The charge controller has 3 pairs of wires. Two from the solar panels, two from the battery and two to the load. Thus, isolating the load from the unit by putting a relay in place should have resolved the problem. It hasn’t. It could either be indicating a problem with the battery or the unit itself is junk. I suspect the latter.
In my research I’ve not yet discovered a charge controller that is actually built or designed anywhere other than China. Look inside the “American Made” units and the cores’ are either directly from China (and the same as in the Chinese units) or the components are from China. There is no such thing as a 100% American made unit. I’m pretty much stuck with Chinese whether I like it or not. Imagine this - if all our electronics come from China and we fall out of favor with China, what happens when they operate the built-in kill switch inside their circuits? Think about that while warplanes fall from the sky, missiles spontaneously launch from bases in Alabama and blow the Pentagon to shreds and your personal computer explodes and sets your house on fire.
There is no reason on earth why this charge controller should be acting so strangely. I like that it shows me a battery voltage and that I can change the maximum and minimum voltage levels. Speaking of voltage levels, the charge off levels are ludicrously high. I’m using a gel battery which should fill to about 12.9v. 14.2v is quoted in the instructions yet the recommended charge rate is 14.4v so I’m mystified as to to what the 14.2v refers. I have a pretty good mind to replace the fantastic, advanced charger with a more basic model. I already have a voltmeter built into my USB charging console in the galley that displays charge level as I’m using power. In fact, I have two voltmeters. One shows battery voltage and the other shows solar panel voltage.
I’m going to suspect one thing that could be making this controller go nuts is that I’m using a common ground (though not to the solar panels). If that’s the case then I definitely need a new charge controller. Running double wiring everywhere would be prohibitively expensive not to mention utterly stupid. Vehicles have common grounds. I cannot imagine the stupidity that went into the design of my Chinese charge controller but I feel its effects!
The more basic model I’d thought about was two things. The first is an over-voltage cutout to stop the battery being charged too much and the second is an undervoltage cutout to stop the battery from being too discharged. As long as a diode or diodes are in use to protect the solar panels, there’s no reason on earth why a battery should not be charged directly from solar power. In fact, looking around, Powerex has an interesting battery low voltage disconnect that switches the load off when the battery is too low and switches back on when the battery climbs to 12.8V. It even shuts off when the incoming voltage goes above 17v though how that’d work with my solar panels that can produce weak high voltages, I don’t know.
Inside the bus I made up a 3 wire connector that involved putting crimp ring connectors on 3 wires then bolting them together. After that I tried the insulation spray I found in Lowes (hiss, spit) the other day. That stuff stinks badly! It doesn’t seem to cure very quickly and the insulation qualities seem rather suspect, judging from the way things I sprayed it on still conduct electricity when touched together. I’m going to say this could be better!
Speaking of Chinese junk, I picked up my anemometer today with the intent of using it but found it not to be working. Thus, I pulled out my Harbor Freight volt meter to check the anemometer battery and found that too, not to be working. It gave me a random display of changing numbers when not connecting to anything. Then I pulled out another volt meter and the same thing happened. I do wonder whether the Chinese stuff has a built-in kill timer that stops it working after 6 weeks. In the end, rather than hunt out my Walmart analog meter I gave up and put everything in the junk box. The Chinese must be laughing all the way to the bank. Every piece of Chinese electronics I’ve had has failed fairly quickly or proved itself to be in some way worthless.
If you remember I wrote about LED light bulbs. Every LED light bulb sold in America is either made from components that come from China or made by the Chinese. Take a walk through Walmart to find something the Chinese have NOT had their grubby paws on! Blankets made in Massachusetts or blankets made from Chinese cotton and assembled in Massachusetts? Perhaps only the label is made in Massachusetts? How about the dyes and treatment? I heard a crazy tale a while back that it was cheaper to export live chickens to China to be slaughtered and prepared for consumption here. That’s sending them to China and sending them back to the USA and expecting them to be fit to eat! Fit for a dog perhaps but not for human consumption!
People wonder why I don’t load myself down with electronic toys like everybody else does. It’s because they’re mostly such utter garbage. I have a tablet rather than a laptop because they’re far cheaper, do exactly the same things and they take less space. It’s still supporting the Chinese economy though. Every Chinese product buys the Chinese army more missiles to point at the USA. likewise, my phone is the cheapest, simplest I can find. People ask why I haven’t put LED lighting into my bus aside from throwaway lanterns. The answer is the Chinese crud is just that unreliable I don’t want to commit to it.
The other day I went to Walmart and could not find a single incandescent bulb. That’s absolutely incredible! I would rather have a dozen or so good 12v flashlight bulbs illuminating my bus inside than any of these diabolical LED disasters. Can I find standard flashlight bulbs? No! When I looked for lanterns all I could find was the nasty LED lanterns that I currently have. Certainly they use far less power but give out the most appalling light quality. They’re not just dazzling to look at but they’re also extremely unpleasant to use. The light is extremely harsh and does not illuminate at all well. Forget Lumens, Candela, Kelvin etc - they’re just horrible to use. Not only is the light pretty well worthless but the lunatics that made them have put brightness control into them so you can have dim, barely visible and I’m sure there’s a lantern there somewhere settings. Then they expect the customer to fork over $10 and more for their utterly miserable creation. Whenever I see the darned things in the stores I feel like offering the store manager my services, charging him a very nominal $20 an hour to collect the whole lot from their store to save everybody time and take them down to the dump. That’s where they’ll all end up. People buy them because they think they’ll use them and then find they’re so useless and such overhyped trash they end up using something else and taking that piece of junk to the dump rather than demanding a refund.
Eventually, when the temperature rose to a comfortable 67F as promised by the weatherman, I ceased procrastinating and went under the bus to attach my cables to the ribs. Checking the poorly soldered joints I decided that having shrink wrapped them securely in insulation when I soldered them, the likelihood of them failing was low and if they do, I can simply cut sections out, crimp spade connectors in place and fix it all that way.
Lying on the sand, on my back, underneath the bus is not my favorite place to be. The number of critters is vastly reduced since we’ve had some freezing weather lately. There are some cobwebs that look occupied that I’ll strive to avoid lest something come lurching out of the darkness toward me. Who knows what kind of evil intent such a malevolent creature would have toward me! There are a few ants down there too but fortunately I’ve not yet been bitten by one.
Having completed the cable ties, I set to and drilled a hole in the floor. That gave me all kinds of problems. The thin drills would drill ever larger holes until I got to my one inch drill which decided to lodge and spin in the chuck. Now that’s exactly why I prefer round drills as opposed to those with hexagonal shifts. If the drill bit gets stuck, the drill just spins in the chuck as opposed to shattering. That has saved me buying several drills. Hexagonal shafts are good for drilling into wood and that’s about it. Steel - forget it.
Eventually, my perseverance paid off. I got through the floor using my mains drill. My battery drill had long since given up the ghost and lay charging, waiting for its next outing. Having done that though, the daylight was beginning to fade. The second cable will have to wait until another day. Completing the interior wiring will be the task to fulfil on a cold or rainy day or whenever I don’t want to go underneath. Eventually I’ll have to install my battery holder. Every design of that so far has been heavier than I’d really like.
Underneath the bus, the cabling looks still pretty tidy. I still have to install a cable from the bedroom to the back and a cable from the battery to the back. I’m not 100% sure yet where the battery will be situated. I’ll work that one out at leisure.
I would have gone closer to my other cable but this was hanging from the underside of the floor and quite frankly, I didn’t like the looks of it! I don’t know what it is and don’t really want to know. I’m sure it’s hazardous to my health so the further away from creepy crawlies I am, the happier I am. It’s under the bus and the holes are sealed with latex caulk, the door is closed and that thing better not come inside. I have a gun and I’m not afraid to use it!
The more basic model I’d thought about was two things. The first is an over-voltage cutout to stop the battery being charged too much and the second is an undervoltage cutout to stop the battery from being too discharged. As long as a diode or diodes are in use to protect the solar panels, there’s no reason on earth why a battery should not be charged directly from solar power. In fact, looking around, Powerex has an interesting battery low voltage disconnect that switches the load off when the battery is too low and switches back on when the battery climbs to 12.8V. It even shuts off when the incoming voltage goes above 17v though how that’d work with my solar panels that can produce weak high voltages, I don’t know.
Inside the bus I made up a 3 wire connector that involved putting crimp ring connectors on 3 wires then bolting them together. After that I tried the insulation spray I found in Lowes (hiss, spit) the other day. That stuff stinks badly! It doesn’t seem to cure very quickly and the insulation qualities seem rather suspect, judging from the way things I sprayed it on still conduct electricity when touched together. I’m going to say this could be better!
If you remember I wrote about LED light bulbs. Every LED light bulb sold in America is either made from components that come from China or made by the Chinese. Take a walk through Walmart to find something the Chinese have NOT had their grubby paws on! Blankets made in Massachusetts or blankets made from Chinese cotton and assembled in Massachusetts? Perhaps only the label is made in Massachusetts? How about the dyes and treatment? I heard a crazy tale a while back that it was cheaper to export live chickens to China to be slaughtered and prepared for consumption here. That’s sending them to China and sending them back to the USA and expecting them to be fit to eat! Fit for a dog perhaps but not for human consumption!
People wonder why I don’t load myself down with electronic toys like everybody else does. It’s because they’re mostly such utter garbage. I have a tablet rather than a laptop because they’re far cheaper, do exactly the same things and they take less space. It’s still supporting the Chinese economy though. Every Chinese product buys the Chinese army more missiles to point at the USA. likewise, my phone is the cheapest, simplest I can find. People ask why I haven’t put LED lighting into my bus aside from throwaway lanterns. The answer is the Chinese crud is just that unreliable I don’t want to commit to it.
The other day I went to Walmart and could not find a single incandescent bulb. That’s absolutely incredible! I would rather have a dozen or so good 12v flashlight bulbs illuminating my bus inside than any of these diabolical LED disasters. Can I find standard flashlight bulbs? No! When I looked for lanterns all I could find was the nasty LED lanterns that I currently have. Certainly they use far less power but give out the most appalling light quality. They’re not just dazzling to look at but they’re also extremely unpleasant to use. The light is extremely harsh and does not illuminate at all well. Forget Lumens, Candela, Kelvin etc - they’re just horrible to use. Not only is the light pretty well worthless but the lunatics that made them have put brightness control into them so you can have dim, barely visible and I’m sure there’s a lantern there somewhere settings. Then they expect the customer to fork over $10 and more for their utterly miserable creation. Whenever I see the darned things in the stores I feel like offering the store manager my services, charging him a very nominal $20 an hour to collect the whole lot from their store to save everybody time and take them down to the dump. That’s where they’ll all end up. People buy them because they think they’ll use them and then find they’re so useless and such overhyped trash they end up using something else and taking that piece of junk to the dump rather than demanding a refund.
Lying on the sand, on my back, underneath the bus is not my favorite place to be. The number of critters is vastly reduced since we’ve had some freezing weather lately. There are some cobwebs that look occupied that I’ll strive to avoid lest something come lurching out of the darkness toward me. Who knows what kind of evil intent such a malevolent creature would have toward me! There are a few ants down there too but fortunately I’ve not yet been bitten by one.
Having completed the cable ties, I set to and drilled a hole in the floor. That gave me all kinds of problems. The thin drills would drill ever larger holes until I got to my one inch drill which decided to lodge and spin in the chuck. Now that’s exactly why I prefer round drills as opposed to those with hexagonal shifts. If the drill bit gets stuck, the drill just spins in the chuck as opposed to shattering. That has saved me buying several drills. Hexagonal shafts are good for drilling into wood and that’s about it. Steel - forget it.
So, just as I was wrapping up underneath for the day, I managed to get a tremendous cramp in my leg. That’s pretty much put paid to anything else I might have considered doing this evening! No ballroom dancing for me. Maybe a nice hot cup of hot chocolate with some brandy in it. Tomorrow or whenever, the next stage will be started - installing cable bundle two. There are three places I could put extra cable attachments on existing cables - hard to reach places close to the differential. I might have a go at that next time too. I never did get to measure the ribs for the battery holder. There’s always next time though.
No comments:
Post a Comment