Hi, Any ideas why my new AC180 is not showing charging from solar panels. The unit shows charge from ac. input. The DC7909 plug reads power when tested with multimeter. Panels are producing 41vdc, 7.5ams and 307 watts which should be in spec. The cables from panels are DIY MC4 connect cable. any chance polarity could be wrong for connection to DC7909 plug, but plug is reading power?Any ideas on what fixes/further testing I can do?
Thanks
@Earl can you try plugging your panel into a different unit to see if you do have an issue with your wiring? How are you getting your "41vdc/7,5a/307 watts figures? Are you running them thru an external mppt charge controller or something? If this is the case, you will need to bypass the external charge controller as the AC180 has one built in internally.
Thanks, Used a multimeter to measure voltage and amps at the DC7909 solar input plug when connected to panels. Panels have no controller. I have ordered a new solar cable (from panels to Bluetti unit) to eliminate any possible issues with my current cable and connectors. I’ll check back when they arrive.
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I have a similar problem. I have the solar panels plugged in and am also charging via the AC grid input port.
I am using this as a UPS for my computers in the office and hope to get extended run time if we
have an electrical grid outage.
The iPhone App shows PV input of 0W and if I put them in series I get 38.1V.
I am delivering 200W+ from the AC grid input to the AC output no problem, but had hoped it would charge
from the PV as well. If I unplug the AC grid input, the PV solar input wattage still shows as zero and it
just drains the battery.
Do I have to discharge the batteries below some threshold before it starts to use the PV input
to charge or get power?
Hi @jcwagar
welcome to the bluetti community forum and thanks for your question!
The Solarpanels needs to be between 12V and 60V to start charging and not destroy the MPPT.
38V should be just fine. Solar should work at every batterylevel.
So lets confirm a few thing:
- Within MPPT Input range?
- Does the display show a Solarpanel when connect the series connection?
- App and display show 0W Input with disconnected AC source?
- Using the Bluetti MC4 to DC Round Plug cable?
- Check wires. Using a MC4 extender cable? Check the voltage at the end of the extension!
greetings
Erik
-Yes it shows the solar panel at the upper left.
-
yes, when I unplug the AC grid, the App shows PV 0W (and the Grid too of course)
and the input watts on the front panel goes to 0000. -
the App’s animation shows flow from the battery, but just 0W.
-
I think the wiring and connections must be fine since the App shows the 39V and the solar icon is at top left of front panel.
-
when I reconnect the grid, it draws 1KW+ from the grid while recharging
and the App’s nimation shows both flow from the PV 0W, and 1KW Grid -
once back at 100% battery, the App grid and front panel readings settle to ~200W
so all the power must be coming from the grid. -
animations still show flow from Grid and PV but again, 0W for the PV.
I appear to only be allowed to upload one photo here.
I am concerned that this machine is probably out of warranty and has a problem drawing power from the PV
The MPPT controller provides a charge but the BMS negotiates whether the battery even needs a charge. If you are at the top end of your SOC it may simply think the battery is already full and doesn’t need charging. Can you try discharging the battery considerably, unplugging your solar panel, then plugging it back in. The good news is every single AC180 right now is still under warranty because it has a 5 year warranty and its release date was June 2023 which is just over 2 years old right now. Provided you bought it from Bluetti directly or an authorized channel, you should quality for a repair, provided the damage you did was not voidable (such as you overvoltaged the unit from plugging in too much solar)
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I have now resolved my problem by performing a firmware update on the AC180.
My solar panel is now able to charge the battery.
It is not providing as much wattage as I expected, but it IS working.
Glad to hear @jcwagar . Be advised a lot of solar manufactures rate their panel based on Standard Test Conditions (STC) which is not reflective of real world performance and instead is lab-based standard which essentially establishes what the theoretical maximum a panel can output under ideal conditions. In other words, this is the best you will ever get, under perfect conditions, not what you will typically see.
NOCT (Nominal Operating Cell Temperature) testing on the other hand, reflects more realistic operating conditions, offering a better estimate of what a panel will produce in the field. It’s generally 15-20% below STC. So if a STC panel is rated at 350 watts, its really a 280 watt panel. My newer Bluetti PV350D under perfect alignment in the summer gave me exactly 280 watts.
I am not entirely sure that the AC180 charging circuit is OK.
I am very dissatisfied with this.
The solar panel I plugged into it is supposed to be 200W.
When I unplugged the grid and waited for it to discharge to 50%
and then connected the panel, it was only charging at 35W.
Surely it should have done at least 50W or 100W, even with the STC rating being lower.
That is certainly not normal. If you have the ability to test the same panel with a willing guinea pig peer you can determine if the issue is indeed the solar panel or the power station. Likewise if they have a solar panel that is compatible with your AC180 they are willing to let you plug in to test the power station itself, you can also do that. I’m topping off my 12V fridge right now with my Bluetti PV200 panel on a completely overcast day (no sun) with Sun at 40 degrees, and I’m getting 35W, but that’s under very poor conditions. If all you are getting is this under sunny conditions, definitely not normal.
Yes I am getting this under sunny conditions.
I tried a different 100W solar panel and I only get about 5W out of it.
I am prepared to be unimpressed by the call to Bluetti regarding this.
I don’t want to lug this AC180 out of the office to the car and try and plug it into the 12V
there to see what happens, but I guess they will insist I try that.
If a firmware update does not resolve your issue it is very likely you have something internally wrong within the internal charging circuits or something similar. It is possible for AC side to charge the battery fine, but the PV/DC side not be fine. I wouldn’t hesitate to send it back.