Melted solar cable set up

[osman]

Ok I’ve had this dokio portable solar panel set up connected to my leisure battery for weeks with no issues until today when driving home the cable must have shorted and started to melt thank god I noticed before the entire van was full of smoke .. I knew the cable was not up to the job as it looked too “toyish” particularly the battery connectors but it seemed fine until today .. .. can anybody enlighten me as to what may have happened ?
I can only guess the cable just got too hot and melted in a small section which then shorted and turned the entire positive cable to go red hot as the entire red cable has melted both from the battery to the controller and then on to the cable that connects the controller to the solar panel the controller unit appears intact but i have not tested it yet . The solar panel was not connected at the time ! So it was simply the power of the leisure battery while being charged by the alternator that caused the cable to melt … my guess is the cable was just not up to the job of being permanently connected to the leisure battery ..

 

[Dellmassive]

nightmare.

was the battery clamps on a battery?

can you get a pic of the red clamp . . . and the fuse near it?


....


that looks like the RED POS has sorted somewhere causing excessive current which has started to burn the cable.

how and where was it installed?

more pics please.

+++

 

[osman]

nightmare.

was the battery clamps on a battery?

can you get a pic of the red clamp . . . and the fuse near it?


....


that looks like the RED POS has sorted somewhere causing excessive current which has started to burn the cable.

how and where was it installed?

more pics please.

+++

The clamps were on my leisure battery under drivers seat .. the battery was fully charged and I was driving… the set up has been fine for a few weeks now including a 1000 mile drive with zero issues .. the red clamp has unsoldered the wire that was connected to it so that’s how hot it must have been and all insulation on that wire is destroyed including the cable from controller to solar panel I would imagine the controller is fried as well although no visible signs of damage .. it’s scared the shit out of me as I had a lot of combustible stuff like jackets and other cables etc etc right above and close to where the wire was about to ignite …
I had and have the full intention of doing a more permanent and FUSED installation but the set up seemed stable enough and I got lazy.. (I get fed up with all the pulling the van apart) there was no supplied fuse just a short cable with the cheap battery clamps that connects to the digital controller .. I felt the cable was too lightweight to be connected like this but no instructions warned about this kind of disaster so I was lulled into a false sense of security ..
next step is to do a far more safe and reliable fused installation and ditch the clamps and cheap cable probably upgrade the solar charge controller as well .

 

[Dellmassive]

This new kit shows the RED battery connection with NO FUSE !!


The number one rule with 12v systems is -- "ALL BATERY CONNECTIONS MUST BE FUSED !"


++++

DOKIO 100W 12V Foldable Solar Panel Kit Monocrystalline with Solar Controller USB Output For Caravan RV Boat Camper Any Other Irregular Surface : Amazon.co.uk: Business, Industry & Science

DOKIO 100W 12V Foldable Solar Panel Kit Monocrystalline with Solar Controller USB Output For Caravan RV Boat Camper Any Other Irregular Surface : Amazon.co.uk: Business, Industry & Science

amzn.to

 

[Dellmassive]

out of interest . . .

you say it was all connected while you was driving . . . where was the panel?

if the battery clamp cable is burned.

and

the solar panel connection is burned . .

then that would indicated a short-circuit in the panel or panel-cable to be able to burn out the un fused cable?


any chance that cable got crushed somewhere?

 

[Dellmassive]

got any pics of the panel itself and panel connection . . .?

right up to the panel itself?

 

[osman]

out of interest . . .

you say it was all connected while you was driving . . . where was the panel?

if the battery clamp cable is burned.

and

the solar panel connection is burned . .

then that would indicated a short-circuit in the panel or panel-cable to be able to burn out the un fused cable?


any chance that cable got crushed somewhere?

The panel is foldable portable and unconnected to the controller at the time . However the panel cable itself was connected to the controller and the controller of course connected to the battery .

 

[osman]

This new kit shows the RED battery connection with NO FUSE !!


The number one rule with 12v systems is -- "ALL BATERY CONNECTIONS MUST BE FUSED !"


++++

DOKIO 100W 12V Foldable Solar Panel Kit Monocrystalline with Solar Controller USB Output For Caravan RV Boat Camper Any Other Irregular Surface : Amazon.co.uk: Business, Industry & Science

DOKIO 100W 12V Foldable Solar Panel Kit Monocrystalline with Solar Controller USB Output For Caravan RV Boat Camper Any Other Irregular Surface : Amazon.co.uk: Business, Industry & Science

amzn.to

View attachment 121509

Yep I was bemused by the innocent thin unfused plasticy battery connection ..

 

[osman]

got any pics of the panel itself and panel connection . . .?

right up to the panel itself?

I can get them on here tomorrow

 

[Dellmassive]

can you do some close ups of that cable. . .

it must have shorted out somewhere along that cable link . .

either to body work or to itself and return to bround via the black clamp?

 

[osman]

So as you’ve pointed out no fused connection was supplied and according to the product features it has all necessary “protection” such as short circuit protection etc
I presume the open tip of the connection to the solar panel is a negative? so I can’t see that it could have caused short circuit by touching metal in the van BUT It’s clearly been fried and it’s that side of the plug that’s melted

 

[Dellmassive]

That may have been the problem.



On a PWM controller it just switches the panel direct to battery.. albeiet pwm.

But most PWM controllers are comon POS and switched NEG.

So potentialy the exposed pin may have been a live battery POS.

You can see it got very hot as its melted..

Maybe look in the van where that end was... to see if you can see an Arc spot... where it touched metal?

 

[osman]

That may have been the problem.

View attachment 121593

On a PWM controller it just switches the panel direct to battery.. albeiet pwm.

But most PWM controllers are comon POS and switched NEG.

So potentialy the exposed pin may have been a live battery POS.

You can see it got very hot as its melted..

Maybe look in the van where that end was... to see if you can see an Arc spot... where it touched metal?

Yes I think this is the answer it could have touched two obvious places .. it’s amazing it had not happened before as I just presumed that pin was negative ! And it was just rolling around in the van as I didn’t want to keep
unplugging the cable from the controller . There was never any noticeable arching when I plugged into the solar panel so presumed this pin was negative it seems crazy that an exposed pin would be positive .

 

[t0mb0]

This has really made me question the received wisdom that you don’t need to fuse the controller-panel cabling.

The solar panel can’t generate enough current to cause an issue but in this case the panel side cabling has somehow gone ‘live’ direct from the battery? Could this potentially happen with a good quality MPPT controller too? I guess given the battery-controller is always be fused which gives protection from the battery side itself maybe this is sufficient protection?

 

[t0mb0]

On this actual product, probably worth posting an Amazon review pointing out that it’s a death-trap-by-design…

 

[osman]

On this actual product, probably worth posting an Amazon review pointing out that it’s a death-trap-by-design…

Agreed !

 

[t0mb0]

Agreed !

Maybe have a go at getting your money back first though! Amazon are pretty good with this sort of thing in my experience.

 

[AussieMick]

I have a 240v battery charger and the lead that is always connected to the positive terminal on the battery is the one that is the open tip like your picture.
Always thought that it should have been the negative one for the same reason as if it touched the frame of van a big current would have been drawn . Mine is fused so would have unnecessarily blown it .

 

[DXX]

If it’s not CE approved I wouldn’t buy it, if it is I would treat it with caution.
When I was working offshore cheap electrical devices were increasingly causing fire safety risks. People using a 1K phone with a £4 charger from Ebay.

 

[osman]

Out of interest using a new cable I’ve verified the controller itself is still working . So it may well have short circuit protection itself as it says on the box but that’s not much cop if your vans burnt down …