In a fit of stupidity and tiredness I accidentally plugged my solar panels into the Orion-Tr Smart 12 | 12 - 18 isolated DC/DC charger instead of the solar charge controller. I am running two 100 watt panels in series, so the voltage was well above the 17V input limit.
I think I heard a little pop and eventually I noticed the smoke (or steam?) escaping from the device and yanked out the cables.
I am not sure what to do now because.. it seems to still work. It turns on, and will enter charge mode and everything. I have not tried to do a real charge cycle with it yet -- surely whatever released that smoke was important?
Any idea what it might cost to get it 'repaired' even though it gives the appearance of working?
Maybe I should just open it myself and looking for a smoked capacitor to replace? Would opening it myself make it difficult to get repaired later? I am sure this is not covered under warranty.
I can't be the first moron to do this, so I am curious what other people have experienced.
For the record, this system is a work in progress, and the next thing on the checklist was to install connectors that would prevent me from accidentally hooking the solar panels up to the Orion-Tr Smart -- because I knew I would do it eventually :p. But I ran out of time to get it done before my recent trip and paid the price.
I am not positive what I saw was smoke -- it was early in the morning and I suppose it could have been steam evaporating from the heatsinks. The smell test is inconclusive. My gut says it floated more like smoke than steam. But I was more focused on making it stop than continuing my observations.
