diy solar

diy solar

Is anyone using the BougeRV crimp tool kit?

OnGrid

New Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2021
Messages
50
This was recomended to me by someone. I need to make a couple extension cables. It has descent feedback on Amazon.

BougeRV Solar Crimper Tool Kit for Solar Panel Cable Wire with 1PCS Solar Crimper and 6Pairs Solar connectors and 1Pair Solar Connector Spanner Wrench, Solar Installation Assembly Tools​


 
I bought the IWISS kit last December, looks exactly like the BougeRV kit (and probably came out of the same Chinese factory) except it also included a cutter. The crimper and spanners work fine, I didn't like the looks of the connectors so I tossed them in the junk box and bought some of the HQST MC4's. As stated by others, no way of knowing if the HQST's are really up to MC4 standards but they assemble and mate nicely.
 
I have had this one for a few years. Works great, handle has no locking mechanism and is sprig open.

Voilamart Solar Crimping Tool Connectors for 2.5mm² 4mm² 6mm² Wire Terminal Solar Panel PV Cable Pliers​

 
"Last purchase May 14, 2019"

No complaints. I doubt the connectors truly meet the MC4 standard at that price, but I have not experienced any issues.

Where do you recomend I get the MC4 connectors from? A link would be great.
 
I bought a BougeRV MC-4 tool set with 4 connector pairs. This was my first time actually crimping together my own MC-4 cables. I also bought #10 AWG solar cable, so it really fills up the crimp terminal, and barely fit through the connector cap. The crimp tool seems to be decent quality and made nice tight good looking crimps. The connectors with the crimper are not the best quality, but they fit together well. My only concern is that I felt the pin and socket terminals seem to fit pretty loose into each other. I expected the fit to be a bit tighter. It was consistent with any of the 6 pins with any of the six sockets. There is a lot of contact area, and when I checked it at 5 amps, the voltage drop across the connection was minimal and no heating. Most of the connections in my array will never top 5.5 amps, and only the connection after the parallel "Y" will hit 11 amps. And the "Y" cables I got fit both the pins and sockets of the BougeRV connectors a bit tighter. I noticed those sockets were not complete circles like the Bouge ones, there is a gap, and the shell was a bit "springy" so it grabs around the pin with more drag force. Once I inserted the pins into the plastic hoods with the O-rings, I could not feet the drag difference of the pins, the force to push the O-ring into the other side of the connector is more force than the metal pins connecting. I checked on the connectors a few times and so far, they are staying cool, well, as cool as anything else on the roof. They are all under the panels out of the sun, and felt about he same temp as the roof under the panels in the shade. I really need to get a thermal camera to really check things out better.
 
Back
Top