Renogy Rover Elite 40A Charge Controller

[James Staples V]

I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS "IF" ..

I absolutely Have to get this solar controller and unit working. It is a Have to. It is for my wifes Life support, at a basic minimum.

What happens it I cannot figure out how to clear the E01 reading and just turn things on and hope for the best. I have completely surrendered Trying to get help and or "Customer Service... aka... Walk into heavy traffic " , and am done, I cannot take it any more. I cannot find anyone within 100 miles who has any clue or any will to actually Help. Even for Money [except for the guy 50 miles away offering to have me pay him $660 dollars to come down and 'Take a Look and maybe be able to help".
So, I am just wanting to make sure it is still on SLD, and them turning on my Inverter and start plugging in . I am 3 months behind on this . Trying to learn multimeter also.
OR !!!! Is there a better actually Non Technician Needed Charge Controller : Really.. not just words to suck in the unknowledgable like me , there is no such thing as Easy DIY solar if you do not have basic electrical knowledge, and depending on customer service and or Any Other attempt tp help will ruin [enter subject here] .
SUMMARY:
A- what will happen if I just hope for the best with the charge controller and begin using the unit , just hope the setting Really do not matter.

B- Is there an Actuall Real "Non Technician or Electrical knowledge Charge Controller" . { Right now Renogy, is not really able to gain my trust or respect .. but of course I fully Acknowledge my Not learning electricity Forst is the base cause of all my current grief.

Hopeful and Thanks

 

[Bob B]

Have you seen this video?

Gone thru this web page? https://www.renogy.com/troubleshooting/Charge-Controller-Troubleshooting-Guide

 

[Crowz]

After watching that wonderfully acted video .....

I came to the conclusion you need to charge the battery with something other than that charge controller to get it back working.

You didn't mention if your running it as 12 volts or 24 volts, how many batteries or any other information other than the name of the charge controller. With the limited amount of information all I can suggest is to charge the battery with a standard battery charger if its a 12 volt battery your using. So basically its just like charging your car battery if you let it run down.

Before someone points out how many wonderful steps I'm skipping over the op pointed out he is still trying to figure out how to work a voltmeter...

 

[Tomthumb62]

Since this is for life support, for God’s sake, do not use Renogy. Victron will work better and more reliably.

I had a Renogy Rover 30A charge controller. It never worked right, programming it is difficult and it gave me so many headaches. So glad to have replaced it with a Victron Smartsolar 100/30 unit. The Victron has worked perfectly out of the box. They also slashed prices by 30% recently, so if budget matters, Victron is only a few dollars more than Renogy. Night and day difference.

If you care for your wife, do not rely upon that Renogy. It’s not worth the risk or headaches. Sell it on eBay while you can still recoup some of your money. I predict in five years, Renogy will not be worth selling on the used market anymore.

 

[Bob B]

One thing I would say about the tutorial .... I would recommend setting the meter and then connecting the meter ... Not the other way around as he shows.
About the only way you are going to cause a problems attempting to use a meter is if you somehow short the leads together while checking a voltage ..... or having the meter in the resistance mode when trying to do a voltage reading. In the first case, you could damage your equipment or even be injured by molten metal .... in the 2nd case, you might blow a fuse in the meter and then it would no longer be able to do resistance checks.

Here's a meter tutorial

..... or take your pick ..... https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+use+a+multimeter

 

[Crowz]

Actually a voltmeter is not really needed. What does the renogy show on the display for voltage of the batteries ?

Should show something like 12.2v or 11.1v or something.

 

[Crowz]

One final thing I noticed with the setup pics you posted in another thread. You had didn't have the batteries connected yet so I still couldn't tell how the final battery setup went and also I couldn't see what the voltage of the inverter was. Both would be helpful to know in this.

 

[Crowz]

A picture of how the batteries are wired in the final setup is kind of required the more I think about it.

If its not wired right it will cause the voltages to be outside the charge controllers ability to handle. Also it will help with telling you how to manually charge them with a basic 12v charger to get it all working by seeing how its wired.

 

[James Staples V]

After watching that wonderfully acted video .....

I came to the conclusion you need to charge the battery with something other than that charge controller to get it back working.

You didn't mention if your running it as 12 volts or 24 volts, how many batteries or any other information other than the name of the charge controller. With the limited amount of information all I can suggest is to charge the battery with a standard battery charger if its a 12 volt battery your using. So basically its just like charging your car battery if you let it run down.

Before someone points out how many wonderful steps I'm skipping over the op pointed out he is still trying to figure out how to work a voltmeter...

Update, I went right down to the basics again, and went step by step and just pushed some buttons in accordance with the renogy tutorial and another I found... As I went, i found I had a fuse switch "off" - so I hit that, Huge differance... Found out my batteries were low about halfway --- and my E01 vanished and I got a E14 - Everything kinda seems to be falling into place -- but now need to wait for afew days for sunlight and charging the batteries ... Figures crossed but thinking, I learned how to learn...

 

[James Staples V]

A picture of how the batteries are wired in the final setup is kind of required the more I think about it.

If its not wired right it will cause the voltages to be outside the charge controllers ability to handle. Also it will help with telling you how to manually charge them with a basic 12v charger to get it all working by seeing how its wired.

Will give them a look !!

 

[James Staples V]

I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS "IF" ..

I absolutely Have to get this solar controller and unit working. It is a Have to. It is for my wifes Life support, at a basic minimum.

What happens it I cannot figure out how to clear the E01 reading and just turn things on and hope for the best. I have completely surrendered Trying to get help and or "Customer Service... aka... Walk into heavy traffic " , and am done, I cannot take it any more. I cannot find anyone within 100 miles who has any clue or any will to actually Help. Even for Money [except for the guy 50 miles away offering to have me pay him $660 dollars to come down and 'Take a Look and maybe be able to help".
So, I am just wanting to make sure it is still on SLD, and them turning on my Inverter and start plugging in . I am 3 months behind on this . Trying to learn multimeter also.
OR !!!! Is there a better actually Non Technician Needed Charge Controller : Really.. not just words to suck in the unknowledgable like me , there is no such thing as Easy DIY solar if you do not have basic electrical knowledge, and depending on customer service and or Any Other attempt tp help will ruin [enter subject here] .
SUMMARY:
A- what will happen if I just hope for the best with the charge controller and begin using the unit , just hope the setting Really do not matter.

B- Is there an Actuall Real "Non Technician or Electrical knowledge Charge Controller" . { Right now Renogy, is not really able to gain my trust or respect .. but of course I fully Acknowledge my Not learning electricity Forst is the base cause of all my current grief.

Hopeful and Thanksf

I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS "IF" ..

I absolutely Have to get this solar controller and unit working. It is a Have to. It is for my wifes Life support, at a basic minimum.

What happens it I cannot figure out how to clear the E01 reading and just turn things on and hope for the best. I have completely surrendered Trying to get help and or "Customer Service... aka... Walk into heavy traffic " , and am done, I cannot take it any more. I cannot find anyone within 100 miles who has any clue or any will to actually Help. Even for Money [except for the guy 50 miles away offering to have me pay him $660 dollars to come down and 'Take a Look and maybe be able to help".
So, I am just wanting to make sure it is still on SLD, and them turning on my Inverter and start plugging in . I am 3 months behind on this . Trying to learn multimeter also.
OR !!!! Is there a better actually Non Technician Needed Charge Controller : Really.. not just words to suck in the unknowledgable like me , there is no such thing as Easy DIY solar if you do not have basic electrical knowledge, and depending on customer service and or Any Other attempt tp help will ruin [enter subject here] .
SUMMARY:
A- what will happen if I just hope for the best with the charge controller and begin using the unit , just hope the setting Really do not matter.

B- Is there an Actuall Real "Non Technician or Electrical knowledge Charge Controller" . { Right now Renogy, is not really able to gain my trust or respect .. but of course I fully Acknowledge my Not learning electricity Forst is the base cause of all my current grief.

Hopeful and Thanks

UPDATE ; Waiting for the sun to charge my batteries, Thanks for the vids, will go through them all . but found I had a 40 amp fuse switch off, when I reset it, everything changed, my E01 error vanished but then I got an E14, Reversed polarity on the panels - that had me going as I went over and over it, then finally noticed the wire inserts were reversed from the switch... so I corrected that... and so far, just needing afew days of sun to recharge my batteries, then, guess I can go. PROMISING, no more bitching out of lazinesss, going to do some basics free online electric terminology and workings... [I had to get what I call "Proper Infantry Pissed" - it rarely goes well so it is a seriously over the edge more for me ---] . Anyway... hopefully a more complete update ro come.... thanks again all who put up with me !!! quite amazing !

 

[James Staples V]

UPDATE ; Waiting for the sun to charge my batteries, Thanks for the vids, will go through them all . but found I had a 40 amp fuse switch off, when I reset it, everything changed, my E01 error vanished but then I got an E14, Reversed polarity on the panels - that had me going as I went over and over it, then finally noticed the wire inserts were reversed from the switch... so I corrected that... and so far, just needing afew days of sun to recharge my batteries, then, guess I can go. PROMISING, no more bitching out of lazinesss, going to do some basics free online electric terminology and workings... [I had to get what I call "Proper Infantry Pissed" - it rarely goes well so it is a seriously over the edge more for me ---] . Anyway... hopefully a more complete update ro come.... thanks again all who put up with me !!! quite amazing !

Currently running my unit !!! I think I am using 5.4 amps , I have 2 100 amphr batteries, , is that about 30 hours ?

 

[Crowz]

Sounds about right from what mine do.