Hi all,
I have my AC180 connected to a 100W solar panel on top of my van. In early morning, the AC180 will start to click every couple seconds. It sounds like an internal relay is trying to activate, but then the activated load is too high to sustain the relay and it turns off again (a brownout condition?). It is a bit annoying while trying to sleep, and I end up unplugging the solar panel to make it stop. Anyone else notice this? Is this normal? Is it doing any damage to the AC180 if left over long-term? Any ways to stop this other than unplugging the solar panel (I’d rather leave it plugged in so that I don’t forget to plug it back in later).
Thanks!
The wattage is insufficient to hold the relay open. I don’t know of a way other than to disconnect the insufficient electrical source.
What is the Voltage level when this is happening? If it is dropping close to or below 12V then the MPPT charger will keep turning off and on during low sunlight conditions. An easy fix would be to add another 100 watt panel in series or swap it out for a bigger panel.
I don’t know the voltage, but I’m sure that it is very low, well under 12 volts, because this happens at dawn, before the sun is even up.
I did find another post on this issue, and it sounds like Bluetti provided the original poster a firmware update that solved the problem for them. So hopefully that update gets made available to everyone at some point.
Here is the other post that deals with and solves this issue: My AC180 makes strange click noises - #16 by jack893
@BradMitchellPhotography @BLUETTI_CARE Bluetti has provided a firmware for testing that resolves the issue. There are some other issues. Not perfect firmware. If that’s okay with you, you should get the firmware from bluetti.