Hank the Tanks Dodgy battery and solar system

Pudsey Bear said:
You need to bear in mind that there are only two wires Barry, one black and one red, and you would need to be pretty stupid to **** up, and although it would amuse me to say you are, you clearly are not or you would have done it all by now, at least buy the gear suggested that you need, basically a controller and a couple of cables, a 2nd battery and a MPPT controller then lay them out on the floor and just look at them, and you will figure it all out on your own (the best way) it's all very logical, even to a thick twat like me.


There are 100's of videos on how to do it all, just split them into different bite-sized jobs, not one larger one.

Take the controller you have, a bit of masking tape to identify which wires came out of where, mask ALL the red wires so they cannot touch the black ones, then fit the new one and put the wires back in, best to take the pos of the battery, but not essential.

For the new battery, place it next to the other, and just run red to red and black to black with the new cables, I prefer to feed into one battery and power from the other but that's just me and not entirely essential.

The new panel is not much more complicated, just two more wires to go into a junction box, then from there into the new controller.
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Except its not quite the way to do it Kev as I have discovered in this thread. The controller is easy enough. I fitted the last one in my van and ran a load socket off it no problem. As was mentioned further up thread for two batteries the main positive goes to one and the main negative to the other then the other two on each are linked. There are already four connections to the current battery. Some of the leads are short and there is doubt about which connector leads to get. Changing the controller is easy enough but the batteries, im not so sure. I think it will be a bit of a pig.
 
exwindsurfer said:
Are we talking mppt panel ? Sorry say yours looks a bit naff for my liking + the cable to you van supply look a bit thin for my liking .
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I Agree. The wiring is not great. When I fitted my panel to my last van with the help of my motorhome fix it guy I made sure I ordered proper decent size solar cabling. The wiring on this looks a bit shite. Maybe Merl will regret his offer. Ill start making a list. :ROFLMAO:
 
trevskoda said:
Incorrect, hab batteries all get top charge from high output wire, the extra wire at 1 amp goes to the starter battery, read the instructions.
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Not incorrect at all.
The first battery gets the full output, the second just gets a trickle. You say 1 amp, which sounds about right.
Which bank is the first is down to the installation, but they do NOT both get MPPT charging.
I do have one of these units, and although I don't use it, I have tested it.
 
barryd said:
Except its not quite the way to do it Kev as I have discovered in this thread. The controller is easy enough. I fitted the last one in my van and ran a load socket off it no problem. As was mentioned further up thread for two batteries the main positive goes to one and the main negative to the other then the other two on each are linked. There are already four connections to the current battery. Some of the leads are short and there is doubt about which connector leads to get. Changing the controller is easy enough but the batteries, im not so sure. I think it will be a bit of a pig.
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I can only say the way I would do it, there are a lot of ways to write it down, It is so simple really. the equipment can be cheap or expensive, but all the connections are the same unless you decide you want to make it more complicated.

Not to your exact spec but near enough to what you're planning to visualise the cables etc

1741939264816.png
 
Pudsey Bear said:
I can only say the way I would do it, there are a lot of ways to write it down, It is so simple really. the equipment can be cheap or expensive, but all the connections are the same unless you decide you want to make it more complicated.

Not to your exact spec but near enough to what you're planning to visualise the cables etc

View attachment 141038
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Hmm that's interesting Kev I wonder how many of us have that breaker from solar panel/s to solar controller - I know mine doesn't and that was installed by so called professional 🤔 😉

Take care
 
Hmm, not sure about the fusing TBF Kev, and solar in series isn't a good idea unless on a house roof away from any possible partial shading.
 
Wightman said:
Hmm that's interesting Kev I wonder how many of us have that breaker from solar panel/s to solar controller - I know mine doesn't and that was installed by so called professional 🤔 😉

Take care
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I stuck a 12v breaker between the panel and solar controller ...

Seemed sensible safety wise AND also gives me an easy/convenient means of isolating the panel if needed .
 
This is how I understood it should work up thread. The first one is wrong as it will cause the first battery to discharge quicker I think and the second one will try and then charge the first one. I think you have to wire the positive feed to one battery and then the negative to the other to in effect create one battery from the two and you need to do the same with anything that is connected to it so the positive of say a 12v socket goes to one battery but the negative goes to the other. What I need to know is what cables are required for connecting the two batteries inbetween. I think I have this right but my heads a bit fuzzy this morning.

battery joining1 (1).jpg

battery joining2 (1).jpg
 
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