Grounding wire MPPT controller

[Syrah]

Following the recent storm loss of our flexible solar panels, we have a brand new Bimini cover and 4 new 115w flexible solar panels going on tomorrow. We will also be fitting a new Victron SmartSolar 100/30 charge controller, which has Bluetooth monitoring of solar performance. (Really hoping we can leave the fridge running this summer)

The controller will live under the bed in the main cabin, just in front of the battery banks of our 42ds.

This controller has a chassis grounding point that needs to be connected. Can anyone suggest the best place to locate the nearest connection point on a 42ds?

Regards

Wayne

[Trevor]

Hello Wayne,

The chassis does not need to be grounded on 100/30 unit to work as the chassis is isolated from any electrical connection. It may provide some shielding for radio frequency interference however the unit works quite well without it.

Regards

Trevor

[Syrah]

Thanks Trevor. I agree that it will work without this connection. I’d like to understand more about why the manufacturer put this connector on the unit. Particularly the bit about “apply a single ground connection”. The wording of the installation instructions is not very clear to me.

It says the following:

Grounding
Battery grounding configuration: the charger can be configured as a positive or negative ground system. Note: apply a single ground connection (preferably close to the battery) to prevent malfunction of the system.

Chassis grounding: A separate earth path for the chassis ground is permitted because it is isolated from the positive and negative terminal