I recently purchased an AC200L for my travel trailer. Occasionally I will stay at an overnight with no hookups. Usually just one night or maybe two. I call these stays “Boondocking Lite”. I need power to run the water pump, lights, and my coffee pot. I do have a 350 watt solar portable solar panel for the AC200L. All this works fine until the sun does not shine for multiple days and I have nowhere to plug in and charge the AC200L. I thought the D40 would take care of this situation being a 12V to 12V charger. I was getting ready to order one and downloaded the manual to see what I needed to install it in my trailer. Surprise! Reading the manual it appears the truck alternator does not charge the AC200L! It will charge other batteries and power other devices.
Did I read this wrong? I hope I did read it wrong. If not the D40 at least for my use case will not work. Perhaps a Victron Orion XS 12/12-50A DC-DC battery charger would be a better fit to charge the AC200L while I travel down the road?
Comments? I would like to hear from experts. I’m new to the solar charger world and Bluetti.
There are two components, that could help you. One of them is the “Charger 1” and the other your D40, that you already have.
The Charger 1 is a charger, that will be connected to the cars starter battery and gets powered by the car alternator. Its converts the 12V - 14V by the starter battery to up to 58V to charge your Powerstation. It can charge up to 560W.
The D40 on the other hand is more like a powerstation integration kit. It allows you to connect a powerstation and solarpanels to power your RV.
One is basicly for charging and the other mainly for consumption.
Hi @Slotown, I appreciate your interest in Bluetti. @Selfmadestrom’s answer is very accurate and comprehensive. D40 is compatible with the AC200L, but its main function is to charge your RV battery, not the AC200L.
We recommend that you purchase Charger 1, which will allow you to use a car generator to charge the AC200L.
On sunny days, you can use solar charging to gather more energy.
Yes it does! While waiting for the approval of my post I did discover and learn about the Charger 1. It is more Like what I’m needing for my trailer and AC200L. I’ve read the manual for the Charger 1 and it seems fairly simple to install and hook to the power station. Does the Charger 1 control the power stations absorption voltage, float voltage, and storage voltage? Or does it just provide steady power and constant wattage and the power station does the BMS functions?
the powerstation is the unit that controls charging power. You only need to make sure, that the Charger 1 output voltage isnt higher than the supported voltage of the powerstation. The good thing is, you just can choose the model from a list and the charger 1 set all the right parameters.
Its a plug and play solution. Just connect it to the 12V source, choose the powerstation model on the charger 1 and you ready to go.