Checking a suspect Charge Controller

[Tequilla6]

Hi All,

I have a small setup on my RV which has 1 x 120Watt panel (XM120 120W monocrystalline solar panel)and an existing Alden 80Watt panel (French) advised as the same on the roof, a Juta 12V 30A MPPT Regulator and 3 x 125Ah Elecsol Batteries. I monitor with a BM-1 battery monitor.

I have a reading of 19.7v on the input to the Charge Controller. The controller has Three LEDs, 2 of which are on. The Red LED "On" states charge and from the manual I am told it is charging the batteries. The red battery low LED is "Off" and the green load LED is "On" showing that there is a load.

The BM-1 is showing the batteries to be at 12.2V which is confirmed on the Load output and battery terminals of the charge controller whilst the inverter is on and powering my laptop. Now turning off the inverter the battery monitor is showing the batteries off load at 12.4v. It is currently 10am and the sun is quite high in the sky, but all the Battery Monitor is sensing from the Charge controller is 0.9amp of current input. It does fluctuate and can reach 2.0Amps but I would expect at this level of discharge on the batteries and sun position that I would be getting a lot more amps than I am seeing being sent to the batteries.

I have convinced myself that there is something wrong with the charge controller, but would appreciate any advice on confirming my suspicions by a more valid check of the charge controller or the rest of the system or a helpful pointer in a direction I have not thought of to help resolve the issue.

Thanks in advance

Tequilla6

[Mike90250]

Generally, MPPT controllers connect first to the battery, to activate their electronics, and after a minute, you connect the solar side. If solar was connected first, the controller may be confused. Try disconnecting all for 5 minutes, and then in the order I suggest.

If it still does not work, I'd suspect the controller is bad. But check all the settings and jumpers, do a power off as above, and power back on. Maybe it will work.