diy solar

diy solar

Entire system accidentally set up backwards...

The Renogy manuals also conflict. The manual for the solar panels say the positive cable is one type of MC4 COnnector (I forget whether its male or female) but the manual on their kits say a different polarity. I took a volt meter to measure the voltage out of the solar panel for mine prior to making connections.

For whatever its worth, even thought the different manuals said the positive cable was either male or female depending on the manual, the sticker on the cable from the solar panel itself had the correct polarity.

This weekend I will be crimping some MC4 cables and I’m still confused from those manuals and I’m going to get on top of my RV and look at the panels to make sure I get it correct.
The sex of MC4s is confusing, because it is based on the internal pin, not the external shell. So looking at it from the outside, it looks opposite, you have to peak in to see the true sex.
 
The take away I am getting is that the manual isn't clear on connecting the right wires to the panel? I don't see how (+ to +) and (- to -) can be confused. You can put the black voltage tester lead in the soil and test each lead coming off the panel to ID the + wire I would think.
 
The sex of MC4s is confusing, because it is based on the internal pin, not the external shell. So looking at it from the outside, it looks opposite, you have to peak in to see the true sex.

Well, pretty much all connectors work that way: pins are what decide for the gender, not the shell ;)
 
For anyone else that comes along to read this in the future.

Note that OP never said he/she pulled out a volt meter to check the voltage on any wires/connections of the system at any point during the troubleshooting.

Please do not attempt to DIY a solar project without a basic volt meter. 10sec of sticking some probes into the ends of cables/on connectors would have given you all the information you need about whether or not the system was hooked up correctly.
 
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