Is my solar regulator faulty?? (1 Viewer)

[dpsuk999]

I have an Schaudt EBL220 with a LR1218 solar regulator which I fitted probably 18 months ago and has worked fine. This morning when I went to MH and was looking at the panel the display was showing very high amps input into leisure and starter battery even though both fully charged as left on EHU. I've pulled the fuse, unplugged the regulator and reset the panel but when all plugged back in still shows high amps as in attached pics.

Is my regulator kaput? I've been thinking about replacing it with a LRM1218 anyway.

Cheers Dave.

 

[DavidG58]

I am not at all technical, but would doubt the panel could ever generate that many amps even on a Mediterranean midday in full sun, a grey UK day my output will read in mA's not Amps

What does it normally read when on EHU?

 

[Lenny HB]

I think it is more likely your control panel is faulty, not possible to get that sort of power from solar at this time of year.

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[JeanLuc]

As Lenny says, it's not possible to generate 20 amps plus at this time of year from the size of panels you could fit on a motorhome. Since the LR1218 can handle a maximum of 18 amps anyway, I cannot see that such a high current could ever have been generated from your solar system. That suggest a failure of the DT220 panel. Have you looked at the DT220 manual for guidance on strange settings?

 

[SandraL]

Is it possible to read amps into/out of battery total as opposed to amps generated by solar? If so what are they? If they are normal suggests shunt inside ebl is ok.
You could try disconnecting "data" link ( multiway plug with tiny wires) from lr1218 to ebl ( on my ebl101) and see if reading goes down to zero for solar input thus making fault in lr1218.

 

[dpsuk999]

When I unplug the LR1218 from the EBL it registers 0. The panel is performing everything else ok which made me think it was the regulator.

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[Lenny HB]

As @SandraL says looks like it is the feed from the shunt int the LR1218 that is causing the problem, the regulator part is still probably working OK.

 

[dpsuk999]

Sounds like it, oh well gives me an excuse to buy the LRM1218

 

[dpsuk999]

Well an update. I bit the bullet and bought a new LRM1218 from www.wholesalesolar.co.uk (fantastic customer service and very reasonable in price).

I installed the solar panels and LR1218 approx 18 months ago and sited the regulator under the passenger seat next to the EBL, so first job was to remove the seat which was no problem. When I removed the old regulator I noticed it seemed to have condensation on it which was very puzzling to me! The solar input connections on the old regulator were standard crimp terminals but on the new one its crimp pins so I cut the old terminals off the solar wires and went into the garage to find my crimp pin terminals but didn't have any left so off I went to buy some more.

When I returned (approx 40 mins) I noticed the smallest of droplets of water dripping from both the + and - solar wires, dripping from the actual strands and not the sheathing etc. which indicated water entering the wires which could only be from the junction box on the roof where the 2 solar panels are linked to the single solar cable coming into the MH so after climbing onto the roof and removing the lid of the junction box, I found it half full of water!! After inspecting it closely I found a hairline crack near the base of the junction box.

So this was the reason for the original solar regulator to fail, water ingress (granted only a very small amount) as I took it apart and could see the circuit board pitted and a capacitor had come off the circuit board hence giving me duff info. Must have only started with all this heavy rain as I use the MH regular and only noticed the duff solar information last week.

I've now replaced the junction box on the roof and allowed the strands to dry before connecting the new regulator.

All working fine now

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[funflair]

Thanks for the update, I think we might have been a long time working that out from the symptons.

Martin

 

[Lenny HB]

Good result, if it were me I would replace the cables as corrosion will have started and will only get worse, as you know Murphy's Law they will fail when you most need them.
Thanks for letting us know the result, so many people don't bother to give an update when they have fixed the problem.

 

[dpsuk999]

Yeah I know, it could only be 1 of 2 things, the regulator or the main control panel and since everything else was ok just the solar input reading very high it could only be down to the regulator but at least I know why it failed! I'm glad if run out of crimp pin connectors which have enough time for a drip of water to appear or else maybe in another 6 months or so I could have had another one fail and I wouldn't have realised the hairline crack in the junction box

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[dpsuk999]

Good result, if it were me I would replace the cables as corrosion will have started and will only get worse, as you know Murphy's Law they will fail when you most need them.
Thanks for letting us know the result, so many people don't bother to give an update when they have fixed the problem.

I did think about that so that's my next job