Solar charging

[mudski]

Hey me again. I decided to get out the panels yesty and use them to charge up a couple of batteries. One thing I noticed on the controller that the charge light never came on and the load light was on. Then, I unplugged everything, folded the panels up and took it into the garage and about an hour later I noticed the charge light on the controller was glowing. Not even it sun light and not even connected to a battery. Was gives there?
I have only used these once before and even then I was suspicious that they were not working but I just put it down to not enough sun. So I am keen to work this out.
Heres a pic of the glowing charge light on the controller, the specs on the back of the panel and the leads supplied with the panels. I also have ordered the Steca controller too. Just the cable to get, and some connectors.

Thanks.

[Waza]

Very interesting stuff here !
Now I'm even more torn between solar or a generator, but I like it ;-)

[mudski]

Waza, both have their pro's and cons. Solar's pro it that its quiet, its con is that if there no sun it almost next to useless. A gennie does make noise, the more you spend the quieter they get, but I have seen $500 gennies that I wouldn't use as they still made too much noise for my liking. Don't ever buy the real cheap Ebay/ Aldi two stroke ones. They are real noisy. But gennies give you constant supply on demand.
With Solar though, you have a battery pack so you use the power from that anyways and depending on what your running and how long for it wont need a charge until you get home.
We went three days running an Engel and two, one metre long LED strip lights on a 105AH deep cycle battery. Battery only dropped 1.2v in that time.

[healy]

Should I keep the alligator clips or put Anderson plug on?

[threedogs]

Flouro lights will work your panel, does it have a blocking diode???
Anderson plug
Just back from Murray 3 nights very , very humid never ran out of battery, but never used solar to top up as well.
Get quality equipment that wont fail. work out your power needs etc, make sure you chase the sun during the day. 100-115 AH battery would be tops for most 4x4ers.
start to get real heavy after that.
80 watt panel will return 4.5 amps an hour under ideal conditions, sunny

[lorrieandjas]

Should I keep the alligator clips or put Anderson plug on?

Anderson plugs all the way!

[mudski]

Flouro lights will work your panel, does it have a blocking diode???

If your asking me TD thats a pic of one panel of three in total. Blocking diode? Don't even know what it is... I'm going to get some heavier cable too as the current cable is as thick as brickies string.
As for soldering Anderson plugs, they'll have to be sweat soldered. Would a butane torch bet enough to do this?

[threedogs]

Meds kicking in I now know what Bob was about. Crimp then use butane torch then shink wrap on anderson pins.
Cuppa has a write up on cable size. Cuppa's has like jumper lead size, his are not but you'll get what I mean.
A blocking diode will stop the battery leaking power out of your panel overnigh , but a decent reg would do the same thing'
IMO 6mm cable would be heaps as your panel will be 17- 30 volts tops
You'll only need smaller plug not the large anderson ones
What do you need 3 panels and what size please for, sounds like overkill to me

[mudski]

Thats how it came, three panels that fold up. I was actually thinking of separating the three so I could use one, two or three, at any time. Kind of piggy back them when I need it.

[threedogs]

What size,or how many watts are 3 x panel. I'll do some maths, what do you require to run. This weekend hot right, right Supplied lighting every night via two led, out of an 18 AH motor bike size battery. Engel kept food cold and a doz can after we forgot ice that we paid for. So had to chill them down. Never even looked liked using a panel. Would have needed if staying a day or too longer. Guys here use way too many panels etc, you could light a city