Charging issues

nicklee-ESC

Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2023
Posts
18
Absolute newbie so any help is much appreciated.
I have set up a small system in a van, 200w solar panel, 100AH lithium battery, 20A dc/dc charger, PWM solar controller.
On testing neither the solar panel or the DC/DC are charging the battery
The battery does charge with a NOCO plug in charger.
If I attach the plug in charger to the cables from the DC/DC or the solar controller in both cases the battery charges so I have ruled out the wiring
The solar panel is putting out around 20v in the sun but the PWM just stays in float mode even though set for a lifepo battery
Around 14v is going into the DC/DC charger but no charge is showing in the battery app (renogy)
I've disconnected/reconnected everything umpteen times
The 12v circuit and 240v through an inverter are all running happily off of the battery and the shore connection.
Any suggestions? Getting desperate!
 
Unless there was some electrical event that caused damage to both the DC/DC charger and the SCC at the same time (did anything occur that you can see potentially causing such damage?), it's highly unlikely they both failed at the same time.

Is this a system that was working as expected (as personally experienced by you) and then suddenly stopped charging, or is this your first exposure to it so you don't know whether it ever worked properly or not? If the former, has anything at all changed between the time it was working properly & now?

What voltage (resting) is your battery at when you expect to see it charging but do not?
 
The battery with nothing connected is reading 13.28 and across the battery terminals on the scc once its connected ( but nothing else) is also 13.28.
The solar panel is reading 14.95 (its a bit cloudy, I've had this scenario at 20v) when not connected to anything and when connected across the panel connection terminals reads 13.28 also, but this does fluctuate up and down slightly -/+ (presumably as the clouds pass?)
There is a flashing arrow between the panel and the battery on the display that theoretically indicates float mode but its set for lithium so there should be no float? and it never goes to full charge even though the battery is at 70%
 

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