photo2000a
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2021
- Messages
- 15
A little while ago I bought 2 flexable 50w sunpower panels from amazon about a month apart and from 2 different vendors and a victron smartsolar mppt 75v 15.
my goal was to have the 2 panels charge a small aux batt in my vehicle. i have a small battery matched charge profile. connected to the victron
On my initial set up i ultimately noticed the victron showed good voltage on ea panel, but when i combined them in series the voltage stayed at 1panel voltage for ex. if 2 panels were outputting 15v at the time. i expected to read about 30v in series (which i did if i measured just the cells alone) but when i plugged into the victron voltage measured 15v. can anyone explain this ? was it due to the low current problem ....below
Someone suggested i check the amps, the victron always showed steady zero amps either 1panel or 2 in series. They recommended a few YT videos to test the individual output at the panel both panels read about 20ma at 20v full sun . I thought it odd that 2 panels both had the same trouble, nobody could suggest any other tests at the time so i returned them. figured maybe just bad luck?
I returned 1 sunpowers for an sunpower exchange still waiting for that to arrive and the other i returned and figured id try a renogy which i just got.
Plugged the renogy into my voltmeter got 18v. (cloudy then) and 33ma. tried it into my victron, zero amps. at first i thought the victron might be bad. (maybe it is dunno) but my meters are good. I get that perhaps the victron won't measure as low as 33ma.
I have a small 7w 12v lightbulb incandescent plugged it into the load port on the victron it shows ex 7w so seems least on that port the victron is spot on.
I have a calibrated fluke meter. reads ok across a battery and a resistor , and i have a second meter when i test it on a battery and resistor i got what i expected. so. pretty sure my meter is not bad. since my meter goes pretty high i also just tried measuring across the panel same reading
all the panels i've had visually look perfect as did the box. guessing since i am new to solar maybe i am overlooking something obvious. hoping that someone might be able to suggest. a couple of tests. I can't believe this renogy is bad and bad the exact same way. grateful for any help
my goal was to have the 2 panels charge a small aux batt in my vehicle. i have a small battery matched charge profile. connected to the victron
On my initial set up i ultimately noticed the victron showed good voltage on ea panel, but when i combined them in series the voltage stayed at 1panel voltage for ex. if 2 panels were outputting 15v at the time. i expected to read about 30v in series (which i did if i measured just the cells alone) but when i plugged into the victron voltage measured 15v. can anyone explain this ? was it due to the low current problem ....below
Someone suggested i check the amps, the victron always showed steady zero amps either 1panel or 2 in series. They recommended a few YT videos to test the individual output at the panel both panels read about 20ma at 20v full sun . I thought it odd that 2 panels both had the same trouble, nobody could suggest any other tests at the time so i returned them. figured maybe just bad luck?
I returned 1 sunpowers for an sunpower exchange still waiting for that to arrive and the other i returned and figured id try a renogy which i just got.
Plugged the renogy into my voltmeter got 18v. (cloudy then) and 33ma. tried it into my victron, zero amps. at first i thought the victron might be bad. (maybe it is dunno) but my meters are good. I get that perhaps the victron won't measure as low as 33ma.
I have a small 7w 12v lightbulb incandescent plugged it into the load port on the victron it shows ex 7w so seems least on that port the victron is spot on.
I have a calibrated fluke meter. reads ok across a battery and a resistor , and i have a second meter when i test it on a battery and resistor i got what i expected. so. pretty sure my meter is not bad. since my meter goes pretty high i also just tried measuring across the panel same reading
all the panels i've had visually look perfect as did the box. guessing since i am new to solar maybe i am overlooking something obvious. hoping that someone might be able to suggest. a couple of tests. I can't believe this renogy is bad and bad the exact same way. grateful for any help