Me too to be honest, but it would have been nice to have both
My Roof Might Be Crap But The Solar Panel Is Ace
- Thread starter Deaky
- Start date
@Deaky or @andys or @travelvolts - im only just getting round to cabling up my panel... i know im slow but baby stops play and here winter means working on the van is ny impossible (no garage..)..
When i cable everything up, im assuming i disconnect the leisure battery, but what do i connect up last?! can i disconnect battery, plug the panel cables together and then attach the battery and all will be well? thanks in advance!
oh and earth cable from the victron - what size? i have a spare i think 6mm^2
When i cable everything up, im assuming i disconnect the leisure battery, but what do i connect up last?! can i disconnect battery, plug the panel cables together and then attach the battery and all will be well? thanks in advance!
oh and earth cable from the victron - what size? i have a spare i think 6mm^2
The other two on that list are the ones who know what they're doing, I just play it by ear, but the last connection I made was to the positive of the leisure battery. I have an earth shunt for my control system under the driver seat next to the battery and I connected the earth to this with a 4mm2 offcut of silicone cable. Very happy with setup but I do regret going through the canvas and the first job of the spring is going to be finding an alternative way and get the canvas made good.
No it seemed a good idea at the time and I've had no problems with it, but I'm probably going to sell it this year and one person I know who often buys and sells campervans didn't like the look of it and said it would put some buyers off as it was an unusual way of doing it.
Don't think it matters what order you connect them up, probably best practice to connect the -ve to the battery last.
Not sure what Victron your on about maybe your solar controller? Mine is a 75/15 so max output is 15amps. As the cable run from my controller to the battery is about 30cm I think I used 4mm cable. The earth feed should be at least the same diameter. If you have 6mm cable then there is no harm in using that.
The Victron Smart Solar MPPT controller (MPPT-75-10-75-15-100-15-100-20) instructions state:
3.4 Cable connection sequence (see figure 4 at the end of this manual)
First: connect the cables to the load, but ensure that all loads are switched off.
Second: connect the battery (this will allow the controller to recognize system voltage).
Third: connect the solar array (when connected with reverse polarity, the controller will heat
up but will not charge the the battery).
The system is now ready for use.
3.4 Cable connection sequence (see figure 4 at the end of this manual)
First: connect the cables to the load, but ensure that all loads are switched off.
Second: connect the battery (this will allow the controller to recognize system voltage).
Third: connect the solar array (when connected with reverse polarity, the controller will heat
up but will not charge the the battery).
The system is now ready for use.
