Do not use clamps on outdoor battery connections.

softdown

Battery chemistry is still in the realm of sorcery, ouija boards, and palm reading with a sprinkling of astrology. Though I would guess that one "lost" cell will kill a batteries hopes for life in the great beyond past "First Mortality".

Appears that the Morningstar decided that life was futile during my endeavors. I hooked it up to a different string and found no lights at all. Downhill from a light at the panels and no light from the battery connections. Though I have measurements of close to 40 from the panels and 25 from the battery bank.....at the Morningstar connections.

I hooked up the string to the Xantrex C-35 PWM. Remember a host of issues last years? Seems that everybody proffered their best guess....to no avail. This time around the Xantrex happily blinked green. As it should.

With two strings working I swung for the fence. Hooked up the third string to another Xantrex C-35 PWM that I had dug out. Or is it the same Xantrex that troubled me so last year? It flashes green with the panels shut down. Flashes red with the panels hooked up. Reading close to 40 from the panels and 25 from the battery.....at the Xantrex connections. Could this be the same Xantrex that troubled me last year? 50/50 chance of that.

Time to dig out a third Xantrex? Or is there a problem with my panel series? I'll give it a day and see if morning versus afternoon has an impact. It is oriented to the west. Small chance of too much power from four ~165 watt panels. ~660 watts at 40 volts.....is that too much for a Xantrex C-35 24 volt controller? As memory serves, the answer is no.

westbranch

Bill I agree with your assessment.... my main  24V battery was found in mid winter at 8.0 Volts, 18 months ago and is still happy, though it does not peak charge before the depletion... about .1 to .2 Volts lower....  I turned on the gen set and charged for 3 days then left with the Classic getting lots of  sun...   the strange part was that the Classic thought it was now hooked to a 12V battery, cause unknown, had to reload the FW and factory reset to be able to get it to remember the 24V setting...

just my experience, these cells are TOUGH!

BB.

Yes, a near dead battery bank can stop a solar charger from working.

Below 8-9 volts, many charge controllers will not turn on (you may need to jump the batteries with the solar panels or use an a.c. battery battery charger to start the solar charger).

And Many charge controllers think a battery voltage below 18 volts is a 12 volt battery and not charge your 24 or 48 volt battery bank.

- Bill

Lumisol

softdown said:

mcgivor said:

Was wondering where you were, what you were doing and so forth, kind of missed you,  glad to hear about your dreams coming true, so many say what they are going to do, but talk is cheap, money buys the wiskey. I retired at 24 to travel the world on a motorcycle, through Africa, Europe and the Americas, went back to work at 38 and re- retired at 55, not rich by any stretch of the imagination but confortablly settled in the tropics, where I belong. Don't loose sight of your dreams, we're only here once, never die with regrets someone once told me when I was about 17, now a farmer in Thailand  trying to be self sufficient, one of my dreams, and about 70% so far.

During my travels I took the back roads from San Felipe south along the Sea of Cortez, not much happening in the way of marinas but very beautiful, met some American folk at camps along the way but it seemed La Paz was the next real port. This was in 1989 so things may have changed. San Felipe was/is a playground for rich American weekend tourists with over inflated prices but my information is dated.

Often I wonder if perhaps I ran into  @littleharbor2  along the way, it's a small world anything could have happened. Have a great time doing what it is you are planning, best of luck 
 

Traveling the world on a motorcycle takes a free spirit and plenty of courage. It was a very different world at that time. Were you an American at the time? We used to be welcome almost everywhere as we all know. A monstrous government given to pathological bullying and genocide with extreme prejudice has changed all that.

Mexico has suffered from a prolonged psy-ops campaign. The vast majority of the violence is contained in a few areas such as Juarez....if I understood the experienced correctly.

With Japan hosting the next Olympics, I am preparing for an onslaught of anti-Japanese psy-ops. We constantly play the victim card while running roughshod over almost all but the plutocrats with their umbilical cords frequently and firmly attached to the US Treasury. #RoadsAreForProles in America. Half of the highway rest areas are closed, construction zones everywhere with almost no construction happening, and potholes that may separate tire plies.

Thank you for the encouraging words!

The closest I got was travelling throughout Europe on a bicycle for 3 years. It's a lot of fun and I encourage young people to try things like that for a fuller life and appreciation of what we have here at home that the rest of the world lacks and envies.