solar panel volts no amps

Panel to controller - controller to battery.

All wired up.

Am I missing something...obviously

Michael

Thanks for your reply Sand Man. Get your drift, but the panel is wired up to the controller then to the battery. Turned lights on in trailer to get some load on the battery.

Michael

Thanks for all the advice on this matter. Put a lamp across the panel as suggested and it light up just fine.

Ran my pc and lights for an hour or so to run down the battery a little. Connected up the panel, sunny with a tiny bit of haze.Turned the pc and lights off and connected panel to controller. Controller showed around 14v but no amps. After a while I actually got 0.4 amps of charge. As soon as I turned on one of the lights the amperage dropped back to 0.

Is this just about the fact that the battery has too much charge in it still? although I would have thought that if the battery is not fully charged that it would still charge it at a rate of more than .4 of an amp.

No sun today.

Am I being impatient and should not worry about this till battery is much lower?

Going north for 3 weeks in 3 weeks so would like to feel that it is working properly b4 I go. Getting good sunny days in Winter might be an issue here in Vic. for a lot of testing.

Michael

Michael,
To clarify some of your questions 'click' on the words "my Profile" below here.

Some of the pictures shown there will answer the questions your asking!

This pic shows the AGM's are . . 13.1 volt
the solar system is collecting . . 4.9 amp
AGM's are being DRAINED @ . . 3.1 amp
( obviously fridge is drawing 8 amp )

Image Could Not Be FoundMaîneÿ . . .

Thanks for all the interesting info Mainey.

The only I don'r understand now is, with all 12v accessories off and all input from the panel going into the battery why would the amperage only be 0.4 of an amp ?

Michael

Michael,
Look at this picture, from the 'my profile' the ~200 Watt Solar system is actually producing 11.8 Amps, but is only allowing 3.3 Amps into the AGM's.

The Steca Solar *regulator* is doing what it should, reducing the Amps to the AGM's because they are approaching 100% SOC.


Image Could Not Be Found

Bugga, screwed that up, it shows 11.9 Amps (not the 11.8 Amps I posted)
SOC = State Of Charge

The 13.8 Volts is only the charging Voltage, not the true 'rested' battery Voltage.
Trickle charge is usually @ ~13.6v so has a wee bit to go, then the Amps going into the AGM's will be Zero because the Steca is doing it's job correctly.

Maîneÿ . . .

Thanks Mainey, Yes I understand the concept it's just that amperage of less than half an amp must mean it's basically fully charged. Yes?

Michael

in just one simplistic word -> "yes"

When the Voltage is in the vicinity of ~14v and next to no (zero) Amps going into the battery (when the Solar system is registering some Amps) you can be assured it's as close to 'fully charged' as it will ever be, as is shown on some of my pics on "my profile" shows it more clearly when more fully understood.

Maîneÿ . . .