Fogstar Drift, Sterling and Victron shunt

[Insider]

I have a 300Ah Fogstar Drift, a sterling B2B1260, a victron 75/15 with 180W of solar and a victron 712 shunt. All working perfectly except for one small area. I bring my van for a drive every week and not wanting to keep the fogstar at 100% charge I have turned off charging via the fogstar app. This means that the voltage from the Sterling is at 14.4V and my shunt goes to 100% SOC everytime making it useless. If I leave charging turned on via the fogstar app then everything is perfect and the shunt works a dream. I don't see a way around this unless I put a switch on the output of the sterling. Any suggestions? Below are are my shunt setting.

 

[jwells]

Leave it all turned on and doing it's job as designed to do!

 

[AdrianChen]

Can you not just turn off the sterling, or remove its d+ or negative connection?

 

[Speve]

Have you not got a button on the battery to turn it off? I have a 300a Drift pro with a button the battery goes int storage mode when turned off

 

[Insider]

Leave it all turned on and doing it's job as designed to do!

Yes - everything is working but long term when not in use the battery should not be held at 100% - fogstar recommend 40 to 50%. Will it make a difference over the life of it? Probably not but it cost the bones of €1000 so it gets a cuddle every night!

Can you not just turn off the sterling, or remove its d+ or negative connection?

The disadvantage of the sterling is the interface is button only and it's horrible. Therefore not possible to easily disable it via the interface if at all. Not using d+ to instigate charging as I'm 2016 and so once it sees a rise in vehicle battery it starts. If I remove the negative connection then I'd have to reprogram the sterling upon connection and it's also awkard to do. Only option I'm seeing is a switch on the negative or positive output on the sterling.

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[Lenny HB]

D+ is a much better and reliable way to operate a B2B, if you rely on voltage sensinf you will find when you have good solar inout (or mains charger) the B2B will turn on due to the starter battery receiving a charge.

Once you have rewired it for D+ operation easy to fit a switch inline with the D+.
Your B2B setting of 14.4v is a bit high for a Fogstar I have all my chargers set to 14.25v.

 

[Insider]

D+ is a much better and reliable way to operate a B2B, if you rely on voltage sensinf you will find when you have good solar inout (or mains charger) the B2B will turn on due to the starter battery receiving a charge.

Once you have rewired it for D+ operation easy to fit a switch inline with the D+.
Your B2B setting of 14.4v is a bit high for a Fogstar I have all my chargers set to 14.25v.

Never had an issue with voltage sensing but yes D+ with a small switch on the dashboard would be a way more effective way of maintaining control and relatively easy to install as the wiring can be 1.5mm etc. I've a battery master trickle charging the vehicle battery and in my mind that the only way of charge reaching it other than the alternator. The default profile on the sterling is 14.4V and while a sterling can be given a custom profile I dislike and distrust the interface - why oh why did they not put a simple and probably cheaper lcd on the device. Given that everything else is Victron and that I also have a 20A Victron mains charger I think it might be time to bite the bullet and get the Orion XS.

 

[Lenny HB]

Well worth going for the Orion XS, last sterling I had, I binned.