Dumb question, are these solar charger result normal? - Page 2

**BroncoHauler** · 04-25-2014, 08:46 PM

FWIW, I know that my battery monitor needs to be calibrated as to what is actually 100%. If that's not set correctly, the monitor would possibly never make it to 100%, or could reach over 100% depending on if the 100% level was set too high, or too low.

Herb

**daveb** · 04-26-2014, 01:03 PM

Exactly how the Link-10 works. From what you posted it does seem all is well with your system. There are adjustments on the gauge which control the accuracy of the reading. Some gauges might not have this and being you haven't posted what gauge you're using it's a guess on my part. I'm also guessing you have a separator.
I have to reset the gauge every time after a full charge is complete and the batteries are in float mode. Once the batteries are used, the percentage gauge begins to drop and so does the amp hour monitor. To tell the truth the link-10 is so complicated I rarely use many of the functions it offers. Besides, when my solar kicks in, the separator joins the starting and house banks but the meter is calibrated for only the house system so the percentage portion can never be totally accurate. I don't worry about it. Just a glance of my voltage before the sun comes up tells me all I have to know. If I see 12.2 I know I'm OK but in most cases my batteries don't go that low overnight. Provided your battery system stays at 12.75 and higher W/O a charge and W/O a load for 24hrs, the batteries are in good shape. As soon as the sun hits the panels, priority charging goes to the house bank and as soon as the voltage reaches about 13.2 the separator closes and charges both house and starting batteries. As the voltage rises to about 14+ range, the amperage should taper off.
Hope this helps

Scalf77 · 04-26-2014, 02:01 PM

I think you need to start the process over. I believe that you have the magnum battery monitor and it states that it looks at three things to determine SOC:
#1The charging voltage has stabilized over a period of time.

#2The charging current has decreased to a low percentage of the amphour capacity – normally less than 2%.

#3The amp-hours that were removed from the battery are within 1% of
fully being returned.

So #3 may cause you some issue, with the monitor getting out of sync with the battery charge. My concern would be that the solar controller is not connected on the correct side of the shunt, this would not allow the monitor to account for any amps put back into the battery. Remember that you originally did not see it move on solar until your plugged in and sometime after that the monitor went up to 98%. so I would drain it down some 80% and try the solar process again. It looks like your solar is working, but the monitor may not be picking up the charge. If you can confirm the battery monitor maker and solar controller, I should be able to help a little more.

Dave,
the separator kicking in should not throw off the results of the battery monitor, as again the DC shunt is only between the house battery. It does mean that number of total amps that your solar controller put out is higher then what you recorded going into the battery, this would be no different then power going directly to a light or refrigerator running.

greg

**daveb** · 04-26-2014, 03:06 PM

Yeah you'd be correct on that Greg. Just less amperage going into the house from the solar if its going somewhere else. My bad

, thanks for pointing that out. My solar does the same thing though and it's hooked up correctly and being metered right. I guess I just need to tweak the P-exponent a bit yet to get it dialed in correctly. Just never got around to messing with it much. I don't use my meter as a battery fuel gauge being the voltmeter part of it is enough for my needs. Without resetting it after a full charge while away from home, I've watch the gauge go into the red and the amp hours read (for instance) negative 500Ah or more while the batteries are fully charged. Like a slow clock, it looses a bit each day and that continues to add up until it shows a very low read. I don't care cause the voltage is fine.

skijunkie · 04-26-2014, 10:28 PM

The monitor does indeed appear to be measuring amp out correctly and not measuring solar amp in at all. It only appears to be measuring amp in from the 30 amp inlet. I would not be surprised if SMB wired the solar controller directly to the battery.

I am taking a three day trip in the SMB next week so I should get a chance to test it out some more.

The monitor is a magnum. Here are pics of my monitor and my monitor panel.

**daveb** · 04-26-2014, 11:03 PM

That's very possible. Fresno usually connects the solar to the house side of the separator on most builds and the meters shunt should be down close to the house battery. Is this a new build? If they hooked it to the engine battery side that would be an issue as would be if they hooked it on the wrong side of the shunt.

Scalf77 · 04-27-2014, 08:37 AM

Dave, I here you about syncing the monitor. I have not looked into the link-10 very much, but have the xantrex XBM. One of the things I like about it is the ability to communicate with my computer, having the ability to monitor from the driver seat has increased it's usefulness IMHO. I can also do the sync process from the computer also. I depend very much on the SOC reading, while monitoring voltage is great, there are so many times when, you can't really use just that.

Mike,
The magnum battery monitor has the shunt on the negative side of the battery, the Zamp controller should connect somewhere on the non battery side of the shunt (This should be where all the other ground cable are going). The positive should connect like Dave saysm on the house side of the separator.

I believe the Zamp documentation says to wire it directly to the battery, which is not a bad thing unless you are using a shunt based battery monitor. Hopefully that is it.

-greg

**daveb** · 04-27-2014, 11:37 AM

Definitely deflated my expectations Greg. The XBM was not out at the time. I know mine is working correctly because it measures the amps in and the value is the same as the solar controller. Probably just a matter of some adjustments on my part.

skijunkie · 04-27-2014, 09:30 PM

I can see where the shunt and battery monitor are mounted under my RB 50 bench. The problem is all the wiring coming in is not marked and I can't tell which wires come go back to the solar controller. This is a new build I took delivery of almost one year ago.

So now that I understand that for monitoring solar charging I need to look at the battery voltage instead is the % display, is there a potential for this to be harmful in any way other that it being an inconvenience?

I'm still going to look into it further, but I don't want to continue using the solar charger if it might be causing harm in the meantime.

Scalf77 · 04-28-2014, 03:11 PM

If what we believe to be the problem is true, you should not have any issues, other then your current going into the battery during a solar charge will not be measured. It will therefore not be in sync as being full.In the following picture, I would say we believe the solar controller to be hooked up like the Red & Blue Wires, The Blue wire goes directly to the battery ground and bypasses the DC-shunt, making a correct current measurement impossible. The voltage measurement would be OK in either either case. We would like it to look more like the Red and Black wires. The DC Shunt is really a resister, the voltage drop across the (resister) twisted pair lines lets the monitor calculate current in and out.

Hope this helps.

-greg