SmartSolar Charger MPPT 100/20 A060 48V shows 0 watt and does not charge the battery after firmware update to version V1.64
I have disconnected the battery and the solar connection cable, but this has not helped.
What else could I do?
Thank you very much for your support.
Hi Roland. We’ll need a bit more info to help.
Starting with the basics, and just some food for thought, have you been in and checked that the settings in the MPPT are unchanged and are as they should be.
What is your battery voltage measure device and is this correctly configured to communicate with your MPPT.
What “state” does the MPPT say it’s in if you connect via Victron Connect?
hello les
thank you very much for your support.
the battery is connected directly to the MPPT 100/20. the battery shows 11.4 V. The solar system is currently showing 17 V. Zero Watt …
I have not changed anything in the setup, only carried out the firmware update.
I have now disconnected all the cables again and will reconnect everything tomorrow.
Attached is the circuit diagram of my off-grid system.
Hi Rowland,
First I note that you have mis-matched PV panels.
Usually Series connection is preferred as it gives the charger more volts to work with.
Watch this excellent video and it may help you decide what’s best for your set-up.
Secondly, I assume when you mention 17v this is the PV voltage which reinforces my comment above.
Could you connect to the smart solar via Bluetooth with Victron connect and let us see your settings and readings.
I forgot to add the link to the video
Those panels are correctly wired in parallel, they all have approximately 20V Vmp so wire in parallel. They have massively different Imp so they can not be wired in series.
Thank you les and pwfarnell for your answers. I have watched the video, thank you very much.
now i’m a little unsure whether i have wired the panels correctly to achieve the optimum performance. can anyone help me with this?
i’ll connect everything again tomorrow and share a screenshot of the vitron connect app.
I answered above, your drawing is the correct connection layout for your panels. Parallel connection needs the same voltage, series connection needs the same current.
Ok. Thank you!
Good morning Roland, pwfarnell is quite correct.
Apologies for confusing you with the video.
Is your charger correctly detecting the system voltage? I.e. 12v system
I’m out on a boat trip all day today without wifi, but if you send as many screenshots as you can hopefully we can spot something out of place that is preventing your system from charging.
Rowland, just before I leave the hotel for the day. I’m on holiday.
My understanding is that PV must be vbatt +5v for the charger to start.
Presumably your absorbsion V is set at 14.5v or thereabouts thus with 17v it will not start.
Can you look at historical pv voltage? Perhaps the firmware update coincided with a change in weather?
Is your PV cabling large enough to avoid excess volt drop?
Until later.
Good morning everyone
I noticed the following today:
after sunrise, the voltage display remains at approx. 11 volts and the system does not produce any power. see screenshot 01
the voltage remains unchanged even after approx. 2 hours of sunlight.
I then disconnected the cables from the panels shortly after 11 a.m. and reconnected them. after that, the system is producing power correctly. see screenshot 01 (I only connected a 120 watt panel temporarily to rule out a source of error).
it should also be noted that the system worked correctly with this setup for almost 2 years. the problem only occurred after the firmware update to version 1.64.
can i possibly upgrade to the old firmware?
I also enclose further screenshots for your perusal.
Thank you very much for your support!
Hi Ronald.
First off, your system is stating bulk thus it IS charging, thus I don’t think that firmware is your issue.
Also looking at the voltage and current on the input side compared with the output side thay look there or thereabouts thus again in my opinion, the charger is doing as it should and what it can with the input it’s getting.
If I were you I’d be looking for loose connections or high resistance contacts in your PV circuit. As per my last post, are the cables from the panels to the charger big enough to avoid excess volt drop?
It might be worth pulling apart any MC4 connectors you have and checking for water ingress and corrosion?
I would remove the little one and series the two matching ones, its very likely that it is bringing down the team as a whole.
It also looks like the solar voltage is too low to charge the batteries.
Even if it is starting it certainly doesn’t have enough to finish
The system has now switched on correctly at sunrise for the second day in a row and started charging. The topic can therefore be closed here.
Many thanks to all of you for your support.
(post deleted by author)
The integration of the small panel in series connection works perfectly and provides the expected additional power.
