2019 242x Solar Panel Charging

[Julian]

With only the house battery on the voltage will drop below 12v.

A below 12v reading = discharged battery!


There is a wiring harness behind the port cabin speaker right below the tower base. If you take the speaker out, you can access the wiring harness and can see the wiring you need to test. The wires are nicely labeled as you can see from this image - you can just make our the SLR PNL label on the black wire. This is where I intend to start my checks.....see if I'm getting any decent voltage at the harness you can just see at the top of this image.

State of Charge	Specific Gravity	Voltage
		12V	6V
100%	1.265	12.7	6.3
75%	1.225	12.4	6.2
50%	1.190	12.2	6.1
25%	1.155	12.0	6.0
Discharged	1.120	11.9	6.0

 

[tabbibus]

Hard to tell. But so far most people have issues at the solar panel box on the Bimini or on the dvsr.

@Julian , didn't know about that one there. Will take a peek. My battery went all the way down to 11.8 and I never got a low voltage alarm! I've purchased NOCO charger because I'm mad at the solar panel.

 

[Kevin-yyz]

Thanks for the replies. After 15 minutes at idle the house battery charges to 12.4v, my problem is that I wet-slip the boat and I want the bilge pump to run if needed. I had assumed that the solar panel would be able to keep the battery topped up for this. Looks like I’ll be buying a charger as well.

@Julian, Will you be cutting the SP wires to get the voltage reading?

 

[Julian]

@Julian, Will you be cutting the SP wires to get the voltage reading?

No....there is a connector just at the top of that photo....I plan to unplug that connector and put a multi meter on the solar + and solar - wires on the tower side of the harness.

 

[Kevin-yyz]

I just opened my port speaker, similar wire setup to yours. I was able to open the connector and test with the voltmeter on the solar +,- wires. I couldn’t get a reading above 0. I also tried the connection where the panel in located, same result. Not very sunny here right now but there should be enough sun to register above a reading above 0.

On the DVSR, what does a solid red light indicate?

 

[tabbibus]

Solid red means charging.

Sounds to me that your panel is dead. But then, where's the solid red coming from? Engine off?

 

[Kevin-yyz]

engines were just shut off, battery switches off. It wasn’t exactly bright red, I had to close off any light to see it. Its possible I didn’t test the panel properly. its harder to test right under the panel but the speaker access connector should be pretty easy to get a reading from if there is one.

 

[Julian]

I just opened my port speaker, similar wire setup to yours. I was able to open the connector and test with the voltmeter on the solar +,- wires. I couldn’t get a reading above 0. I also tried the connection where the panel in located, same result. Not very sunny here right now but there should be enough sun to register above a reading above 0.

On the DVSR, what does a solid red light indicate?

Was there any sun on the panels? I would think if there was you'd get some voltage?

 

[Kevin-yyz]

It was very high overcast. I’ll try again on a clear day

 

[tabbibus]

engines were just shut off, battery switches off. It wasn’t exactly bright red, I had to close off any light to see it. Its possible I didn’t test the panel properly. its harder to test right under the panel but the speaker access connector should be pretty easy to get a reading from if there is one.

Yeah those little connectors under the panel are really hard

 

[Kevin-yyz]

I’ve found out that my solar panel is working. Although I cannot see a red light on the DVSR when the batteries are off and the sun is out and I can’t seem to get a good reading from the panel on my multimeter, the voltage on the house battery shows a higher voltage after the boat sits in the sun for a while with the batteries off. I think the solar panel on the 2018/19 might do an ok job of getting some more time out of using the stereo while at anchor but it definitely won’t keep the battery topped if you need to keep the house battery on for the bilge pump (ie wetslip).

 

[tabbibus]

Fair enough. I didn't have time yesterday to play with wires but I did finally install my NOCO charger. So topped off batteries from now on!

 

[Kevin-yyz]

Turns out my solar panel may not have been working. The solar panel fuse was blown. I’m not sure if that happened before or after I installed the NOCO 2 bank battery charger.

 

[tabbibus]

how did you notice? Also, where is the fuse located?

 

[Kevin-yyz]

I didn’t. I took it in for its first service and asked the dealership to check the solar panel function. They said the charger was installed properly but they thought it was possible that it caused the short (I doubt it). I’ll find out from them when I pick up the boat where the fuse is located.

 

[tabbibus]

I took my panel off. Not gonna rely on it. My batteries are topped of with the NOCO. At the end of the season I'll have them delve deeper into it.

 

[Kevin-yyz]

I took my panel off. Not gonna rely on it. My batteries are topped of with the NOCO. At the end of the season I'll have them delve deeper into it.

How did you manage your DVSR? I cut the DVSR ground and I connect it with a bullet connector when off the charger, seems to work well. I can’t see how this would short out the Solar panel.

 

[tabbibus]

How did you manage your DVSR? I cut the DVSR ground and I connect it with a bullet connector when off the charger, seems to work well. I can’t see how this would short out the Solar panel.

I've been meaning to add a switch on the ground wire. But haven't gotten to it. Right now I removed the battery nut and added a winged nut. So I just take off and put back on the ground wire as needed.

 

[seabrooktx]

One thing that I think is important to keep in mind with all of the Battery discussions, is that when you put a significant draw on it, like running a high powered stereo system for hours, that it will be very difficult to charge the batteries via running the motors for a short trip and relying on the solar panel. Below is a quick table I put together based on some research that was done several years back when we made the switch to AGM batteries. The D34 is my starter battery and the D27 is my house.



The voltage and % may be slightly off as these were calculated by an experiment I did on the battery, but it's probably close. The point is this:
- Yamaha's 1.8L Magneto Charging System, although not published, is likely to supply 2 - 4 amps of charge rate, per engine (based on my knowledge of magneto charging). That would put the total charge rate at 4 - 8 amps per hour. (If someone has better data here, I will update)
- Not sure the size of the Solar Panels on these boats, but based on the size on my 242LSE, I would estimate it to be ~5W (maybe 10) in perfect full sunshine conditions.
- Using a high power stereo for hours will definitely deplete the battery quickly. An afternoon floating and playing the music loud can result in a 25 - 50% or more discharge of the battery
- Keep in mind, if you are discharging both batteries, then boats with the DVSR will charge the Starter first and then the House. So if your starter battery is low, you'll never switch over to charging the House with the motors running unless you're running for a significant amount of time.
- You will not be able to charge the batteries sufficiently when they are discharged significantly by making a 30 minute run with the engines or expecting the solar panel to replenish in an afternoon or even over a couple of days. Remember, the solar only charges MAYBE 10 - 12 hours a day in perfect conditions.
- If you do this weeks or days on end, without supplementing your charging methods, you will slowly deplete the battery completely and then start to experience problems

If you put significant demands on the battery, it is best to recharge using shore power and top it off to the correct voltage/capacity. As you can see in the chart above, a large capacity battery will take a significant amount of time to charge, even using a 2 - 10 amp shore power charger.

 

[tabbibus]

Good write up. That's why I installed my NOCO charger. Two things though. For starters, I never saw the bep dvsr light come on with solar panels. Even floating on a slip with nothing running (except for the stupid auto bilge) the voltages never went up.

Secondly, I may have killed the house battery. After NOCO charges fully it and I disconnect, it only reads 12.4v