What did you do to your rig today?

[Vik351]

What diff...???







Not a good comparison , #1 pic arvo,#2 pic morning... will take a arvo pic in the arvo ...

vik...

[BernieQ2]

Bruce I was told to take the Gel's to 14v , just checked with multimeter reads the same as controller 13.2 at the moment will put a pic up later with the two in shot . It is a good multimeter .
Don't have a clamp meter Jon .
Thanks for the questions/answers so far .
Bernie .

[BruceS]

New roof Vik? (or new quarter round at least!)

[Vik351]

New roof Vik? (or new quarter round at least!)

New tunt mate...!!!

Hense it changed the colour of the quad...

vik...

[BillieBlue]

New roof Vik? (or new quarter round at least!)

New tunt mate...!!!

Hense it changed the colour of the quad...

vik...

Hey Vik ,from the outside ,can you see inside the home .

[BernieQ2]

This was at 11.30am Vic time .
Sorry about bad pics don't have enough or long arms .
20.4 amps coming in .
Bernie .

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[Vik351]

New roof Vik? (or new quarter round at least!)

New tunt mate...!!!

Hense it changed the colour of the quad...

vik...

Hey Vik ,from the outside ,can you see inside the home .

Nup Georgie...

I said to the tinter ,I said Maaatee I said ,I want the darkest tint ya got for the humpy,and legal for the cab I said...

He said I got roos in me top paddock FFS...!!!

The real dark is real dark and it's too dark so 1/2 the time ya would need lights on he said...

So did what he reckoned and am now happy as a pig in... Thought it coulda bin a touch darker...BUT put the screens back. plenty dark...

vik...

[Vik351]

close ups... cant get further away...










vik...

[T1 Terry]

Hi all , problem with my batteries and or controller ?
Over the last few days my batteries have not got to 14.2/4 as normal , has been struggling to reach 13.5 . The day before yesterday in the evening I disconnected the batteries AND the solar (done at the solar controller ) input to see if I had a reverse power going on I also removed all the fuses to everything else, the batteries done the same no change , yesterday morning I reinstalled all the wires at the controller. The batteries went to 14.4 by 1pm Vic time and are at 12.5 at 5am this morning and we did watch 2.5 hours of telly last night. Was there a hiccup with the controller (Tracer) or the batteries (480amp Gel ) are they on the way out ?? The only thing running over night is the inverter and fridge .
Its confusing to see 100%soc then straight down to 50% as the sun drops ? I must add we have been in full sunlight for the last month and I have cleaned the panels (600w) also to eliminate them .
Answers?
Bernie .

First issue, not getting above 13.5v, a controller problem, stuck in float mode. A known Tracer problem and a hint there are more problems coming, like forgetting to restart charging at all once a charge stage has been reached resulting in flat batteries.
Forget about what the Tracer SOC meter says, it is nonsense and makes its assumption based on voltage only. You need a meter that measures how much goes in and how much goes out and can have the inefficiencies adjusted so they are programmed into the equation before giving you a reading. The Victron BMV range is probably the best about at the moment, the latest 712 also has Bluetooth so you can read it on a smart phone and I think receive alarm warning that way if something goes outside the parameters you set.

You will know just what condition your battery bank is in once you get accurate readings, a 50% SOC reading should mean half of the advertised capacity has been used and the battery voltage under a light load and no charging should be around the 12v mark.
For instance, if you started at 100% SOC after the battery has been in float for a number of hrs, have used 200Ah over night and the battery voltage under a light load no charging is 12v, the real capacity is 400Ah no matter what the advertised capacity was when they were new. If you only used 100Ah and still see 12v in the morning with no charging occurring, then try putting the batteries on a mains charger for 24hrs to make sure they really did reach 100% and try again. If you still get the same result the batteries are just about stuffed as far as they will not supply the loads you expect to use on a regular basis for much longer. Probably still enough life for those that only use one light at a time and go to bed at sun down, but then they wouldn't be carting around 480Ah of battery would they

T1 Terry

[BernieQ2]

Terry we have a 230 lt 240v fridge running 24/7 thr a 2000w inverter. The only other is the 12v water pump plus one or two hours of tv sometimes .
All lightning is LED. Usually at around 4.30 when I get up its around the 12.4/5 I can live with that in qld but Tassie may be different .what's a cheap controller worth?
Bernie.