Charge controller showing no current suddenly.

Question

question

scandy1 asked Nov 8, '19

Charge controller showing no current suddenly.

I've got a 50/100 charge controller on my camper, 2 100 watt panels, and a single 100ah battleborn battery.

I recently had my camper in to get my radio wired into both the engine battery and camper battery with a switch between. I realized they only hooked it up to the camper battery when the battery completely died. I tried to charge it with my shore power hookup. I think since the battery was dead, something wasnt recognizing a battery being there and it wouldnt charge it.

I then unhooked everything from the battery, and jumped it from the engine battery. hooked everything back up, and was able to charge it through shore power from there, and everything functioned normally.

Im wondering if when hooking everything back up i blew a fuse in the charge controller itself? my other thought was that I might have blown one of the inline fuses coming from the panels, though I've got a 20a fuse between my battery and charge controller, Id be surprised if it was the solar panel inline fuses.

I havent been able to check them because the renogy mounts make it an absolute pain to reach the bolts. Otherwise I'd have to remove the mounts from the roof itself which means a lot of disassembly to access those mount bolts, which i'd really like to avoid.

Does this sound like a problem with the charge controller itself? any other Ideas?

battery charging Solar Panel solar error

2 |3000

Attachments: Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2019-11-08T01:16:26Z

isagone answered · Nov 08, 2019 at 01:16 AM

Have you got current coming into controller from solar

If not sounds like blown fuse between charge controller and panel

1

2 |3000

Attachments: Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

scandy1 commented · Nov 08, 2019 at 02:03 AM

it’s night now so nothing regardless, but I’ll make sure tomorrow. Though I’m pretty certain I haven’t been getting current coming in.

0 ·

Answer 2 · 2019-11-08T23:41:19Z

scandy1 answered · Nov 08, 2019 at 11:41 PM

Ok here's what my app is saying.

I used a voltmeter at the wires where they plug into the charge controller, and got a reading. So as far as i can tell its not an issue with the panel's or their fuse.

the light on the charge controller is blinking bulk, fuse between my battery and charge controller is good, even tried multiple fuses. Went through all the battleborn setup steps and everything looks right.

One other thing, I've run my battery down to dead before (or the low volt shutoff in the battery itself) and always been able to charge it through shore power, or once the sun came up it'd start to charge it again, from dead, as in lights out, no power at all.

Not only will it not charge from solar with the battery dead, it wont charge from shore power, through my renogy inverter charger. once i jump the battery, then i can at least charge through shore power.

I'm lost..

img-3256.jpg (189.1 KiB)

3

2 |3000

Attachments: Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

klim8skeptic ♦ commented · Nov 08, 2019 at 11:48 PM

Hi Scandy,

The voltage from the solar panels is too low, you have a wiring fault somewhere between the mppt and your panels.

Disconnect the pv from the mppt and measure the voltage. If you get a decent voltage from the pv, test again with a light bulb (borrow a blinker bulb), it should light up brightly with good sun.

Report back.

0 ·

scandy1 klim8skeptic ♦ commented · Nov 09, 2019 at 12:03 AM

Thats very close to sunset and possibly some shade from trees. would that have an effect on the voltage? Didnt get to measure it in direct sunlight.

0 ·

klim8skeptic ♦ scandy1 commented · Nov 09, 2019 at 12:26 AM

Yes you will need good sun. You can check your history for today though.

0 ·

Answer 3 · 2019-11-09T18:08:38Z

scandy1 answered · Nov 09, 2019 at 06:08 PM

alright here’s what I’m seeing in better sun.

acb446a6-aa08-4d72-9702-f5d18f712d90.png (308.8 KiB)

3

2 |3000

Attachments: Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

klim8skeptic ♦ commented · Nov 09, 2019 at 07:53 PM

Hi Sandy,

Your pv voltage is to low. Please wire your panels in series. Look at the notes at the bottom of the specs.

0 ·

100-50-specs.jpg (110.1 KiB)

scandy1 klim8skeptic ♦ commented · Nov 09, 2019 at 10:32 PM

I’ve had zero issues for almost 2 years though. Even during winter, panels partially covered in snow, I’d always get a charge. Maybe it’s still fuse between the panels and charge controller? I ordered new ones just Incase. But I would think if one of those fuses goes out (I.e. the positive or negative wire) I’d be getting no voltage to the charge controller?

0 ·

ejrossouw scandy1 commented · Nov 09, 2019 at 11:34 PM

@Scandy1 Have you tried factory reset the Smartsolar and ensured that the correct battery voltage has been selected? Also, what is the voltage from the panels when you measure it with a multimeter? Not via the app.

0 ·

question