SmartSolar 150/85 remote port damaged

Q&A and troubleshooting
, , ,
1

I recently ordered a new SmartSolar charge controller MPPT 150 I 85 – Tr VE.Can. Sadly, the aluminum bridge between the Relay/Remote ports and the VE.Can was broken upon arrival. (see picture) That broken aluminum bridge piece is likely inside the charge controller, because something was rattling when I first opened the product. Also the relay and remote ports are quite loose, indicating potential damage to the underlying circuit board that they are mounted on.

20251007_164937
20251007_1649374624×2604 289 KB

Although the charge controller can see the panel voltage of 41V, the batteries don’t charge (0A). The VictronConnect app gives the following description of the problem: #OR4: Disabled by remote or BMS.

I don’t have anything connected to the VE.Can, relay, or the remote ports. I updated the product firmware immediately after turning on the battery breaker.

I have two 12V LiFePO4 batteries connected in parallel. They have an internal BMS but nothing that I can manage externally.

One time when I wiggled the relay port, the charger briefly turned on, but when I touched the relay port again, it turned off again. No amount of wiggling in any direction will make the charging turn on again.

Living in a very remote area in Africa, I cannot quickly return the damaged product, nor can I easily get a replacement product.

I did not connect any remote control to the charge controller and left the preinstalled wire loop (jumper) to shortcut the remote control in place. I also checked if the problem is on the level of the shortcut and changed the cable as well as removed the plastic connector block for the remote port in order to shortcut the remote-pins directly. None of these things resulting in any charging happening.

Does anyone have any tips how to resolve the problem? It seems as if the circuit board responsible for the remote has been broken on the inside during delivery and that therefore the charge controller constantly gets the signal not to charge the batteries. Is there a way to disable the entire function of the remote control on a software level as the hardware seems to be broken?

2

SOLUTION:
The L port seems to be damaged because connecting a wire from L to battery negative didn’t force the charge controller to charge. However, connecting the H port to battery positive did allow the charge controller to charge. So the charge controller is working right now.