Portable solar wiring questions for you gurus....

radarcontact said:
Maybe someone out there can clear up some confusion for me....

Here's my wires coming from the panel, and the plug it's going into:

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Attach0 (7).jpg
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zamp plug.png

When I check the receptacle with a voltmeter, touching the red probe to the exposed prong on the left, and the black probe to the covered prong on the right, I'm getting a positive voltage reading of 14.5.

The wires that plug into that receptacle have the red wire plugging into the left side (i.e., the side with the exposed prong), and the black wire plugging into the right side.

My conclusion is that this Zamp plug is the correct polarity, and NOT reversed like many of them are.

Am I missing anything? I'm confused because when I talked with FW yesterday they couldn't give me an answer one way or the other on how my camper was wired.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
When I was looking into adding a portable panel I also heard that Zamp plugs were reversed polarity, but your measurements indicate it's not (for the plug you are using). I just checked mine and it confirmed your reading for polarity. I think it's just the plugs on other brands of panels are oppositely configured so the wires would need to be switched or an adapter plug would be needed.
 
Thanks, Paul and dharte. You guys cleared it up for me. I don't actually have the solar panel in hand, so I've been doing all this in my head, and trying to determine what connectors I need to buy. When I looked at a pic of the panel I'm getting, and its MC4 connectors, I connected them in my head to the wires I currently have, and they don't match up when you go all the way to the camper receptacle...positive wants to connect to negative, and vice versa. So, my Zamp plug is reverse polarity. I'll have to splice some wires together, as I can't find an adapter online that has a gauge wire thicker than 16 gauge.

Another solution I was pondering was pulling out the rear plug wires from the push-in connector behind the solar controller and reversing the wires, put them in a new push-in connector. Would save having to splice wire.
 
I tried to remove the push-in connectors and the wallnut was impossible to get off. I simply snipped the wires. I simply reversed the polarity at the wallnut using the one wire emerging from the wallnut. This was easy for me as I was installing the MPPT.
 
ntsqd said:
It isn't so much that the MPPT controllers work better this way (although that is probably true too), it is that with a controller that can handle a higher input voltage that you have less line loss for the same wattage. Recall: Volts X Amps = Watts (V*I = W) so if the volts increase the amps decrease at the same wattage. When the amps decrease there is less power lost to heat as a function of the wire's resistance. (V = I/R)
Said differently, with a higher voltage you can use a smaller wire because what drives the wire gauge choice is the amps it will need to conduct. With a 10 ga. wire size constraint due to the various connectors employed it makes sense to build the system to operate at a higher voltage.
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Which is a problem in FWC they use some small gauge and I do see drops. But I was able to get enough efficiency with my PWM.
I would think FWC would change their wiring after adding an MPPT because they do have that voltage drop and they could multiply the voltage to an MPPT safely and efficiently. For a while I was considering making this conversion but after a few trips with my PWM setup for my use case I decided to stay with it for now.
 
Karlton said:
I tried to remove the push-in connectors and the wallnut was impossible to get off. I simply snipped the wires. I simply reversed the polarity at the wallnut using the one wire emerging from the wallnut. This was easy for me as I was installing the MPPT.
Click to expand...
I noticed pvstoy came up with a technique to remove and reuse the Wago 773-173 connector (in this post). If I remember correctly, the manufacturer says they can be removed from solid wire but have to be cut off stranded wire and replaced with a new connector.

And of course there's nothing that says one has to use push-in connectors at all.

I assume FWC uses them to have a quick, easy, and consistent way to connect the wires together during production. They may also like the fact that the Wago connector has a test port.

.
 
Old Crow said:
I noticed pvstoy came up with a technique to remove and reuse the Wago 773-173 connector (in this post). If I remember correctly, the manufacturer says they can be removed from solid wire but have to be cut off stranded wire and replaced with a new connector.

And of course there's nothing that says one has to use push-in connectors at all.

I assume FWC uses them to have a quick, easy, and consistent way to connect the wires together during production. They may also like the fact that the Wago connector has a test port.

.
Click to expand...
I found these on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y1QYCHJ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=A3NT3RNEWQU9ZI&psc=1

Was tricky finding small quantities of these. They look like the ones in my camper, and they're rated up to 10AWG wire. I'm going to do this, reverse wires from the rear Zamp plug at this push-in connector, rather than splice outer SAE and/or MC4 cable connections. Seems easier.
 
scappoosebrad said:
Folks, found this video that shows a easy solution to the Zamp "reverse polarity" issue...a very simple adaptor...here is the Utube video that illustrates:

(25) How To Use Any Solar Kit With A Zamp Solar Plug - YouTube
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Brad, I've seen that video. He's correct in that an adapter will reverse the polarity and fix the problem. Unfortunately, his link for the adapter is bad. Here's the adapter I found on Amazon:

Amazon.com

The problem with that adapter is it's 18 AWG wire, which is pretty thin for what most folks need here. I checked with FWC today in California, all my 2015 Hawk wiring is 10 AWG (which is a good thing) - many older FW campers are wired with 12 AWG, which is still good, but a 18 AWG adapter won't really cut it. Best thing to do is solder two identical SAE connectors (i.e., both have the same male/female ends with the SAME color wires coming from each male/female end) together, or reverse the wires (positive and negative) for that particular plug where they enter the solar controller. I've had to educate myself on this over the last week - if anyone out there is having trouble please let me know and I'll try to clear things up.
 
PaulT said:
Search for “sae flat 2 pin 10 gauge ces” and you should find a 10 gauge adapter like the following:

https://www.amazon.com/CES-Gauge-Quick-Disconnect-Harness/dp/B0057ZQJ12

Paul
Click to expand...
Paul, maybe I'm not looking at that pic correctly, but I swear that looks like a normal SAE connector. Follow the red line..one end is female, the other male. In order to have a Zamp adapter (reverse polarity), you have to have both ends of the red wire female, and both ends of the black wire male....like this (ignore which wire the + sign is on the photo, it's irrelevant - you can make it work for whatever situation you have):
21tIpN-RLsL.jpg
You agree?
 
If you do the ampacity calc its amazing what a couple inches of small gauge wire can carry. this was an eye-opener for me a couple months ago. If a guy were pinching every ounce there's some weight to be shaved there if combined with some other weight saving power distribution methods.
 
After googling the "10A SAE or Zamp reverse polarity adapter", it appears the only option is to buy a 10A SAE 1 foot harness, cut the wires, reverse, solder... and black tape over the the extended red as reminder of the "+" side...

Any other thoughts?
 
I too struck out in the search for a 10-gauge SAE reverse-polarity adapter.

Nature Power shows a 12-gauge one for $10 but I can't see how to order one... perhaps they just don't have an online ordering system and it can be done with a phone call.

I called Zamp yesterday about the one on their solar maintainers Plug-n-Play page. Agent 'Caleb' looked it up and it's 16-gauge. He also confirmed it's intended for the relatively small panels on that page (or similar).

Those with quality crimpers may also want to consider marine butt connectors like the Heat Shrink, 3-pack version of these Ancor butt connectors. They're tinned-copper crimp on connectors with an adhesive that oozes out to water-proof the connection when you heat the shrink-tubing after the crimp.

(And of course you can reverse wires or cut-and-splice wires somewhere else along the run to avoid the need for a reverse-polarity adapter.)


.
 
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