charge controler not working?

[andy36]

I have a 120 watt solar panel for camping {to run the 40 ltr fridge] and the load side on the charge controler has no power coming out. I have the solar panel pointing dirctly at the sun and the battery cables conected yet nothing. Is my controler a dud or what..?cheers Andy

[Sunking]

I have a 120 watt solar panel for camping {to run the 40 ltr fridge] and the load side on the charge controler has no power coming out.

Load Side? Does your CC have both a battery and load output? If so quit using the LOAD output they are useless because they are low power. Connect any load equipment like an inverter to the battery terminal post.

[Mike90250]

Most controllers manuals will warn you about the amp limit on the load terminals.

There may be a jumper or setting , some controllers use the load terminal, as a LIGHT terminal for dusk-dawn lighting control too.

[uydarp]

I have a 120 watt solar panel for camping {to run the 40 ltr fridge] and the load side on the charge controler has no power coming out. I have the solar panel pointing dirctly at the sun and the battery cables conected yet nothing. Is my controler a dud or what..?cheers Andy

what charge controller are you using? and check if u have a blown fuse in ur CC.

[Wy_White_Wolf]

What's the battery voltage?

Load side of most CC has a low voltage disconnect so it could be working just as it should.

WWW

[andy36]

charge controler

I am using two 75 a/h gell batteries wired in paralell. Also the charge controler doesn't seem to have a fuse.
What I did yesterday was put a multimeter on the wires from the panel to check the volts comming in and it read at 20.4 volts, then the same from the wires from the cc to the battery bank and it read 3.0 volts.Is this whats ment to be.? we had full sun all day blue skys .cheers andy

[Mike90250]

The "brains" of a charge controller, run from the battery. It needs about 10 volts to work. If your battery is only reading 3 volts, then something drained it completely.

You posted on the 10'th and only today told us the battery reads 3 volts. It's likely pretty much destroyed by now. Sorry.

Voltage below 11 Volts, is very dangerous to a 12v battery. unhook everything, and get the battery only, connected to a working charger, to get it recharged ASAP. The longer it sits dead, the more it will be damaged.

[andy36]

charge controler

Thanks for your reply, you may not have read me right. I checked the cable from the cc at the battery connectors this reading 3.0 volts. the batterys [at this time are not hooked up] are reading 12.4 volts.my concern is three [3.0volts] the correct messurment comming from the cc to the bbank? cheers andy

[Sunking]

Thanks for your reply, you may not have read me right. I checked the cable from the cc at the battery connectors this reading 3.0 volts. the batterys [at this time are not hooked up] are reading 12.4 volts.my concern is three [3.0volts] the correct messurment comming from the cc to the bbank? cheers andy

Andy I can certainly see one problem. When connecting a charge controller th every first thing that has to be connected is the batteries, followed by the solar panels. If you do that in reverse order can damage the controller.

Disconnect the panels, then connect the batteries, then the panels and see what happens.

[cmac]

Battery must be connected or the CC doesn't exist.

Most all charge controllers will not read (or not read accurate) voltage at the battery terminals unless the battery is connected. The CC will not even "work" until the battery is connected. Chances are very high the ~3V reading is not valid either. In addition, you cannot read the actual PV voltage from the battery terminals at anytime (unless there is no charge controller and the battery is at risk of being cooked/ruined). You can only read PV voltage from the CC's solar terminals. This will usually be between 0 (night) and ~17v (max voltage) for a nominal 12v panel if the battery is connected. If the panel is "open circuit" it will read ~20v; meaning it's not, or acting like it's not connected to anything. If the battery isn't connected, then it's not connected to anything.

It's a common mistake to hook up solar panels to a CC and try to take a reading from the CC's battery terminals without the battery connected. As SunKing indicated,always connect battery first, then the solar. However, simply connecting the solar without the battery will typically never harm the CC, since effectively it's just like an open circuit.

I've heard nothing so far that indicates the CC is defective. I'd connect the battery, then the solar, add the sun, and see if battery voltage rises. If so, then the CC is likely working fine. But don't expect to measure or read the dynamic state of the solar panel from a very basic CC. From the solar terminals you will only ever read the PV max volts at any given time, and from the battery terminals only the battery voltage at any given time.

Note: Even far more expensive CCs with LCD that measure PV V/A, battery V, load V/A etc will not even work or report any readings unless the battery is connected.

[amira12]

Charge controler not working?

Solar chargers are state-of-the-art built and tested. If the LEDs are on, then it is most probably working. To know for sure you must use a DC multimeter. When the indicator light shows to be
charging, the controller has connected the solar module to the battery. The voltage measured at
the output terminals must be under 14.4 volts, and the solar module at the input must be a little
higher than the battery voltage. Disconnect and reconnect the solar panel while watchingt the
voltage change.

Mod note - three posts - equally silly to get your post count up? Stop it.

[grampawanderson]

charge controller

hi I am new but I have experienced a problem where the led on my controller was green indicating it was charging . when in fact it was not. I believed it was working but on subsequent checks the voltage continued to drop .I had a 95 w panel and was using it to keep the batteries up no loads other then the propane detector . ltage from the panel it was about 20v measured at solar connection to charger and voltage was Little less but not significant on instruction from the tech I measured at the battery connection of the controller and it was about 12 volts . So I am not going any where there the tech confirmed the controller was defective. the brand is not important but it will be the subject of a new post.

grampaw