I have the following set up:
- 3 x 175watt renogy solar panels
- Victron SmartSolar 50/100 MPPT
- 2 x 170Ah renogy lithium batteries
- All connected with 4AWG marine grade cable
The panels are connected in parallel, because the system is mounted on a sail boat and they should be more resilient to partial shading.
Until a couple days ago, everything had been working fine. All of a sudden the system stopped charging the batteries. I experimented connecting the panels in different configurations (parallel, series and with 1,2, and 3, panels.) Having the panels connected in series seems to work consistently and having all 3 panels connected in parallel seems to consistently not work, though it did work once for a couple of minutes and then stopped again. It seems that the panels are all generating the expected voltage and the batteries are functioning correctly.
It seems to me that the controller behaviour is odd, almost like it's making a decision not to charge. The controller firmware is the latest version.
I would appreciate any suggestions because this behaviour seems exceedingly odd given that it was all working fine for months, and nothing changed so far as I know.
