I'm going to try that when I get home tonight and see what happens.Ye I agree with DWH a lot of controllers are positive ground. Make sure that the panels and the controller are not earthed except through the battery lead.
I've been reading more about the positive ground and I am grasping it....I think. It certainly sounds like that is my issue. I am really surprised at the limited amount of information accessible via Google regarding this topic. Solar has been around for a very long time as has positive grounding. I get there is an issue with two different "grounds" and differing pontentials causing issues with eachother. I guess the terminology is the confusing part. Looking at circuit flow and ignoring the "ground" verbiage it makes more sense. I'm looking forward to getting home and hooking up the negative side to the controller and see what happens.I'm going to try that when I get home tonight and see what happens.Ye I agree with DWH a lot of controllers are positive ground. Make sure that the panels and the controller are not earthed except through the battery lead.
Scooter...
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This might explain why the ambulance wiring has had me baffled more than once since the beginning. Almost all the switches have been on the negative side. I did not get why, I just went with it. Or, I'm reading too much into the problems I've had with the truck wiring.Yea, it's the use of the word "ground" that leads to confusion. Technically it means planet, but we normally don't connect vehicles to the planet, except for incoming mains power which should already be grounded.
In vehicles, solar panels and charge controllers, what it means is, "the unswitched side".
In a "negative-ground" system, like a (non-British ) vehicle, the unswitched side is negative. All the switches that do stuff are in the positive lines.
In a "positive-ground" system it's the opposite.
So, in a "positive-ground" charge controller, all the positives (solar, battery, load) are hard-wired together, and it's the negatives which have the switches to do stuff. (In a solar panel it means the pos is hard-wired and the bypass diodes switch the negs.)
So with a positive-ground charge controller, by connecting the battery and solar pos to the charge controller they become hard-wired together. Then when you connect the solar panel neg to the chassis, where the battery neg is already connected, you create a bypass (full or partial) around the controller because now the solar +/- and the battery +/- are both hard-wired together.
This might explain why the ambulance wiring has had me baffled more than once since the beginning. Almost all the switches have been on the negative side. I did not get why, I just went with it. Or, I'm reading too much into the problems I've had with the truck wiring.
Scooter...
You and me both!I don't have any solar stuff yet, but I've paid particular attention to this situation, and even saved the thread for future reference. I learned something here, and I'm glad that solved your problem. Hopefully, this will prevent me from making the same mistake when I do my install.
My thanks to the 'help' also!