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Blue brand seems the rage. But I'm with you. I bought a model from "authorized dealer" to try out. Not impressed. Service/support is non-existence. Any questions result in use warranty and return it. However, they know blue is impossible to get warranty out of. Also performance is not good. What was the brand that you mentioned you were happy with?
If you haven't done one already, a "masterclass" on setting up your data integration system and custom equipment controllers would be awesome. Epic content as always sir!
It's my dream to someday have that display of information for my home and shop solar setups. I fully understand the technical aspects of the hardware and wiring, but when it comes to the Python programming I'm at a loss - it's completely outside my skill set.
I have never, and I mean, never seen this level of competence and intelligence on UA-cam. Combination of your electrical and mechanical professorial knowledge is legendary, and I treat diseases for a living. Kudos to you sir.
Wow! That's a s sweet install for sure - and I like the tongue and cheek name for your project. Your electronic controls are next level, Star Trek type stuff. I'm impressed with your coding skills too. We're old, retired FTers who designed and built our system ourselves, on a tight budget. It took us 5 years to gather the resources and finally complete the project, doing all the work ourselves. We started by building a 620-watt liftable solar array on the side of our motorhome, like you did. Your liftable panels are a little cleaner install, but we did ours while boondocking with no access to welders, a machine shop, etc. so everything was bolted-up with off the shelf items, like stainless steel gate hinges, gate latches, aluminum from Lowes, and was all fabricated by hand in the wilderness. Our array makes a nice bedroom window awning too, practically lifting itself with a couple 44" 80lb gas struts, like yours does, and it's easy to clean, standing safely on the ground. Next, we built a 12v, 560ah LiFePo-4 battery with 8, 280ah prismatic cells. We use a Heltec 330amp BMS with a 5a active balancer. We chose these cells rather than a pre-built battery because they fit perfectly under the steps of our MH where our old pair of golf cart batteries used to reside. We insulated the battery compartment, cut a small hole in our step risers and installed a tiny computer CPU fan to keep this space at close to room temperature, so we don't have to worry about the BMS shutting down charging due to low temperature - or their life reduced from getting too hot. Our 12v system uses an 80A Progressive Dynamics LFP converter/charger, a 1,000w Renogy inverter, a 50a Epever MPPT charge controller and a Lnex battery monitor. We built this entire 12v phase of our system for under $3,500. By mounting the solar array on the side of our coach, we left the roof free to rack 8, 550w solar panels, like you have, down the length of our 35ft Class A, 15" off our roof, above our AC, vents, etc. We built the rack out of 2" aluminum angle with the front 2 panels sloping down at a shallower 9.5-degrees to meet the roof, gently easing airflow over the array, making the RV more stable with less wind drag driving down the road too. It covers our entire roof, providing some nice shade with plenty of cooling air underneath, increasing solar output and reducing the heat load on the air conditioners too, though our overall height is still just under 12 ft. We mounted a Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W Inverter/100A charge controller/battery charger, breakers and a Lnex battery monitor on the wall in our bedroom, saving us space as well as money compared to a system with individual components. We chose this unit as it supports up to 500 volts and we have a 400 voc solar array. It can work without batteries and has a power saver mode that only uses 20-25 watts when idling. It's only $764 - not bad for a 5,000-watt PSW inverter (with the same 95% efficiency as a high-end "Blue" unit) and has 100amps of combined 48v battery charger/charge controller capacity. Our 48v battery uses 16, 320ah prismatic cells and a 200amp Heltec BMS to keep it safe. Together with our 560ah 12v bank, we have a total of 23.5 kwh of batteries onboard - kept charged by 5,020 watts of solar. This is the equivalent storage capacity as $16,650 worth of Battleborn batteries for under $3,400. We removed the rooftop A/C we had in the bedroom and replaced it with an EG4 28.5 seer-2, 12k btu mini-split heat pump on the upper rear of our motorhome, like yours is. It's super quiet and cools as well as our 14.5k btu soft start equipped Furrion we installed up front. This second phase provides 24/7 off-grid air conditioning and heat from the heat pump. We can run both A/Cs, microwave and charge our batteries from solar at the same time, even in winter. Last night we ran our heat-pump in heat mode all night (making up to 13k btus of heat) and our 48v battery was only down to 66% by morning. It will be full again by noon. We have a total of 6,000 watts of 120v inverted ac power, giving us off-grid electrical self-sufficiency without the need to run our generator, for a total budget of around $11,500, including the high-efficiency heat pump. Take care, we hope to see you down the road one day.
Great video. I was considering how to make “dumbo ear” panels myself. I’ll be interested to see how well they hold up in terms of the Panel construction vs road vibrations. Thanks again and safe travels!
Quality content as usual. Haven't been a sub for long, but these videos have been some of my favorite lately. Not a whole lot of RV channels talking about sniffing protocols to create custom python control code for big brand hardware!
UA-cam is a mind-reader. I was contemplating of what if you make an awning made of Solar panels to augment your solar input, and at the same time, providing a little bit of shade to your rig. and this video came up in my recommended videos. nice vid. thanks.
Although I don't subscribe, every time your video pops into my feed and I watch it, I'm always amazed. I don't think most folks realize how incredible talented you are. In fact, I doubt only a very small percentage of the population could half the stuff you do.
I have a couple of blue items in my system. Pretty low level - smart charger for my 12V battery, running off a 60A 48-12 DC-DC converter. And a smart shunt. The shunt tells me the real story (not nearly as well as the setup you have) of how the batteries are being charged. But the big story is that I priced the blue stuff for my primary solar controller/AC charging/inverter. 4X the cost, more parts, and about double the weight of an MPP Solar LV6548. No contest. The young DIY Solar Jedi had torture tested the LV6548 charging his Tesla, and reported good reliability there and knowledge of a history of reliable performance in other setups. So with that I went all in with MPP. Glad I did. It's been working great for going on 2 years now. Has demonstrated serious fault tolerance and protected itself from faulty (internally shorted) AC equipment inside the vehicle. I would do it the same if I had to do it over.
As always, congrats on the high quality of the Show, Video, Audio - and the eminent physical implementation of those new panels. So well thought out, and so well implemented. It makes it a joy watch. Lets hope that you will eventually get a chance to install a MPPT controller with the functionality that you had originally planned for. But kudos to make the most of the hand that was dealt to you. By the way: Awesome action view of the new suspension makeup. Very nice 👍 And what am intense, almost like birth by fire, for the mounting system of the new solar panels. So glad to hear that they survived those challenging roads.
Just when I think Im almost done with my build I look at videos like this and realise, I will never be finished...You can tell this guy is smart, he bought an Electrodacus over all the other much bigger and better advertised brands and as a bonus, gets better service from one guy than a whole company that charges 4x for all their products.
Next video, replacing the engine with a tesla motor and running it off our solar panels! Seriously though, this is really cool. Would be fun to automate the in and out process like the top panels but probably easier to just pop them open when you get to camp.
Great job. As I was watching, kept thinking, hmmm that step took some time and detailed planning. These thoughts happened over and over and over. You made a complex task look very straightforward, very well done sir!
Awesome video. I'm not sure how the bottom of the 100lb gas strut support will hold up with just 3-4 square inches of caulk as its fastener. But if it does fail it won't be a big deal, nothing damaged. I imagine it will happen traveling rather than setup for the night. Looks like a fun way to live
This guy is insane! for always making things possible when people would say otherwise. Love the effort and engineering you put into making everything work. Awesome!
The integrations and automation(not sure if those terms are used correctly?) you have set up are awe-inspiring. Combine that electrical and programming knowledge with clever fabrication ideas and skills, and you've created my favorite DIY camper on the web. Thank you for offering continuous inspiration and sharing your knowledge for free with those who watch.
Truly excellent super- van solar project video!! Congrats! Yours is the video I point to when discussing if my solar- powered van air conditioning is possible and viable. Thanks for taking the time to make this! Quick future project thought. Duplicate your roof setup on a trailer using separate power. Captures and uses extra unused power from main rig (if you want to link them) while using the trailer power for propulsion on flats and uphills, then regen on downhills. Great design chops and truly inspirational! I glossed the Python code section and may come back to it as I have been trying to find out how you did the panel mounting. Great job!
Similar to my intended solar install on my trailer, but all units will be adjustable for the angle of the sun. One advantage of covering your units roof with solar panels and side solar panels is shade. Helps to keep interior temps down. My build will also be fully electric and with a Mini-Split, but with the addition of a small Marine wood stove for off-grid winters. Thanks for the informative post.
So I go dry camping all the time. I can charge my electric mountain bike and run my heater and my coffee grinder and my satellite television and all of my lights and my coffee maker and I only need about 250 W of solar. But hey, if this is your full-time home you are doing excellent. I have lived off grid and designed and installed off grid power systems for about 24 years now. You've done a really nice job. And thank you so much for understanding the difference between power and energy and expressing the units properly throughout your video! It's so annoying when people mess it up. It's like saying I have a water system that does 60 psi per day. 😂
Great camera work in this one. I could tell y'all were moving fast and needed precision teamwork to knock this one out. Seeing the air suspension in motion has me all flustered, ngl!
After thinking about it, there are so many ways you can deploy all those panels for max solar input, depending on direction pointed, latitude, time of year, diodes in the panels to deal with shading, etc. it would be fun to see a production analysis in the future. Impressive engineering!
Woahhhhh!! Very impressive, your technical know-how is first rate. Think I felt a little faint when I saw your dashboard and you started talking about Python scripting ha ha huge kudos, thank you so much for posting!
This is so awesome, I never even thought this was possible. I'm also very impressed with the dashboard setup. And.. uh, a little worried about the "blue" MPPT charge controller I got. I've heard mixed reviews with Viktron's products and I'm really hoping I don't get--pardon the pun--burned on this one.
As always, congrats on the high quality of the Show, Video, Audio - and the eminent physical implementation of those new panels. So well thought out, and so well implemented. Glad to see You `ll Doing Well after all this time , Successful Hope People are Kind To You`ll.
Marvelous! I'm in the process of changing over to 920Ah LiFePO4 EVE cells and doubling my solar. Your videos have helped me so much. And yes, the blue guys' customer service is a victim of their own success. Once again. Thank you!
That is the way to go with solar panels over production with more panels. I have been doing that more kW panels than inverter can handle for 10 years on our house and nothing has broken yet. Very impressed of your setup.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I really appreciate the in depth install. For someone who wants to do a similar build eventually, this is so amazingly helpful. Hope to see you out on the trails one day!!
Outstanding Jason! I'm happy you're feeling better. Kara did a great job filling in. You'd better maintain your health, or she'll steal the show! :-) I would think you've added some redundancy, since the two new panels seem independent of the rooftop. Also looks like you'll pick up some shading on your sidewalls. Well done! Your Everlanders hat has found its place on my rack.
Finally someone mirroring my experience about that blue equipment. I'll never touch that brand again. Nice solar install, only wonder how much shading you have from the upper solar? Maybe in the future you can have a telescoping mounts so the shading is prevented.
Brilliant Engineering. Perfect understanding of the Appropriate principles to apply when designing. You are extremely resourceful with an Absolutely Incredible work ethic. I am so glad you are bouncing back healthwise. I thought I noticed some breathing and respiratory distress. Thank you for continuing to be the benchmark by which all other overlanders are judged. We hope you and your beautiful wife stay safe and healthy. Cheers from Michael. Australia.
Shit man, u always amaze me with your innovative ideas. You just flipped my plan upside down.Instead of using a double layer roof mounted slide out solar system, i'll now look into a single layer solar roof with side hinged panel extension that upon rotation the upper edge of the side solar panel will be side to side with adjacent roof panel. Thank you
Thanks for sharing your experience and you did a great job documenting concisely how you did it! I used these same size of panels but mine are 530 watts each and I installed five of them on the roof of my travel trailer to a total of 2,650 watts of rated solar. They've been doing great now for the last 2 years!
@@Everlanders from Santan Solar based out of Arizona. I didn't realize at the time how lucky I was to be able to buy the panels from them which they showed directly to my house because it must have been a pallet that they had for some reason and shortly after I got mine they unlisted the panels from their website and I've never seen them there since.
Great video as always and worth the wait. I am very appreciative for your mentions (and links) for the things you use like the thermal camera (been looking for a good solution for one) and trust in the "Jason uses it" stamp. I now have started planning on a similar solar system deployment , as it will have a side benefit (pun intended) to cover up the mass of windows I have on the bus when parking in town.
Yes, It's a really slick camera, being able to take a photo or video and save it straight to the phone and then send it to someone is a really helpful feature.
Fantastic video once again! If there was ever an idea for a show portraying what MacGyver did after he retired and decided to travel to South America I would show them on the pitch a few of your videos! Perhaps an idea for a future video from you - I'm absolutely intrigued on how you navigate travelling into different countries with your dog(hope he's better now) How do you navigate the countries quarantine(knowing some of these myself it's very lacklustre and almost non-existent) Thank You
Are you running Node Red? If so, there are a number of add-on nodes for the MPPT 'blue' kit that perhaps might have saved you some time... VE are strictly a B2B company, they spend lots on training for their distributors, but for sure control and quality of those distributors could be better. Many of them are only box shifters, If you in the market again, chose marine distributors, they are far more knowledgeable as they have been working with VE for some time, and generally have a better approach to customer service. Your MPPT getting hot is common, but might be related to how well matched your panels are to the MPPT model. There is a calculator on the VE site to assist with this. The heat generated by the MPPT is directly related to the voltage delta between the battery (sink) and the panel string (source).
I love this solution! I used 4 fullsize pv panels. (1.56x1.15m) and have them over the full length ofthe roof, but it came at the cost of no roofvent. In my van thats mostly fine (I have an old firetruck with sliding doors on both sides, so easy to get airflow). Thinking about changing vans in the future and might (try) to do something similar to this.
In my opinion, whenever possible it's best to fully utilize the roof for solar panels, and have vents on the walls and perhaps even somewhere on the floor. I even though having solar panels on the sides like shown here is awesome, I think it's not necessary for most buses and perhaps vans if the roof is fully covered with panels (maybe even oversized ones that stick out a little). Then the walls of the bus may have large windows so the panels would cover them in those cases. Still, sliding and folding panels as shown here is absolutely awesome and even for a roof one could walk over, for example solar panels that convert to railings. Excellent video by the way.
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Blue brand seems the rage. But I'm with you. I bought a model from "authorized dealer" to try out. Not impressed. Service/support is non-existence. Any questions result in use warranty and return it. However, they know blue is impossible to get warranty out of. Also performance is not good. What was the brand that you mentioned you were happy with?
If you haven't done one already, a "masterclass" on setting up your data integration system and custom equipment controllers would be awesome. Epic content as always sir!
It's my dream to someday have that display of information for my home and shop solar setups. I fully understand the technical aspects of the hardware and wiring, but when it comes to the Python programming I'm at a loss - it's completely outside my skill set.
I have never, and I mean, never seen this level of competence and intelligence on UA-cam. Combination of your electrical and mechanical professorial knowledge is legendary, and I treat diseases for a living. Kudos to you sir.
Wow! That's a s sweet install for sure - and I like the tongue and cheek name for your project. Your electronic controls are next level, Star Trek type stuff. I'm impressed with your coding skills too. We're old, retired FTers who designed and built our system ourselves, on a tight budget. It took us 5 years to gather the resources and finally complete the project, doing all the work ourselves. We started by building a 620-watt liftable solar array on the side of our motorhome, like you did. Your liftable panels are a little cleaner install, but we did ours while boondocking with no access to welders, a machine shop, etc. so everything was bolted-up with off the shelf items, like stainless steel gate hinges, gate latches, aluminum from Lowes, and was all fabricated by hand in the wilderness. Our array makes a nice bedroom window awning too, practically lifting itself with a couple 44" 80lb gas struts, like yours does, and it's easy to clean, standing safely on the ground.
Next, we built a 12v, 560ah LiFePo-4 battery with 8, 280ah prismatic cells. We use a Heltec 330amp BMS with a 5a active balancer. We chose these cells rather than a pre-built battery because they fit perfectly under the steps of our MH where our old pair of golf cart batteries used to reside. We insulated the battery compartment, cut a small hole in our step risers and installed a tiny computer CPU fan to keep this space at close to room temperature, so we don't have to worry about the BMS shutting down charging due to low temperature - or their life reduced from getting too hot. Our 12v system uses an 80A Progressive Dynamics LFP converter/charger, a 1,000w Renogy inverter, a 50a Epever MPPT charge controller and a Lnex battery monitor. We built this entire 12v phase of our system for under $3,500.
By mounting the solar array on the side of our coach, we left the roof free to rack 8, 550w solar panels, like you have, down the length of our 35ft Class A, 15" off our roof, above our AC, vents, etc. We built the rack out of 2" aluminum angle with the front 2 panels sloping down at a shallower 9.5-degrees to meet the roof, gently easing airflow over the array, making the RV more stable with less wind drag driving down the road too. It covers our entire roof, providing some nice shade with plenty of cooling air underneath, increasing solar output and reducing the heat load on the air conditioners too, though our overall height is still just under 12 ft. We mounted a Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W Inverter/100A charge controller/battery charger, breakers and a Lnex battery monitor on the wall in our bedroom, saving us space as well as money compared to a system with individual components. We chose this unit as it supports up to 500 volts and we have a 400 voc solar array. It can work without batteries and has a power saver mode that only uses 20-25 watts when idling. It's only $764 - not bad for a 5,000-watt PSW inverter (with the same 95% efficiency as a high-end "Blue" unit) and has 100amps of combined 48v battery charger/charge controller capacity. Our 48v battery uses 16, 320ah prismatic cells and a 200amp Heltec BMS to keep it safe.
Together with our 560ah 12v bank, we have a total of 23.5 kwh of batteries onboard - kept charged by 5,020 watts of solar. This is the equivalent storage capacity as $16,650 worth of Battleborn batteries for under $3,400. We removed the rooftop A/C we had in the bedroom and replaced it with an EG4 28.5 seer-2, 12k btu mini-split heat pump on the upper rear of our motorhome, like yours is. It's super quiet and cools as well as our 14.5k btu soft start equipped Furrion we installed up front. This second phase provides 24/7 off-grid air conditioning and heat from the heat pump. We can run both A/Cs, microwave and charge our batteries from solar at the same time, even in winter. Last night we ran our heat-pump in heat mode all night (making up to 13k btus of heat) and our 48v battery was only down to 66% by morning. It will be full again by noon. We have a total of 6,000 watts of 120v inverted ac power, giving us off-grid electrical self-sufficiency without the need to run our generator, for a total budget of around $11,500, including the high-efficiency heat pump.
Take care, we hope to see you down the road one day.
Everyone knew it couldn't be done, until he did it. Well done. Very impressive. Hope you feel better soon.
Today I'm back at 100%
Thanks!!
GREAT BUILD WELL DONE W O W
Great video. I was considering how to make “dumbo ear” panels myself. I’ll be interested to see how well they hold up in terms of the Panel construction vs road vibrations. Thanks again and safe travels!
I'll post an update after 5 years.
God damn man. You are a real life professor Gyro. Go now create your own trailer company and build the overland trucks the world needs.
I'm done running companies...
Wow. I am blown away at your intelligence, ingenuity and practicality.
LOL sir, you are one of the very few best DIY YTbers! Always enjoyable to watch your videos!
Your spaceship keeps getting cooler!
Thank you very much! 🧑🏻🚀👩🏻🚀
Quality content as usual. Haven't been a sub for long, but these videos have been some of my favorite lately. Not a whole lot of RV channels talking about sniffing protocols to create custom python control code for big brand hardware!
UA-cam is a mind-reader. I was contemplating of what if you make an awning made of Solar panels to augment your solar input, and at the same time, providing a little bit of shade to your rig. and this video came up in my recommended videos. nice vid. thanks.
Love it! Nice use of the packet analyzer to overcome the weakness in the blue device. And it was nice to see Lincoln even briefly.
Although I don't subscribe, every time your video pops into my feed and I watch it, I'm always amazed. I don't think most folks realize how incredible talented you are. In fact, I doubt only a very small percentage of the population could half the stuff you do.
This guy is a genius he makes rocket scientists look like amateurs.
Was a pleasure to meet you guys 🎉
I have a couple of blue items in my system. Pretty low level - smart charger for my 12V battery, running off a 60A 48-12 DC-DC converter. And a smart shunt. The shunt tells me the real story (not nearly as well as the setup you have) of how the batteries are being charged.
But the big story is that I priced the blue stuff for my primary solar controller/AC charging/inverter. 4X the cost, more parts, and about double the weight of an MPP Solar LV6548. No contest. The young DIY Solar Jedi had torture tested the LV6548 charging his Tesla, and reported good reliability there and knowledge of a history of reliable performance in other setups. So with that I went all in with MPP. Glad I did. It's been working great for going on 2 years now. Has demonstrated serious fault tolerance and protected itself from faulty (internally shorted) AC equipment inside the vehicle. I would do it the same if I had to do it over.
U definitely have the best build of electrodacus system tgat ive send on utube great setuo
Wild. This man out here living in 3023 😂😂😂
Amazing Jason
Forget the trolls. You have a great installation that works!
I see there is partial shade on the panels, this may significantly reduce the panel efficiency. I suggest analysing this point. Great work!
The 6 inches of overhang makes no difference as the controller is already over paneled.
My number one mentor on UA-cam.
Love the Star Trek door sound whenever the gas struts open! :)
As always, congrats on the high quality of the Show, Video, Audio - and the eminent physical implementation of those new panels. So well thought out, and so well implemented. It makes it a joy watch.
Lets hope that you will eventually get a chance to install a MPPT controller with the functionality that you had originally planned for.
But kudos to make the most of the hand that was dealt to you.
By the way: Awesome action view of the new suspension makeup. Very nice 👍
And what am intense, almost like birth by fire, for the mounting system of the new solar panels. So glad to hear that they survived those challenging roads.
When life gives you onions, you make caramelized onions... †
† [ 14:30 - Kara, 2023 ]
☀☀☀☀You Guys are Amazing ☀☀☀☀ Thank you for sharing ~peace~
Just when I think Im almost done with my build I look at videos like this and realise, I will never be finished...You can tell this guy is smart, he bought an Electrodacus over all the other much bigger and better advertised brands and as a bonus, gets better service from one guy than a whole company that charges 4x for all their products.
Next video, replacing the engine with a tesla motor and running it off our solar panels! Seriously though, this is really cool. Would be fun to automate the in and out process like the top panels but probably easier to just pop them open when you get to camp.
The original solar slides are automated... That's enough for us.
Great job. As I was watching, kept thinking, hmmm that step took some time and detailed planning. These thoughts happened over and over and over. You made a complex task look very straightforward, very well done sir!
Thank you!
Sleep is overrated.
We know it's a Victron ;) come on. Say the name! Say the name!!! :) Btw - nice chicken you had in the background ;)
Your skills always amaze me, your dashboard system is what I dream to do in a future van... if I don't fail
Yeah, That video is still in the back of my mind when I can't sleep...
Awesome video. I'm not sure how the bottom of the 100lb gas strut support will hold up with just 3-4 square inches of caulk as its fastener. But if it does fail it won't be a big deal, nothing damaged. I imagine it will happen traveling rather than setup for the night. Looks like a fun way to live
With Sikaflexs 2.5 MPa of shear strength, it will take over 1100lbs to tear each one off... MATH...
And it's 8.3 square inches...
@@Everlanderswind? Torque?
This guy is insane! for always making things possible when people would say otherwise. Love the effort and engineering you put into making everything work. Awesome!
Fantastic quality build, great explanation, and clear acoustics. Awesome job on build as well as video
Very impressive!
sometimes you just have to break out the sniffer. i appreciate your candor about Blue products
The integrations and automation(not sure if those terms are used correctly?) you have set up are awe-inspiring. Combine that electrical and programming knowledge with clever fabrication ideas and skills, and you've created my favorite DIY camper on the web. Thank you for offering continuous inspiration and sharing your knowledge for free with those who watch.
I wish I knew about this sika flex technology. Awesome Video thanks for what you do.
Well done.
This is sooo coool !!!, great job on the build and fantastic detailed video
Greetings from Argentina. I am a new subscriber. Your channel is Excellent.
Excellent video.
Truly excellent super- van solar project video!! Congrats! Yours is the video I point to when discussing if my solar- powered van air conditioning is possible and viable. Thanks for taking the time to make this!
Quick future project thought. Duplicate your roof setup on a trailer using separate power. Captures and uses extra unused power from main rig (if you want to link them) while using the trailer power for propulsion on flats and uphills, then regen on downhills.
Great design chops and truly inspirational! I glossed the Python code section and may come back to it as I have been trying to find out how you did the panel mounting. Great job!
Great solutions and installation engineering. Thanks you
Very impressive build! Always blown away by your high level skill set combining hands on building with in depth understanding of technology
Similar to my intended solar install on my trailer, but all units will be adjustable for the angle of the sun. One advantage of covering your units roof with solar panels and side solar panels is shade. Helps to keep interior temps down. My build will also be fully electric and with a Mini-Split, but with the addition of a small Marine wood stove for off-grid winters.
Thanks for the informative post.
Angling the side wings has little appreciable gains in my testing, about 60 to 80 watt hours a day...
Good work 😊
So I go dry camping all the time. I can charge my electric mountain bike and run my heater and my coffee grinder and my satellite television and all of my lights and my coffee maker and I only need about 250 W of solar. But hey, if this is your full-time home you are doing excellent. I have lived off grid and designed and installed off grid power systems for about 24 years now. You've done a really nice job. And thank you so much for understanding the difference between power and energy and expressing the units properly throughout your video! It's so annoying when people mess it up. It's like saying I have a water system that does 60 psi per day. 😂
I've been following your solar progress over the years, as always, very impressive! Well done and inspiring to the community of what can be done.
Such a cleaver bloke !
Great camera work in this one. I could tell y'all were moving fast and needed precision teamwork to knock this one out.
Seeing the air suspension in motion has me all flustered, ngl!
Thanks for the help! I'm looking forward to finishing the video on that whole suspension saga too!
I haven't been able to stop watching these videos... Love watching you build all this stuff. Hope to do many similar things in my build!
You can do it!
After thinking about it, there are so many ways you can deploy all those panels for max solar input, depending on direction pointed, latitude, time of year, diodes in the panels to deal with shading, etc. it would be fun to see a production analysis in the future. Impressive engineering!
love your vids and all the info you supply. happy travels and be safe
If there's a zombie apocalypse, I wanna be in your team!
You’ve blown my mind! I’m speechless. You are above and beyond! Thank you
Thanks for sharing your projects with us. Nothing to say. Just trolling the algorithm.
Woahhhhh!! Very impressive, your technical know-how is first rate. Think I felt a little faint when I saw your dashboard and you started talking about Python scripting ha ha huge kudos, thank you so much for posting!
Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you did it that way don’t you know it won’t work!!! Geez
Really tho great job on the side of the road in Peru!!!
Love the integrated humor and product snubs where appropriate in another nice project design and execution.
This is so awesome, I never even thought this was possible. I'm also very impressed with the dashboard setup. And.. uh, a little worried about the "blue" MPPT charge controller I got. I've heard mixed reviews with Viktron's products and I'm really hoping I don't get--pardon the pun--burned on this one.
As always, congrats on the high quality of the Show, Video, Audio - and the eminent physical implementation of those new panels. So well thought out, and so well implemented. Glad to see You `ll Doing Well after all this time , Successful Hope People are Kind To You`ll.
Marvelous!
I'm in the process of changing over to 920Ah LiFePO4 EVE cells and doubling my solar.
Your videos have helped me so much.
And yes, the blue guys' customer service is a victim of their own success.
Once again. Thank you!
"True intelligence requires fabulous imagination."
That is the way to go with solar panels over production with more panels. I have been doing that more kW panels than inverter can handle for 10 years on our house and nothing has broken yet. Very impressed of your setup.
Very cool, really like your vidoes.
Thank you for your knowledge
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I really appreciate the in depth install. For someone who wants to do a similar build eventually, this is so amazingly helpful. Hope to see you out on the trails one day!!
Outstanding Jason! I'm happy you're feeling better. Kara did a great job filling in. You'd better maintain your health, or she'll steal the show! :-) I would think you've added some redundancy, since the two new panels seem independent of the rooftop. Also looks like you'll pick up some shading on your sidewalls. Well done! Your Everlanders hat has found its place on my rack.
Finally someone mirroring my experience about that blue equipment. I'll never touch that brand again. Nice solar install, only wonder how much shading you have from the upper solar? Maybe in the future you can have a telescoping mounts so the shading is prevented.
You are very knowledgeable in your field of electronics and electricals. I admire you
Brilliant Engineering. Perfect understanding of the Appropriate principles to apply when designing. You are extremely resourceful with an Absolutely Incredible work ethic. I am so glad you are bouncing back healthwise. I thought I noticed some breathing and respiratory distress. Thank you for continuing to be the benchmark by which all other overlanders are judged. We hope you and your beautiful wife stay safe and healthy. Cheers from Michael. Australia.
Shit man, u always amaze me with your innovative ideas. You just flipped my plan upside down.Instead of using a double layer roof mounted slide out solar system, i'll now look into a single layer solar roof with side hinged panel extension that upon rotation the upper edge of the side solar panel will be side to side with adjacent roof panel. Thank you
As always, very well done. Cheers from OZ
Perfect plan, perfect execution. What did we expect else. Glad to see you up and runnig - solar panel wise too.
amazing work! i love the technical details that you include, they are marvelous for engineer immersion
Thanks for sharing your experience and you did a great job documenting concisely how you did it! I used these same size of panels but mine are 530 watts each and I installed five of them on the roof of my travel trailer to a total of 2,650 watts of rated solar. They've been doing great now for the last 2 years!
Oh wow, where did you find JAsolar in the USA?
@@Everlanders from Santan Solar based out of Arizona. I didn't realize at the time how lucky I was to be able to buy the panels from them which they showed directly to my house because it must have been a pallet that they had for some reason and shortly after I got mine they unlisted the panels from their website and I've never seen them there since.
Great video as always and worth the wait. I am very appreciative for your mentions (and links) for the things you use like the thermal camera (been looking for a good solution for one) and trust in the "Jason uses it" stamp.
I now have started planning on a similar solar system deployment , as it will have a side benefit (pun intended) to cover up the mass of windows I have on the bus when parking in town.
Yes, It's a really slick camera, being able to take a photo or video and save it straight to the phone and then send it to someone is a really helpful feature.
Nice job! Sounds like you are also finally feeling a bit better. Sorry to hear the customer service from Victron sucked..
Yes, was still rough when filming that, but today I'm at 100%
Thanks 🧡
I am always impressed with the solutions you come up with.
Very slick execution, thanks for sharing!
Fantastic video once again! If there was ever an idea for a show portraying what MacGyver did after he retired and decided to travel to South America I would show them on the pitch a few of your videos! Perhaps an idea for a future video from you - I'm absolutely intrigued on how you navigate travelling into different countries with your dog(hope he's better now) How do you navigate the countries quarantine(knowing some of these myself it's very lacklustre and almost non-existent) Thank You
Very well done in every aspect.
"Blue" Oh my gosh that made me giggle. Nobody ever tells you the downside of those things, like the heat!
Beyond.Brilliant. Well done!
clear explanations, and feeding the trolls to, what a man!
Are you running Node Red? If so, there are a number of add-on nodes for the MPPT 'blue' kit that perhaps might have saved you some time... VE are strictly a B2B company, they spend lots on training for their distributors, but for sure control and quality of those distributors could be better. Many of them are only box shifters, If you in the market again, chose marine distributors, they are far more knowledgeable as they have been working with VE for some time, and generally have a better approach to customer service.
Your MPPT getting hot is common, but might be related to how well matched your panels are to the MPPT model. There is a calculator on the VE site to assist with this. The heat generated by the MPPT is directly related to the voltage delta between the battery (sink) and the panel string (source).
Thanks!
I love this solution! I used 4 fullsize pv panels. (1.56x1.15m) and have them over the full length ofthe roof, but it came at the cost of no roofvent. In my van thats mostly fine (I have an old firetruck with sliding doors on both sides, so easy to get airflow). Thinking about changing vans in the future and might (try) to do something similar to this.
@Ok,
We are founding members of the No! Holes! In! The! Roof! club.
In my opinion, whenever possible it's best to fully utilize the roof for solar panels, and have vents on the walls and perhaps even somewhere on the floor. I even though having solar panels on the sides like shown here is awesome, I think it's not necessary for most buses and perhaps vans if the roof is fully covered with panels (maybe even oversized ones that stick out a little). Then the walls of the bus may have large windows so the panels would cover them in those cases. Still, sliding and folding panels as shown here is absolutely awesome and even for a roof one could walk over, for example solar panels that convert to railings. Excellent video by the way.
Wow!!! You are both brilliant about "engineering" and reasonable about what to expect from hardware.
The only way to make this set up better is to give it to me :) Great vids!
Brilliant and chock full of great info. Will avoid big blue!
The only thing missing is the man with the mechanical arm!
Autobots roll out!
I’m a software dev trying to do something similar. Your setup is way too cool.
Amazing ❤
Using a port sniffer to capture the turn on and off commands, I never would have thought of that.
Awesome, as always! Thank you.
Dude - you're amazing!
Another amazing video as usual. I spotted your upload last night and it was the first thing i watched when I woke up.
Badass, nice build and great explanation
love the dash board you created to see all your solar and usage at a glance. I can't wait until I can get my solar back up and going again.
*SIKAFLEX MAN* _has done "it" again_ you never fail to amaze me. Thanks for the nice vid ...hope "the little one" is OK now.
On overcast and windy days, you can deploy a wind turbine. You could attach it to the back of the rig. Would be an interesting project! 🤔
No, I have no interest in wind.
@aw,
Noisy.
Requires maintenance.