Ring RSCDC30 not sensing solar

Londonboii

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I have just installed a Ring RSCDC30 in my van and it is always on error E0 and it is not sensing the supply from my solar panels. I have 2 160W solar panels setup in Parallel.

I have read the manual and E0 fault refers to the source battery being too low. When I start the van it will come out of standby/Sleep mode so I assume this is due to the battery being lower than the controller wants on the van side. The van will start just fine so it must be just under what the controller wants. This is likely to be as I havent driven anywhere recently and I guess I will have to take this out and charge it overnight. However shouldnt the controller still function and charge the batteries from the Solar panels regardless of the source battery voltage?

Is it possible to have the batteries charge from solar even if the vehicle battery is low/disconnected?

When the van is started and the controller comes on it does not seem to be sensing the solar panels at all. Despite them being correctly installed (as far as I know). When I check the voltage at the PV connection on the controller it shows just above 20v. I have set it to prioritise the solar input and even though there is voltage from the solar panels the solar or MPPT symbols on the screen do not show. When I stop the van it will stay active for a while then go in to E0 mode and then sleep.

Is this indicative of something wrong with the installation / solar panels / batteries or a fault with the controller? Or is it simply that the vehicle battery is too low? Is there an order to connecting the wires I may have missed that could cause this?

Hope that makes sense, any help greatly appreciated.
 
Check with Phil (admin) but I think you need a free software update from Ring. Does just pushing a few buttons kick it into life? It sounds like the same, but opposite problem I had.

Their tech support guy is also very helpful, if he's working at the moment.
 
No once it's in sleep nothing will happen except the fault code showing no matter how many buttons I press.
To get to go through the options etc I have to start the van for a bit.
 
The E0 code means that there is no charge voltage that is high enough to start the charger. If your engine is not running and there is no solar then it will go to sleep/display E0. You should NOT have solar priority on as this will stop the alternator charging your batteries if there is even a little sunlight.

Personally I would:
1) disconnect the solar
2) Connect the starter battery feed to the solar inputs
3) Start the engine

If the unit does not start changing the batteries then it may be a faulty unit. If it does start charging then it is an issue with the solar.

Phil
 
Understood regarding the battery not having power to start the charger.

If the battery is flat, but the solar is giving 20v at the connection to the controller then shouldnt that power start the charging process? Regardless of the voltage on the battery?

It does charge when the van is running.

It's not showing any sign it can sense the voltage from the solar at all. But a multimeter on the positive and negative wires at the controller shows 20v. Which means from the panels up to the controller the solar is ok right?
 
Sorry just reread and noticed the suggestion to put the battery into the PC connections.

I will try that.

That sort of answers my question. I assume that means if it senses one of the connections has power itll charge using it. The priority being the one it uses when both are available.

Thanks
 
Ok, so I put the battery into the pv connections.

It came on. Without the van started.

Solar symbol mppt etc the whole thing.

Why would it come on via the solar connections but not the battery? I guess the dc connections require a higher voltage? (Controller showing the connection is only 12.0V)

So it must be something with the solar then? What would should I check? Its showing 20v, I have 2 160w panels connected in parallel as I mentioned.
 
Londonboii said:
Sorry just reread and noticed the suggestion to put the battery into the PC connections.

I will try that.

That sort of answers my question. I assume that means if it senses one of the connections has power itll charge using it. The priority being the one it uses when both are available.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Yes,
The low battery voltage just means that the engine is not running and talking the starter battery above 13.2v.
 
Londonboii said:
Ok, so I put the battery into the pv connections.

It came on. Without the van started.

Solar symbol mppt etc the whole thing.

Why would it come on via the solar connections but not the battery? I guess the dc connections require a higher voltage? (Controller showing the connection is only 12.0V)

So it must be something with the solar then? What would should I check? Its showing 20v, I have 2 160w panels connected in parallel as I mentioned.
Click to expand...
The solar input will start at between 10v-50v which is why it started straight away.
I would try checking all the joints on the solar setup, just because you have 20v does not mean you have any amps. What voltage is at the cables when they are disconnected from the unit, with sunlight on them?
 
And can I just check what size cable you have and how long the run is?
 
The cable is all cable that came originally with the panels. They came with 5m cables on. Its 4mm. I cut the cables down where I needed to on the roof but then reused the same cable right through to the controller.

I have the panels connected together on the roof with MC4 connectors, when disconnected each panel measured at 20v (I will measure again tomorrow because it was 20. Something)

Cables on panels are around 1m long.

The 4x MC4 connections from each panel connect to 2 t branch MC4 connectors. At the 2 t branches the voltage is 20v also

From teh t branches 2 cables go through the roof to a connector block each. Cables are about 1m long (Voltage here still 20v)

From here then down to the controller with cables around 3m long. At the end of which shows 20v.
 
I will check that the positive and negative aren't switched over somewhere along the line. It's the only thing that I couldve done wrong I think.
 
It is quite hard to damage the panels that way so they should be fine.
Check the polarity and make sure all the connections are good.

I have had issues with voltage drop on this unit before, when the system puts the circuit under load it does it straight at full power, this causes a voltage drop if the cabling is not up to the task and the unit disconnects. I think that this will be a cabling/connection problem. It could be reverse polarity and I would check that first.
 
When I had this controller sometimes the solar did not “come out of sleep mode” in the morning when the solar should work. I used to reset it by disconnecting the leisure battery connection and reconnecting,I had an inline fuse near the controller for this reason, this normally started the solar charging again. This is the main reason that I changed to a victron mppt solar controller, and used the ring solely as a B2B charger.
 
Bigshug said:
When I had this controller sometimes the solar did not “come out of sleep mode” in the morning when the solar should work. I used to reset it by disconnecting the leisure battery connection and reconnecting, this normally started the solar charging again. This is the main reason that I changed to a victron mppt solar controller, and used the ring solely as a B2B charger.
Click to expand...
This was a bug in the older firmware versions, if you return it to them they will upgrade it for you.
 
Thanks for that Phil, after the lockdown is over I will get in touch with Ring about that.
 
Bigshug said:
When I had this controller sometimes the solar did not “come out of sleep mode” in the morning when the solar should work. I used to reset it by disconnecting the leisure battery connection and reconnecting,I had an inline fuse near the controller for this reason, this normally started the solar charging again. This is the main reason that I changed to a victron mppt solar controller, and used the ring solely as a B2B charger.
Click to expand...
I have done the same, but when it failed to recognise the solar I found entering and exiting the set up menu worked.
 
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