I bought a River Delta to augment my battery capacity

[JonathanJK]

Hi there, first time here. Thanks for helping.

I have a lensun battery and have been using it fine for 18 months connected to 2 x 100 watt panels with Y connectors I think they are called?

Battery and panels can be found here:

Lensun® 50% discounts,Only 4.5kgs/9.9 lbs!!! 510WH 110V Solar Generator Power Stastion for Camping Travel CPAP Emergency Battery Backup

Lensun®New Portable Energy System SG510 110V Solar Generator Revolutionary Power station,UPS Function Uninterrupted Power Supply in Anywhere perfect for camping,hiking,fishing,office,tourism etc.

www.lensunsolar.com

Lensun ETFE 100W 12V Foldable Flexible Solar Panel with standard Connector, Portable Foldable Ultralight only 3.2kgs/ 7 lbs!!!

Lensun 100W Solar Charge Power Kit, Foldable Portable Flexible Solar Panel for Camping Van, Caravan, Motorhomes and RVs

www.lensunsolar.com

I find the battery to be small so I purchased the River Delta and use their supplied cable to connect to the Y connector setup of 2 x 100 watt panels. By the way is this in series or parallel?

The River Delta doesn't charge and if I understand the amps correctly I haven't gone over its 10A max. I even connected 1 100watt panel and nothing. It gets power from the mains fine immediately, but nothing from solar. I don't understand and of course I'm looking for help. Please see pictures as supplied.

River Delta:

EcoFlow DELTA Series

Get power outage ready, go-off-grid and more with EcoFlow portable power stations & solar panels. Learn more.

ecoflow.com

I have a voltage meter which I know has told me the V coming from the cabling.

Can I use the voltage meter to stick into the supplied cable (pictured with yellow).

 

[hagensieker]

I'm not 100% following. Are you trying to charge an EcoFlow delta from a Lensun solar panel? Is maybe the polarity reversed on the Lensun panel? Yes you can stick a meter in the yellow connector. Take note of the polarity. If you have the meter red and black reversed you will get a "-" sign displayed.

My wild uneducated guess is polarity.

 

[JonathanJK]

I'm trying to use the panels to charge the eco flow, all the connectors are MC4 so it should just play right in. What do you mean polarity is reversed?
This is my multi meter.

 

[hagensieker]

I don't have any Eco Flow stuff but I have Jackery stuff. Here's an example and you may have to take my word for this because the pic isn't zoomed in. In the pic I have a RichSolar panel connected to a charge controller. (MC4 to bare wires). The red is in the negative and the black is in the positive.



Consequently that connector came from my Renogy solar suitcase where it works fine.

Also my camper has ZAMP connectors on it which are wired in reverse polarity.

I've not been in the solar game all that long but one thing I've learned is that polarity is all mixed up across all these systems.

Trace your positive MC4 on the panel to the connector you hook to the eco flow and make sure it is pos to pos, neg to neg. If it isn't polarity I'm stumped.

 

[hagensieker]

Take your panel when the sun comes up and put the meter leads in that connector. With the red in one side of the connector and the black lead in the other it will say either (and this number is just made up to make Open Circuit voltage on panels):

18.0 volts
or
- 18.0 volts

Whenever you get the first indication of a positive voltage the positive lead is the one your red meter lead is in. If a minus sign shows up on the meter, swap your red and black leads.

Now make sure that positive lead plugs into the side on the eco flow that says "+ or positive".

 

[JonathanJK]

I've taken 2 multi meter tests. 1 from the end of the connector that goes into the Eco Flow and 1 from the Y connector. Pictures are included in order of mention and show the organising of cables. Notice the ecoflow yellow connector is not symmetrical.

 

[hagensieker]

Hows it connect to the solar panel? Does that Lensun have a charge controller?

 

[JonathanJK]

Both batteries do, everything is built in.

 

[JonathanJK]

Oh lensun say their battery is capped at 5Amps but can accept the 200 watts and panels fine.

 

[hagensieker]

If your Ecoflow charges from the power brick okay but won't charge on solar you have got to make sure the positive wire connects to the positive terminal on both ends. You need to show a pic of the back of your solar panel. That Lensun panel has a charge controller on it as per the link above. Show that connection.

I'm pretty sure you have a polarity issue. You need to disconnect the cable on both ends and check the entire cable, both wires, for continuity to find out which wire is the positive connection and which is the negative. When you mix systems as you have (Lensun panel, Ecoflow cable) you could have flipped the polarity.

 

[JonathanJK]

Does this mean I have to do some surgery to the cabling?

EDIT: I also don't understand what you mean "Show that connection".

 

[JonathanJK]

Turns out my lensun panels aren't compatible with the supplied cable. My EcoFlow cable works fine on another unit but the panels don't. Anybody understand how I can get them to work?

 

[hagensieker]

They are not compatible because the polarity is reversed. Does your Lensun have a solar charge controller on it? If it does just reverse the positive and negative connections on the charge controller.

 

[JonathanJK]

Okay that may be the case. I can't reverse the polarity back again though on either controller. It looks like I'll have to buy another set of panels.

 

[Supervstech]

Okay that may be the case. I can't reverse the polarity back again though on either controller. It looks like I'll have to buy another set of panels.

Can you post pictures of the panels and the adapters?

 

[JonathanJK]

I already did earlier in this thread.

 

[Supervstech]

I already did earlier in this thread.

Ok...
So, looking at the AC charger, measure the flat side of the connector with red, and the boat side with black.
then do the same with the panel connector.
Far cheaper to buy xt60 set, and reverse the leads so polarity matches, than to replace the panels.

 

[Carvers]

And just wondering if you have been able to get the right connection? I have the same problem here with my panel setup on my Delta with a suitcase from Wattstunde 200Watts.