Weird solar control behavior. (1 Viewer)

[LesW]

When the sun is shining brightly, my control panels (solar and vehicle) 'strobe' between 12v and 14v.

As a result any lights used in the daytime keep a rhythmic pulsing from bright to not so bright.

As darkness falls everything settles down, both batteries get fully charged, I have a Battery Master fitted.

Do you think I need better solar controller?

All this was already fitted to our van when we bought it.

 

[Silver-Fox]

Is it possible any excess from the solar panels is being used to power the lights rather than going to “waste”

Just a thought

 

[LesW]

The Battery Master is designed to top up the vehicle battery with any 'excess' supply.

The hab battery is only 75ah, but supplies all our needs..

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[Lenny HB]

I think you need a solar regulator that work, sounds like yours has a fault.
It is possible the battery is faulty it could have a sorted cell and is overloading the regulator. If everthingworks OK when charged from the mains probably the regulator.

 

[LesW]

It does seem OK on the rare occasion I use the on board charger.. I'm also thinking that a better quality regulator might be needed.

 

[autorouter]

Is there anything connected to the 'Load' terminals of the controller? I know there probably isn't, just asking.

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[LesW]

Is there anything connected to the 'Load' terminals of the controller? I know there probably isn't, just asking.

I'm not sure which are the Load terminals, probably the two on the far right, with what looks like a 'light bulb' logo?

These aren't connected to anything.

 

[funflair]

At $23 (about £15) I would just chuck it away and buy a decent MPPT.

Martin

 

[LesW]

At $23 (about £15) I would just chuck it away and buy a decent MPPT.

Martin

I think you're probably right.
It'll have to wait until we get home now, we're heading for Annecy.

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[Reallyretired]

My old PMW controller used to do exactly the same in daylight when the batteries were fully charged. Basically it was not charging because the batteries were fully charged, then on switching anything on it started charging intermittently as the battery state of charge dropped and rose. It was particularly noticeable on the extractor fan which changed speed. This probably actually meant the controller was working as intended. Since replacing the controller with a MPPT one this problem has disappeared.