Solar panel

[southjk]

On my 2015 AI grand tour. The 100 watt solar panel in bright mid day sun shows .1 amp on the display. Shouldn't this be more like 6-10 amps? Or is it responding to load or battery condition ?

[UKDUDE]

I get up to 3 Amps on a sunny day from my measly 50 Watt panel.

The sun needs to be overhead for best effect.


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[amirm]

It does that if the batteries are charged or another charger is charging the batteries. Make sure the car is not running and you are not connected to shore power. Then turn no some loads like lights and see what it puts out.

The best I have seen out of my 100 watt panel is about 5.5 amps or so.

[dznf0g]

If the battery is full, and your controller is working properly, there will be very little amperage going into your battery. If my batts are full, I'll see a NET amperage of 150 - 400mA. To test your panels, run the batts down to 50 or 60% and you should see somewhere north of 5 - 6 Amps at solar noon and no clouds. (With MPPT, I see a bit over 6 amps with 100 watt panels, at 14.7 volts, absorption stage rates).

[toskeysam]

I replaced my 50 watt panel with a Grape Solar 100 watt panel. The maximum I see on my Atkinson shunt controller is 5.6 on a bright full overhead sunny day. Angled sun makes a big difference. Oddly enough...there times when I will leave it plugged to shore power for days and I will still see a small amount of charge from solar. 🤔

[southjk]

my controller shows 60% remaining life on batteries and 40 ah. Still only shows .1 amps. I wonder if the batteries have to get below 50% before the controller will allow a charge to occur? I've had it running the fridge/freezer and the Maxfann for about 4 hours .

[amirm]

I see values above 0.1 amp all the time if there is no other charge source (car alternator or AC). If yours doesn't then something is amiss.

[73shark]

I think the voltage has to drop below 12.5V before it starts to charge.

[southjk]

It's got a problem. I let it get to 45%. 11.5 volts, still no amps. Checked voltage on panel where it connects into roof. No voltage there. There is another plug/interconnect that has a bigger housing, almost looks like some type of fuselink but I didn't try to get into it. Connections look ok . Not sure where to check next??

[southjk]

Here's a pic of the roof plug and panel lead interconnects

[southjk]

My research indicates that these are called mc4 y connectors. I could t verify a good connection on the positive lead as it was sealed to the roof with silicon or something.

[73shark]

Sounds like the same symptoms I had when the charge controller went Tango Uniform. I talked w/ Robert Kendal (800-261-3602) at Atkinson Electronics who had me take a couple more measurements to confirm it was the controller. Sent me a new one for free as long as I returned the old one which I did. Great customer service!

[southjk]

Thanks 73shark. I spoke with Robert. He thinks my PV panel is the issue. This puts it back on airstream. I'm pretty much done with trying to deal with them. I think I'll use this as an opportunity to upgrade the panel.

[southjk]

Further troubleshooting on panel. No voltage at the mc4 connectors or at leads within the junction block on the panel. ??