Our Solar is not keeping up with our amp consumption, so I decided to connect a spare solar panel with a separate controller. The controller is a a BlueSolar MPPT that I bought 3 years ago, not realizing it does not have Bluetooth. I don’t have a smart dongle with me in the middle of the Sea of Cortez, and my BMV 7812 isn’t conneting to it, so I have no way to configure it.
I discovered this after installing the Controller and connecting the panel to it. Can I just use it as is for our 1 week?
What battery do you have?
The default settings are for lead batteries.
If your mppt has a rotary switch to set the charge parameters, read the manual and select the closest charge profile that suits your batteries.
I looked but there is no rotary switch.
The batteries are AGM. Cam my BMV “see” and track amps in from the Blue Solar controller?
The controller is connected to a 100A solar panel. Its early morning here so I am not sure if many amps are flowing into the batteries yet. We don not have enough solar so I added this panel, but I am not sure if it is even working.
When I measure voltage at the PV terminals I get 13.01v. The specs for the panel are:
vmpp - 12.6v
VOC- 15.3
What am I measuring at the PV terminals.
I guess the question is:
Is the controller adding amps to my batteries1?
15,3Voc is very low, the MPPT needs a PV voltage 5V above battery voltage.
I don’t think your MPPT even starts.
It sounds like this is an obsolete solar panel that will not work with an MPPT controller. It has 2 lights, one blue and one yellow. The blue light is blinking, so its seems to be working. Just cant seem to measure any amps or voltage changes.
Can the BMV measure the input of a not Bluetooth controller?
I bought it used and not sure how old it is. It is a Soliban SR108. The voltage output at the PV terminals ais now 14.2 at 9:00 AM here. I had assumed I would be getting an additional 100W from the panel. Is there anything that can be done?
The BMV sees all the current that’s going into or out off the battery (if it is installed correctly).
Thank you. Thats very helpful to know. I tried a different controller, but my amp meter shows no current at all. I get 14.2 voltage though at tbe PV inputs, but amps out. I don’t know whats wrong.
I think you mean 100W - the most you could expect out of that panel, new out of the box is just over 7A @ 12V.
Can you explain your setup a bit better - how many panels do you have, how are they configured (parallel or series), what is the VOC on the panels and what exact model of controller do you have?