Recent content by colemab

Yea Big Battery's QA isn't great. I have purchased 8 units (2 Max 2s and 6 regular hawks) and 1 was defective out of the box and had to be returned full stop. Another one has a bad volt meter LED display and I am one week into the support process. With just one email reply back so far...

"Battery panel and switch were dark." Get an RMA to return this unit.

Don't you need a balancer to run them in series? AFAIK big battery has very quietly STOPPED recommending the 24v units be run in series and removed it from their website w/o a word.

Not sure what part wasn't clear. This is a massive parallel system - NOTHING is in series. And yes I am familiar with doubling voltage vs amps (aka series vs parallel)

Well shit. Looking at the manual the probes on this one don't do amps. User error on the multi-meter I guess. I need to get another one that does and test that way to confirm though. Thanks for your time man. Seriously, I would have never realized this.

If I get some time this weekend, I'll try to re-run these tests in full sun as the problem seems to occur with power trying to flow higher than ~6 or 7 amps with the original branch connectors but seemingly I couldn't achieve that today with the sun being out of ideal range.

Finally, I un-looped the bouge branch connectors and did a probe test with both plugged in to the branch outputs (cloud moved a bit here). 6.43 amps combined.

Next up the loop / clamp test with bouge RV branch connectors. A cloud came and directly blocked the sun here. .78 amps left, .81 amps right, 1.60 amps both

Same open circuit test on right panel with probes directly (no branch connectors) 5.48 amps

Open circuit test on left panel only with probes directly (no branch connector) 6.75 amps. These photos are being posted in the order taken. Which was as quickly as possible right after another.

Next up the same test but with the linkpal branch connectors. 1.04 amps left, 1.54 amps right, 2.68 amps combined. Variance expected a bit because some moving clouds / not 100% clear day.

Ok so these tests were run later in the day then when I get full sun (down in this valley) but here are some results. Ignore the color of the wires as the trina panels have black wires coming out both positive an negative. The red one is read because it is cable to extend out to the branch...

Amazon delivered the new branch connectors after sundown last night. When I get back from lunch meeting, I plan to run your loop / shorted tests with the clamp meters and different branch connectors. In theory that should tell me which if any of the branch connectors are the issue. Then...

Yea it is blowing my mind! When I swapped out the branch connectors and got the same results, I decided to make this post. I'm now starting to think my volt meter might be bad?

Yes, there are 12x 400w Trina panels in 6 strings (2 panels per string) down to a aims combiner box. I've checked each panel directly (as seen above in the photos) and after the branch connector individually and together. The readings after the branch connector are virtually the same for a...