Charge Controller Not Charging Batteries

[ianskelley]

Hey guys,

I purchased and installed 3 100W Renogy panel system on my van.
Connected the batteries to the charge controller.
Then connected the panels in parallel to the charge controller.

Everything seemed to be working fine and my batteries were getting charged.

It was working fine for about a week, but over the last 3-4 days I have noticed on the Renogy app that there are no amps flowing to my batteries.

I cannot figure out why.
I have gone over my system with an electrical engineer and he could not figure it out either.

Attached is the diagram of my setup.

The only thing we could come up with was that the controller might have failed.
However, upon inspection of the CC, the 3 30a mini fuses inside seem to be OK.

Would having the van's alternator charging the batteries at the same time as the solar is charging the batteries be a problem?
Would having a DC charger charging the batteries at the same time as the solar is charging the batteries be a problem?

I'm stumped.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Ian

 

[gnubie]

If the SCC is the only active charger (ie is capable of putting power into the batteries) I'd expect to see at least some current flowing. If there are other chargers active and they are targetting a higher voltage than the SCC is, even if they read the same in their configuration there will be differences, it's believable that no current will be flowing out of the SCC.

I'd disable the other charging paths (disconnect wires if need be) so that only the SCC is capable of charging, draw the batteries down a bit with the inverter and see what the SCC gets up to. Monitor the voltage on the SCC's solar input with a multimeter, under load it should be less than the panel's Voc. Try resetting the controller to defaults and fully power cycling it - ie remove PV and battery, then reconnect battery and lastly PV.

Make sure all joints / bolts / screws are done up properly (not gorilla tight, just properly snug or to torque spec if you can find it).

*edit*
Oh, I think I've seen the exact same thing with one of my Renogy Rover SCCs. The amps figure said 0 but the unit was actually charging, full power cycle fixed it, a bug in the firmware is my guess. Looking at your picture the PV is 17 odd volts, so I thinking there is a load there. Voc is probably 21V. Definitely full power cycle it.

 

[ianskelley]

Thank you for your time and your input.

I removed all wires from the battery so only the solar charge controller was attached to it. I am seeing voltage but no amps going into the battery. I also put a high drain on the battery, a refrigerator, and drew the battery voltage down to 12.4. Still no amps coming into the battery.

I also unplugged the solar panels from their parallel connection and plugged one panel into a 10 amp Renogy PWM solar charge controller. The app showed voltage but no amps going into the battery.

So that leads me to believe that it’s not the solar charge controller that’s the problem. That leaves either the batteries, the wiring, or the solar panel.

 

[ianskelley]

I have Power cycled the solar charge controller a number of times. I have also deleted and reinstalled the Renogy BT.

 

[gnubie]

If you have a multimeter that can handle the Isc (short circuit) current of the panel you could test the panel by putting the meter into amps mode and seeing what sort of current the panel can produce.

 

[ianskelley]

This is what I have for a voltmeter. Would this work?

 

[gnubie]

mA range only, so likely no good. The fuse in the meter (if it even has one) would pop. If you have a 12V incandescent light bulb that could be used to test each panel in a rough way, ie the lamp should light up even if only dimly with the panel in good light. If the panel is working correctly it can burn out a low wattage 12V lamp so brief test or a 24+ watt bulb.

Its unlikely you'd have 3 faulty panels but at least you can check each one.