question

kastearman avatar image
kastearman asked

SmartSolar Charger Controller not charging

I purchased a SmartSolar Charger controller through amazon in January, installed on my boat in February. It is no longer charging my house batteries. Solar panels are absorbing energy but the controller is not allowing it to charge the batteries. Sailed from Miami to Bimini on 03/15/2020 and my batteries charged to 100% with no issue. The next day no charge was being received and my house batteries (new Fireflys) got down below 30%. I was forced to come to a marina in Bimini to connect to shore power and try to troubleshoot but Amazon is useless. I need someone who can actually troubleshoot. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

MPPT Controllers
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

3 Answers
Matthias Lange - DE avatar image
Matthias Lange - DE answered ·

What charge controller? What panels? PV voltage? Battery voltage? Fuses checked?
Can you give us some screenshots of VictronConnect?

2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

kastearman avatar image
kastearman answered ·

Victron SmartSolar MPPT charge controller 150v-70 amp

2 Canadian solar KuMax CS3U-380MS 380w mono solar panels


PV voltage 75


Battery voltage 13.5


Fuses checked



274eb256-ec92-4ff5-b76c-a2942c17fad7.jpeg (588.8 KiB)
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

Justin Cook avatar image
Justin Cook answered ·

@kastearman, your screenshot shows that you're currently (whenever you took the screenshot) charging your batteries at 23A in absorption, so it appears that your system is working properly... did you resolve the issue, or was this taken before the issue occurred, or...?

2 comments
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

kastearman avatar image kastearman commented ·

Thank you for responding. This is after troubleshooting this morning. Here is the current shot. Our battery percentage is still not going up. It is partly cloudy/hazy today.

0 Likes 0 ·
5bbc7a12-c97d-4432-b675-79b2f2654535.png (409.8 KiB)
95711629-f5f0-4bde-b683-656e94da07cc.png (372.3 KiB)
Justin Cook avatar image Justin Cook ♦♦ kastearman commented ·

Okay hmmmm are you sure you have your BMV shunt connected properly? If your solar is charging at 9.2A, the BMV should show +9.2A, not -9.1A.

...unless you're actually running around 18A of loads, in which case you have 9.2A being generated by solar, for a net "out" from the battery of around -9.1A.

Bottom line, it appears that either something isn't connected correctly in your system or you're running much higher DC loads than you might think.

0 Likes 0 ·