RC Pilot Jim
Senior Member
I ordered a Trimetric Tuesday morning.
Yes,DrJ said:I have found the following with my trimetric readings:
4 lights - anything above 12.4 volts
3 lights 11.9-12.3 volts
2 lights 11.8 or lower
1 light - I've never discharged the battery below 11.8 to find out
Has anyone else with a volt meter had similar data?
Just watched a video on the TrimetricRC Pilot Jim said:I ordered a Trimetric Tuesday morning.
What is the charging amp rate while driving? Just curious, because I had this discussion with FWC a year ago and I was told that the truck will recharge at the rate of 1 amp/hr and that my 80 watt solar panel recharges at 4.7 amp/hr. This seems correct, as sometimes after a long day of driving (with my Dometic 110 frig on) I still show up at a camp site with only 3 lights showing. Very frustrating. I have a couple of group size 27 batteries. Gonna have to get a trimetric too. Have any pics of where it is mounted? Thanks for all this info. Any install info would be greatly appreciated!DrJ said:I have just started draining down the batteries for my experiment but looked at the Trimetric meter this am.
With the truck just idling the meter showed 13.4 volts. It was at 93% state of charge and charging at 3.5 amps/hour at that moment.
Should be interesting to see the voltage and amps with the truck at 2000 rpms.
It really depends on how you've connected the panels. If in "series", then blocking the sun on one panel will seriously deteriorate the total output as the panel out of the sun will hinder the output of both. If in parallel, then blocking on one panel, should not deter the other from pushing out it's maximum output. The advantage of connecting in series is that both panels connected in this manner produces a higher voltage and lower current to reduce any voltage losses due to wire size and length. In parallel, current is higher and voltage drop is more as this is determined by the wire size and length. The advantage of parallel connections is to eliminate power drops due to one panel being in a shadow. Setting up your solar panels, like other things in life, is a trade off in features.Casa Escarlata Robles Too said:This is sorta on topic.
First, I purchased a watt meter an inexpensive one $13,don't laugh it has great reviews and seems to do what i need from a meter.It's
a AODE LCD digital Voltage checker. I watched the posted videos and it's hooked up correctly and gives great info.
I will post some at a later time.
Second, and here lies the question.
I have 2 solar panels,a 45w and a 60w,both are moncrystalline and hooked up correctly.
Together I show about 40w on our sunshine here,(some clouds) when I cover the 60w only the system drops to about 32w. when I cover the 45w only the system drops to about 7w.
So my 45w panel is most likely producing at a good %. But the 60w panel is only at about 10% or less.
I can judge about what % a solar system here should produce as I have solar on my house and it runs on a day like today at about 80%
The 45w panel seems ok % wise but the 60w isn't doing the job.
Any ideas?
I want to get input and ideas before I contact the solar panel company.
Thanks.
I have been following this thread and a lot of the info is very useful, thanks to Dr.J. and others who have added info.
Frank
I would try measuring the voltage output of each panel. If they are both good then you know is due to wiring. If not its something with the panel.Casa Escarlata Robles Too said:This is sorta on topic.
First, I purchased a watt meter an inexpensive one $13,don't laugh it has great reviews and seems to do what i need from a meter.It's
a AODE LCD digital Voltage checker. I watched the posted videos and it's hooked up correctly and gives great info.
I will post some at a later time.
Second, and here lies the question.
I have 2 solar panels,a 45w and a 60w,both are moncrystalline and hooked up correctly.
Together I show about 40w on our sunshine here,(some clouds) when I cover the 60w only the system drops to about 32w. when I cover the 45w only the system drops to about 7w.
So my 45w panel is most likely producing at a good %. But the 60w panel is only at about 10% or less.
I can judge about what % a solar system here should produce as I have solar on my house and it runs on a day like today at about 80%
The 45w panel seems ok % wise but the 60w isn't doing the job.
Any ideas?
I want to get input and ideas before I contact the solar panel company.
Thanks.
I have been following this thread and a lot of the info is very useful, thanks to Dr.J. and others who have added info.
Frank
I would really like to see this too. I'm clueless as to what the "shunt" is.Kokopelli said:I would love to see how you installed it and what was needed.
Thanks!
-Rick
I wish you would have had a few more hours of driving. I have a feeling the charging rate would stay slowing down pretty quickly once the battery was at a higher state of charge and really needed the voltage. I would also like to know what voltage you are getting at your aux battery when your battery is 50% or more discharged. At that point my separator will cycle on and off as my truck battery dumps everything it has in to the aux battery.DrJ said:Here's my report on the truck charging data:
Drove 2.5 hours - mostly interstate speeds 75 mph
Replaced 26 amp hours total.
Average charging of 10.4 amps per hour.
Voltage remained around 13.0.
My highest voltage recorded was 13.1.
My battery bank went from 58-70% of charge.
I disconnected the solar system so that the only possible charging could be from the truck.
My compressor fridge ran the entire time. I wanted it to be just like my usual traveling power use.
When I turned the camper master switch off the amps of charging increased to 15 amps from 10-11 amps. This makes sense since my fridge uses about 4.5 amps per hour.
The camper batteries were fairly discharged at 58% so I'm assuming the batteries would accept as many amps as could be pushed to them from the truck.
I had FWC install my campers wiring system.
My truck is a 3500 silverado duramax.
Here's what I learned:
You can expect about 15 amps per hour of charge while driving with all electrical equipment off. If you are running a compressor fridge you would still get reasonable charging. At least 200-250 watts of solar in good sunlight is a fair comparison.
If you are running a 3 way fridge on 12 volt while driving, it probably works but don't count on much battery charging too. You would have to check your manual, but I think 10-15 amps would be close for many of them in power draw.
There is definite voltage drop from truck to camper batteries. Running a larger wire from the battery to the camper maybe very helpful if you rely on truck charging as a main source of battery charging.
13.1 volts is not great for reaching a full charge even on longer drives. I don't think my system would ever get back to 100% on driving alone. However, I could probably replace enough to get by until I got more sunlight or 110 outlet.
I'll try this again with just the truck idling and see what kind of charging I get then too.
I've tried this before to recharge the batteries with varied success while just idling.
Thanks .I did measure each panel and I will do them again. I only get about 7to9 watts from the 60 w panel and about 32 watts on our mostly sunny day on the 45w panel.Ethergore said:I would try measuring the voltage output of each panel. If they are both good then you know is due to wiring. If not its something with the panel.
Ethergore said:I wish you would have had a few more hours of driving. I have a feeling the charging rate would stay slowing down pretty quickly once the battery was at a higher state of charge and really needed the voltage. I would also like to know what voltage you are getting at your aux battery when your battery is 50% or more discharged. At that point my separator will cycle on and off as my truck battery dumps everything it has in to the aux battery.
Thanks for your time and input.
According to my conversation with FWC, the camper batteries are only charged from the truck while driving, never the solar panel.photohc said:The 100w solar can just barely keep up with the fridge let alone charge the 2x group 27 batteries. This is especially true while driving in the desert heat. I think if I had the dometic turned off, the charge improvement would have been better.