Resets no longer work. Am I toast?

[Truck Camping Golfer]

I bump around the desert full time in my truck camper. Every few months the 17-18 watts and 4 amps from panel stops dead at controller, so I do soft and hard resets and connection checks down to batteries and it fixes it.

But the shutdowns were getting more frequent and now nothing works no matter what I try. The battery is now below 12v and I have no idea what to do. Batteries are good, say parts store. Inverter seems fine and I tried switching controllers but still won’t receive charge from panel.

I should add that my panel glass shattered and totally spidered almost two years ago though the surface is still smooth to the touch and still puts out 18-17v and 4a from wire tips.

There is also a cutoff between batteries and controller to power inside and outside lights, which work.

Any guesses? Thanks.

I just added pics

 

[Rednecktek]

I should add that my panel glass shattered and totally spidered almost two years ago though the surface is still smooth to the touch and still puts out 18-17v and 4a from wire tips.

Most SCC's require a few volts over charging voltage to work, you're probably rrriiiggghhhttt under that minimum voltage line with the damaged panels. If you had 2 panels you could throw them in series and get well over that minimum voltage required pretty easily.

The other thing to do is take some Windex to the panels and see if you can get that little bit extra you need to get things kick started. Desert dust adds up fast and you're already running low on voltage.

 

[Truck Camping Golfer]

Most SCC's require a few volts over charging voltage to work, you're probably rrriiiggghhhttt under that minimum voltage line with the damaged panels. If you had 2 panels you could throw them in series and get well over that minimum voltage required pretty easily.

The other thing to do is take some Windex to the panels and see if you can get that little bit extra you need to get things kick started. Desert dust adds up fast and you're already running low on voltage.

Hadn’t thought about adding panel. I have thought about removing damaged panel and replacing, especially since I susepect there’s a small roof leak under panel. So your saying a new panel would do better than 18w, 4a?

Yeah I’ve used the windex, but no longer matters. Thx.

 

[Rednecktek]

Replacing the shattered panel will probably help, but you're still really on that margin of minimum power requirements. Having the 2nd panel will get you over the voltage limit with a proper MPPT controller (the kind that DON'T have USB ports on them) to convert the higher voltage to lower battery voltage. Plus, extra power generation and charging in lower light conditions like early morning or later afternoon.

 

[Truck Camping Golfer]

Replacing the shattered panel will probably help, but you're still really on that margin of minimum power requirements. Having the 2nd panel will get you over the voltage limit with a proper MPPT controller (the kind that DON'T have USB ports on them) to convert the higher voltage to lower battery voltage. Plus, extra power generation and charging in lower light conditions like early morning or later afternoon.

If that’s the case I would probably go with a new, single 200w panel. I would rather not add weight on the top.

I should add that I use solar only for my iPhone and iPad. I also use the inside and sometimes outside lights at night. (You can see the DIY split-off in the pic I sent) Used to be my 100w panel and controller handled that load just fine, even through a few cloudy days. That said it may be true that the panel lost some output power after it cracked. I did not take any before and after v and a data so I don’t know if the shattering weakened it.

Though my current controller is a cheap harbor freight one. It doesn’t have usb ports. That pic with the port was my inverter. I have a better Morningstar controller but it won’t receive solar charge either.

-Tony.

 

[Rednecktek]

Makes sense, just make sure it's labeled as a "12v panel" so you can save on the controller. There's a chance that controller may just be dead, even at 17v it should be doing something. Don't get another Harbor Freight one, those are over priced pieces of krap. A simple 30a PWM would be fine and can be found a LOT cheaper than the HF would be.

The USB comment was more about how often we see people say they're running an MPPT charge controller that they got a great deal on when it's really just a cheap PWM that has the word MPPT stickered on the face. To date I've only ever seen 2 true MPPT controllers that have USB and I own one of them.

Another test you can do if you have an old headlight or some other 12v bulb handy is touch the wires from where they go into the SCC and hook them to the bulb. If the bulb doesn't light up then the wires between the panels and the SCC are broken and giving you a voltage potential reading but when you try to move any real power across them there's not enough connection to actually pass amps. I've run into that before.

 

[Truck Camping Golfer]

I’ve got no 12v light to test the panel feed. I do know that my Morningstar controller is not getting anything either. I suspect both controllers are working. Or, like you say, maybe there’s something from the panel and or wires that’s just not putting out correctly. The shattered panel and or the old, weathered wires from it are likely the issue. I’m starting to lean toward getting a new panel and wires. If so, what do you suggest I buy?

I have a small outfit - phone and iPad and two lights. That’s all I need.

Thanks again. -tony

 

[Rednecktek]

Well, start with the wires first, it'll do you no good if you put a new panel on and that's the issue. You might get your system working with just that, but with a PWM controller you'll want the VmP as close to your battery voltage as possible so if you have the space the best option I'm seeing is the Newpowa 9BB 200w panel with a Vmp of 18v which should minimize losses to PWM inefficiency, otherwise if you want to stick with a 100w panel they're pretty much all the same so go for the cheapest option.

 

[Truck Camping Golfer]

So I bought a spare headlight like you mentioned and can now test my panel wires. Do I touch the headlight’s prongs with the two live solar wires? It’s got three prongs on the plug. Or is there another way? Thanks.

Oh, In the meantime, I’m having an auto parts store check to see if my two batteries can hold a full charge. They were at 11.9 when I dropped them off. Might not know til tomorrow. Maybe that will tell us something.

Thanks for all the bother! -tony

 

[Rednecktek]

OK, so your bulb probably has 3 terminals shaped like |_| or so, right? You should be able to go negative to the horizontal one and positive to either of the vertical ones. There are 2 filaments inside (low and high beam) and you only need to feed one of those so _ | OR | _. One of 3 things is going to happen when you're wired up and the sun is out:

1: The light gets real bright and your panel and wires are fine, you somehow have 2 bunk controllers.
2: The bulb just barely glows and you're not getting anything useful from the panel to the controller but still seeing connectivity. Either dead panel or broken wires. (I think this is where you're at.)
3: The bulb just sits there doing nothing and there is just no power getting to anything. Either dead panel or broken wires. Start with the wires.

Now, you'll probably end up doing this twice. First try it at the controller and see what happens, but when it doesn't try to blind you you'll want to do it again right at the panel. If it gets bright at the panel but NOT the controller, that shows the wires in between are shot. If it still doesn't do anything impressive at the panel itself then your panel is shot.