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Reed,

 

We were just talking about all the earthquakes lately.  There were 19 of them about 6 miles from here about a week ago.  All in the 1.5 - 2.3 range. Last night there was a small one here in Smith Valley, but I didn't notice it.

 

I'm thinking your solar isn't working.  Good test with the suitcase system to help diagnose it.  Of course it's so easy to use more power than we realize, but still.  I just ordered two 50 watt panels yesterday that I can store in the closet and set up on the ground.  I want to look at your setup and get a few ideas about plugging them in and where to put the controller.

 

Has Oliver said anything to you about the water tank upgrade?

John


"I only exaggerate enough to compensate for being taken with a grain of salt."


LE2 #92 (sold),   Black Series HQ19   

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Reed, We were just talking about all the earthquakes lately. There were 19 of them about 6 miles from here about a week ago. All in the 1.5 – 2.3 range. Last night there was a small one here in Smith Valley, but I didn’t notice it. I’m thinking your solar isn’t working. Good test with the suitcase system to help diagnose it. Of course it’s so easy to use more power than we realize, but still. I just ordered two 50 watt panels yesterday that I can store in the closet and set up on the ground. I want to look at your setup and get a few ideas about plugging them in and where to put the controller. Has Oliver said anything to you about the water tank upgrade?

 

No word from Oliver yet John... Wait on the Solar and check some out at Bandon. My friend Mark will be there and he's a good guy to talk to about solar and you can check his out then. He used Velcro and put up 4 of the 100watt flex panels with the Trimetrics monitor and controller, it's a good looking system but I don't know if the flex pannels will fit on the Oliver roof.

 

Lots of earthquakes lately, this guy has the info always -

 

 

 

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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Is Oliver still using the Blue Sky IPN charge controller?  If so you may check the AMP hours produced by re-setting the total hours to zero then check it after a few hours have passed.  More than likely you are producing less PV than you think.  The angle of the sun has a lot to do with PV as does any obstruction.  Just the shadow of an antenna, AC unit, or Even a cable running across a panel cal disrupt production.

 

As far as consumption goes make sure your inverter is switched off.  That could be your largest draw.

 

One thing you might check are the cable sizes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Current 2007 Airstream Classic Limited 31


2015 Oliver Legacy Elite II (Sold)


2016 Ram 2500 HD 6.7i Cummins turbo diesel


 

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Is Oliver still using the Blue Sky IPN charge controller? If so you may check the AMP hours produced by re-setting the total hours to zero then check it after a few hours have passed. More than likely you are producing less PV than you think. The angle of the sun has a lot to do with PV as does any obstruction. Just the shadow of an antenna, AC unit, or Even a cable running across a panel cal disrupt production. As far as consumption goes make sure your inverter is switched off. That could be your largest draw. One thing you might check are the cable sizes.

Yup, the inverter is off. Oliver went to installing the Zamp system over the Blue Sky system saying it was easier for the customer... I don't know the price difference but the Zamp is old school pwm with basically no settings other then battery type... The panel's are clean but not in full sun, but still, it's losing instead of gaining with everything turned off inside. There's definitely quite a bit of ghost power loss to lose .2vdc daily with the Solar on. I'm heading up right now to grab the Suitcase because I can point it directly at the sun and see the difference. Testing time :)

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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I've got about 1/2 an hour before full sun hits, the Renogy Solar Suitcase is hooked up with Coleman leads... Lol, which are reverse, so I checked the polarity just to make sure. Anyway, even in partial sun because it is pointing straight at it, the 100w panel is putting out .6 amps, roughly the same as the 320watt Zamp system was with no sun on it yet, and the testing continues :)

 

IMG_20170628_113803.thumb.jpg.9b4e1b2c36ad9fae438171b25ac1d8f5.jpg

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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OK at High Noon the Zamp is putting out 13.2amps at 12.9vdc and the Solar Suitcase is putting out 4.6amps at 13.5vdc, so maybe between the 2 systems, I can keep the batteries charged up enough in partial sun during most of the day to make some headway. Both systems are working fine down under the trees.

 

IMG_20170628_120824.thumb.jpg.5e3cf91ac3d90d4225acd0b34aaf008a.jpg

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IMG_20170628_120010.thumb.jpg.2b45bc11ca89282ee3a114a8a591d742.jpg

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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And then at 12:25pm the Zamp maxed out at 17.2amps and the Renogy at 5.7 which is roughly the 3 to 1 ratio that we are looking for with the 320watt system over the 100watt Suitcase. We started at 12.1vdc this morning, so tonight will be the tell all, being we either need to start the generator or we don't.

 

IMG_20170628_122300.thumb.jpg.6d3085747c39cc87e2f616f9baeaf1a9.jpg

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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trumpetguy wrote:

Is Oliver still using the Blue Sky IPN charge controller?

 

reed wrote:

Oliver went to installing the Zamp system over the Blue Sky system saying it was easier for the customer… I don’t know the price difference but the Zamp is old school pwm with basically no settings other then battery type…

Over two years ago when the decision was being made to swap from the Blue Sky system to the is the Zamp system, I questioned Tommy Staggs as to the reason. He told me that "...the settings on the Blue Sky equipment is too complicated for our customers..." (and that) "...it provides information that our customers don't need and they are being confused by it all..."

 

It was my personal believe then (and is still today) that the problem did not lie with the intelligence of the people buying Oliver's nor the (admittedly) complicated menu system of the Blue Sky IPN but rather Tommy's inability to answer the numerous questions from potential and existing owners of the Blues Sky system.

 

I base this belief, in no small part, on the number of customers Tommy referred to me to answer their questions concerning the set up and operation of their Blue Sky equipment.

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Steve, Tali and our dog Rocky plus our beloved Storm, Maggie, Lucy and Reacher (all waiting at the Rainbow Bridge)

2008 Legacy Elite I - Outlaw Oliver, Hull #026 | 2014 Legacy Elite II - Outlaw Oliver, Hull #050 | 2022 Silverado High Country 3500HD SRW Diesel 4x4 

 

             801469912_StatesVisitedTaliandSteve08-23-2021-I.jpg.26814499292ab76ee55b889b69ad3ef0.jpg1226003278_StatesVisitedTaliandSteve08-23-2021-H.jpg.dc46129cb4967a7fd2531b16699e9e45.jpg

 

 

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Over two years ago when the decision was being made to swap from the Blue Sky system to the is the Zamp system, I questioned Tommy Staggs as to the reason. He told me that “…the settings on the Blue Sky equipment is too complicated for our customers…” (and that) “…it provides information that our customers don’t need and they are being confused by it all…” It was my personal believe then (and is still today) that the problem did not lie with the intelligence of the people buying Oliver’s nor the (admittedly) complicated menu system of the Blue Sky IPN but rather Tommy’s inability to answer the numerous questions...

 

Steve, I totally agree... The Blue Sky was state of the art and one of the options that made the Oliver stand out as a true "Legacy Elite" type of trailer. Personally, what I have seen this year is the price go up and the quality and options like the Blue Sky Solar, the shower in the bathroom, the drawer hinges, the stripped out screws, just to name a few, we've all seen the quality go down. I thought that we were getting the Blue Sky when we ordered and I had read the instruction manual from front to back, 3 times so that I would know it inside and out when we picked up the trailer. A lot of people here this year are scratching their heads because we expected the best of the best, a true Legacy Elite trailer that earned it's name. Oliver will still make things right, I'm sure but I didn't plan on rebuilding cabinets, putting in a working water system, modifying the drain system to drain, or having to add an auxillary Solar System like we did today. They really cut the corners this year, and it really shows... We're still waiting for the new drawer latches that were supposed to be here and this has turned from weeks into months. John figured out a working water system but we're still waiting to hear back with an approval to install it from Oliver. Different people are having a lot of different quality control issues and I think that the cutting of the corners this year has cost them more then they planned on. Truly, I would love to have the Blue Sky System myself because the Zamp is made so basic that any idiot can watch it flicker... I paid for a State of the art new MPPT System and ended up with old school technology that came out in 1997 back when we had Bill Clinton for a president... Real Old School!!!

 

But anyway, we work with what we have right? Eh... No... We make it the right way the first time... It's going to cost me but I still want my state of the art system that I paid for.

 

We didn't get home until 10:30pm tonight but the good news is that we are sitting at 12.2vdc, so we gained a tenth today with the Renogy Solar Suitcase being positioned in the sun, most of the afternoon, instead of losing 2 tenths, so I'm thinking that it will be at 12.4 tomorrow night but only time will tell :)

 

Reed

 

Screenshot_2017-06-28-23-53-55.thumb.png.2ea88d88ce8a8787d28f3011e56a4151.png

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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We were gone all day working on the new house again, so I wasn't here to change the angle of the Renogy panels, so I set it up for the afternoon sun before we left at 9am and we went up to 12.3vdc tonight, so we are gaining once again :) I was looking on the roof today though and if you have the need like we do, a 400watt roof mounted system would be a good upgrade option to get. I'd rather have more panels and still be parked in the shade myself so the added 100watts makes just enough of a difference and once again our Renogy Solar Suitcase has paid off.

 

Because we plan on traveling a lot more now with Goldilocks, we are moving into the small 1 bedroom guest house and down sizing from the 4 bedrooms main house, where I have lived for the past 30 years... When we were children, it was our weekend cabin, then in 87, I moved in full time and raised our family here. It's lots of work but Karen and I don't need the big house anymore and so our niece will be in the big house with her family and be here to take over the homestead, which will allow us to travel without any worry. Today we gutted the guest house and started super cleaning it and as I sit back and reflect on our accomplishments this year, between Goldilocks our little Oliver and our little house, life is becoming peaceful once again.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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I think that the Zamp junction box on the roof has three inputs, so there should be a third one free for adding another panel.  You'd have to check the rating of the installed charge controller, but adding a third panel could be as simple as mounting and plugging in.  A 160W panel will fit in front of the existing two so long as you don't have any antennas in the way.  That would give you 480 on the roof, plus your portable, which would make for a nice system.

 

I agree that an MPPT controller should be standard.  In fact I have one sitting here on my desk just waiting to be swapped in on day 1.   It claims a 30% improvement over PWM in partial shading conditions.  I've also asked Jason about the wiring from the panels to the controller as I suspect there's some improvement to be had there as well.

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I think that the Zamp junction box on the roof has three inputs, so there should be a third one free for adding another panel. You’d have to check the rating of the installed charge controller, but adding a third panel could be as simple as mounting and plugging in. A 160W panel will fit in front of the existing two so long as you don’t have any antennas in the way. That would give you 480 on the roof, plus your portable, which would make for a nice system. I agree that an MPPT controller should be standard. In fact I have one sitting here on my desk just waiting to be swapped in on day 1. It claims a 30% improvement over PWM in partial shading conditions. I’ve also asked Jason about the wiring from the panels to the controller as I suspect there’s some improvement to be had there as well.

The open input is there, another panel is going to have to wait until we are done with the house, but it's a needed accessory. Being that we park in partial shade most of the time, an mppt is coming in the near future. We're fixing one thing at a time and still waiting for the water tank fix approval and the drawers, but we are adding it to the list. I would really like to see a comparison between the Zamp pwm system and the Blue Sky or another mppt just because for me, it's a learning curve. The only things that we have running are the fridge, the Zamp controller and the 2 alarms that I know of, so that doesn't seem like enough of a draw to take it down .2amps during the day. Then we run a CPAP at night for Karen along with lights here and there, but it doesn't drop at night... The biggest draw is during the day when the controller is running and I'm pretty sure now that the controller is our ghost draw being that we don't drop at all at night, yet we drop .2amps during the day, so actual controller draw really is something else to look into... :)

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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The 60 amp Victron that I have here lists its self consumption as 'less than 10 mA'.  I don't see that info listed in the Zamp manual, but if you can find it then you have something to compare to.

 

I can tell you that relative to Zamp's 60 A controller, this Victron is over four times as large and six times as heavy if that tells you anything.

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When you add PV make sure your charge controller is rated for the extra amps.  I have 500 watts on my AS and had to go with a 40 amp Blue Sky 3024.  I also added the IPN remote.  The tech at Blue Sky is very helpful.  He will answer just about any question you may pose.  He never answers the phone but leave a message and he will call you back.  Pretty consistent about this.  When I had Oliver 64 I was getting bad readings as to battery hours.  He talked me through a few things and it turned out that Oliver had not connected the inverter to the shunt so the IPN remote was not seeing the hours pulled out while on inverter.  I was pretty excited that I could run my whole trailer on just one hour a day.  LOL.

 

* Note to snowlakemike...I did connect the inverter to the shunt so your readings are correct.

 

There will be many times when your solar just can't keep up with demand.  Even with 500 Watts and four six volt batteries I still must run the Honda 2000i when is a shaded area or when there is a lot of cloud cover.  Sometimes I think the investment in PV was overspend, but I like the feeling.

 

Here is a link to a good video testing the impact of shading on both series and parallel connections by Gone Withe The Wynns.

 

http://www.gonewiththewynns.com/Sailboat-Solar-Series-Parallel-Shading

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Current 2007 Airstream Classic Limited 31


2015 Oliver Legacy Elite II (Sold)


2016 Ram 2500 HD 6.7i Cummins turbo diesel


 

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Well, the Solar hasn't worked in a couple days because we had some rain, which forced me to put away the Solar suitcase yesterday because the controller is not waterproof. So tonight when we got home about 9:30pm, we were down to 12.1vdc on the panel and I charged them back up with my Stanley GBCPRO, which runs a 12 volt quick charge at 20amps. So, I hooked it directly to the battery and I will be using it again because I was fully charged back up to 12.6 volts in about 50 minutes. Was it faster then charging through the shore power outlet? The generator wasn't running as fast as it does when I connect it directly to the trailer, but it didn't have to run the inverter or anything else either. It was nice because the generator wasn't having to work so hard and I could watch the progress on both panels inside. I think that it was a lot faster, but I will get some times down for both to compare. It adds another tool to the box, but right now, I think it was worth it. I had bought the charger for using when camping, when we run a single 12volt battery to run Karen's CPAP in our tent, so it's been a couple of years since it had any use and I am happy with the results :)

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DKIIJW/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=IU2A5S0762A4R&colid=DVETVI1ZF5E8

 

 

 

 

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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It's been 7 days and we were back down at 12.0 this morning, lower then I had planned but we had the CPAP out in our new home yesterday and the night before and we were drawing no power while sitting here at 12.2 yesterday. I thought that it would charge up some but it still stayed the same, so it held its own for 2 days but didn't charge up. Obviously, it's time to clean the panels again :)

 

I've been doing a lot of reading and I'm going to invest in the Blue Sky controller because it is an MPPT controller designed to get the most out of the 320 watt panels that we have. It's just a personal choice and I love improving and working on this trailer because it starts out with such great quality and commitment from the Oliver team :)

 

What's the difference between the Blue Sky MPPT and the Zamp PWM? Basically it's the ability of the MPPT system to get 30% to 35% more charging amps to the battery. The original Blue Sky system that was put into the 2016 year models and before were getting the most out of the panels and it was more then enough to keep the batteries charged up even in partial sun. When people buy and configure the PWM system, if they want it to compare with the MPPT, they will simply add another solar panel and this will give them that 1/3 more charging amps and it actually costs them less to do it this way. I've looked on the roof and there is a place to add another panel or Zamp also has a long skinny pannel especially designed to fit along the edges, but I really like the look of the 2 - 160watt panels as they are. So I have 2 choices for my camping style, either add a 3rd panel or change over to an MPPT for the needed (in my case) extra third of solar power. I'm choosing to go with an MPPT and being that Blue Sky is located here in California and I will be down in that area in November, I'm going to give them a call and see what we can do to reconfigure this 2017 Zamp system into the Blue Sky MPPT.

 

What I am saying above is that an MPPT system that runs on 320watt panels can be matched with a PWM system running 480watts of panels or simply 1/3 more panels.

 

Right now, I'm running 420watts with the solar Suitcase added in and having to start the generator for an hour every 6 days, completely recharges my batteries :)

 

I'm really liking the Stanley charger, it starts, charges, then shuts itself down when finished charging.

 

Reed

 

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It's hard to see in the pic but it's quick charging at 20.8 amps.

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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Reed, are you running full wet cell batteries or do you have AGMs? With how low you go with usage, do you think that having AGMs is/would be more beneficial in that scenario? Do they have a larger/more recoverable resource pool to work with?

 

AGMs are 50% draw down, lithiums are 80-90% draw down, I think that's what I've read. Are Wet Cells the same? If you've run them that far down numerous times do you think the life of them had been shortened and this easier to run them down now/keep them up?

 

Would you consider switching to lithium, something like Battle Born would be a plug and play as they build the BMS into each battery, so are supposed to be able to plug into most any controller.

Randy


One Life Live It Enjoyably


2017 F350 6.7L SRW CC LB


2015 Oliver Elite II Hull #69

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Reed, are you running full wet cell batteries or do you have AGMs? With how low you go with usage, do you think that having AGMs is/would be more beneficial in that scenario? Do they have a larger/more recoverable resource pool to work with? AGMs are 50% draw down, lithiums are 80-90% draw down, I think that’s what I’ve read. Are Wet Cells the same? If you’ve run them that far down numerous times do you think the life of them had been shortened and this easier to run them down now/keep them up? Would you consider switching to lithium, something like Battle Born would be a plug and play as they build the BMS into each battery, so are supposed to be able to plug into most any controller.

 

Hi Randy :)

 

We're running the T105's wet cell. 12.6 is the usual high and usually I don't take it below 12.2 and that's where it was sitting the night before. I was really surprised to see it bouncing between 12 to 12.1 in the morning with nothing running over night except the fridge controls for the propane. With the 4 batteries, you wouldn't think that there would be any draw  down, so I'm kinda stumped right now with the amount of ghost draw... From what I've read, I need to keep it above 11.8 max bottom and 12.2 is my usual charge point with 12.06 being 50% and that's not a point that I hit regularly. I'm no expert on different battery types so I'm not sure if AGM's would be better or not as of yet :) but I'm not going down over 50% usually. Obviously I have more testing to do on our system and I'm wondering if the ghost draw could be the solar controller because it's been going on from day one. I will do some reading on the Battle Born, and if you have any more info then throw it at me :) I'm a good learner, or at least I was back when I could remember... Hehe. I've ran wet cells for years and never had a problem, so I've got no knowledge when it comes to lithium.

 

We are still getting the new house or cabin set up and heading out to the Bandon, Oregon Fiberglass RV Rally Monday or Tuesday and we will be meeting up with a few of our friends that can really help in this learning process. Raspy will be there along with our friend Mark among many others and maybe I can do some more testing on the road again. It's been a lot of work getting the houses switched over and I've been dealing with plumbing and electrical issues on both houses. Karen changed out the lights to the Edison style LED's today and they worked great... All day... Then they quit just after dark... Lol. I've got a sewer snake about 50' down the sink line and ended up quitting just after dark because the new light above me wouldn't come on and it worked fine all week when I didn't need it... So... Today, I'll be looking for a timer along the line somewhere. But the house had power added to it back in the 60's and yesterday I ran a new line from the panel to the fridge when that old line gave out after being poorly spliced by a tennent about 10 years ago. It's been sitting empty for the last 7 years and I'm thinking about just running new electric lines my way, instead of dealing with some of the stuff I've been finding. It's an old log cabin built by a cousin that I knew as a child. It didn't have power back then and he didn't believe in having power put in. After he passed away, my dad rented it out and they put power in, but the wiring is exposed and primitive to me. It's got a good Sylvania 100watt panel but I'm looking at going back and rewiring everything right now because it wouldn't take much router work to hide all of the wiring. Basically it's a new old house with a new list of honey-do's :)

 

Reed

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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Reed,

 

I'm thinking that before you change over to an MPPT controller, you should run an accurate test with absolutely full sun on the panels for a full day and monitor the results.  While it's true that the MPPT controller advertises up to 30% more charge, it's the nature of that difference that is important here.

 

As I understand it, the difference in total amp hours delivered is at the top end of the collector voltage and amperage curve, or the Maximum Power Point, which is at voltages over 14.1 in full sun at relatively low temperatures with a normal angle of orientation.  With PWM, or pulse width modulation, the controller cannot control the charging voltage, only the battery charged voltage, so it pulses power with varying band width to protect the batter from going higher than 14 volts.  The affect of PWM is that there is a lot of off time in the pulses to keep the battery voltage under control.  Whereas the MPPT controller is a DC transformer that can take the entire collector current and adjust its voltage to 14 so that you get full amps to the battery until it reaches 14 volts.  This means no off time compared to the PWM pulses.  This is where the overall difference begins to show up between the two.  Then it goes into absorption mode and reduces the amps, while maintaining the voltage, until the amps reach a pre-determined minimum amount that triggers the Float stage.  So the battery really does get charged fully instead of giving a false high voltage reading that increases the "off" width of the pulses in PWM.

 

So, the real difference is during direct sun at higher collector voltages and, possibly, at higher states of charge.   But at lower states of charge, in full sun, the difference may be small or none.

 

Direct sun is the key here.  Any shading drastically reduces the output of a particular collector being shaded, or just shuts it off.  This can be as little as a tree branch shadowing one panel.

 

Since the difference between the MPPT and the PWM overall amp hour delivery is at the top end of the voltage scale, and especially in cooler weather, any loss of collector output through partial shading can easily make up the difference between the two.  In your case, you are needing a strong bulk charge to make up for the night's use, but you may be getting far less than the rated array output because of partial shading.

 

Shading percentage is not equal to the percentage loss of output.  Output loss is far more than shading percentage.

 

Another factor to consider is the rated array output adjustment due to imperfect orientation.  You may have to give up 10-20% right off the top of Oliver's rating because of that alone.

 

I'm bringing an MPPT controller with me to Bandon.  Maybe we can run some tests to compare results to your PWM controller.

 

John

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John


"I only exaggerate enough to compensate for being taken with a grain of salt."


LE2 #92 (sold),   Black Series HQ19   

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Just FYI, Battle Born and Dragonfly are the same company - no idea why they sell them under two names. In fact, I ordered Dragonflies and was sent Battleborns.  But battleborn triggers my autocorrect so I go with Dragonfly.  Anyway, they did confirm for me that their batteries work out of the box with either the Zamp or Blue Sky controller and also the progressive dynamics charger. Like I've mentioned elsewhere, the disadvantage is that since the BMS is in each battery, you don't get the size benefit of other LFPs.  In fact they're actually a bit longer than the T-105 - to get them to fit the Oliver's battery tray, you'll need to install them on end. They may fit normally without the tray - it would be tight. The size also limits you to four batteries and 400 Ah unless you can find another spot for them.  Still, that's 320 useable so still a good improvement.  And they'll charge a good bit faster.

 

Because of the size I'm not 100% that I made the right choice getting them but I'll give it a go anyway. If I change my mind someone here might get a sweet deal on some lightly used LFPs.

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Thanks John, we'll have some fun at Bandon for sure :)

 

Mark was parked next to me and his MPPT system had his trailer fully charged back up by 10am every morning for the couple of weeks that he spent here with us, so it definitely saddened me to see ours not working with the pulses in the full morning sun. Then we get the best sun from 12 to 3 and then more in the late afternoon. So this is what I have to base it on so far. I've got 3 Windows of full sun each day, this pick is the noon as it follows the red line :)

 

I'll see you in a few days :)

 

ReedIMG_20170715_111753.thumb.jpg.e8f593e93899afae32f8823ac9bf8f30.jpg

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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As far as using and carrying the Stanley charger goes, it's really just not needed and adds an unneeded box to the storage area. It works fine and charges everything up fast but the trailer has a perfectly good working charging system built in already. I've had the Stanley for a few years and it's a must when we are tent camping, so back into that bin it goes because that 20amp quick charge is great for charging up Karen's 12vdc marine battery really fast.

 

But for theOliver...

 

It's a lot easier to just plug the generator directly into this trailer because Oliver has done it right and the generator idles down after charging has completed :)

 

Test complete,

 

Results = An external charger simply is Not Needed

 

Reed

Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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Just as a general bit of info. The following photo is at 10:20am and the BlueSky showed 2.6A output 812p681tvks4oqnzgz97kaoqr6zbhj6f.thumb.jpg.a0f7ae129571222130c0309c60246ff9.jpg

 

And you can see by that statement why I'm so jealous of you guys with the MPPT system Randy :)  At the most, being mine is a Pulse Width Modulation system, my pulses only hit 1.4amps max in the full sun we have here and generally it's only around .4a max. When I was watching Mark smile as his worked so well like yours, I was holding my head down in shame because this system flat out isn't what I paid $2800.00 for... Lol. My god, it's so embarrassing to have an inferior solar system on my trailer, and this is the BIG picture! Oliver says that one of the reasons that they changed over to it was because it was easy to install...

 

So if it took 5 hours to install that's um... $2800.00, will say -$1300 in parts to make it easy = $1500 for installation ÷ 5 hours max = $300.00 an hour × 2080 hours = $624,000.00 a year income, and yea, this is how my mind works... Lol. I really feel like I got taken to the cleaners being that our order started out as the Blue Sky system, like yours.

 

IMG_20170715_205943.thumb.jpg.18e139792ad636b735f12c8f4feb7e06.jpg

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Happy Camping,


null


Reed & Karen Lukens with Riffles our Miniature Poodle


2017 Oliver Legacy Elite II  Standard, Hull #200 / 2017 Silverado High Country 1500 Short Bed 4x4


Past TV - 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 4Matic BlueTEC Diesel


Click on our avatar pic above to find the videos on our Oliver Legacy Elite II


 

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