Electrical Ignorance may be bliss, but won't keep your power going!!
- Thread starter Boots in Action
- Start date
@Drover @Boots in Action My neighbour is a bit over 80 years old, he works 24/7 as that's what keeps him going. He sent a cutting list to a steel mob, picked it up and brought it home and hired a welder, chassis done, he did everything else, I mean everything the guy is an immortal all I did was the wiring and he is all over it, he makes me look silly. His last van he also built was a bit longer and had a fold down door at the back which was a ramp for his race car the bed went up and down electrically, he broke the lap record at his local race track last year and said I've done what i set out to do, sold the race car and decided to build a new van and go around australia again!!!
Thanks Boots in Action, for those very clear instructions on how to see the load on the TOPRAY controller. Another little project for me to perform.Cheers.
Thanks @BaldEd from across the "Ditch". It is heartening to know that some viewers see value in this arrangement and that you find the instructions clear. Good luck!
Well now @Drover, I have completed my task and even had a response from a member in "kiwiland", so there are people out there interested. It took some time, to work out the circuits, not such a mammoth a project, and no Panadol needed for me. How many did you take before you could understand how this was achieved so easily?? You are still to hook up your Morning Star controller so you have more information if you want. Manyana time perhaps?? Dig, dig!!
Also, lots of members do not have the finances you have to purchase "heaps of storage, heaps of panels" and even then, you still advise people to keep an eye on their electrical system. Modification is simple, very little cost and provides lots of benefits.
Yes you did well to describe it, diagrams well laid out certainly but the headache I was referring to was how to achieve this practically when the bits are separated by walls and stuff with wiring buried and the other cable runs fitted later, as stated ........not to worry though the explanation and lay out was done well.
Not going to bother with doing it to Big Mal , a bit of stuffing around for no system improvement, just to provide info which I would rarely look at, plus it would compromise my system separation lay out.
No panadol required as I knew what you were talking about, it wasn't a mystery to me.....I even stayed awake.
Not going to bother with doing it to Big Mal , a bit of stuffing around for no system improvement, just to provide info which I would rarely look at, plus it would compromise my system separation lay out.
No panadol required as I knew what you were talking about, it wasn't a mystery to me.....I even stayed awake.
Thanks and correct again @Drover about doing the practical work. The three times I have done this, I have been fortunate in having pretty easy access to do the mod as controller and battery/s were easily accessible. The only one I did have a bit of messing around with was my Daughter's Journey. Had to get the wires down behind the wall alongside the fridge as controller was in that wall, and the Setec was under the fridge base. Still worth it for my Daughter, but yeah, could be a bit of a hassle if battery and controller are separated by some distance, walls etc. Mind you, not the best set up to transfer solar current to battery without significant losses if not close to each other. Sometimes the theory is easy and the implementation a different kettle of fish! Cheers.
Yesterday I ran a feed onto the “A” frame for external solar, that’s all I intend doing on this van everything else is adequate juts covering for parking under trees, tried the Honda genie and it runs the air and fridge together happy days off to Tamworth on Thursday for a couple of weeks
Good point there @Drover regarding if no display available. However, if NO display, how would you know anything that the "lights" might INDICATE. My mod is definitely focused on indoor controllers with a display for different readouts.
I do not know of many controllers that HAVE a display that would not be able to handle loads connected to load outputs, provided it was within the limits of controller ie 20A IN should be able to handle 20A OUT. There MAY be a problem with the smaller 10A type and if you wanted to draw 20A OUT. @mikerezny brought up this point in earlier posts.
Generally speaking, if the controller has a display screen and readout, it will be a dearer type of PWM or MPPT with better quality components. Still the market is full of cheapies advertising what they are supposed to be able to do. "Let the buyer beware!!" If you don't know, then ask others for advice before purchasing.
No I mean the cheapies that have no display, just some led lights and the load cnx is basically for running lights to see by............I have come across a New Age van that had me puzzled, it only had one wire connected to load but never chased it up as owner was a only a dealer could fix it sort of fella, a tooth fairy believer for sure.
Digging this one up. Any thoughts on what to wire the LOAD terminals to on a portable 300W solar panel regulator to be able to see AMPS OUT, when you have the Setec wired to the factory roof solar TPS 1230 regulator? Or can you also wire the portable to the Setec bat +/- load terminals?
I was originally just going to wire the portable to the battery only, but then wouldn't see the amps out (regulator is similar to the TPS). Is there an easier way (say, attach a very small local load at the panels themselves?).
I was originally just going to wire the portable to the battery only, but then wouldn't see the amps out (regulator is similar to the TPS). Is there an easier way (say, attach a very small local load at the panels themselves?).
If its a portable panel then don't waste your time just hook it straight to the battery, it would be an impossible task to run loads from a portable..... Depending on the Setek but for earlier ST 20/35 you don't run panels thru them, you go straight to battery or you won't get much charge, if you want to see how much your van is drawing hook up
one of these on the between the battery and the Setek and it will show you whats happening......... or you can fit it when required on the battery line from your portable and it will show output of the panel...... don't bother with the load terminals at all.
Hi @Fallen , all that @Drover said is pretty correct. Why would you want to know the AMPs IN and OUT on a portable solar panel?? You already have solar on the roof and if you want to know what is coming IN and OUT as far as current is concerned, you can always refer to your Drifter panel if you have one. If not, then you can wire your LOAD across your solar controller as per my directions above. If you just wire the portable solar panel direct to the battery, you will not have any idea of amps OUT as the load is not connected across the LOAD terminals of controller. If you really want to know what is happening and use your Top Ray (or similar) controller, (AND YOU DO NOT HAVE A DRIFTER PANEL), then I suggest you follow directions I have set out above for your existing wiring from roof top solar and modify the LOAD wiring through the solar controller. However, this may involve running wiring through walls as @Drover has explained. My set up was easy, Daughter's Discovery was a little different owing wall fitting of controller and getting wires past internal obstacles, but quite achievable and well worth it!! As far as the addition of the extra 300w portable solar panel, the easiest and best way to include this would be to connect the output of the portable panel (bypass the portable solar controller!) and connect the portable solar INPUT in PARALLEL with the solar INPUT connections from the roof. This will enable you to monitor the TOTAL input and output through the Topray controller. It has a 30A capacity and even with an additional 12 to 14A from the portable solar panel, would still be okay. You would need to have an Anderson plug on side of van and cables from it to the existing solar INPUT connections on Topray controller. @Drover's suggestions are easy and you only need to purchase the current measuring device, but that will only measure amps IN (not amps OUT as no load is connected to that line to battery ) for the portable panel and not your total amps in and out for your van. Get back to me for more info if necessary. Cheers.
Did the wiring today, now monitoring load at the TPS and paralleled up the portable solar (sans its own controller) to the TPS solar input along with the rooftop. So far so good, but waiting on an outdoor Anderson for the final solar connection. All large gauge wiring to minimise volt drop (particularly on the portable solar - it came with 5m of 16 AWG which will lose me around 15W?).
You have done well @Fallen!! Glad you were able to follow my instructions and electrical wiring diagram to modify Load through the TPS solar controller. Did you have much difficulty in running the wires from Setec distribution box to Load terminals on TPS controller?? As far as wiring is concerned, cable capable of carrying up to 30A at least should be used between solar controller Input and battery. Also, the length of cable from portable solar panel to controller has a fair bearing on voltage loss, hence the need for heavier cable when length gets up to 10 metres or longer. Remember too, now that Load is via the solar controller, limit this to less than 30A. If running heavy load appliances (inverters etc), these should be connected directly to battery terminals with their own wiring and in-line fuse. Also, the solar controller Low Voltage Disconnect will work much earlier than the Setec (to protect battery) and re-connect the Load again at a different voltage - see specs for TPS. The Setec LVD and LVR will still still cover the whole system including anything wired directly to battery (high load apparatus?) as a last resort. Congrats again.
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Wiring to the TPS from the Setec was fine up to trying to find how the wiring gets from the top of the closet to the back of the TPS (above the fridge, this is a 2015 20.64-1). A bit of drilling and it all worked. Ran 8B&S for load and 6B&S for portable solar.
Volt drop even on 5m of solar cabling can be a fair amount off your panel capacity. I've got circa 6m from TPS to Anderson on the side of the van, so with twin 6 B&s, won't get much loss on that on 300W panels (about 0.3V, or around 4.7 Watts). But if I left the 16B&S on the 5m that came with the panel, that itself would lose 2.64V or up to 41W! So replacing that with 8B&S will bring that down to 6W loss (11W for the total run, worst case).
Good article here as to why you should check what cable comes with your portable solar panels:
Link
And yes, last job is to put the two new batteries in (just checking if the existing 120ah is OK - at Battery World for a full test), then wire the 2000W inverter in using a very short run of 0 B&S direct to the battery (via a 250A breaker).
Volt drop even on 5m of solar cabling can be a fair amount off your panel capacity. I've got circa 6m from TPS to Anderson on the side of the van, so with twin 6 B&s, won't get much loss on that on 300W panels (about 0.3V, or around 4.7 Watts). But if I left the 16B&S on the 5m that came with the panel, that itself would lose 2.64V or up to 41W! So replacing that with 8B&S will bring that down to 6W loss (11W for the total run, worst case).
Good article here as to why you should check what cable comes with your portable solar panels:
Link
And yes, last job is to put the two new batteries in (just checking if the existing 120ah is OK - at Battery World for a full test), then wire the 2000W inverter in using a very short run of 0 B&S direct to the battery (via a 250A breaker).
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Well @Fallen, you appear to be all over it and covering all bases. Sorry if my initial posts were too simplistic for you as I did not know anything about your electrical expertise. The only way to improve system now is to replace TPS controller (a PWM type) with a MPPT controller. You have now become one of the "Tech Heads" on solar and battery management on this forum!! Congratulations.
Just had a read of the Link on your last post - very good and simply explained too. I usually have my multiple portable panels (1 X 180w, and 2 x 200w, each with a working voltage of 18.5 volts and an OCV of 22.5 volts each) up to 30 metres away from van and am not worried about voltage drop with lighter cable. As the MPPT controller can handle up to 100volts, I have all three panels connected in SERIES which gives me up to 56 volts on the input line to solar controller under light load - 48 volts when high charging. If connected in Parallel to controller, I would definitely have to use 6 B&S cable . One of the advantages of having a MPPT controller! Cheers.