Heliotrope 30D display went dark

[jacwjames]

I noticed yesterday my Heliotrope 30D display went dark.  I know it was working the day before.

Is there any type of fuse, besides the fused in my electrical bay near the batteries, that could have blown?   I looked at the manual and it does not mention any

I haven't looked at it yet, just looking at what may be wrong other then a complete failure.  

[Ivan K]

I have a picture of the board and don't see a replaceable fuse but a corner of the board is missing from the pic so not totally 100% sure. Since I only have the house output connected at this time and it works, i would check the inline fuse by those connected batteries. I assume this to be power source for the board. Mine still works but I use the adjustable house output to only charge chassis batteries. 

[jacwjames]

I checked both fuses and they are good.

I decided to pull the controller out, there are no fuses on the circuit board.  It looked like one of the main circuit connector pins had gotten hot, I attempted to resolder and put it back together.  The display came back to life with the house side showing the correct voltage but the chassis side only showing +3 volts.  Not sure what's going on there as I'm sure the chassis battery is 13.3 volts.  I guess I can disconnect the chassis side and see if the solar is actually working, the rig is parked in my garage so can't tell now.

So it looks like I'll need to replace the solar controller.  What would be a good recommended replacement.  For now I'm not going to attempt to upgrade my system but will look at installed a better/larger controller.  I have 325 watt solar, max amps I'd ever seen was ~16 amps. 

[Ivan K]

Since you have the Victron display, you could probably use the same app for any of their smart chargers.  I got their 150v/70 amp controller with theoretical 1000W panel bank right now so I can run more of them in series using the existing 8ga wires down to the basement. Never seen more than ~600W at the controler though. Usually that gets us through the day fine with generator only for the coffeemaker and microwave, with propane fridge at this time.

[jacwjames]

Thanks Ivan, this controller will only charge the house batteries correct, that is why you do something different for chassis.   Good point on the Victron and blue tooth capability, now that I finally got mine working it might make sense to go that route. 

Can you explain how you could run the panels in series and still use the 8 awg wire??    I know if you go to a higher voltage you can use smaller wire. 

 

My controller is mounted over the passenger seat, so it's about 35 ft to the battery compartment.  Most I ever saw was ~16 amp with my solar panels, full sun high noon.  Might be time to revamp the panels.

 

 

[Ivan K]

So I looked up one of my 12v panel's test sheet: roughly 24Voc and 11 amps, rounded up, is 264W. I will of course never see close to that like in a lab setting but let's just go with that. 4 identical panel's in series could produce 96V at 11 amps. The 8ga will easily carry 11 amps (rated to 40). No doubt there is loss with a distance and the series configuration has some negatives as well but it lets me reuse the existing leads. Snapshot of the controller screen below, it manipulates the voltage and amps as it sees fit. I don't claim to understand all of it.

[Old Dog]

Going series/parallel (if you have an even number of panels) from panels to controller will allow for smaller conductor or longer distances but you may want to use this opportunity to get the controller much closer to the batteries. Most factory installed systems are restricted in efficiency by this error.

[Ivan K]

19 minutes ago, Old Dog said:

Going series/parallel (if you have an even number of panels) from panels to controller will allow for smaller conductor or longer distances but you may want to use this opportunity to get the controller much closer to the batteries. Most factory installed systems are restricted in efficiency by this error.

Exactly why my new controller is in the basement and connected to fat inverter cables. My old controller is mid ship above fridge and the original house battery cables to it are now terminated to a switch to be able to disconnect solar panels. Very little new wiring, even the battery temp sensor for controller is wireless.

[jacwjames]

OK, understand now, makes sense. 

I'm going to do some more testing on my controller, to see if the controller is actually working.  If it is, even if it is for the house batteries, it will give me some time to figure out what I need/want to do. 

 

Thanks for the info. 

[jacwjames]

Well I was able (I think) able to get the display to work. 

One thing that happen with me taking it in and out to check, with the heavy 8 awg wires attached there was a lot of pressure on the terminal block soldered to the PC board and it broke loose,  IMHO, it must not have been soldered very good.  I had electric soldering gun but it didn't want to get the job done so I went to Lowes and bought a small Bensomatic torch with tips.  I redrilled the pin holes the terminal block mated to so they were fully seated and then used the new torch to solder the pins back in place.  The new torch made quick work of it and it seems more secure when I was done.  Put the panel back in place but was still not getting accurate reading on chassis battery voltage but previous to this I had removed the battery terminal to install the sense wire for the Victron BMV 712 so I thought I'd check that.  It fixed the problem both chassis and house are showing 13.4 volts on the display,  For now I'll assume the solar charger portion is working, I'll be moving the coach in the next day or two to do an oil change and lube so I'll pull it when the sun is shining to confirm. 

So this problem for now appears to be solved.

FWIW, when I was doing searches I found the Bluesky makes a direct replacement for the Heliothorpe, I found one for. $140 so I may go that route if needed until I decide long term if I want to do a solar upgrade.  Not sure if this unit has the dual output house/chassis but I don't see that as a problem.