Thread: Solar blanket

Most (all) solar regulators need to be hooked up to a battery prior to the panel
You can check the output of panel by placing it in sun not connected to regulator
But as you suspect hook it to a battery then check for output

S

Originally Posted by roverrescue

Most (all) solar regulators need to be hooked up to a battery prior to the panel
You can check the output of panel by placing it in sun not connected to regulator
But as you suspect hook it to a battery then check for output

S

Thanks for that
yes checked the output of the panel itself and in today's nice sunshine it's knocking out 19.2 v
.......when I plug it in to the regulator no current coming out of either the battery lead or the "load" lead so I suspect that's my issue ......got an Anderson plug on the way so when it arrives I'll plug to the battery all should be good then

Tnaks again for that

Originally Posted by landoman

... checked the output of the panel itself and in today's nice sunshine it's knocking out 19.2 v

And when you do connect it to a battery and then start measuring voltage and current, understand the difference between how your solar blanket and your battery interact via PMW or MPPT controllers.

PWM vs. MPPT Charge Controllers - YouTube

Originally Posted by Ferret

And when you do connect it to a battery and then start measuring voltage and current, understand the difference between how your solar blanket and your battery interact via PMW or MPPT controllers.

PWM vs. MPPT Charge Controllers - YouTube

Ok thanks for that

another question ......I want to put a 3-4 meter lead from the regulator to the battery connection .........what is the gauge of wire I should use ...4 gauge or 8 gauge ?

there is a bout a meter of wire from the blanket to the regulator .....another 3-4 meters of wire would give me flexibility where to place the blanket relative to the vechicle and sun

This point has come up on here before; it is far better to have the regulator close to the battery and any significant length of cable between the panel and the reg. You have 19v coming from your panel, say you have 10m of cable from there to the reg, that might give you a voltage drop to (I pluck a figure from the air) say 15v; the reg tunes this to about 14v and delivers that to the battery. If you have the reg close to the panel, the reg gets the full 19v, puts out 14v, you have 10m of cable from there to your battery so your battery gets maybe 12 or 13v.
I use 10 meters of heavy cable with my solar panel so the panel can be in the sun whilst the car is in the shade. The reg is in the car. Works brilliantly.