I’m still having DC power issues. I tried to run a few things off the inverter this evening and got a critical voltage drop. Once again, the run of cable from my inverter to the batteries is NOT the issue. I’ve got a short or, more likely, undersized wiring between the batteries and the converter. Dealing with that once and for all is going to be the next project, although I’m not sure it’s one I can do myself since creating lugs for heavy gauge wiring will likely be beyond my ability.

At any rate, I’ve got the genny to turn to instead, so I did. GAH. I hate using that gas consumer when I’ve got all that beautiful sunshine to power stuff!

Anyway, I got the generator started and I had no 120V power at all. All my breakers were on. I went back outside and checked the power cord. It wasn’t sitting perfectly in the outlet.

One of the converter’s many added bonus features beyond smart charging is that it offers protection against brownouts and spikes. I imagine that a cord not being plugged in properly would act like one of those. The new converter caught that error and wouldn’t let me power the rig. Wow!

Other benefits of the new converter:

-reverse battery protection (in case I go crazy and decide to reverse the leads on the batteries)

-electronic current limiting (if I try to run too many amps at once, the converter will shut down rather than trip a breaker)

-the new DC board has red LEDs underneath the fuses. If a fuse blows, the LED will turn on. No more wrestling with the OHM setting on the multimetre to figure out which fuse needs to go!

There is also a button to override the converter’s choice of charging mode, which is not recommended except to test that the converter is working correctly. I used the button and confirmed that my new toy knows what it’s doing.

I’m really annoyed that the inverter only works during the day, when I get the added voltage boost from the sun. Then again, maybe that’s the point? Use the inverter then and run the genny a few hours during the evening? That does feel rather silly since the point of an effective solar charging setup is to start the evening with fully charged batteries so you DON’T need to use the generator. Anyway, I know that the inverter problems have absolutely nothing to do with me or the upgrades I’ve done, so they won’t stop me from getting a good night’s sleep. 🙂