Solar charger

[Dan Murphy]

I don't think my solar charger is working. There is no display on the remote meter and there are no lights of any kind on the solar controller in the bay.
I checked both fuses in the curbside elect bay and they are good.
Even with both battery switches in off position and no power to the coach should I still not have the solar charger working??

No trouble until recently I was monitoring the batteries and they were staying around 12.1 or better but Friday they went down to 11.7and I ran the genie to charge up. Now they read 12.1 after 2 days and I notice thee is no reading from the solar monitor.
Where would I look to see what is wrong?

[Joel Ashley]

Regrettably I can't answer all your questions, Dan, except that you should have solar input even with your Master Switches off.  My coach sits by my house that way and my Magnum inverter panel shows batteries at 13.2 volts except on the very dark, stormiest days.  I rarely have occasion to plug into my 30amp RV outlet because of that, and my bats are original factory ones, 8 years old.

I am surprised you found fuses in your electric bay, since presumably there should be one on or near the solar controller;  even BCS couldn't find that one for me when I asked a few years ago.  Just about everything in the electric bay is on circuit breakers, not fuses, and no solar ones are on my bay's legend.

There should at a small green lamp glowing on the controller's visible circuit board if all is well.  I presume nothing has befallen the roof wires and the panel isn't obstructed, covered, or radically dirty in any way.  I guess I'd check for that elusive but fabled fuse on the controller circuit board or perhaps inline nearby;  yours may be more obvious than mine.  And check that wires large and small, positive and ground are all cleanly mounted to your battery posts.

Joel

[Dan Murphy]

Thanks Joel. I thought it may not be working and it has no lights displayed at all. I found the two fuses by reading the Beaver Manual but they both tested fine.Both fuses were in the rear elect bay where the main cut offs are located. The solar panel is unobstructed and clean so there is some other malfunction someplace.
This problem has just shown up recently because the Beaver is parked beside the house and we have not plugged it in since coming home in April but all of a sudden the batts are losing their charge and I have to start the Jenny since I don't have power available to the coach yet.
Up till now I would just run the jenny till the panel said absorb and the leg the solar panel do the rest.
I guess I will need to find a good solar mechanic to helpme.

[Jeremy Parrett]

Fuse is on the top of the solar controller in openside basement bay

[Dan Murphy]

Jeremy I believe I have found the solar controller on my coach on the ceiling of the wet bay behind the partition that leads to one of the sliding tray compartments. It is har to read but I think it says Sun Duo. Do you think there is a fuse on this controller or inside it??

[Dan Murphy]

Well I emailed Morningstar and the tech said the controller needed batt power to operate. As soon as I turned on the main switches the controller came alive.
I was sure as others were that the solar would provide charging to the batts even if the main disconnects were turned off.

Dan

[Joel Ashley]

My controller is made by Heliotrope.  My main battery switches are both off.  The green "float" lamp is lit on the controller.  It keeps the battery bank charged.  Most of our rigs operate that way, so I'm not sure why yours does not.

You might check with Monaco or BCS for further input, Dan.  I would not write this off as an acceptable configuration.

Joel

[Dan Murphy]

Joel
I am scheduled for some service work at the factory in Decautur IN on June 30 and I intend to ask them about it.
I have been reading Handy Bobs blog on solar power and it has sure raised a lot of questions about the solar panels,controller,etc.

[Jerry Emert]

I see this is an old thread. I found while it while searching for the location of the solar controller or other gadgets that make the solar work.  The wires from the panel on the roof are hidden under the panel so I really don't want to mess with that.  
I'm trying figure out if the solar is working.  The Aladdin says it is generating 19 volts but I do not see any current.  I found a box labled solar in the electrical bay attached to the board that screws in by the black/grey tanks with a lot of other sensor type boxes.  There is no voltage on  either side of this box.  The box says Heliotrop (I'm sure I mangled that word).  So long winded question bottom line, where is the controller or was that it?  Thanks

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Jerry,
Have the coach in the sunlight and check the voltage on the house batteries. If they are charged, the voltage across them should be about what you are reading on the Aladdin. You won't see much current as the solar cells are very limited in what they can deliver. I had a similar concern about a year ago re the high voltage.
Steve

[Joel Ashley]

To answer your bottom line question, the Heliotrope box in the waste tank bay should be your controller, Jerry.  On mine there is a green lamp on the end of the visible circuit board that's lit when solar input is active.  Most of my Alladin modules are also in that bay.

It's been awhile since I used the Alladin to monitor solar, so I'm a bit dim in that department, and I don't know exactly where in the circuit that the Alladin would be getting the voltage from.  I'd presume voltage at the panel doesn't mean much and varies with the sun.  Current to the batteries would depend on their demand, so if fully charged I'd expect little if any amp reading as long as no devices are on or the main switches are off.  If you sense no voltage with a meter at the controller at all, which is where I'd expect to find an Alladin sensor, and no lamps are lit on the Heliotrope, then perhaps something's awry.  Supposedly there's a fuse in the circuit, but I haven't found mine.  As Steve alludes to, if there is much demand there's a very limited amount of amps a solar panel can supply.

Joel

[Jerry Emert]

Thank you everyone!  I'll go looking again.  I seem to have a leak around there somewhere.  Only when water pump is on so far but haven't been hooked to city water in awhile so not sure.  So I can kill 2 birds with one stone.  Here is a pic just because!  Water not coming from visible pipes.
Jerry

[Terry Melot]

Jerry, you said that you did not have shore power yet.  You can get an adapter for your 50 amp plug that you can plug into any 120 volt outlet. Just make sure everything that could draw more than a total of 15 amps is turned off.  But you will have plenty of power to keep the batteries charged.