[Guide] Mobile Solar Panels ? . . . - How I Did It -

[Dellmassive]

How does this look?

50w foldable Bluefusion on the roof sunny for most of the morning, then a few clouds.
Started off with this



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Had this much out of the panel

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And ended up with this. I don't have a monitor on the leisure battery, but it looks like some power has been pushed through the SCR into that too.

View attachment 247243
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looks good to me.

 

[Samiguel]

This turned out to be great advice - thank you. I have everything set up in the garden and on a slightly gloomy day, the Renogy panel is kicking out 130w and, having taken off the PMW controller that came with the panel, the Victron MPPT that I replaced it with is charging my crappy battery at 8a or so.

I paid about £270 in total for the RENOGY 200w panel, the Victron 75|15 charge controller, cable and connectors which feels like a bargain (and money well spent!)

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So I’m using my set up in the field for the first time. Gorgeous sunny day, about 22°c, no shade on the panel, but according g to the Victron app I’m only getting 5-6w from the panel and it’s in float mode which I guess means the leisure battery is pretty full. My fridge is on EHU, so with no loads to speak of, is the MPPT capping the power from the panel, or is my panel Donald Ducked?

As ever, very grateful for any expertise or advice.

 

[Dellmassive]

So I’m using my set up in the field for the first time. Gorgeous sunny day, about 22°c, no shade on the panel, but according g to the Victron app I’m only getting 5-6w from the panel and it’s in float mode which I guess means the leisure battery is pretty full. My fridge is on EHU, so with no loads to speak of, is the MPPT capping the power from the panel, or is my panel Donald Ducked?

As ever, very grateful for any expertise or advice.

View attachment 250631

Yes your correct.

The battery is full, charger is in float....

So there is now where for the power to go, hence the 5w trickle.

If you turn on all your 12v loads, you will notice the battery voltage will drop, them the charger will move to bulk mode.

 

[Samiguel]

Yes your correct.

The battery is full, charger is in float....

So there is now where for the power to go, hence the 5w trickle.

If you turn on all your 12v loads, you will notice the battery voltage will drop, them the charger will move to bulk mode.

Brilliant. Thank you. Nice to have it confirmed!

 

[Higgeee]

Evening all,

After some help please. I’ve inherited a 100w suitcase panel and the idea is to connect this direct to my Ctek split charger and use the inbuilt Mppt controller.

I therefore need to remove the inbuilt controller on the panel but which wires do I need to keep for the positive and negative so I can wire this direct into the ctek? Once I’m clear on this then I’ll need to crimp some new cable from the panel direct to the ctek. Any ideas?

Cheers

 

[Dellmassive]

Un wire the panel feed from the old controller.

This one.

And wire to the ctek via a quick disconnect plug.

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.

 

[Higgeee]

Thank you sir!

 

[Salty Spuds]

Why not just have a plug that connects straight onto the battery from the solar panel & keep the onboard controller? Ctek aren’t that reliable, they have a relatively low solar input voltage limit, by keeping the portable panel “standalone” you’re adding redundancy to your system. If the Ctek goes tits up, you can still use solar.

 

[Bigsidavies]

Why not just have a plug that connects straight onto the battery from the solar panel & keep the onboard controller? Ctek aren’t that reliable, they have a relatively low solar input voltage limit, by keeping the portable panel “standalone” you’re adding redundancy to your system. If the Ctek goes tits up, you can still use solar.

Exactly this. You’re going to all the trouble of bypassing an mppt controller to wire it back into an mppt controller. Makes little sense.
My ctek had an issue in Spain last year and I lost dc-dc and solar so I had to keep searching out EHU every 3 days. I now use a Victron mppt even though I fixed the ctek (failed relay-nothing up with the ctek).