siemens sr100 solar panels..

[pete36330]

anyone have a diagram on properly hooking up the solar panel to a chinese EPRC-ST,12v or 24v autowork controller /charger..the panel is putting out 17.7 volts to the charger ,,to the battery terminal its putting 15.4 volts ..when you hook it up to the batteries,,3-12v deep cycle marine batteries ..it puts out 12.0 volts ..both green lights are "on" the charger indicating that its working ,,,the batteries are not charging ..Any suggestions??  thanks ..I 'm a newby at this,,Pete

[Jerry32]

All I can tell you is the minus from the panels should not be connected to anything but through the controller. Depending on what the controller is supposed to be is should be giving more than `12 volts to the batteries.  Jerry

[Len Silva]

It could be that nothing is wrong except the batteries are low and it's trying to charge them.

What is the battery voltage without the charger hooked up?
Can you put an ammeter in the circuit to see what is happening.  The panels are rated at about 5 amps.  That's not much if the batteries are very low.  It could take a very long time at that rate.

Try connecting only one battery for a few days and see what happens.  It should get up to 13.5 or better but it might take a while.

[JohnEd]

Everything Len said,

Connect the charger to a fully charged bat and check for "fully charged FLOAT" voltage and I think that is 13.5.

John

[pete36330]

thanks for all the advice ..I'll start in the morning,,checking...