Received Bluetti ac200p and five-200 watt bluetti portable solar panels on July 23rd, 2021.
Was working great until yesterday. The ac200p can be charged only by car 12 volt, or the wall charging adapter now.
After rechecking the solar panel mc4 connectors (multiple times yesterday and today) it charged (2 different times) for a few minutes then just stops charging. Mostly the panels will not charge the ac200p.
Can’t get a reading from my Multimeter on any of the panels. Not sure if I’m doing it correctly.
Sorry for the inconvenience. It might be the problem of MC4 cable. You can go to service@bluettipower.com to describe your problem, and the same time, provide your order number and they will give you a replacement of MC4 cable. if you have any question, feel free to contact us.
Extremely unlikely that five panels are all bad. When you checked for voltage from each panel, did you do it one at a time and connect the multi meter to the MC4 ends of the output cable on each panel? If you connected all five panels in series and a single panel was bad for some reason then that could stop the flow from all the panels. If you are getting voltage from each panel individually, then it is probably a poorly snapped together MC4 connection. You can charge with two panels. Connect two verified voltage panels in series and try again. If that worked, keep andding one panel at a time. Your AC200 must be in PV mode in the settings and the sun must be shining. Incoming voltage should appear on the screen and about 30 seconds later, charging will begin. What was being displayed on your screen? Pics? More details about your setup?
Thanks for responding. I found that one of the panels stopped working. I tried to test each panel individually (five sp200) with the Multimeter and didn’t get a reading for any of them, so I think I’m using the Multimeter wrong. I checked the mc4 connections and how it’s contacts the wire and they are solid.
I connected with Bluetti via email and after providing video they are sending a replacement panel to me.
But… just yesterday (September 6th, 2021), a second panel stopped working. I’m fulltime off the grid living so I’m using the panels everyday to charge the ac200p. The panels have a 2 year warranty but so far I’m not confident these will last after having a panel fail within 30 days and now a 2nd one fails almost 2 weeks after the first.
It sounds more like the connectors are not fully snapped shut or a cable issue. Not likely that random panels will stop working. It is prob something simple like a poor connection. Regarding the meter you want to select DC volts and then Take each of the leads so that you’re touching both of the solar panel wires. It doesn’t really matter which you touch the red or the black to read a voltage. If it reads a negative voltage it means you have the red and black reversed but reading any voltage will let you know if the solar panel is out putting
3 panels were working fine this morning, now another panel has stopped working. Down to two working panels out of five. I ordered new MC4 connectors that will be delivered to nearby Amazon locker this Friday. Once I get the new connectors I will replace and see if the panels charge again.
The replacement sp200 panel is ready to pick up at UPS. I will try using the Multimeter on the replacement when I get back. I can post pictures.
What’s the difference between the SP and PV series of panels? The PV seem like they are bundled and the SP are not. Strange since they are priced similarly. THANKS!
Sorry for this late response. Bluetti offered to refund me for the 5 panels. Since I only had one working panel from the original 5, I decided to get the refund rather than get replacements. I shipped all 6 panels (one was a replacment) back and confirmed all panels were received to the shipping label provided by Bluetti.
Hopefully I will receive the refund soon as the panels were received on September 17th. I have been informed on September 23rd to allow 72 hours before I will get a refund to my credit card. I checked today but haven’t been refunded yet.
No complaints on the ac200p, that has worked great.
I would love to hear back from Bluetti service what they found on the five returned panels. I would bet Mike Briney at least $3.27 that all five panels will be outputting the correct voltage and no problem can be found.
@Scott-Benson I do like to gamble from time to time… but in this case, im tappin’ out bub! Haha
@BLUETTI could send them to me and I’ll run some diagnostics on them? I’ll even upload some YouTube gold showing my results to provide a potential learning situation to help save shipping/refund hassles in the future for other “faulty” units.
Thank you for your support!
I am sorry that the return solar panels could not be sent to you. Because we are not sure whether they damage your devices for you to run some diagnostics or not. And the solar panels might have been muddled with others. It may be difficult to find out.
Thanks again Mike!
