Solar battery charger wiring.

[Jones]

OK, OK... two wires; one red, one black-- how hard can wiring one be, right?

Solar chargers; from the battery maintainers like Solargizers to the full-blown solar battery charger panels have two wires, one for the pos and one for the neg battery terminals.
My question is: Is there a reason to run both leads to the battery or could you get the same results by running the neg to the nearest ground and the pos to the battery pos post or a pos always hot terminal in the vehicle's wiring.

This panel was scrapped because it doesn't meet the current solar panel efficiency rating requirements.
It's a good, fully functional 12 vdc, 10 amp (120 watt) unit complete with it's own voltage regulator.
Who says "Going Green" doesn't have it's benefits.
I bent up some mounting brackets and am getting it installed on the baby HEMTT.
I may not be able to drive the baby HEMTT right now but with this set-up, I can sure see to it that the batteries won't go dead.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Where have you been hiding Mr Jones? There have been no pics of the truck since forever until today. Hope all is well over there on the left coast.

 

[Jones]

Hello Kenny,

Been doing patient advocate work for a cancer patient who has seen about every turn of bad luck you could imagine,
Also battling a little medical problem of my own. (When you're a complete a$$hole, the doctors are never sure where to start, or stop, cutting).
I'm on the mend now but still moving kinda slow. 15 pound lifting restriction crimps my style too. Heck, one of my boots weighs that much.

Been doing some machinist jobs in exchange for help in getting the air brake stuff set up and plumbed. Swapping some sheet metal fabrication work with another guy who is helping with the routing and securing of the wiring harnesses. I've been getting others to help "bail me out" in getting the project moving again and bartering work is sure making that easier to swallow.
Even wrestled with selling off the baby HEMTT when I stopped seeing any forward progress but now I'm back to dreams of terrorizing H-1, 2, and 3 owners in Walmart parking lots... and mapping out which drive-through awnings I can fit under.
Good to hear again the screams of villagers and shouts of "Hide the women and the silverware-- Jones is back".

 

[cucv1833]

OK, OK... two wires; one red, one black-- how hard can wiring one be, right?

Solar chargers; from the battery maintainers like Solargizers to the full-blown solar battery charger panels have two wires, one for the pos and one for the neg battery terminals.
My question is: Is there a reason to run both leads to the battery or could you get the same results by running the neg to the nearest ground and the pos to the battery pos post or a pos always hot terminal in the vehicle's wiring.

.

I runa solar panel on my camper and have a solargizer on my CUCV. I ran the wires directly to the battery post.

The neg. to nearest ground may work but just check with a meter. I would think it would be OK.

But possible have a small votage drop depending of distance??

 

[southbreeze]

With 10 amps, you need some kind of float controller or you'll boil the water out of your batteries. You only need a small trickle to "tickle" the plates and keep the batt's hot.

That'll be great for running a 12v fridge/coffemaker/and a laptop off of.....but not just maintaining batteries.

Anything that sit's will develop corrosion from some effect, dissimilar metals, electrolytic, etc. So, the more connections of body pieces between the solar panel and the battery/frame connection will cause an ever increasing resistance. every day that value will increase. You'd be best served to run both wires to the battery, IMHO.

I'm not trying to be a twit, but I don't know what you know. Please don't take this as I'm talking down to you, it's not meant that way.

Good luck with it,
Breeze

 

[southbreeze]

Hey Jones,

I found this link for some good gear. Powerfilm Solar makes some high end gear. You'll note the GM weatherpack connectors on both end of the controller, if you'll do the matching thing with your cables; that'll be one less set of connections to have to worry about "greening" up on you.

Amazon.com: PowerFilm RA-9 Charge Controller: Electronics

Hope it helps out,
Breeze

 

[rogersn67]

You are oin to want a care controller, but make sure you get one rated at minimum 12 amps, the panels have a nominal rating, and in direct sun, could surpass that rated power. I usually look for a 20% higher rating than the panel just to be safe, or the panel can burn out the controller.

 

[islandguydon]

Your solar panel has 2 wires going to the solar charge controller. The charge controller has 2 wires + & - hook up to the battery accordingly, If the charge controller has a diversion load send it to a block heater, 1 wire usually purple. A diversion load is good. The charge controller will keep the 12v battery at 13.5vdc constant, once battery is full and can not take any more the diversion load kicks in at 13.6vdc this keeps the block warm which is good and secondly the battery's will not overcharge and boil out. The diversion load is important if the option is there. Good thread.

 

[Jones]

Thanks guys. All good points; especially about going direct to the batteries. I've got dedicated ground cables between cab and frame, bed and frame, engine and frame, t-case and frame as well as both axles to frame but you're right, it's still better to go direct when possible.

When i dug the panel out of the dumpster I hooked up my VOM to see if it worked at all. With nothing but my VOM connected to the output leads, the panel puts out a steady 14.2 vdc. There is a pair of terminal strips inside the controller with multiple connections from panel to controller to voltage regulator. The two lead wires for the batteries are marked Batt + and Batt -.
I see no reason to mess with the internal hook-ups 1. 'cause I don't know what I'm doing and 2. 'cause it seems to be working just fine the way it is.
I have no way of testing for amp output but now that it's hooked to two 12 volt batteries (batteries wired in parallel) the VOM will drop as low as 13.45 vdc then rise to 13.8 vdc at the batteries and level off. That it's working is also indicated by the charge light cycling on and off on the panel's voltage regulator.
Once the panel has been in the sun for an hour or so, the charge light stays off and the batteries sit at a steady 13.48 volts. Based on this, I'm pretty sure the panel is doing it's job as intended. From what I can gather, this was for starting battery charging on a remote genset.

 

[southbreeze]

Sweet! you didn't happen to dig two of those out of that dumpster did ya?

That's a sweet deal at the right price and I have to remember to come dumpster diving with you!

 

[Jones]

Sorry Breeze, I guarantee you I looked. And now I'm watching for them.
I'm surprised it made it as far as the dumpster; usually someone upstream spots goodies like this first.

 

[xiaoneitie]

Has anyone tried this solar charger?

I see this solar powered battery charger on Suntekstore, but are there any other better options? Like waterproof or made more specifically for our IncS with micro-usb. Pink Solar Battery Panel USB Charger with Flashlight for Cell Phone MP3 PDA-UK Standard - Free Shipping

 

[cranetruck]

Welcome back Leonard! Fantastic find and good to know that it ended up in capable hands.
Hoping that you'll be making a full recovery,

 

[hatzie]

Your solar panel has 2 wires going to the solar charge controller. The charge controller has 2 wires + & - hook up to the battery accordingly, If the charge controller has a diversion load send it to a block heater, 1 wire usually purple. A diversion load is good. The charge controller will keep the 12v battery at 13.5vdc constant, once battery is full and can not take any more the diversion load kicks in at 13.6vdc this keeps the block warm which is good and secondly the battery's will not overcharge and boil out. The diversion load is important if the option is there. Good thread.

Could I use a regular 120v AC block heater element for diversion load or is there a 24v DC variant?

 

[Jones]

Depends on how much resistance the heater element can provide. I'd think the closer to the system voltage, the more the resistance would act as a good dump for the over current. The whole secret is to give that current something to do in order to expend itself; be it lighting a light, feeding a heating element, running a fan.

 

[jacques1]

OK, OK... two wires; one red, one black-- how hard can wiring one be, right?

Solar chargers; from the battery maintainers like Solargizers to the full-blown solar battery charger panels have two wires, one for the pos and one for the neg battery terminals.
My question is: Is there a reason to run both leads to the battery or could you get the same results by running the neg to the nearest ground and the pos to the battery pos post or a pos always hot terminal in the vehicle's wiring.

This panel was scrapped because it doesn't meet the current solar panel efficiency rating requirements.
It's a good, fully functional 12 vdc, 10 amp (120 watt) unit complete with it's own voltage regulator.
Who says "Going Green" doesn't have it's benefits.
I bent up some mounting brackets and am getting it installed on the baby HEMTT.
I may not be able to drive the baby HEMTT right now but with this set-up, I can sure see to it that the batteries won't go dead.

Seems that your solar panel has 2 wires going to the solar charge controller. The charge controller has 2 wires + & - hook up to the battery accordingly. The charge controller will keep the 12v battery at 13.5vdc constant, once battery is full and can not take any more the diversion load kicks in at 13.6vdc this keeps the block warm which is good.