diy solar

diy solar

I am feeling REALLY Dumb

HuskerSuperman

New Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2021
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2
DUMB Headline: I used VGB Tape and Eternabond to attach my two channels without being sure that they were charging my battery. sigh.

I had purchased a vehicle with 2-100 Watt Renogy Panels hooked up (in parallel) (Y- connectors) to a 100 amp Weize Battery. Renogy charge panels and read outs.

I had to remove the solar panels temporarily. I folded back the two external solar wires back into the rear doors of my vehicle - I thought they were heavy guage enough and I fear that I may have screwed that up. They don't appeared crimped - though I can see the marks where the door closed. I literally just unplugged the two panels - I did not disturb any other part of the working system.

Unfortunately, in the meantime, the battery died to zero. I reconnected the panels and left it out during the day and nothing. No connection or charging light. I tried to connect one panel directly to the battery. Nothing. I tested the one solar connector fuse I found and it tested fine. I assume it is not it.

So how did I break my system?

Thank you for any help. This is a bit embarrassing.
 
This is a bit embarrassing.

The other day I noticed low battery voltage and 0 watts coming in from the panels. I started checking the likely failure points with a multimeter. Then I found an onion that had rolled off the counter, gotten wedged against the panels' breaker, and tripped the breaker. Removed onion and reset breaker. :giggle:
 
Hi all, sorry for the late update. Family emergency sigh...

To answer all of your great questions - yes - it has a solar charge controller. I have attached the pictures of my setup. To follow Mike's advice, I tried to troubleshoot by lugging up an Ecoflow Delta 1300 (that was dicey to get on the roof of an 8-foot van haha). The panels DO work and give a charge. I conclude that the battery is definitely dead. So I am not sure what kind of charger I can safely use to revive it. BTW - it died because it was connected to some electric draw). THANK YOU for answering and trying to help me - that means more than you know...
 

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So a dead SLA? No big deal and a great time to upgrade. Lifepo4 has gotten very affordable, and a new SLA isn't that expensive either. It pop it on a battery charger to try to bring it back. I find trickle chargers to work better because the keep restarting automatically.
 
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