Damaged solar controller ??

[andy greenwood]

Not a good day, I needed to move my solar controller (long story), it was stuck back with 3m tape, I've tried to carefully prise it away but failed. The backing plate has come away and part of the internals have shattered strangely it is still working so I'm not sure what the thing that has disintegrated actually is ? Can anyone please advise

 

[Anakin]

It just looks like the backing board of the controller was filled with something like silica beads or powder. Probably as a heat sink.

 

[Dellmassive]

Oops...

That sandy stuff is for heat dissipation. Then that's covered with the rubber stuff.

 

[andy greenwood]

Oops...

That sandy stuff is for heat dissipation. Then that's covered with the rubber stuff.

nightmare, I'll have to roll with it for now and see how things go. Looks like I still have 50% off the heat disopation left though

 

[Dellmassive]

That must have been some bad boy heavy duty tape?

The back of that 75/15 should have a aluminium plate, then the rubber, then the silica.

Where's the alu plate?

 

[andy greenwood]

That must have been some bad boy heavy duty tape?

The back of that 75/15 should have a aluminium plate, then the rubber, then the silica.

Where's the alu plate?

It used a couple of strips of 3m tape, I tried to cut away the tape and got as much as I could, I then tried pulling away the 75/15 but unfortunately the aluminium plate stayed stuck and the 75/15 came away shattering the silica. The aluminium plate is now bonded back on.
Even though it is still working totally fine do you think it will be ok ?

 

[Dellmassive]

It should be fine if you keep under half the max power limit.... That will keep the temps down.

You considered putting the silica stuff back in an re sealing it with sicaflex or silicone?

 

[andy greenwood]

It should be fine if you keep under half the max power limit.... That will keep the temps down.

You considered putting the silica stuff back in an re sealing it with sicaflex or silicone?

Unfortunately I didn't think of that and it went up the vacuum. I'll keep checking the unit to see how hot it gets in direct sunshine