Can high SmartSolar temperature cause erratic charge current measurements?

DIY
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1

I’ve got a SmartSolar 100/50 that has worked without a hiccup for over half a year. Because it got pretty hot during normal operation I installed a fan to keep it cool. But that fan (being an old computer fan) developed mechanical problems and I removed it two days ago. Right now we’re in the middle of the South African summer and it’s well over 30 degrees Celsius, and the SmartSolar is now getting too hot to touch.

For the past two days I have gotten error / warning messages from the SmartSolar warning me of charger overcurrents. That’s weird, because the SmartSolar is limited to 50A charge current (about 1400W on the 26V LFP battery I’ve got connected to it) and it has never exceeded that. Yet now (after removing the fan) all of a sudden I’m seeing some irregular peaks that I’ve never seen before (in the horizontal section of the orange graph below).

Screenshot from 2025-01-29 15-48-10
Screenshot from 2025-01-29 15-48-10354×576 32.7 KB

Could the high temperature of the SmartSolar cause erratic glitches in current measurement?

2

Yes, as the current rises so does the internal temperature, below i pulled this from the troubleshooting guide…(see hi-lighted bit)

Solar charger over-current

This error will auto-reset. If the error does not auto-reset, disconnect the solar charger from all power sources, wait 3 minutes, and reconnect so it will power up again.

Possible causes for an over-current on the battery terminals:

  • Switching on/off a very large load on the battery side.
  • Sudden change in irradiance is causing a temporary over-power in the solar charger.

Possible solutions:

  • If possible, provide adequate cooling for the unit. A cooler unit can handle more current.