[chicagoandy]

Congratulations!

Any chance you added some pigtails to the electrical connector buried in the driver pedestal before putting the swivel on?

Would let you get at an 'engine run' signal and TPHPM enable later on in the build.

I did the engine run for the wakespeed, but didn't bother with TPHPM and now regretting it. Have to yank the swivel if I want it (or fork out cash for the Intermotive unit behind the glove box).

I'll definitely have to reopen the seat for charging control.

I plan on pulling out Ignition / Engine Run for charger control, and also direct SRC Inhibit & Ground into a switch for TPHPM .

Speaking of which, does anyone know if this is the correct connector? https://www.amazon.com/replacement-Connector-Motorcraft-1U2Z-14S411-BLB-1U2Z14S411BLB/dp/B078VF1PZY

I was hoping to find a pre-wired pigtail, but have not. Or is there one down there already?

 

[OldChubbyKnuckle]

This is the one I ordered - handier because it already had the wire leads in it.

Robot or human?

 

[chicagoandy]

This is the one I ordered - handier because it already had the wire leads in it.

Robot or human?

Awesome, thank you.

 

[JMG_Systems]

@JMG_Systems

These kids are super stoked about these new captains chairs that showed up today!

View attachment 224187

Great Picture! 🤘🏼

 

[chicagoandy]

We wasted no time getting those seats from JMG installed.

What's the first thing to do after spending $65k on a new van, hand the kid a drill and tell her to start making some holes. But first, we had to drop the fuel tank.

Tangent:
I had run down the tank until I had 30 Miles-to-empty, but the tank was still quite heavy. There was way more than 2 gallons in there. Filling up afterwards, I added 25 gallons, and it's a 32 gallon tank, so there was 7 gallons.... If that MTE indicator is remotely correct there seems to be about 5 gallons un-usable? Or at least 5 gallons beyond MTE = 0 ? Dunno.

Regardless, down it came, balanced on the jack. A few inches gave us the clearance we needed.

Then we mark, center-punch, drill, swap to a step-bit, drill again, de-burr, paint.

Add spacers, (fender washers), Torque to spec:

Et Voila! The kids have nicer seats than the parents. Seats are 18-inch captains chairs from @JMG_Systems Cargo Van Dual Captain Chair Solution FMVSS Tested

First family Van Ride:

Estimate: I dunno, I was hoping to install both seats and make good progress on the floor. (JMG seat plates go below the floor).
Reality: The floor will wait till next weekend. It rained all day Saturday, and the van doesn't fit in the garage. Was doing both even remotely possible? Don't know.

Overall review: I am very happy with the JMG seats. I would have been even more 'very happy' if they had options for heaters, but I'm still very happy. They are expensive, those seats are the single most expensive component of the build. They are SOLID, (and heavy). The instructions could have had a bit more detail, but they contained one item that made that irrelevant, Henry's phone number, and he calls back on weekends.

Mistakes:
1. I did not add protection to then bolt-ends above the gas tank. That could result in a pierced tank in the event of a crash. I'll be needing to drop the tank once more when I install the velit heater, so I'll add some foam protection then. (It would have been nice to do the Velit at the same time, but they're on backorder for another 3 weeks.)

2. Ridiculous number of trips to Ace Hardware. 1. I needed the fender washer spacers, I also need some new rust-paint. Tell spouse, 'going to hardware store for paint', I get the washers, forget the paint. Get home, tell spouse, 'going back, I forgot the paint'. Sunday, while installing the seats I realize we're short of washers. The kid tells me we needed 3, so I go get 3 more washers. Get home, look at the remaing bolt holes, realized we needed 7. Thus I made 4 trips to Ace Hardware to buy fender washers. They're 50 cents each. We're getting closer to a first-name basis.

3. Due to the Transit having a unfortunately positioned cross-bar, I ended up placing the seats 4-inches further back than my design called for. That will make entry/exit easier, but will take away space from the Galley or bed when the time comes.

3. Slammed my finger in the toolchest drawer - while cleaning up late today. <sigh> All seven of George Carlins dirty words went through my head, but none of them made it out of my mouth. Kids!

I did have some questions about things I discovered underneath.

Anyone know what this is? Just forward of the fuel tank, just curious:

Also: How about this plug, found near the driver B-pillar? One item I neglected or order was the trailer wiring kit, so I'll have to add that later. Any chance this is related?

Post-script: UPS showed up with 3 large boxes from @cobratom and Undermount AC. Those will have to wait a bit.

 

[chicagoandy]

Flooring!

Estimate : 1 weekend.
Actual: 5 weeknights, 3 weekend days.

We started with the Paper Patterns from FarOutRide. Floor Paper Templates for Ford Transit Van - FarOutRide

These cost significantly less than AVCRig or Titan, so I figured let's give it a shot. They came with patterns for both underfloor (XPS) and a second outline for the finish layer. The one downside of FarOutRide is they print on thin paper similar to printer paper. We had a lot of rain the last month, so working with the patterns was tricky. They never got wet, but the paper did suck up moisture from the air, we had to be careful they didn't tear. The patterns have two outlines, one for the subfloor and a slightly bigger outline for the finished floor. The idea is that first you cut the template to the finish floor, cut your material, then trim the template to the smaller underfloor template, then cut that.

I'm a "measure once, cut twice" kind of guy. As a result there are some areas where the floor fit could have been tighter. I'm guessing that's my fault, not the pattern.

Testing the template:

For underfloor, I went with "Floating XPS". This means a layer of 1" XPS insulation simply laid down on-top of the ribs. No glue, no minicell, nothing filling the gaps. I like that the potential for airflow down there can help some day, I like that there's not a mass of glue that I may some day have to scrape up. I like that if I ever have to remove the floor, I have that option. There's one area where the floor is very flat near the c-pillar behind the driver. I'll keep that in mind when I install my fridge there.

With just the XPS down, yes, squeaks. That's ok. It gets a lot better as you add layers.

I read on the Internet you can use 3m-90 on XPS. Yes, it melts the XPS, but the Internet told me it still works. IT DOES NOT. I had been planning on gluing the ends of the XPS together, so I went back to my shop and came out with Titebond II Waterproof PVA glue. (wood glue). It worked great!

The second layer was 1/2 Baltic Birch.

Cutting:

Installed!

Again, "floating". No adhesive between the plywood and XPS. Again, Titebond II waterproof PVA joining the ends of the plywood together. The joints are very solid. I did need to redo one joint, in order to undo the glue, it I needed to prop up one piece by jamming some scrap wood underneath, and jumping my fat-a$$ on the neighboring piece. The glued end-pieces are great. Yes, some seams could be flatter, no I don't care since: Cabinets.

Ratchet-straps to clamp the joints while the glue-dries.

The third layer is electric "infrared" radiant floor film. I went with a 24V variety that @Tim&Katie used in one of their earlier builds, sourced from Mi Heat in germany. 24V/DC Heating Film 130W/m² 30cm wide
Testing on the bench it consumed 9amps at 26 volts, but put out quite a lot of heat. That's a lot of energy, but the controller will be able to dial-it down quite a bit. A heated floor shouldn't be a "primary" source of heat, so dialed down it should be quite nice.

Testing:

Installed:

Aluminum HVAC tape to hold down the edges, I used a router to create chanels for the wires.

It's my first time using a router, my "channels" looked more like a river delta, with multiple wandering grooves. Dear Daughter looked at my work, said : "Daddy, what are you going to do about that!?!?!" To which I answered, "I'm going to cover it with a nice carpet".

Control system for the heated floor will come later.

The finish layer is Chilewich Ikat Tweed from Sailrite.

Cutting:

A note on tools. The "pizza cutter" here is Fiskars Rotary Cutter for Fabric and it is excellent. The Chilewich floor is vinyl & fiberglass on-top of a foam backing, and the Fiskars cutter went through it like butter. Highly recommend. The orange tool is the Warrior cordless power-cutter from Harbor Freight, and I found it actually went through this stuff too quickly, so that it was difficult to control.

I chose to cut seams into the floor so I could wrap the carpet around the chairs and cover the attachment points. This meant i had to fix the seams. Also, there was one "oops" moment (measure once, cut twice), but I found the chilewich relatively easy to make a seamless repair with only double-sided tape.

Here it is installed:

Again, even this floor is "floating". I have not glued down any part of this floor. I did use some double-sided vinyl floor tape around the edges to keep them from curling up, but have not put down adhesive. For now this is "temporary", I want to keep access to the heating pads until I have the controller finalized. I do have a bucket of adhesive for when that time comes. But I'm also pretty happy with how it's working right now. It doesn't move, there are no air-bubbles. I may just leave it the way it is. I like that if I ever want to pull it up, I can.

I'm calling the floor done, for now.

Remaining items: Aluminum angle for trim for the Step, Front, and Rear, glue down the carpet, maybe add spray-foam around the edges of the XPS/Plywood. Later.?

 

[OldChubbyKnuckle]

Congrats! You're moving quickly. What's the hanging apron like thing off the back of the driver seat in the one shot? Looks like that could be handy.

Don't forget an access hole for the spare tire lowering. Or have you relocated it to the back door?

 

[65Brier]

Congrats! You're moving quickly. What's the hanging apron like thing off the back of the driver seat in the one shot? Looks like that could be handy.

Don't forget an access hole for the spare tire lowering. Or have you relocated it to the back door?

Looks like a seat back organizer. We had them in the Grand Pimp when we hauled crumb crunchers around.

 

[chicagoandy]

Congrats! You're moving quickly. What's the hanging apron like thing off the back of the driver seat in the one shot? Looks like that could be handy.

Don't forget an access hole for the spare tire lowering. Or have you relocated it to the back door?

Yep, a seat organizer for the child-labor I'm using to build the van . Similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/ULEEKA-Organizer-Protectors-Universal-Accessories/dp/B07NY9H3GP

The access hole is drilled, and I have a marine stainless inspection ring for when I do the trim. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TLB6YVI

 

[Tcaschy021]

Flooring!

Estimate : 1 weekend.
Actual: 5 weeknights, 3 weekend days.

We started with the Paper Patterns from FarOutRide. Floor Paper Templates for Ford Transit Van - FarOutRide

These cost significantly less than AVCRig or Titan, so I figured let's give it a shot. They came with patterns for both underfloor (XPS) and a second outline for the finish layer. The one downside of FarOutRide is they print on thin paper similar to printer paper. We had a lot of rain the last month, so working with the patterns was tricky. They never got wet, but the paper did suck up moisture from the air, we had to be careful they didn't tear. The patterns have two outlines, one for the subfloor and a slightly bigger outline for the finished floor. The idea is that first you cut the template to the finish floor, cut your material, then trim the template to the smaller underfloor template, then cut that.

I'm a "measure once, cut twice" kind of guy. As a result there are some areas where the floor fit could have been tighter. I'm guessing that's my fault, not the pattern.

Testing the template:
View attachment 225207

For underfloor, I went with "Floating XPS". This means a layer of 1" XPS insulation simply laid down on-top of the ribs. No glue, no minicell, nothing filling the gaps. I like that the potential for airflow down there can help some day, I like that there's not a mass of glue that I may some day have to scrape up. I like that if I ever have to remove the floor, I have that option. There's one area where the floor is very flat near the c-pillar behind the driver. I'll keep that in mind when I install my fridge there.

With just the XPS down, yes, squeaks. That's ok. It gets a lot better as you add layers.
View attachment 225208

I read on the Internet you can use 3m-90 on XPS. Yes, it melts the XPS, but the Internet told me it still works. IT DOES NOT. I had been planning on gluing the ends of the XPS together, so I went back to my shop and came out with Titebond II Waterproof PVA glue. (wood glue). It worked great!

The second layer was 1/2 Baltic Birch.

Cutting:
View attachment 225209

Installed!
View attachment 225210

Again, "floating". No adhesive between the plywood and XPS. Again, Titebond II waterproof PVA joining the ends of the plywood together. The joints are very solid. I did need to redo one joint, in order to undo the glue, it I needed to prop up one piece by jamming some scrap wood underneath, and jumping my fat-a$$ on the neighboring piece. The glued end-pieces are great. Yes, some seams could be flatter, no I don't care since: Cabinets.

Ratchet-straps to clamp the joints while the glue-dries.

The third layer is electric "infrared" radiant floor film. I went with a 24V variety that @Tim&Katie used in one of their earlier builds, sourced from Mi Heat in germany. 24V/DC Heating Film 130W/m² 30cm wide
Testing on the bench it consumed 9amps at 26 volts, but put out quite a lot of heat. That's a lot of energy, but the controller will be able to dial-it down quite a bit. A heated floor shouldn't be a "primary" source of heat, so dialed down it should be quite nice.

Testing:
View attachment 225213

Installed:

Aluminum HVAC tape to hold down the edges, I used a router to create chanels for the wires.

It's my first time using a router, my "channels" looked more like a river delta, with multiple wandering grooves. Dear Daughter looked at my work, said : "Daddy, what are you going to do about that!?!?!" To which I answered, "I'm going to cover it with a nice carpet".

Control system for the heated floor will come later.

View attachment 225223


View attachment 225222

The finish layer is Chilewich Ikat Tweed from Sailrite.

Cutting:
View attachment 225211

A note on tools. The "pizza cutter" here is Fiskars Rotary Cutter for Fabric and it is excellent. The Chilewich floor is vinyl & fiberglass on-top of a foam backing, and the Fiskars cutter went through it like butter. Highly recommend. The orange tool is the Warrior cordless power-cutter from Harbor Freight, and I found it actually went through this stuff too quickly, so that it was difficult to control.

I chose to cut seams into the floor so I could wrap the carpet around the chairs and cover the attachment points. This meant i had to fix the seams. Also, there was one "oops" moment (measure once, cut twice), but I found the chilewich relatively easy to make a seamless repair with only double-sided tape.

Here it is installed:
View attachment 225225

Again, even this floor is "floating". I have not glued down any part of this floor. I did use some double-sided vinyl floor tape around the edges to keep them from curling up, but have not put down adhesive. For now this is "temporary", I want to keep access to the heating pads until I have the controller finalized. I do have a bucket of adhesive for when that time comes. But I'm also pretty happy with how it's working right now. It doesn't move, there are no air-bubbles. I may just leave it the way it is. I like that if I ever want to pull it up, I can.

I'm calling the floor done, for now.

Remaining items: Aluminum angle for trim for the Step, Front, and Rear, glue down the carpet, maybe add spray-foam around the edges of the XPS/Plywood. Later.?

Looks great! Question about the Chilewich floor material, is it thick enough to not show/feel variations in the floor? For example, can you tell that you have that heating element installed with the flooring covering it? Can you feel it when walking on it?

 

[CincyBearcats]

Great progress! And it's so cool to see your kids helping out.

Anyone know what this is? Just forward of the fuel tank, just curious

I'm pretty sure it's an evaporation canister related to the emissions system. I had to temporarily remove it when retrofitting our van with the auxiliary heat lines, and it had gasoline vapor inside.

Estimate : 1 weekend.
Actual: 5 weeknights, 3 weekend days.

Your actual time is quite fast, IMO, especially considering that you DIYed the entire thing. We took much longer than that and our floor was premade.

It's my first time using a router, my "channels" looked more like a river delta, with multiple wandering grooves.

I had a very similar experience with my first attempt at using a router. When you really need a straight line, you can use a straight edge (a bar of 8020 works well) as a guide for the edge of the router. Just be sure to center the router base plate using the conical bit that should have come with your router.

The finish layer is Chilewich Ikat Tweed from Sailrite.

If you anticipate water exposure, I would consider adding a vapor barrier between your plywood subfloor and the finished floor. We originally intended to use Chilewich tweed flooring but opted for Lonseal instead. I ordered some samples of Chilewich tweed and found that it did very poorly with water exposure. I poured a little bit of water on top of the sample, and after several minutes it eventually soaked through the top layers and saturated the foam backing. The foam backing then took many, many hours to dry. With snow covered ski boots and such, we expect frequent water exposure with our floor, and I was concerned that it would be perpetually wet during the winter, but maybe this isn't a concern for you.

 

[chicagoandy]

Looks great! Question about the Chilewich floor material, is it thick enough to not show/feel variations in the floor? For example, can you tell that you have that heating element installed with the flooring covering it? Can you feel it when walking on it?

The Chilewich is great, the foam backing is 1/4" similar to neoprene or minicell, I can't feel anything through the carpet.

If you anticipate water exposure, I would consider adding a vapor barrier between your plywood subfloor and the finished floor. We originally intended to use Chilewich tweed flooring but opted for Lonseal instead. I ordered some samples of Chilewich tweed and found that it did very poorly with water exposure. I poured a little bit of water on top of the sample, and after several minutes it eventually soaked through the top layers and saturated the foam backing. The foam backing then took many, many hours to dry. With snow covered ski boots and such, we expect frequent water exposure with our floor, and I was concerned that it would be perpetually wet during the winter, but maybe this isn't a concern for you.

Good to know. Yes, I'm moving quickly since we want to use the van in July, so I'm not doing a lot of testing. Thanks for the waterproof tip, I had understood this would be waterproof. The heated floor should solve any issues.

{edit} @CincyBearcats Also: They're very specific about using this specific marine adhesive, which seems to be a part of the waterproofing. AAT 390 Marine & Exterior Adhesive (Gallon). A bit sketch, but ok. I do like the product, I strongly dislike the feel of vinyl floors. I guess I'll need to glue it down.

 

[gvanshe]

Todays was get started day. The first project was the swivel seats.

As I would have kids "helping", I started the day off by watching some YouTubers. Unfortunately we watched someone with manual seats, I had forgotten about the need for spacers, resulting in the first of what will become many trips to ACE hardware. I'm sure they'll eventually know me by name.

Kid: how are we going to go with the seats taken apart?
Me: you know we have two other cars...?

Products used: Scopema for transit. M8 by 1 inch bolts and nylocks. 4 M8 washers used as spacers.

Dear daughter removing the passenger Latch hooks. (She's 9)

View attachment 224068

Mistakes: neglecting to plan for the power seats, and one bolt was dropped into the driver seat cable spaghetti corner, solved with a magnetic retrieval device. No sparks!

Advertised time: 2 hours.
Actual time : 5 hours, including"help" from the kids and one trip to the hardware store.

The 9 year old was legitimately helpful, the 7 year old... Not so much, yet.

View attachment 224071

Nice crew!!

 

[CincyBearcats]

I guess I'll need to glue it down

Don’t just take my word for it. At least take a scrap of yours and do a quick test of your own. I did my test on a countertop, which approximates a waterproof glue layer on wood. In that case, it would still take a long time for water to evaporate out of the foam backing.

 

[chicagoandy]

This last weekend was RoofRack & Solar Panels.

Roof Rack: Transit Roof Rack
Solar Panels: 4 x Rich Solar 250 watts. The ones I purchased are no longer available - bought 18 months ago.

1000 watts of Solar, which means no room for Air Conditioner or Vent fan. The Airconditioner will UndermountAC. The Vent Fan,I have a prototype ducted fan project shown here: https://www.fordtransitusaforum.com/posts/1279718/. Then I just need to figure out where it goes.

I had one hicup on the roof rack, Unaka did not have the manual for my rack on their website anymore, they've evolved the product and changed the designs, and the assembly, so I had to wait until I could get a copy of the latest manual. Once I had correct instructions, the rack went together pretty seamlessly.

I made one mistake while drilling bolt-holes in the panel frame, I used a standard straight drill-bit and pierced the PVC backing of the solar panel. Somehow I avoided the PV cells. I patched the hole with some hot-glue, I hope that's enough to keep moisture out of the panel. Then I switched from a straight-bit to a step-bit.

Mounting the rack:

Panels up!

PV is wired in 2-serial, 2-parallel. Each panel is 23.5V, 10A, so 2S2P should bring 47, 20 amps down to the MPPT.

Then I unmounted the panels, because I need to add the wire entry gland.

I copied @gregoryx simple box, and used VHB tape to attach it. I left some wire stubs in the unused cable-glands to help them stay waterproof.

Rubber U-channel in the access hole.

PV wires terminate at an IMO PV disconnect box.

Time Estimate: 3-day weekend
Reality: 2-day weekend, plus 3 weeknights.

Mistakes:
1. Drilled a hole in the back of a PV panel.
2. Started without having the right manuals.

 

[OldChubbyKnuckle]

Might want a few more holes and wire stubs in the roof access box if it's still accessible.

Mine is plumb full. Roof rack mounted LED lights on 3 sides, starlink, parsec husky, and cameras in addition to the PV wiring and bus bars. At least I made the hole through the bottom bigger than it came with after a suggestion from another forum member.

 

[chicagoandy]

Might want a few more holes and wire stubs in the roof access box if it's still accessible.

Mine is plumb full. Roof rack mounted LED lights on 3 sides, starlink, parsec husky, and cameras in addition to the PV wiring and bus bars. At least I made the hole through the bottom bigger than it came with after a suggestion from another forum member.

I did consider this! I decided against over-engineering for future projects that may change. For all I know, by the time I finally buy the 5-G antenna system, they'll have a completely different antenna setup. Upgrading or supplementing when the day comes shouldn't be too bad.

 

[chicagoandy]

The (first) battery is now, actually, done.

A year ago I spent a lot of time looking at different battery options. I saw a lot of inexpensive ones, which looked great, and I saw a bunch of very expensive ones, which didn't make much sense to me. But what I didn't see was many very large ones.

I knew I wanted a large electrical system, so I knew I'd need a lot of battey storage. For a long time I was looking at Li Time, they have some great prices on quality batteries. But what I noticed was their big batteries weren't actually that big, which means I would actually need 3 or 4 of them.... and that means they'd take up a lot of space.

I started looking at some of the DIY options, and I realized that if I built my own, I could A: Use the latest EV grade cells to make a very large battery, and B: Orient them in a way to take up minimal space.

Well, here's what I ended up with.

The requirements were:
1. Built like a Brick $hit-house. It needed to be very strong, capable of surviving a high-G rollover.
2. Victron comms
3. 24V
4. Very large capacity
5. Heated
6. Reasonably attractive.

I settled on a set of EVE MB31 "EV" batteries. These are made for EV's, but they also sell "out the back door" of the factory. They are high quality, very well tested, and commonly used in the DIY solar community. More importantly, they have 314 Amp Hours in each cell. To make a 24V battery I'd need 8 of them wired in series. 314AH @ 25.6V = 8,038 Watt Hours.

Typically batteries are assembled by taking the cells and assembling them side to side. Like this:

I figured if I could take those cells and instead assemble them end to end, I could get a longer, thinner battery. My goal was to have a battery no wider than the wheel well. These turned out awfully close:

The box is 3/4 Baltic Birch with the stylish "hex clad" melamine that a lot of builders are using right now. It's waterproof, electrically insulated, has a high flash-point... and I like the look. I routered the 3/4 ply to give a 1/4 inch tongue, which then fit into 1010 8020 extrusions. All of the 8020 joints are made using 1/4 20 bolts through the end. No fancy joiners at all.

I 3D printed big Red & Black terminal covers out of PETG, to help make sure I didn't do anything stupid. (you'll notice I have one battery backwards in the photo). With a battery this big, an accidental short-circuit could be very dangerous. I'm happy to say I didn't have a single "high energy event" while assembling this. Built in "T-Class fuse".

Here's how it finally turned out:

The internals are not as pretty as I had hoped, and it's a bit taller than I hoped. But I didn't list "pretty" or "short" as any of my requirements. It is safe. I'm confident it will survive a rollover accident without issue, and the 8020 will make it easy to bolt-down in the van.

I 3d printed the comms panel out of PETG, it has connections for RS485, RS232, and CANBUS. It'll talk to a Victron Cerbo GX, or any other system that comes down the road.

The terminals are called 'Amphenol' connectors, cables have quick-release snap on connectors. Very handy! EG4 280Ah WallMount Battery Cable Connector | Orange

It's very heavy. Guessing 150 pounds, all-in. Luckily I could wheel it around the house to get it up from the basement.

I have all the parts for an identical twin, but the second child is much lower on the priority-list.

 

[OldChubbyKnuckle]

Impressive! Can you share more details on the BMS and how the Victron compatible communications work? Do you see individual cell data on the Victron side? Does it report enough data to use Victron DVCC or how are you coordinating charge profiles between solar controller and your DC-DC Sterlings?

 

[chicagoandy]

Impressive! Can you share more details on the BMS and how the Victron compatible communications work? Do you see individual cell data on the Victron side? Does it report enough data to use Victron DVCC or how are you coordinating charge profiles between solar controller and your DC-DC Sterlings?

The BMS is one of the big Chinese vendors, this one is called the JK Inverter BMS, made by JiKong (jk). It will manage cell balancing and cell heating as needed.

It reports pack level data to victron, which is enough for DVCC, so everything will get integrated with the BMS dictating charge voltage.

The one item that won't have DVCC is the Sterling B2B, I may try to get that working some day via their remote, but I'm not going to worry about it for now, I will just set a charge profile via their remote. I may just have it charge to 90% and let the victron mppt manage the top end.

I call pull cell data into home assistant when I get that running, either Bluetooth, hardwired rs485, or rs232.