I found a way around the problem with the controller not charging up after shutting down. Here's the problem, briefly stated. The controller is designed to stop charging after the battery is charged. The battery comes with a preset voltage, but is adjustable. I decided to adjust it because it was too low. That part of it works. The higher voltage will be reached, and then it shuts off. Good, so far. The trouble comes when it is time to charge again. As the battery is being used during the day, it discharges. If the controller won't come back on, the battery will be drained until it has to shut off.
So why doesn't it come back on? That one I cannot answer. What I do know is that I can switch off the panels with the switch I have, and then switch them back on, and then it works as it should. That's the workaround. However, it is not optimal. The optimal thing would be for it to come back on automatically like it is supposed to do.
So much for the controller. There is still a problem with the inverter shutting off for no apparent reason. I've checked for connections, and heat issues, but it doesn't seem to change anything. Since the controller is a bit squirelly, I am suspecting that the inverter is also a bit squirelly. Nevertheless, I will continue to look for possible issues and try to find a workaround. But it gets tiresome to have to monitor it all the time to see that it works properly. This is not an optimal situation.
The shakedown continues, and here I am thinking that I've ironed out all the bugs. More stuff will be arriving before too long, and these issues just won't get resolved.
I'm not an electrician nor a carpenter. But sometimes I like banging on nails more than trying to figure out these squirrelly machines.
When you try stuff like this off-grid project, you have to wear many hats. If you are off-grid, there may not be any repairmen handy. It's all up to you. That might be a bit sobering once you consider all the implications of it. Your butt could be on the line, and there's nobody but you to deal with it.
Well, I've come this far. Might as well keep on. Anyway, I'm not way out in the desert, so there's still a backup plan. This is all a big rehearsal for a play that won't get played anyway. All the same, I am preparing for it as if it is going to be.
Because there may be no better option.
The original post follows below:
Off-grid post, update on 5-29-22 post
The problems I was having were partly on me. It looks like I got lazy, and I didn't want to look to see if I had the kind of spade-type connectors that had heat-shrinking plastic insulators on them. I thought I was out. But I had enough to replace the ones that I tried to use, which were those I was complaining about. That beef was accurate. I need not have put myself through the annoyance of using something I knew wouldn't work worth a damn.
So now I've got connectors that are securely on the wires, and the wires are surely connected to the charge controller. There are still connectors of the bad type on this project, and that's definitely the number one issue that I'm having right now.
The only way to work with the hard plastic ones that won't heat-shrink may be to put a heat-shrink on top of it. That assumes that the heat-shrink plastic will adhere to the hard plastic. I used some solder on the things too, but that isn't always strong enough either. Perhaps in combination with solder, I will get a reliable connection that won't fall apart. That's a long way down the road to get to this destination.
As for the rest of the complaints, they remain valid until disproven otherwise. One of them is still valid. The display is definitely washed out. It doesn't work for me because I need a good view in order to see the thing. That's because the place I wanted to keep it is out of the way, and therefore hard to see. A poor display makes it darn near impossible. The solution was to bring it out in the open where I can get a better look. The trouble with that is one of tight space. It is now in the way of everything as opposed to being out of the way. I have to be more careful about running into it and so forth. A better display would have eliminated this annoyance.
As for the performance, it hasn't been evaluated yet. No reason to expect what happened yesterday, but the day is just getting started. We'll see.
The original post follows below:
The charge controller came, and is now installed. It is not the same as the other, and that is good, but not all good. In fact, some of the features of the other is better than this one. Can anybody make one of these that work?!
The connectors on the controller side are better. That was a factor in the purchase of this particular controller. It came with spade-type connectors, which attach to the wires. That's a good idea, but that's where the good part of this is not so good. If the plastic insulator over the forked-like "spade" connector was the heat-shrinking kind, it would be perfect. Those can secure solidly with the wire. Crimping down on the wire, and having nothing else to secure it, eventually leads to faulty connections. One definite baddie for this purchase.
Another baddie is one that I'm not sure is a baddie, or it might be a fault that lies elsewhere. The problem is that the charging is not keeping up with the discharging. This is unbelievable, since there are two solar panels, and there's only one thing discharging it. That shouldn't be discharging the battery. But there it is. If a certain amount of discharge is to be expected in all cases, then the thing isn't at fault. It could be the way it is supposed to work. But it is still a fault somewhere, if not the controller itself. A two hundred watt system should be able to power less than 200 watts of load without running down the battery. At least I would think so.
Something has got to be wrong here because I cannot accept such poor performance. It is quite possible that there's a loose connection somewhere. That's what I think has happened with the inverter. I tightened up a connection, and now I'll see if it will work without cutting off. It's been running for several hours now. No problems yet for that issue. Maybe I solved that issue that has been a mystery for awhile now.
Another baddie is the display. It is washed out and hard to read. Add an interface that is pretty sparse, and not very user-friendly, and you've got something that is a lot harder to use than it should be. At least the display should be brighter. If there's a weak connection causing that, then it's on me. Otherwise, it is another fault for this thing.
So it is a very slow slog through this project. It began way back in February. I took delivery on the battery in late February while the weather was still cold. Here it is, almost June, and I'm still screwing around with this thing.
I'm still expecting a battery, bms, and solar panel. If I can get this completed, it will be a 400 watt system. Presumably, it should be able to run a less than 100 watt device without running down the friggin' battery.
If it sounds frustrating, it is. Still discharging. It started at 27 volts and is now at 25.2 volts. It is a sunny day. Something's gotta be wrong here. When, or if, I get it figured out, I'll post on it. That's all for now.
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