Connector not Flex solar panel the cause of problem

[RC Pilot Jim]

About two months ago our Flex Renogy panel started acting up and I thought "Darn" Now I have a bad panel also.

I checked with two of my sources of info, Photo HC and Dr' J. Both advised checking all connections with a voltmeter.

Doing this I discovered the flex panel is working great - producing 19.5 volts 11am - 1pm. Plugging my portable into roof connector gave me an instant 14.5 volts at the solar panel side of the controller. I deduced the "female" part of the SAE connector attached to the panel was not working all the time.

More emailing with Harv resulted in taking out the connector, soldering the two cables together and running them through a small junction box see pics.

If you decide to change out your roof connector,

1. I budgeted 1-2 hours for this job and it took 3
2. Slowest part is unscrewing the sheet metal screws as they are covered with white caulk
3. I used a box cutter to scrape off enough caulk to get my 1/4" socket onto the screw head
4. Mark the positive wires with red tape and do one wire at a time
5. Cut the wires close to the roof connector as there is not a lot of extra in the roof
6 Cover the panel with a blanket to lower the voltage
7 put shrink tube over the soldered part
8. I used one screw to anchor the junction box
9. Tub and tile caulk to seal the bottom

The parts can be bought through Amazon see links,


Junction box

Cable Mounting

You will need to drill 3 holes in the Junction box. Two half inch on two sides and one 1" in the bottom. I used a drill press to get a clean hole.

Finished job looks good and I got rid of the wires that were sticking up in the air.

 

[billharr]

Glad your panel is now working, clean install.

 

[craig333]

I'll just add I must prefer the heat shrink connectors myself.

 

[smlobx]

Very nice fix!

 

[SLEDAWG]

Ran into the same problem. Noticed the voltage drop to zero intermittently off my two flat panels. Turned out to be the MC 4 connector wire to the fitting hadn't been crimped sufficiently. Wind on the wires or movement resulted panels disconnecting. Drove me nuts trying to figure it out. Lesson leaned is to check the crimping on the connectors.

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

we used Photo HC special tape to tape the two halves together but apparently the connection was not perfectly tight and allowed a little wire "wiggle" - just enough to break the connection.

 

[Happyjax]

That folks would be why they invented solder

 

[nikonron]

I would think that FWC would have a more secure connection, maybe a twist lock for better contact and security. Ron

 

[DonC]

I checked my 6 dead panels right at the panel connectors, as did Renogy, and they were dead at the panel connectors

 

[photohc]

Congratulations great detective work!

 

[longhorn1]

Ron, none of these were FWC installed solar panels. These issues were with flex panels bought and installed by the owner of each camper. FWC installs Zamp rigid panels.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Wander The West mobile app

 

[nikonron]

Oh, I thought it was the Zamp plug in that was loose in its socket, my bad. Ron

 

[longhorn1]

Oh, I thought it was the Zamp plug in that was loose in its socket, my bad. Ron

Ron, There is such a wealth of information on this site, that it can be mind boggling at times. jd