used one elsewhere behind the distribution panel.

So I ran to the right with the MultiPlus cabinet ground to a home made frame ground bar, and will be going to the left with the negative buss bar frame ground (located below the MultiPlus) . Its pictured in another part of this thread. I am using the negative buss bar as the tie in point for all loads so the shunt sees them correctly.

Probably clear as mud. Let me clean things up and take a bigger picture so maybe you will see what I am up to. Howard's catch above will help.

If you or others have any other questions, please ask away. Its a work in progress.
Thanks
Keith

[Jlawles2]

So that copper bus bar is grounded to the Chassis? If so then that makes sense. It's hard to tell if the copper bus is frame grounded.

[Yoda]

So that copper bus bar is grounded to the Chassis? If so then that makes sense. It's hard to tell if the copper bus is frame grounded.

Yep those two big bolts are threaded (tapped) into the frame with backing nuts.