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davemd avatar image
davemd asked

Confused about my MC4 Connecters

Hi, I bought a Victron solar panel kit for my campervan and I'm struggling to get support from the retailer.

I'll try to be clear and concise about why I'm confused.

From the solar panel there is a positive and negative which are clearly labelled so.

These I want to attach to extension cables which also have MC4 connecters.

On the extension cables there is a male and female just like the solar panel MC4 connecters, here is the issue,

The extension cable MC4 connecter which is the female end is labelled on the mc4 connector itself as negative and the positive mc4 connector from the solar panel is male

This means that the only way to make my connection is to add the male positive from the solar panel to the female negative mc4 connector of the extension and the female negative from the solar panel to the male positive of the extension.

I really hope this makes sense.

From hour's of Google searches the best info I could find is that this does not change the polarity as it only adds extra cable which makes perfect sense but I really would appreciate confirmation of this.

If anyone can advise that would be appropriate.

Solar Panel
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1 Answer
Kevin Windrem avatar image
Kevin Windrem answered ·

The extension cable should have a male on one end of one wire and a female on the other end of that same wire. Same for the other wire but male and female are reversed. This means that whatever you connect to one end comes out the other on the same male/female connections of the solar panel. You can disregard the + / - labeling on the extension as long as you make sure the actual positive wire connects to the solar controller positive input.

You may find that one end of your extension labels the male on one end as + and the the male on the other end as -. If that's the case, just turn the cable around and + should mate up with + coming from your solar panel.

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