The solar panels on our camper van are no longer charging the battery. I am new to this and would be very grateful for advice on how to troubleshoot the system.
I have measured the voltages below with a multimeter straight of the panel cables. Unfortunately the multimeter I have has a broken fuse so l have not been able to measure the amps yet. Maybe it would be a better idea to pick up a resistor and use ohms law to calculate the current?
We have two 160 W flexible panels. They are rated to 26.6 nominal Voltage. Yesterday was an overcast day and I measured the following voltages.
Panel A
Fluctuated between 10-18 Volt
Panel B
Showed a consistent 26,6-26,7 V with short fluctuations downwards 20-22 V
I would think that since they show different values at least one of these panels is broken? My guess is that panel B is done for?
I opened the little cable box up on the panel but that is full of some sort of hard foam, I doubt I could get at the diode that probably lies therein without breaking stuff.
It also seems that panel A is not working as it should. We have a display for the solar regulator and this has been greyed out the last week despite some very sunny days. I have seen the display turn on a few times, but the amperage was at zero.
The solar regulator, a Votronic 350 duo, does not display any charging diodes, only the light for no charge, usually displayed during nights, is illuminated. There could of course be something wrong with the regulator, is there some way to check the functionality it?
Our lipo battery has Bluetooth connection and it charges as expected from land and motor. Since the solar regulator does not signal that it is charging anything I feel fairly confident that the battery is not at fault.
Might ad that the solar equipment is only a few years old, so super annoying to have these issues.
Anything else I should check before I start spending my money on new stuff?
I have measured the voltages below with a multimeter straight of the panel cables. Unfortunately the multimeter I have has a broken fuse so l have not been able to measure the amps yet. Maybe it would be a better idea to pick up a resistor and use ohms law to calculate the current?
We have two 160 W flexible panels. They are rated to 26.6 nominal Voltage. Yesterday was an overcast day and I measured the following voltages.
Panel A
Fluctuated between 10-18 Volt
Panel B
Showed a consistent 26,6-26,7 V with short fluctuations downwards 20-22 V
I would think that since they show different values at least one of these panels is broken? My guess is that panel B is done for?
I opened the little cable box up on the panel but that is full of some sort of hard foam, I doubt I could get at the diode that probably lies therein without breaking stuff.
It also seems that panel A is not working as it should. We have a display for the solar regulator and this has been greyed out the last week despite some very sunny days. I have seen the display turn on a few times, but the amperage was at zero.
The solar regulator, a Votronic 350 duo, does not display any charging diodes, only the light for no charge, usually displayed during nights, is illuminated. There could of course be something wrong with the regulator, is there some way to check the functionality it?
Our lipo battery has Bluetooth connection and it charges as expected from land and motor. Since the solar regulator does not signal that it is charging anything I feel fairly confident that the battery is not at fault.
Might ad that the solar equipment is only a few years old, so super annoying to have these issues.
Anything else I should check before I start spending my money on new stuff?