question

scandy1 avatar image
scandy1 asked

Charge controller showing no current suddenly.

I've got a 50/100 charge controller on my camper, 2 100 watt panels, and a single 100ah battleborn battery.

I recently had my camper in to get my radio wired into both the engine battery and camper battery with a switch between. I realized they only hooked it up to the camper battery when the battery completely died. I tried to charge it with my shore power hookup. I think since the battery was dead, something wasnt recognizing a battery being there and it wouldnt charge it.

I then unhooked everything from the battery, and jumped it from the engine battery. hooked everything back up, and was able to charge it through shore power from there, and everything functioned normally.

Im wondering if when hooking everything back up i blew a fuse in the charge controller itself? my other thought was that I might have blown one of the inline fuses coming from the panels, though I've got a 20a fuse between my battery and charge controller, Id be surprised if it was the solar panel inline fuses.

I havent been able to check them because the renogy mounts make it an absolute pain to reach the bolts. Otherwise I'd have to remove the mounts from the roof itself which means a lot of disassembly to access those mount bolts, which i'd really like to avoid.

Does this sound like a problem with the charge controller itself? any other Ideas?

battery chargingSolar Panelsolarerror
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3 Answers
isagone avatar image
isagone answered ·

Have you got current coming into controller from solar

If not sounds like blown fuse between charge controller and panel

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scandy1 avatar image scandy1 commented ·

it’s night now so nothing regardless, but I’ll make sure tomorrow. Though I’m pretty certain I haven’t been getting current coming in.

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scandy1 answered ·

Ok here's what my app is saying.

I used a voltmeter at the wires where they plug into the charge controller, and got a reading. So as far as i can tell its not an issue with the panel's or their fuse.

the light on the charge controller is blinking bulk, fuse between my battery and charge controller is good, even tried multiple fuses. Went through all the battleborn setup steps and everything looks right.


One other thing, I've run my battery down to dead before (or the low volt shutoff in the battery itself) and always been able to charge it through shore power, or once the sun came up it'd start to charge it again, from dead, as in lights out, no power at all.

Not only will it not charge from solar with the battery dead, it wont charge from shore power, through my renogy inverter charger. once i jump the battery, then i can at least charge through shore power.


I'm lost..


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klim8skeptic avatar image klim8skeptic ♦ commented ·

Hi Scandy,

The voltage from the solar panels is too low, you have a wiring fault somewhere between the mppt and your panels.

Disconnect the pv from the mppt and measure the voltage. If you get a decent voltage from the pv, test again with a light bulb (borrow a blinker bulb), it should light up brightly with good sun.

Report back.

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scandy1 avatar image scandy1 klim8skeptic ♦ commented ·

Thats very close to sunset and possibly some shade from trees. would that have an effect on the voltage? Didnt get to measure it in direct sunlight.

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klim8skeptic avatar image klim8skeptic ♦ scandy1 commented ·

Yes you will need good sun. You can check your history for today though.

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scandy1 avatar image
scandy1 answered ·

alright here’s what I’m seeing in better sun.


acb446a6-aa08-4d72-9702-f5d18f712d90.png (308.8 KiB)
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klim8skeptic avatar image klim8skeptic ♦ commented ·

Hi Sandy,

Your pv voltage is to low. Please wire your panels in series. Look at the notes at the bottom of the specs.

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scandy1 avatar image scandy1 klim8skeptic ♦ commented ·

I’ve had zero issues for almost 2 years though. Even during winter, panels partially covered in snow, I’d always get a charge. Maybe it’s still fuse between the panels and charge controller? I ordered new ones just Incase. But I would think if one of those fuses goes out (I.e. the positive or negative wire) I’d be getting no voltage to the charge controller?

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ejrossouw avatar image ejrossouw scandy1 commented ·

@Scandy1 Have you tried factory reset the Smartsolar and ensured that the correct battery voltage has been selected? Also, what is the voltage from the panels when you measure it with a multimeter? Not via the app.

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