While Victron Energy components are arguably some of the most well-documented products in the industry, we can't argue that it is sometimes a bear to find the particular bit of information that you might happen to be looking for, and Victron has been working overtime to redesign their support pages as well as organize their user manuals, datasheets, and knowledge bases into a more user-friendly, centralized format. While we at Bay Marine Supply are world-renowned Victron product experts, we realize that in many cases our customers would far prefer to do their own research than to call with questions but have been unable to successfully navigate the mountains of published documentation for a particular product, so toward the goal of making that navigation a little easier for everyone we'll take the opportunity here to offer a few helpful resources:
1. If you don't already follow Victron's blog, we can't recommend it highly enough - you can find out about upcoming product releases, software and hardware updates, tech tips, events, Victron system owner stories from all around the world, and all manner of interesting and useful information in one place!
2. With regard to product information and the Victron knowledge base itself, check out this particular Victron blog entry about how (with many included useful links) to most quickly find the answer to your particular question.
3. Victron's MPPT Calculator tool is a fantastic resource for identifying which MPPT is the ideal choice for your particular solar array and battery bank. You may note that the tool defaults to calculations based on Victron's own solar panels (which, you may also note, are not imported to the US market) but you can simply select the "custom module" radio button at the top of the calculator and enter the details of your own panels. We will add: Victron's MPPT Calculator will generally err on the side of caution, and in some cases it will recommend a larger MPPT than you realistically need for your particular setup, so if you still have questions after using it, feel free to contact us to see if we have an alternative recommendation! We can't engineer your system for you, but we're happy to put our real-world expertise to use to make sure you get what you need - nothing more, nothing less.
4. We all know that YouTube is a fantastic resource, but unfortunately it can be incredibly difficult to pick out the good information from the bad; we can't count the number of "tutorial" videos we've watched in which the information presented is incorrect, incomplete, or even downright dangerous. To that end, allow us to suggest -as useful, vetted, and correct sources of information- Victron's own YouTube channel, Pacific Yacht Systems channel, and The Engineering Mindset channel as great places to go for truly educational content regarding not only Victron components but electrical systems in general. There are of course many other entertaining channels out there from which various bits of useful information can be cherry picked, but these three channels produce consistently useful, educational, and -more importantly- correct information.
5. If you're more inclined to learn by reading than by watching videos, Victron's free book Wiring Unlimited is absolutely invaluable and is available as a PDF download; if you'd prefer it in hard copy, give us a call and we'll include one with your order of components (and in fact we include a hard copy along with our system kits). You can also pull up the user manual, datasheets, dimensions, brochures, and even sample system schematics for any product Victron manufactures directly from the Downloads tab of Victron's site, which is an absolute treasure trove!
6. We quite frequently receive cable gauge and/or fuse and breaker size questions, and although there are many voltage drop / ampacity / wire gauge calculators around the internet, we are of course partial to our own Wire Size Calculator, where you can input your voltage, current, and round-trip (positive+negative) circuit length and you'll get wire gauge recommendations with % voltage drop for each, as well as extremely useful charts of maximum ampacities for wire gauges in various installation conditions - all of which can be absolutely invaluable for helping you select the appropriate wire gauge, from which you can also extrapolate the appropriate fuse or breaker and much more!
7. Finally (though this list could go on forever), an oft-overlooked feature of Victron's brilliant cross-platform VictronConnect software is the Demo Library. VictronConnect is available on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and is also available for download on PC or Mac laptop/desktops, is ubiquitous in that with very few exceptions it is the one and only piece of software you should use to update and program any Victron component, is free and ad-free, and has the absolutely brilliant Demo Library function that you can use to acclimate to the UI and play with the programmable parameters of nearly every product Victron manufactures... all before you make any purchase!
Just install the app from your chosen source, open it, navigate to the upper left-hand corner and click the menu icon (3 horizontal lines), click "Demo Library", and then choose from the full range of Victron products that you'd like to experiment with! Please note that in some cases the options you see in the Demo Library will not be identical to the options you see in a live functional unit, as certain installation parameters can affect the availability of programmable features. As a general tool however, the Demo Library is an unprecedented and incredibly valuable resource to help familiarize yourself with the interface, features, functions, and general operation and configuration of any Victron product, all before you've spent a dime!
We'll also note that the VictronConnect app has its own manual as well, and while it's fully accessible from within the app, we highly encourage that everyone using the app also peruse the manual on its own just so you're familiar with all its capabilities, settings, and configurability!