diy solar

diy solar

Do NOT discard a Dead Victron MPPT 100/30 or its kind

Fuse and others parts. Victron filled the box with blue insulation glue. This is bypass surgery :)
Now it has increased capacity perhaps closer to MPPT 100/50. Having the fuse outside the box, I can just replace it if it is failed. In fact, I will add few fans to cool down the mother-board (removing the case) to prevent over-heated. Now it is Victronstein.
 
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Now ask why I don’t like Victron....they used to make great marine gear...I have a pair of Skyla battery chargers that are fully programmable and ac or dc input, no more, I returned one of those controllers that you have that failed in just days, they are made in China, designed in Holland. There are exact copies of Victron gear that did not go through Victron, very difficult to detect the Chinese clones, they even work with Victron Software
 
Tecnodave said:
Now ask why I don’t like Victron....they used to make great marine gear...I have a pair of Skyla battery chargers that are fully programmable and ac or dc input, no more, I returned one of those controllers that you have that failed in just days, they are made in China, designed in Holland. There are exact copies of Victron gear that did not go through Victron, very difficult to detect the Chinese clones, they even work with Victron Software
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Victron only offers limited 5 years warranty. My Victron failed just few months over 5 years. They refused to honor the warranty. Instead of end up in the landfill, I would rather try to fix this unit. Apparently, Victron MPPT main issue is the fuse. Once the fuse blown due to miss-wiring or over-current, that's the end of it. Victron not even trying to fix it. Now, I know why, they filled the box with blue insulation glue. See attached pics. It took 2 days to open the box and couple hrs to find the root cause.
GSXR1000 said:
no pictures or info on your work around
Click to expand...
There is no work around, other than cut open the box carefully and check every single component (starting from the one that fails often).
 

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WhiteHot said:
Doesn't the unit protect from overcurrent? Reason I am curious is that I am planning to over panel an RV system using a 100/50 and was counting on the unit to limit the current during peak sun.
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yes... but I guess not always... lol.. could have been something external also
 
Tecnodave said:
Now ask why I don’t like Victron....they used to make great marine gear...I have a pair of Skyla battery chargers that are fully programmable and ac or dc input, no more, I returned one of those controllers that you have that failed in just days, they are made in China, designed in Holland. There are exact copies of Victron gear that did not go through Victron, very difficult to detect the Chinese clones, they even work with Victron Software
Click to expand...
Victron controllers are not made in China. You perhaps got counterfeit units if they said "Made in China" on them. They are made in India.
 
Not made in USA.....enough for me. No seriously Victron was a world class company years ago, their marine gear was respected worldwide but their modern solar stuff is pretty substandard. I have trouble programming them to set values for the intended use.The Bluetooth programming thing is ridiculous , you have to buy a programmer to set your set points. It might need some special phone to use their Bluetooth App as an iPhone and several assorted googling androids could not pair with the controller, I replaced it with an American made controller that had programming built in and is all aluminum casing, not glued thermoplastic......same price, no hassles. Still there. I know that the boards are not American and I can think of only one country that can outdo China in cheep junk and that is India. Outback made the mistake of having their charge controller built in India now we are flooded with fake outback units that no one will support, the builder of the fake outback’s instruct their customers to go to the Outback forum for support. I do have a few offshore units in my systems but they are well proven systems from proven manufacturers who do support their equipment.
 
GSXR1000 said:
yes... but I guess not always... lol.. could have been something external also
Click to expand...
Yes, it does. MPPT 100/30 has 50Amp fuse in it. I did push it beyond 40A. I guess during 2021 cold snap (around 28F and sunny) just fried the 50A fuse. Now, I placed 60A fuse instead of 50A. I will monitor the weather when I plan to push more load thru Victron.
 
Tecnodave said:
Not made in USA.....enough for me. No seriously Victron was a world class company years ago, their marine gear was respected worldwide but their modern solar stuff is pretty substandard. I have trouble programming them to set values for the intended use.The Bluetooth programming thing is ridiculous , you have to buy a programmer to set your set points. It might need some special phone to use their Bluetooth App as an iPhone and several assorted googling androids could not pair with the controller, I replaced it with an American made controller that had programming built in and is all aluminum casing, not glued thermoplastic......same price, no hassles. Still there. I know that the boards are not American and I can think of only one country that can outdo China in cheep junk and that is India. Outback made the mistake of having their charge controller built in India now we are flooded with fake outback units that no one will support, the builder of the fake outback’s instruct their customers to go to the Outback forum for support. I do have a few offshore units in my systems but they are well proven systems from proven manufacturers who do support their equipment.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that but I've had no issues programming a Victron controller and used a 5+ year old iPad to do it. Was much simpler to do then a Midnite Solar or Outback MX60. I even set it up to be controlled by a BMS which also had support for canbus all from the iOS app. It replaced Midnite Solar charge controller.
 
NOLA_Castle said:
Yes, it does. MPPT 100/30 has 50Amp fuse in it. I did push it beyond 40A. I guess during 2021 cold snap (around 28F and sunny) just fried the 50A fuse. Now, I placed 60A fuse instead of 50A. I will monitor the weather when I plan to push more load thru Victron.
Click to expand...
I though the charge controller restricts current if over paneled
 
NOLA_Castle said:
Yes, it does. MPPT 100/30 has 50Amp fuse in it. I did push it beyond 40A. I guess during 2021 cold snap (around 28F and sunny) just fried the 50A fuse. Now, I placed 60A fuse instead of 50A. I will monitor the weather when I plan to push more load thru Victron.
Click to expand...
I do have a circuit break in front of mine.. especially since I have a long distance from the pv combiner to the charge controller (200ft+ from one array). Would that have protected it?
 
I also thought the only concern was inputting voltage over the limit. I have a 75/15 that I may be inputting 5.5 amps (at a safe voltage of 60 or so). Theoretically (on rare occasion) my Victron could produce an output of 22+ amps in peak sun. Everything I have read made me think that the Victron would simply limit the output to 15 amps. This concerns me that it could blow the fuse with output over current and not just input over voltage.
 
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