Hello everyone! I have removed the "Corporate Corner" and "Group Buy" sections. I created these groups to allow businesses to post as they wish, for self-promotion or otherwise. I thought it was a good idea at first, but it has created a few problems:
Problem #1: Vendors use this website to...
The first rule of this forum forbids using affiliate links. Today I had to delete 4 members and all of their past posts for this reason. And a senior member is going through his past posts right now and removing them.
If you see someone using an affiliate link, be sure to use the report feature...
Last few days were tough, and we were slammed with thousands of posts by spam profiles. Not a fun time for me and the other mods.
This morning I found a spam comment management tool that works with our forum software. It is called akismet, and it's $100 annually. I am hoping this fixes the...
This functionality was removed due to bad behavior from a few members over a year ago. It is being reinstated, but use it responsibly.
On this forum in the past, full-grown adults would throw temper tantrums about lead acid vs. lithium or soldering vs. crimping, would get very angry during the...
If you had a bad experience with a vendor, you can post your experience in this forum. But be sure to follow the guidelines below to avoid problems:
You need to provide evidence of your claims (email threads with the company, videos of the faulty equipment, return shipping experience and...
Code of Conduct
Advertising is not allowed. Affiliate links, self promotion, spam etc, will result in a permanent ban and your IP address will be listed. It is ok to post basic links to products you like, but if we find that you are a shill, you will be banned.
Posts should stay on topic. If...
This forum is a fantastic place to complain about companies and solar products. That is one of the main reasons I created it.
And you will always be able to post your bad experiences and evidence without any corporate interest or bias. I love hearing your bad experiences, and it creates...
New to Solar? Watch these videos! They will help you understand the basics :)
If you are a complete beginner and want to understand the basics of electricity, watch this video:
If the video above was too easy and you want to understand how to calculate and size various components in your...
1. Ignore Content
If you do not like a forum (for example, solar water pumps), you can hide the entire page from your interface!
This can allow you to clean up the forum to see only the content that you are interested in.
If you ignore a group and wish to see it again, this option will be...
Finally reviewed it! People asked me repeatedly, and I was too busy with the solar shed. For the last few days, I tested it like crazy..
And I love it! I should have tested it months ago. Works extremely well, and it's fool proof. I pushed it to every limit, and if it cut off, it would restart...
I didn't realize it until last night, but I think this battery is pretty sweet. The look, form factor, busbar with quick connectors, communication ability, internal heaters, outdoor rated and the list goes on.
Now I want to dump my server rack batteries. Which one would you rather have. This...
Story time!
Before I created this forum, I was posting frequently on other solar energy forums, and I was blocked from nearly every single one because I would complain about problems I had with my equipment. Or I would be critical of someone giving bad advice.
I also complained about the ads...
Each row is a string. These two strings of panels are in parallel and connected to victron MPPT. You can see that the last panel is shaded:
420VDC. So plenty of voltage and the last panel in the string is shaded, but only producing 200W for both strings!
Now wait 30 minutes..
The shading...
Here are some new rules that I would like to present:
If you do not know the answer to someones question, do not reply to a thread. Responding to every thread with more questions, or trying to answer something that you do not 100% understand, can be misleading for beginners. If you wish to...
Spent the last few days and tonight testing BMS:
1. The "new" daly LiFePO4 BMS (that states in the data sheet that it has low temp charging protection) does not have low temp charging protection. And yes, it has a temp sensor attached. This disappointed me big time. Video to come.
2. Next, I...
Today I headed back to RE+ to get some better pictures of this thing. It is massive!
And heavy. If you were to make a 16S 51.2V battery with these cells, it would come in at 421 pounds!
I also took pictures of their other cells:
EVE LF 100MA:
EVE LF 280K
And the LF 306K:
After posting links to MPP manuals, and experiencing dead links every few months, I uploaded the manuals directly to my website: https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/all-in-one-solar-power-packages1.html
I am also attaching the most common PIP LV model manuals to this post. If I were you, I would...
For the last 7 weeks I have been renovating my new house and building up a new solar workshop on the side. It is huge! Thought I should share:
Here's some photos. I need to add a lot more and organize, but you get the idea:
So I took every EPEver/Victron/PWM/Renogy solar charge controller, and tried to fry it by connecting it only to solar panels, and not to a battery... guess which one survived?
EVERY SINGLE ONE! I couldn't destroy any of them, and I left them connected to a high voltage array (80 volts) for 4+...
Man these things were expensive, but the install was quite easy. They absolutely need more pictures and someone to rewrite the manual though.
One of my condenser units had a coresense logic module, so I had to connect it to an off-grid system 240V supply, fire up the Bluetooth and change the...
New section is now available under the general discussion category. You can find it here: https://diysolarforum.com/forums/job-posting-corner.85/
Finding people who have experience with low voltage DC, LiFePO4 battery installation or marine electronics can be a nightmare. So I figured it would...
It is a 6x10 Tuff Shed. Total cost was 2,500 bucks. It will have air conditioning to keep my LiFePO4 battery collection nice and happy. I will install a MASSIVE 48v 5kw system in it (this one). It will serve as a backup system for my house if the grid were to fail for prolonged duration. And as...
Yesterday I ran a few polls to see what the customer support satisfaction was between Sol Ark and Signature Solar. I was expecting Sol Ark to have zero complaints, but more people had issues with them than with signature solar!
To sum up the results:
Signature Solar-
19% of voters had an...