1998 Adventurer Factory Installed Solar Wiring

[Bjwinspect]

Does anyone know the wiring details for the small solar panel that was a factory option?  I know it goes from the panel to the indicator that is on the wall beneath the thermostat. (I know it is not a sophisticated controller like on a better system)  This indicator has a light that is supposed to tell if it is working.. my light does not come on, but a millimeter shows 18 +/- volts from the solar panel.  There are what I assume are also  resistors  on the indicator as the voltage drops after passing through it.    I do not get any voltage on the other wires coming to this indicator .. so either they are not connected to the battery or there is a diode somewhere else in this wiring.    My question is where do the wires go after leaving this indicator or more details on how this original system is set up?  I have looked at the online wiring diagrams.. and have not been successful in figuring the solar wiring out

 

[John Canfield]

If you have the "OnePlace" panel with the tank monitors, the solar panel is wired to that board I think through a diode to prevent discharging the batteries when there is no sun. There is also an LED indicator on that board, you can see details on my web page when I was replacing the tank sensors with a Garnet system: http://janeandjohn.org/pages/SeeLevel7.html I cut out the solar panel part of the circuit board to reuse.

Having said all of that, that little solar panel for all intents and purposes is useless and not worth your time to troubleshoot.

 

[Bjwinspect]

Thanks for the reply... my led light is not on the same panel with the tank monitors... .I know the existing solar panel is almost useless... I am just trying to figure out how they had it connected to the battery for some changes I am in the process of making.

 

[John Hilley]

I believe the wire connecting that panel to the battery is too small to be very useful. On my One Place panel, there is some voltage drop from battery to meter compared to measuring at the battery.