Goal Zero Yeti 400 Experiences?

snowblind

snowblind

Adventurer
Dannn said:
The anderson ports on the Yeti 400 are a direct connection to the battery through a fuse, there is one fuse for each port. I think it was a 30A, can't recall from the last time I opened it up for some exploratory surgery :p (I'm in the process of modding my yeti 400 with extra ports and such). The anderson ports do not go through the controlling circuitry in the Yeti.
This means two things: 1. you won't get any of the features of the electronics such as the over discharge protection and watts in/out when using this port. 2. you are getting direct access to the battery in parallel to the rest of the system.
However, you will be able to use the built in battery level indicator.

Just treat the anderson ports as if you are connecting directly to the battery and it will be fine. As long as you trust the external charge controller you will be okay. The only thing to watch out for is not to use the stock 8mm input while you are charging with the external charge controller, that is don't charge from the internal controller and the external controller at the same time.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Always good to know the ways to bypass the system in case of failure!

Dannn said:
You are right that it would make no sense to make an adapter that went from the renogy charge controller to the 8mm port. Solar panel->charge controller->charge controller->battery. It will be redundant and I doubt the external charge controller will be able to read the battery voltage through the internal charge controller. Not to mention you will lose energy through extra connections and voltage regulation of two charge controllers.
Click to expand...

Thanks for confirming.


Matt
 
J

joen05

New member
Hey All,

I just picked up a couple of Yeti 400's from the Amazon deal. I just opened them up and I noticed a few things:

1. The charging light is different on each one. One has a blue light, the other has a green light. Is this an indication of different panel (one is newer, one is older?)? I talked to Goal Zero and they said it's just different manufacturers, but I noticed on this thread someone said their repaired Yeti has blue lights instead.

2. The Power supplies hum like crazy, and are pretty hot. Proprietary connection, so was wondering if anyone had any luck in mitigating this.

Looking forward to using this for some tailgating this summer, and for backup power in the winter in case of power outages.
 
snowblind

snowblind

Adventurer
joen05 said:
Hey All,

I just picked up a couple of Yeti 400's from the Amazon deal. I just opened them up and I noticed a few things:

1. The charging light is different on each one. One has a blue light, the other has a green light. Is this an indication of different panel (one is newer, one is older?)? I talked to Goal Zero and they said it's just different manufacturers, but I noticed on this thread someone said their repaired Yeti has blue lights instead.

2. The Power supplies hum like crazy, and are pretty hot. Proprietary connection, so was wondering if anyone had any luck in mitigating this.

Looking forward to using this for some tailgating this summer, and for backup power in the winter in case of power outages.
Click to expand...

I posted on the front panel change. ALL the newest GZ devices have Blue lights for charging. Your one with a Green light IS older but may not be different in any other way. My Yeti was over 2 years old.

The A/C chargers SUCK. Buzzy and hot. Myself and others have adapted cables to allow connecting to the 8mm port. Check pages 7 and 8 of this thread. I have not tried to replace the A/C charger per say because I don't use it much. Instead I turned to solar and I maximized my ability to charge from a vehicle. See this set up at http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/142417-Ultimate-Goal-Zero-In-Car-charging



Matt
 
J

joen05

New member
snowblind said:
I posted on the front panel change. ALL the newest GZ devices have Blue lights for charging. Your one with a Green light IS older but may not be different in any other way. My Yeti was over 2 years old.

The A/C chargers SUCK. Buzzy and hot. Myself and others have adapted cables to allow connecting to the 8mm port. Check pages 7 and 8 of this thread. I have not tried to replace the A/C charger per say because I don't use it much. Instead I turned to solar and I maximized my ability to charge from a vehicle. See this set up at http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/142417-Ultimate-Goal-Zero-In-Car-charging



Matt
Click to expand...

Matt - thanks for the info.

I think I might get one of the chargers replaced because it's free (I think), and one of them is really loud. The end goal is to charge using solar only - right now I am looking for a good deal on panels. I am thinking of getting the renogy solar suitcase w/o the charge controller and adding mc4 connectors (when I bring it to tailgate). Do you or anyone have experience with that particular panel? It seems to be more on the expensive end but I don't think their regular panels are very portable (I have a sedan). They may work nicely for home though.

What did you do to wire the yeti in your vehicle? I'm looking at the thread you pointed me to and I think that would be great, but I'm not very versed (yet) in the electrical system of my car.

Edit: I read a little further back and see what you did... how much did that installation run you?

Joe
 
Last edited:
C

calicamper

Expedition Leader
joen05 said:
Matt - thanks for the info.

I think I might get one of the chargers replaced because it's free (I think), and one of them is really loud. The end goal is to charge using solar only - right now I am looking for a good deal on panels. I am thinking of getting the renogy solar suitcase w/o the charge controller and adding mc4 connectors (when I bring it to tailgate). Do you or anyone have experience with that particular panel? It seems to be more on the expensive end but I don't think their regular panels are very portable (I have a sedan). They may work nicely for home though.

What did you do to wire the yeti in your vehicle? I'm looking at the thread you pointed me to and I think that would be great, but I'm not very versed (yet) in the electrical system of my car.

Edit: I read a little further back and see what you did... how much did that installation run you?

Joe
Click to expand...

Hey Joe I just built my own power system. I think knowing your power needs should be sorted out before you pick your panels especially if stowage space is limited while on the move. I have no idea what your power needs are but in my case I have two very compact 10watt renogy panels which I charge an 18ah battery that sits in a 50caliber ammo box with a solar controller, fuse block etc. Our power use is for some LED lighting max burn would be just over 3amps per hour if every light we had was turned on which will not be a very common situation. Then we have a 12volt charging hub which we use to charge various small stuff like camera, cellphone, Ipad and maybe on rare occasions a laptop etc. I figure our non solar generation hours worst case we might burn 8-10 amps of battery capacity over night and even on the foggy coastal CA I found that we were charged up and in great shape by the end of the day when only 2-3 hours were fog free. Now keep in mind my power use is very very minimal.

Knowing what your power needs could have a dramatic impact on the panel choice you need, possible you may find that going smaller will be fine. Also I went with two 10watt panels given I wanted the smallest packed size possible and knew that I could add another 10watt if needed etc. I think in your case it sounds like smaller panels and having one or maybe even three might fit your packing space situation a little better also. Which case I would even consider just buying a case and mounting your panel of your choice in the case if you wanted to go that route. Right now I keep my small panels in their shipping boxes but will eventually either get a laptop style canvas bag with padding to store the panels or possibly make a simple wood compact box to stow them and protect them while on the road.
 
J

joen05

New member
calicamper said:
Hey Joe I just built my own power system. I think knowing your power needs should be sorted out before you pick your panels especially if stowage space is limited while on the move. I have no idea what your power needs are but in my case I have two very compact 10watt renogy panels which I charge an 18ah battery that sits in a 50caliber ammo box with a solar controller, fuse block etc. Our power use is for some LED lighting max burn would be just over 3amps per hour if every light we had was turned on which will not be a very common situation. Then we have a 12volt charging hub which we use to charge various small stuff like camera, cellphone, Ipad and maybe on rare occasions a laptop etc. I figure our non solar generation hours worst case we might burn 8-10 amps of battery capacity over night and even on the foggy coastal CA I found that we were charged up and in great shape by the end of the day when only 2-3 hours were fog free. Now keep in mind my power use is very very minimal.

Knowing what your power needs could have a dramatic impact on the panel choice you need, possible you may find that going smaller will be fine. Also I went with two 10watt panels given I wanted the smallest packed size possible and knew that I could add another 10watt if needed etc. I think in your case it sounds like smaller panels and having one or maybe even three might fit your packing space situation a little better also. Which case I would even consider just buying a case and mounting your panel of your choice in the case if you wanted to go that route. Right now I keep my small panels in their shipping boxes but will eventually either get a laptop style canvas bag with padding to store the panels or possibly make a simple wood compact box to stow them and protect them while on the road.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the information - I plan to at some point soon test what I am looking to plug into the Yetis and see what sort of draw I am getting. I'm looking forward to learning more about this. I know where to go to get good information and answers to my questions though!
 
C

calicamper

Expedition Leader
joen05 said:
Thank you for the information - I plan to at some point soon test what I am looking to plug into the Yetis and see what sort of draw I am getting. I'm looking forward to learning more about this. I know where to go to get good information and answers to my questions though!
Click to expand...

I found it to be pretty fun to sort out the solar and power system once I figured out the basics. I think as a general basic way to look at power and solar you do this.

Battery Amp hour rating is your fuel tank
The Yeti 400 is rated at around 33Ah capacity.
Figure that you can easily burn about 80% of those 33ah before your reaching the empty zone.

It seems that for every 10watts of solar panel capacity you can count on for sure having about .5 amps per hour say a little less in cloudy conditions etc. Then figure peak solar regardless of clouds summer time in the US we probably can count on about 4-5hrs of pretty solid solar power.

So when you start to figure out your power needs add up your amp hours burned then figure out what sized solar panel will generate enough amps in say 8hrs of day light to replace the amps you use.

My worst case use I figure 10-12amps burned during a solar cycle and in perfect CA conditions my two little 10watt panels will almost meet that demand given in perfect conditions I see about 1amp per hour off them and the morning and late afternoons it trails off of course. My typical power use seems to be more in the 6-9amp use range which means under normal situations and use my little panels will do just fine. Granted I can always add one more for about a .5amp increase per hour of charging ability. But so far I think we are doing OK with just the two little panels. Also you have a nice 33ah capacity which helps if you have some crummy weather and solar generation isn't so great for a portion of the time you need to have them generating power etc.
 
J

joen05

New member
So I'm running into an issue and I'm hoping someone can maybe help me out here.

I got one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Foldab...5949840&sr=8-1&keywords=renogy+solar+suitcase

Without a charge controller to charge my Yeti 400. Without the charge controller, it comes with a short amount of bare wire, which looks to be either 14 or 16 AWG. I got these to give them an MC4 connection instead. I used ANCOR step down butt connectors to connect the two ends. The grape solar have 12 AWG bare wire at the end.

http://www.amazon.com/Grape-Solar-G...id=1435949921&sr=8-1&keywords=grape+solar+mc4

I then got the Goal Zero MC4 to 8mm adapter to connect to the new MC4 connections and then finally into the Yeti. I got this all wired up and put it into the sun, but the yeti is reading no input. Does anyone know what might be causing this?

I'm considering finding an electrician to take care of all the connections for me professionally maybe. I might just be doing this wrong.

Any advice would be helpful.
 
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