Hi,
I went away for 6 months and came back to my van, made a firmware update and the solar doesn’t work any longer. It may be the update. There has been another update which I applied recently.
Could there be a setting which was changed in an update?
I have checked all the connections are in. 15.35V comes from the full French sun right now. 13.75V on the battery side. But the battery is not being charged.
I don’t understand what ahs changed, it was fine last year.
Some things of note when looking at your system.
The mppt is charging your battery. The PV voltage is a bit low, is it particularly hot? Are you using a 36 cell panel with a Vmp of 18V plus?
There is a voltage drop of 0.25v between the mppt and battery, loose connections?
You are using the wrong type of cables to connect the mppt. Refer the manual.
Could you possibly make the connection to the mppt look a bit more tidy. (I’m being nice here)
Is the battery fused?
Thanks I know it’s not pretty, not any shop I’ve visited, I haven’t seen better materials than I have.
The connections are in, one checked that.
I’m confused because it was fine for 5 years, then just stopped.
I wonder about settings changing without my knowledge. I’ll check the manual again.
Settings can’t just change, with age connections wear or get loose, systems prone to vibration, like vehicles, are more at risk, especially with connections like that which really need to be neatened up. Typically it is something like that. Updates don’t happen accidentally, they must be loaded and settings on chargers are preserved - unlike the vebus inverters.
I have checked that things are secure. Yes it would be desirable to change the cabling, but I can’t just do that.
I guess this all looks okay?
It’s too hot to work in the van now. I’ll have a go at reworking the current wires after the weekend and get back here with the results.
Thank you all so far.
In response, yes today is 35 degrees. The van is open, but I can’t get it cooler.
I can’t remember what the panels are any longer. It’s been so long since I bought them and set it all up.
Do have a good look at your panel.
Count the number of cells.
Big bird poops, or thick dust will reduce the current the panel can produce.
Flexible panels are somewhat prone to failure. Reducing output.
