Solar panels from Solar Camper Solutions

[Azteccamper]

Does anyone’s coiled lead from panel vibrate against roof at 65/70 mph on motorway?

Thanks for all your replies. I have subsequently identified that it is the actual panel (between the 2 x fixing bolts on the n/s rail). A bit of foam underneath should sort it.

 

[Cali Phillip]

They'd be very high winds! 10 years in now and no one has reported any noise, static or moving

Its a heavy old cable.

It's not often noticed, this is based on at least one night per week all year round in the exposed site on the west coast of Scotland. Probably most folk wont be out or notice !

 

[flying banana]

So . Thinking out loud here. I park ina garage. Will the solar victron drain my leisure batteries and is it worth fitting a solar disconnect switch for underground car parks or working on the van?

 

[WelshGas]

So . Thinking out loud here. I park ina garage. Will the solar victron drain my leisure batteries and is it worth fitting a solar disconnect switch for underground car parks or working on the van?

I believe the Victron unit is powered by the Solar Panel.

 

[yossarian]

My victron 7515 is contactable via Bluetooth at night, so it must draw some power from the battery.

Edit: 25mA according to victron.

 

[Roger Donoghue]

If you are parking with no light for extended periods then yes, you want to disconnect the solar regulator as it'll slowly drain the battery. This can be as simple as pulling the battery fuse for the solar, if you have easy acccess to it.

 

[Peter Horvath]

Hey,

I've got a few questions. I have 3 panel setup with Victron from Solar Camper solutions, it took a while to install (was waiting for Cali for over a year). Finally set-up!

- Victron is not connectable when there is no light, no problem for me, but people say it is.

- Solar nor battery is showing any amps. It was a bright sunny day and there was voltage on both. Battery was fully charged at first, but I turned on the fridge on max.

- Later it was jumping around. Is this OK?

I will try to look at the batteries and the fuses again, but before installation, batteries seemed OK, everything was working.

Should amps be showing when battery is full? But it seemed that it was charging (bulk, float status), but neither solar nor battery showed amps.

 

[yossarian]

- Victron is not connectable when there is no light, no problem for me, but people say it is.



View attachment 109080

Based on the mppt going offline and the battery voltage graph I suspect that your connection between mppt and battery is faulty.

 

[Roger Donoghue]

Your battery is not connected - the solar panels are powering the Victron. Check your connections, check the inline fuse in my battery cable (check it looks ok and that it is inserted properly, try the spare fuse if in doubt - I include spares in the kits).

Also,. check the battery lead cables are securely screwed into the Victron. Gently tug each one and see if they come out - it can be easy to insert a wire "under" the retaining "cage" that the screw pulls up, and then doing the other wire correctly - misleading you into thinking they are both secure.

Email me directly for any more help as I can see those coming in but often miss the messages on here.

p.s. to be sure your battery connection is OK, unplug the solar from the curly cable, OR, pull the solar red wire out of the Victron - your Victron should remain conenctable always, and there should always be a status LED doing something, be it flashing blue (no solar), or steady green orange or blue. Yours is goign off at night because it is being powered by solar along and your batteries are 100% not connected to the Victron.

 

[Peter Horvath]

Thank you Roger and yossarian, you were both right, there was a problem with a connection (the + cable got disconnected when we were inserting the battery back to the battery compartment). Now everything works, I am checking the status 10x a day, it charged the battery fully.

This is absolutely amazing, I am so happy that I got it and thanks for easy setup instructions and everything!

Two more questions if someone has time: Isn't 30A max current in Victron settings too much? It will probably rarely actually be 30A, that would need ideal conditions, but I don't think the batteries can handle 30A (or 15A each). Or do they?

And also just to be sure - what happens when two sources try to charge the battery? Solar + engine alternator, or solar + external connection if I connect to the camp. My idea is that if victron charges the battery from solar, it will increase the voltage and that means that engine / connector should not be charging, because it will think the battery is fully charged. Am I right? (Also engine when it is not set to max charge will charge the batteries only to 80%).

 

[WelshGas]

Thank you Roger and yossarian, you were both right, there was a problem with a connection (the + cable got disconnected when we were inserting the battery back to the battery compartment). Now everything works, I am checking the status 10x a day, it charged the battery fully.

This is absolutely amazing, I am so happy that I got it and thanks for easy setup instructions and everything!

Two more questions if someone has time: Isn't 30A max current in Victron settings too much? It will probably rarely actually be 30A, that would need ideal conditions, but I don't think the batteries can handle 30A (or 15A each). Or do they?

And also just to be sure - what happens when two sources try to charge the battery? Solar + engine alternator, or solar + external connection if I connect to the camp. My idea is that if victron charges the battery from solar, it will increase the voltage and that means that engine / connector should not be charging, because it will think the battery is fully charged. Am I right? (Also engine when it is not set to max charge will charge the batteries only to 80%).

1. The Leisure Batteries can easily handle charging rates of 30 amps.
The cube fuse on the rear Leisure Battery is rated at 75/100 amps and the fuse from split charge relay to front Leisure Battery is rated at 80 amps.

2. Your overthinking. It just works. If 2 charging systems are active they will adjust depending on the battery state. The Solar, mains EHU charger and alternator are all smart systems .

 

[Ch1pbutty]

Thank you Roger and yossarian, you were both right, there was a problem with a connection (the + cable got disconnected when we were inserting the battery back to the battery compartment). Now everything works, I am checking the status 10x a day, it charged the battery fully.

This is absolutely amazing, I am so happy that I got it and thanks for easy setup instructions and everything!

Two more questions if someone has time: Isn't 30A max current in Victron settings too much? It will probably rarely actually be 30A, that would need ideal conditions, but I don't think the batteries can handle 30A (or 15A each). Or do they?

And also just to be sure - what happens when two sources try to charge the battery? Solar + engine alternator, or solar + external connection if I connect to the camp. My idea is that if victron charges the battery from solar, it will increase the voltage and that means that engine / connector should not be charging, because it will think the battery is fully charged. Am I right? (Also engine when it is not set to max charge will charge the batteries only to 80%).

Charge state will change to ‘float’ when everything is fully charged, as both the van / Victron are intelligent chargers as per @WelshGas.

Float reading on the daily report, is effectively your excess generation.( ie - If you had solar panels on your house, this is the portion that you would sell to the national grid each day….or plug an EV on a very low amp charge to store the excess)

 

[Peter Horvath]

Thank you both! I know I'm a bit overthinking, but I would also like to understand.

One more overthinking question though . I left the battery fully charged, in the morning the state was bulk. There was not much current, but it was interesting, I thought that it should be float if the battery is charged.

 

[WelshGas]

Thank you both! I know I'm a bit overthinking, but I would also like to understand.

One more overthinking question though . I left the battery fully charged, in the morning the state was bulk. There was not much current, but it was interesting, I thought that it should be float if the battery is charged.

Overnight the leisure batteries will have settled down and they will have been powering your Vitron controller, Bluetooth or Screen, so in the morning the Controller will start of on bulk charging and depending on the Solar output rapidly move to float charging.
Leisure Batteries lose charge normally , might only be 0.1% overnight but enough to trigger bulk charging initially.

 

[Roger Donoghue]

Yeah - early in the morning, when there is only a small amount of light, no matter how low - it'll trigger bulk charging as bulk basically means the battery can handle all the solar can throw at it, even if that is 1watt! So bulk doesn't always mean high wattage/amps too.

Regarding float - it isn't excess energy dumping - it's a maintenance charge. Lead acid batteries lose charge over time naturally, so they benefit from a constant very low current charge to keep them topped up. This is the float charge.

Excess energy isn't "called for" by the charger so the panel doesn't "send" it. Its kind of like a battery - it does nothing until you connect something to it. Solar panels are like this - they only produce current when "asked" for it by a load. Otherwise they'd sit there getting terribly hot, or the charger would get hot. But that doesn't happen.

I'm not an expert, but I think they sit in a state of open circuit when not delivering power.

 

[Peter Horvath]

Yeah - early in the morning, when there is only a small amount of light, no matter how low - it'll trigger bulk charging as bulk basically means the battery can handle all the solar can throw at it, even if that is 1watt! So bulk doesn't always mean high wattage/amps too.

Regarding float - it isn't excess energy dumping - it's a maintenance charge. Lead acid batteries lose charge over time naturally, so they benefit from a constant very low current charge to keep them topped up. This is the float charge.

Excess energy isn't "called for" by the charger so the panel doesn't "send" it. Its kind of like a battery - it does nothing until you connect something to it. Solar panels are like this - they only produce current when "asked" for it by a load. Otherwise they'd sit there getting terribly hot, or the charger would get hot. But that doesn't happen.

I'm not an expert, but I think they sit in a state of open circuit when not delivering power.

Thank you both!

No more overthinking questions for now.

 

[flying banana]

Since getting a new phone. My app won't connect . The pin code is still the default six zeros. The mppt is powered up and showing bulk. It detects it,just won't pair. Tried uninstalling the app and the phone on and off trick. Any ideas? Also noticed I've got a tear in the pop top. Even with the bellows bungee,grrrrrr.

 

[yossarian]

Any ideas?

There's a code printed on your mppt that allows a reset somehow (i forget the details). I highly recommend changing the pin from 000000 since some annoying teenager could fry your batteries in short order.

 

[yossarian]

Clear the cache for that app... Victron support is highly rated. Never had to use them myself though.

3. Connecting

www.victronenergy.com

 

[flying banana]

There's a code printed on your mppt that allows a reset somehow (i forget the details). I highly recommend changing the pin from 000000 since some annoying teenager could fry your batteries in short order.

I know. Problem is I can't remove the sodding controller as the puk code to change it is on the back. The 3m tape has hold of it too securely

 

[flying banana]

Clear the cache for that app... Victron support is highly rated. Never had to use them myself though.

3. Connecting

www.victronenergy.com

I uninstall led and re loaded the app. Still the same. My tablet won't connect either

 

[yossarian]

Any chance some teenager has changed the pin? I'm pretty sure this happened to me some time ago. I now have a random 6 8 digit pin.

 

[flying banana]

Any chance some teenager has changed the pin? I'm pretty sure this happened to me some time ago. I now have a random 6 8 digit pin.

Possibly. I just can't prize off the controller as the 3m tape is too good. I need to get that off to access the puk code. The instructions should warn you about that when fitting

 

[yossarian]

Those bastards at 3M are too good at their jobs!

 

[flying banana]

Those bastards at 3M are too good at their jobs!

Seriously, I can't shift it.