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frangar avatar image
frangar asked

Overheated PV terminal on SmartSolar 75/15

A friend has had the positive PV terminal melt on his 75/15 smartsolar. Im suspecting its down to a poorly tightened terminal screw from the damage which may have become loose due to vibration but just wondering if anyone else has had a unit fail in a similar way. The unit still registered on the App and saw a PV voltage but passed no current. which may be due to the terminal damage. Ive advised replacement with a 100/15 unit as he could then connect the 40v panels in series to lessen the current on the 4mm cable that is used from the PV panel to MPPT. The panels are 2 x 200w. The boat is 24v.


The melted black item is the remains of a bootlace ferrule. You can see from the first pic how its just affected the first few inches of the positive PV cable. The heat has made the blue case brittle though as can be seen from the cracks etc. It had been working fine for 2 years prior to the failure in the last week. 141366a9-203b-4aaf-a3bf-f076fa88b2fa.jpg

img-8162.jpgimg-8169.jpgimg-8167.jpg


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Mike Dorsett avatar image
Mike Dorsett answered ·

I had similar teouble with an MPPT 100/50, but the unit stayed functional after the terminal overheated. These units are difficult to dismantle for repair.

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frangar avatar image frangar commented ·
I did think it didn’t look too easy to get apart to fit a new terminal strip…especially given how brittle the case seems to have gone with the heat.
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