wwu123
New Member
While I don't own a Victron charge controller, my friend did use 150/35 to a F3800 just fine, until he later picked up some 48V server rack batteries.
Anker Powerhouse 767 Solar input Challenge!
- Thread starter watchdoc
- Start date
Hi I have the Anker Powerhouse 767. I purchased Ja solar JAM54S31-405MR. I connect them series and they don't work. If I connect them parallel I'm only get 290watt. Can some explain what I'm doing wrong. Do I need a fuse on the connector if so what size.
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wwu123
New Member
Yes, the Ankers with the 60V inputs have unfortunately a pretty narrow range of panels that work well to maximize the input. Ideally rigid panels with 48-54 Voc would work optimally, and only in parallel
1. When you connected in series, you exceeded the Voc limit by a good amount. Fortunately you probably didn't permanently damage the MPPT, but that is one of the ways you can do so.
2. When you connect in parallel, the low Voc and Vmp on these panels drops them below 32V, and it is in the 11-32V operating range which is typically for 12V car socket, so it limits to 10A max instead of 20A, no matter how many panels in parallel. Your Vmp is probably 29V, and so you are seeing 29V x 10A = 290W, and the 2nd panel may not be contributing anything more than just one.
They improved the situation on #2 for the F3800 with a firmware update, that the low operating range is now 11-23V, and high amp range 24-60V. So maybe check if there's a firmware update for the 767, if similar change for the 767, you would see possibly 20A and a doubling of what you currently see.
Thanks for your explanation. That really help me out. I didn't know if I could buy a part to run them series and keep the voltage below 60. I'm disappointed after purchasing the 2 panels I'm not getting the maximum watts. I'm new to this still learning.
Question if I was to buy another panel of the same wattage with a higher voltage can I hook it up to one of the panels with the lower voltage (parallel) will I get more watts.
wwu123
New Member
There are some conditions for MPPT charge controllers where you can mix different panels by matching volts or amps (not watts). This is probably not one of them though.
If you wanted to get the voltage above that 32V threshold to use the higher 20A limit, but stay below 60 Voc, then you'd look for a panel to put in series with your current one to stay around 54 Voc, which would need to be a 17 Voc panel but with matching amps Isc and Imp. Basically I don't think that really exists.
You can also put different panels in parallel that have same Voc and Vmp, but different amps. Doing that adds the amps together. But since you're already hitting the 10A limit, and if not that would hit the 20A limit already, there's no power benefit.
The only other thing you can do to get around the 60V limit, is to use an external 48V MPPT charge controller to feed the DC input. The output of a controller for 48V batteries is right around 54-58V, which is ideal. For example, Victron has a high-quality 150 Voc controller, so you could put 2 or 3 of your current panels in series, and it would output around 58V into the 767. There are lots of cheap Chinese 150 Voc controllers, however, most of them also need a 48V buffer battery wired in parallel with the 767 input, to wake up the controller and set the reference voltage - the Victron can wake up just from the solar input, so does not need the buffer battery, but it is expensive.
Thanks for everything. I'm starting to understand how Solar Panels and my power station works thanks to you.
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