Technical problems

[Tes]

Hello, I have a 400 watt 355 amph setup on my conversion van. The charge controller is a 30 amp PWM, batteries are agm deep cycle. About 2 weeks ago my charge controller started fritzing on the voltage display. It would change sporadically between 19v and 8v every second. It stopped charging the batteries at all. Originally I thought this was an issue with the charge controller. I checked all the wires with a multimeter and everything seemed fine. The solar panels were bringing in 17V on a nice sunny day. The batteries were at 12.4 (a little drained). Everything seems hooked up fine.

Windy Nation sent me a new charge controller, exactly the same as the old one. PWM 30 amp. I connected it carefully, making sure to connect it to the batteries first and it shows the same display as the old one, fritzing between numbers 8v-19v

I'm not sure what troubleshooting steps to take from here. Is there a way to check each solar panel to see if there's an issue? Has anyone come across this problem before? Could it be a wiring problem?

I truly appreciate any advice. Been without power for a while and would really like to have a fridge again. Thank you!
-Tes

[max2k]

Hello, I have a 400 watt 355 amph setup on my conversion van. The charge controller is a 30 amp PWM, batteries are agm deep cycle. About 2 weeks ago my charge controller started fritzing on the voltage display. It would change sporadically between 19v and 8v every second. It stopped charging the batteries at all. Originally I thought this was an issue with the charge controller. I checked all the wires with a multimeter and everything seemed fine. The solar panels were bringing in 17V on a nice sunny day. The batteries were at 12.4 (a little drained). Everything seems hooked up fine.

Windy Nation sent me a new charge controller, exactly the same as the old one. PWM 30 amp. I connected it carefully, making sure to connect it to the batteries first and it shows the same display as the old one, fritzing between numbers 8v-19v

I'm not sure what troubleshooting steps to take from here. Is there a way to check each solar panel to see if there's an issue? Has anyone come across this problem before? Could it be a wiring problem?

I truly appreciate any advice. Been without power for a while and would really like to have a fridge again. Thank you!
-Tes

how many batteries you have and in what configuration (all in series/parallel/mix)? how old are the batteries? do you have inverter in there or all your loads are 12V? if you have inverter- can you disconnect it and see if the voltage stops jumping.

[Tes]

how many batteries you have and in what configuration (all in series/parallel/mix)? My apologies, I said 355 amph, but meant 310amph. I have 2 batteries at 155 amph each connected in parallel (12V)

how old are the batteries? They are 10 months old

do you have inverter in there or all your loads are 12V? I have a 1500 watt modified sine wave inverter.

if you have inverter- can you disconnect it and see if the voltage stops jumping. Thank you, I will try this and get back to you.

Thank you so much for the quick response.

[Tes]

Looks like there is no change when the inverter is disconnected. Charge controller still displays random voltages.

[littleharbor]

Try disconnecting the solar panels now.

[Tes]

The charge controller displays 10.2 volts when the solar panels are disconnected, though my multimeter says 12.4 at the batteries. The fritzing only happens when the panels are connected during the daytime.

[littleharbor]

Very strange that this same thing is happening with the replacement. Are your connections to the battery tight? Could there be a stray wire strand contacting a nearby terminal?

[Tes]

Tightened all the connections. Attached a pic.

[littleharbor]

The connections on the rear battery look pretty dirty. Also you need to make either the pos. or neg. connection on the other battery so the load and charging are evenly shared between both batteries. Is the rear battery considerably older?

[Tes]

Thank you, I'll clean them and move one of the connections. They are the same age. I had to remove the front one a while back and dusted it.

[littleharbor]

Not sure if I was clear about the stray strand on the terminal. I was referring to the connections on the controller.

[Tes]

Not sure if I was clear about the stray strand on the terminal. I was referring to the connections on the controller.

Thank you so much for your help! While cleaning the back battery I noticed my inline fuse holder was slightly melted. (Eek!) So I replaced the wires and fuses from the charge controller to the batteries and it looks like it's finally charging properly again. I wouldn't have been able to figure this out on my own. My sincerest appreciation! Sooo nice to have power again! It's an overcast day, so it won't charge the batteries much, but I'm happy the system is working again.

[littleharbor]

You're welcome. Glad you found the problem.

[joerossjr]

Wait... WHAT?? "Slightly melted"... and this gives you no alarm?? Can you tell what caused the melting? I hope it is not from the wrong size fuse being used! What load is attached to the inline fuse and what size fuse are you using? What gauge is that wire the fuse is on?

[max2k]

Wait... WHAT?? "Slightly melted"... and this gives you no alarm?? Can you tell what caused the melting? I hope it is not from the wrong size fuse being used! What load is attached to the inline fuse and what size fuse are you using? What gauge is that wire the fuse is on?

relax, was probably just a bad contact- the post is more than a week old.