Solar not charging

Clunegapyears

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Morning all
Another question from the technical numpties!
Just realised that our solar panels are not putting any juice into the leisure batteries. Goes to show how observant I am, for the last nine days, but then we have been doing some driving.
I have been up on the roof and cannot see any mechanical damage to cables et cetera. Looked in the area where the leisure batteries and controllers all are and can’t see anything amiss there. But then I don’t know what I’m looking at. I have pulled out all the fuses that are labelled anything to do with solar and they seem to be fine.
The MPPT controller is flashing bulk every 4 seconds.
All working on EHU.
So my question is what else should I be looking at?
Many thanks
7169FB95-A0FE-4EC4-8B00-79BE3B728C69.png
 
K. your setup is markedly different to mine, but when mine is similar to this it means it’s fully charged and can’t get any more amps and volts inside the battery boxes. is Everything working OK?
 
I neglected to mention, you’ve been wilding etc. for several months now with no issues, also you just mentioned you’re on EHU which will mean solar won’t be operating either.
 
I believe the wires from solar panel should be putting out something like 20v but that is direct voltage from panel i'd disconnect mc4 connectors and put voltmeter on connections that will tell you if your panel is supplying power
 
Looks like a Victron controller which has been turned off.
look at your settings and see if you can turn it back on.
This is the recommended setting when working or installing panels.
Hit the settings button top right hand corner.
Go to battery and make sure the charger is switched on.
 
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It looks to me as if you may not have enabled the charger in settings>battery>enable charger.
The message that appears towards the bottom of your screen shot is normally there when charging has been switched off.
 
I thought initially it may be the charger not enabled (to check this, click the gear icon on the top right and then go to battery and then you will see the option - screenshot below.)
1596280194075.png


However, I don't think that is your issue. The reason the Charger is not on is because the Charger is not seeing a connected Solar Panel. The Victron Controllers need a Voltage from the Solar Panel >5V more than the battery voltage (so around 18.33V or so in your screenshot example) to turn on.

If the problem was solely due to the charger setting, then you would be seeing a voltage reading on the Solar Section even when the charger is off or if the battery was fullly charged. You should always expect a "decent" voltage reading when it is daylight. I just turned off my charger to take this screenshot to illustrate this - First screenshot is with Charger off; Second is with charger re-enabled.
1596280478918.png
1596280869062.png


I would check the various connections from panel to controller - is there a fuse somethere? MC4 connector disconnected or damaged?
It will (IMO) be a bad connection somewhere, but it is possible it could be the controller itself failed.
You have done all those physical checks, so put a meter on the PV terminals on the controller and see if there is a voltage on there (expect around ~20V or ~40V depending on your panel setup).
Also if you checked the fuses and connections visually only, check with a meter for continuity on either side - they can look good but actully have a hairline crack.
 
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Thanks all
Simon and Nabsim - mostly off grid. Only alerted to problem when inverter gave a warning yelp as down to 11%. Charging on EHU and when driving. Might be a numpty but do know won’t charge when batteries are full.
Fisherman and smg - battery charger is enabled.
David and mfw- need to get a volt meter!!! I’ll change the fuses just in case ...
At the moment we are managing ... either driving or on aires with EHU. And going easy on using the Remoska and slow cooker.
 
I had an inline plug in diode (MC4 connectors both ends) that failed. Not sure if you would have one, but worth a mention...

If you do, you can just remove it.
 
My money is 100% on the last part of Wildeman’s Post.
The ‘solar’ part of the VictronConnect display shows the ‘potential’ charging available from the panels. It’s Currently showing nadda; Ergo problem is either PV wires From panels to controller, hidden inline fuse Between said or the controller itself All imhe etc...
 
Rushing back to UK before possible quarantine. So we will get it sorted at some point. Feel I need a hands on lesson ... David?
 
Just to complete this thread .....
Before ... ☀ = :cry:🔋Battery :battery:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f50b.png" data-shortname=":battery:" />

Now ...☀ = :)🔋Battery :battery:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f50b.png" data-shortname=":battery:" />

(y)
 
Just to complete this thread .....
Before ... ☀ = :cry:🔋Battery :battery:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f50b.png" data-shortname=":battery:" />

Now ...☀ = :)🔋Battery :battery:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f50b.png" data-shortname=":battery:" />

(y)

C'mon you tease, what was it?
 
I reckon a bad connection on one of the MC4 connectors
 
OK ....
The problem was a MC4 connector that had loosened and just needed reattaching

Now I don't how many folk have worked with many MC4 connectors but I have found that there is quite a bit of variation on these in how they push together. Some just push together easily; others can be way harder to push together. The one in question was the latter.
I reconnected it which needed a fair push and the solar started working again. I went up to retrieve my DMM (up there as expecting to have to use it) and gave the connector another check and noticed it was not actually pushed in completely still (about 2mm shy). Took a very firm push to get it clicked in, so I can see why the original installer would have seen this as securely in place even if he had not noticed it was not pushed it all the way in as it certainly felt so.
And bearing in mind this vehicle had also covered way more miles than the typical Motorhome in the years since installation of the panels I can see how it could vibrate loose in that time (any connector, including MC4s, can be liable to loosen potentially).

So end of the day, turned out to be a simple fix but was just one of those things. One thing I also did after reattaching was to tape around the connection to hopefully prevent it working loose again in case the there was something about this specific MC4 that meant it was still not actually locking together even though it looked and felt right.
 

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