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Post by natedawg1169 on May 29, 2017 14:47:38 GMT -8
Hey Guys
First time poster here, I just purchased this 50 Watt panel and 10amp renogy controller kit from Amazon and have it hall hooked up to my crank battery.
I need help troubleshoot an apparent constant discharge issue when the panel is connected.
First I will describe my hookup. I have the panel installed behind my backseat in the back window. I have a 8 foot extension connected from the male/female 1 foot connectors on the back of the panel routed into my truck and connected to the solar +/- terminals on the 10 amp charge controller.
I have 10 foot battery leads connected from the battery to the +/- battery terminals on the 10 amp charge controller. I also have a 3.1 amp usb and a 12V accessory socket wired to the load +/- terminals on the 10 amp charge controller.
I have nothing plugged into the USB socket but it has a blue backlight on all the time. I have a ARB 50 quart powered cooler fridge on the 12 V accessory terminal which is about a 1 to 1.5 amp/hour draw on the battery.
Ok so what I have noticed since connecting this all up is when the panel is connected the reported battery percentage drops steadily about 5 - 10 % an hour.
With the panels disconnected from the charge controller the reported battery percentage jumps up to near 100% if I have had no real discharge load on and it can hold this for hours with minimal discharge from the ARB fridge. Roughy about 10 % dishcharge in a day. (this is not exact measure just a educated guess from my observations of the lcd screen of the charge controller)
What I can't figure out is if I really have this big battery drain when the panels are connected or if the controller is mis-reporting the percentage.
Any thoughts?
The LCD cycles 12.5V / Temperature / Battery % / Load / E0 constantly and the picture shows Panel --> Battery --> Load as it should.
What sort of things should I be doing to narrow down whether this thing is actually working to re-charge the battery and not constantly discharging it?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Post by tattoo on May 29, 2017 17:34:03 GMT -8
You have you panel mounted where??? Behind your seat in the back window??? Your kidding right?? What angle to the sun unobstructed is it mounted??
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Post by tattoo on May 29, 2017 17:39:09 GMT -8
Hey Guys First time poster here, I just purchased this 50 Watt panel and 10amp renogy controller kit from Amazon and have it hall hooked up to my crank battery. I need help troubleshoot an apparent constant discharge issue when the panel is connected. First I will describe my hookup. I have the panel installed behind my backseat in the back window. I have a 8 foot extension connected from the male/female 1 foot connectors on the back of the panel routed into my truck and connected to the solar +/- terminals on the 10 amp charge controller. I have 10 foot battery leads connected from the battery to the +/- battery terminals on the 10 amp charge controller. I also have a 3.1 amp usb and a 12V accessory socket wired to the load +/- terminals on the 10 amp charge controller. I have nothing plugged into the USB socket but it has a blue backlight on all the time. I have a ARB 50 quart powered cooler fridge on the 12 V accessory terminal which is about a 1 to 1.5 amp/hour draw on the battery. Ok so what I have noticed since connecting this all up is when the panel is connected the reported battery percentage drops steadily about 5 - 10 % an hour. With the panels disconnected from the charge controller the reported battery percentage jumps up to near 100% if I have had no real discharge load on and it can hold this for hours with minimal discharge from the ARB fridge. Roughy about 10 % dishcharge in a day. (this is not exact measure just a educated guess from my observations of the lcd screen of the charge controller) What I can't figure out is if I really have this big battery drain when the panels are connected or if the controller is mis-reporting the percentage. Any thoughts? The LCD cycles 12.5V / Temperature / Battery % / Load / E0 constantly and the picture shows Panel --> Battery --> Load as it should. What sort of things should I be doing to narrow down whether this thing is actually working to re-charge the battery and not constantly discharging it? Thanks in advance for any advice. Post by tattoo on 4 minutes ago You have you panel mounted where??? Behind your seat in the back window??? Your kidding right?? What angle to the sun unobstructed is it mounted?? |
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Post by natedawg1169 on May 29, 2017 19:48:24 GMT -8
Where the panel sits in transit is irrelivant no? Nothing perminant here, it has about 4.5 feet of tether to where it can sit on top the sunroof of the car for prolonged stays.
In the back window it catches a fair bit of sun, but have no idea about uv protections in the tinting and if the panel is at all effective back there. Pure guess but it looks like the back window is on a 30 to 40 degree slant.
Basically I only bought it to test the feasability of keeping the battery topped or less run down after having the draw of the arb in an overnight situation with no ac hookup.
Very new to solar powar so I bought this on the cheap to get a sense how it might work before I drop a larger sum on a bigger rollout or suitcase panel(s)
I am uncertain if I am getting a false reading from the charge controller because I get big discrepencies on battery capacity percentage with and without the panel connected. Swings of 70% to 30% within minutes of disconnecting and connecting the panel. 50% down to 30% within 30 minutes to an hour of connecting the panel, this will jump up to 70% about 5 minutes of disconnecting the panel.
I just dont find it to make sense.
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Post by natedawg1169 on May 29, 2017 20:54:49 GMT -8
I would like to add after the sun went down the battery capacity jumped from 27% to 97% on my charge controller.
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Post by rabird on May 30, 2017 3:42:29 GMT -8
monitor voltage, if the panel is big enough and enough sun, the batt voltage should rise to the mid 14v and stay there for a while, the manual specs should detail this. Ya might try without the fridge connected. In full sun, panel pointed at the sun, 50 watt = less than 3A (look on the back of the panel). Good day I use a multiplier of 4 or 5 so 3Ax4 = 12ah a day of charging. This may be the manual www.hqsolarpower.com/v/vspfiles/Manuals/HP2410-20-S%20User%20Manual.pdfso the specs suggests the batt voltage should get to 14.4v and maintain that for 2 hrs. This may be impossible with your fridge load which btw is not minimal IMO. If the fridge uses 1a over a day that's 24ah and the <3A panel won't keep up. Fully charging is the goal IMO so make sure the batt v gets to 14.4 and stays there for 2 hrs. |
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Post by tattoo on May 30, 2017 10:42:34 GMT -8
Where the panel sits in transit is irrelivant no? Nothing perminant here, it has about 4.5 feet of tether to where it can sit on top the sunroof of the car for prolonged stays. That's not what you said in your first post......... You said " I have the panel installed behind my backseat in the back window. " So at least now you can mount them properly......... |
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Post by natedawg1169 on May 31, 2017 11:39:14 GMT -8
Thanks Rabird that helps me make sense of this a bit more, I do get periods of 14.5 V on the controller I have noticed. Usually when I put a load on the system like when I fire up the inverter and brew a coffee and what not. It will maintain the 14.5V and then drop back down to 12.5V after awhile.
The panel is definitely not intended to run said fridge and other accessories I am using it as a bit of a safeguard against running the battery down to far and damaging it, I have built in protections in the fridge, inverter and accessory ports that shut down if the battery gets below a certain threshold. I have only hit this threshold once and that was before I installed the panel. I did re-wire slightly and moved my 3a USB and 12V accessory that has the fridge on it to the load on the charge controller and set the mode to normal on "17".
I was just getting baffled by the charge controllers readout when the panel was connected it seems to be reporting incorrect values for the battery capacity percentage, as at one point it was down to 10% with the panel on, as soon as it was unplugged it jumped up to 80%. Any ideas why those values have such random readouts. The battery clearly isn't being run down that far and none of the shut-offs kick in when it drops that low so I am assuming its a false read-out.
tattoo need not respond.
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Post by tattoo on May 31, 2017 13:09:22 GMT -8
Why not?  I have as big of a right as you do to post..... It's not my fault you mounted it wrong.... I just posted to let you know that's not the right place to mount it.... |
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Post by rabird on Jun 1, 2017 3:40:08 GMT -8
We don't know the SoC % logic. Both load and charge effect the voltage and I think they use some algorithm based on voltage which is bogus! Mine reads 35% each morning when it should be 80% or so. To use voltage the batt needs no load or charge and some time to adjust from prior loads/charge. Early morning voltage reading is about the best ya get with little loads overnight. www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volt.htm#testingOnce the battery gets to 14.4v is when the controller actually does something. It turns the panel on and off to maintain batt @ 14.4. The off time increases as the batt gets full since it takes less and less power to maintain 14.4v. Use during this time means the panel stays ON more for the load,, if there is enough power for the batt and load the batt stays @ 14.4v if not it will drop. Once the batt is full, (14.4v for 2 hrs) then the controller changes its set pt to FLOAT (13.2v?, different for each controller), it should take very little power to maintain FLOAT and any excess can be used without affecting batt v. These voltage values vary with temperature, higher in cold and lower in heat. In short, monitor batt voltage! |
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Post by natedawg1169 on Jun 1, 2017 9:25:42 GMT -8
Awesome, thanks man that eases my mind and gives me some confidence that it is working the way I want it too.
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Post by mike (new member) on Aug 13, 2017 6:55:43 GMT -8
I just installed my 50W package yesterday & noticed the same: when I first set up my battery read 75%. I had the fridge running to test it while I was charging & noticed the % figure lower after a few hours(5-10%)!
Today I will try w/out any load on the battery while charging & see if it reaches 100%. What I glean from this is: chrage for >= 2 hrs w/ no load.
thanks
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Post by tattoo on Aug 13, 2017 11:53:40 GMT -8
I just installed my 50W package yesterday & noticed the same: when I first set up my battery read 75%. I had the fridge running to test it while I was charging & noticed the % figure lower after a few hours(5-10%)! Today I will try w/out any load on the battery while charging & see if it reaches 100%. What I glean from this is: chrage for >= 2 hrs w/ no load. thanks You should never put a load on your system until your batteries are at 100% floating..... If you want to see if it's working that's what a volt meter is for... You don't want to kill your battery before you even get started.... Good luck... |
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I have as big of a right as you do to post..... It's not my fault you mounted it wrong.... I just posted to let you know that's not the right place to mount it....