Understanding the Control Panel and migration to the MPPT

[cuchillo]

Hello,

Today I have been looking at the control panel and getting my head around the various wires. I present it here with what I understand to be what each wire does in the hope that you will either confirm my understanding or educate me

First some pictures of what the back of the control panel looks like:


And


Then a picture of the clutch of wires and the fuse-box that it goes to/from:


Now the same picture with my understanding of what each wire does:


If my understanding of the above is correct, the wire with the yellow push fit (numbered 1) is the primary source of power for the whole habitation section of the conversion.

Also, is it safe to assume that this:


Is where all the negatives of the various items congregate? If so, once I identify which of those 5 black wires does go back to the -ve terminal of the battery I will then have identified the +ve and -ev from the LB into the habitation section.

Once that is done, could I then replace that connection with a feed from this:

To then feed off the MPPT so that I get an "accurate" reading of the drain of the various electrical items that are connected to the control panel?

Many thanks

Cuch

[g8dhe]

Is it a Zig Marque 1 panel you have ? It looks very similar layout but slightly different construction to mine.
Using the Load terminals from the MPPT is a nice idea but don't expect the MPPT to know ANTHING about the battery status as you also have a Split Charge Relay and so charging of the battery doesn't take place solely via the MPPT, also its likely that if you have a swap loom in place then there will be load on the battery that isn't monitored via the MPPT anyway.
The MPPT Load terminals are really only of use if its the sole source of charging and load distribution, think of solar powered traffic lights or a small house installation in rural areas without any mains supply where the only connection to the battery is direct to the MPPT, and all loads come from the MPPT load terminals. Then the battery status may have some relevance (not necessarily a lot as its doesn't know the battery temperature!!) but is a reasonable approximation provided its software can detect the fully charged state and is setup with the correct battery capacity information.

[cuchillo]

Hello,

Is it a Zig Marque 1 panel you have ?

Its one of these:

Using the Load terminals from the MPPT is a nice idea but don't expect the MPPT to know ANTHING about the battery status as you also have a Split Charge Relay and so charging of the battery doesn't take place solely via the MPPT, also its likely that if you have a swap loom in place then there will be load on the battery that isn't monitored via the MPPT anyway.

Oh yes, I am under no illusions that I will get a full picture of this drain on the battery. I hope that it will just be a start to monitoring the drain. I hope to build on it as I dig further into the system.

I have also ordered on of these:

from eBay. No idea if its any good, but I do have a spare 12 volt battery that I can test it on. Assuming that it works I'll put it directly on to the LB so that I can compare the drain at the LB end to that at the MPPT end.

The MPPT Load terminals are really only of use if its the sole source of charging and load distribution, think of solar powered traffic lights or a small house installation in rural areas without any mains supply where the only connection to the battery is direct to the MPPT, and all loads come from the MPPT load terminals. Then the battery status may have some relevance (not necessarily a lot as its doesn't know the battery temperature!!) but is a reasonable approximation provided its software can detect the fully charged state and is setup with the correct battery capacity information.

I hope, with time, to move all the drains on the LB to the MPPT so that the LB will only one set of output wires to the MPPT and 3 sets of input wires (from the VSR, Solar and EHU).

Of course if that widget from eBay is any good then I will not need the MPPT load monitor as all.

Time will tell....

Cuch