Does anyone else have to "jump start" your Zamp panels?

Kats

Maybe I am doing this wrong, but...if our battery drains below a certain point, I can plug in the Zamp panels all day long and it won't charge. However, if we hook the trailer up to the tow vehicle and start it up, even for less than 5 minutes, then unplug it, it starts charging. Same thing at home. This morning I had to plug in to short power for about 30 seconds before the Zamp panels started charging. 

Am I doing something wrong here? The manual isn't much help.

Nomad

Any idea what that "certain point" is?
I can't say I've had this happen but I have had to unplug the Zamp, leave it unplugged for a couple of minutes the plug it back in to get it charging - don't have a clue why.
Edit-Add: Doesn't happen very often. Once every couple of months.

Verna

My two year old 80 watt Zamp doesn't do this. I have had the tiny in-line fuse blow. I can understand how once in a blue moon the circuitry might need to be reset by unplugging, waiting and then plugging it up again. 

Kats, do you have another fuse you could replace the original one with? See if that works. It might be a fuse that isn't quite blown. If you have a volt ohm meter, if your held the tips on the quick disconnect on the tongue box, are you seeing a steady flow of voltage, or is it fluctuating? If not, make sure the connectors are tight. 

I did have the prong break off of one of the quick disconnects, you could check both ends to make sure they aren't "trying" to break.

If you check all of the above and it still doesn't work correctly, I would advise calling Zamp. They do have a diagnostic team who can help. John Zamp is a great source of knowledge. Of course, it being a holiday weekend, I wouldn't expect anyone to be available...but you can always make the call. Hopefully Zamp's phone number is on the case or the controller, or Google is your friend

Nomad

Verna - Could it be the battery got too low for the Zamp? There's been other discussions about batteries not taking a charge for that reason. Couldn't the TV charge be higher than the Zamp and be just enough to kick-start it?

Verna

I honestly don't think that is the problem. Think of the Zamp as being a battery charger, powered by the sun instead of electricity. It should just start charging right away if there is ample sunlight to charge, regardless of the amount of charge left in the battery.  Katz problem seems to be almost intermittent, and that is the hardest problem to troubleshoot. It would be easier to be there and go step-by-step from one end to the other. 

If your battery goes below 12.08, you're are taking a chance of ruining your battery. I went so far as to unplug everything go related to 12V when mine got that low. It was still getting down into the upper 30's at night, so I knew my ARB fridge/freezer contents would be OK. By the next morning I was able to figure out it was an itty bitty in-line fuse that had blown. A rested mind thinks a lot clearer. 

djb1148

My solar panels are designed to charge a battery and not to power anything directly.  So, the panels must be able to sense a minimal voltage (I think it's something like 5 v) before they will start charging.

Kats

I heard back from Zamp, and they said that if the battery goes below 3V, the solar panel will not charge. Electricity or a charge must be introduced to the battery first, either by hooking up to the TV or shore power, then the charge can commence. In our case, the battery drained below that point ( because we didn't know how much the fridge drains the battery, now we know better) . Thanks for your help, everyone!

Michigan_Mike

Kats said:

Maybe I am doing this wrong, but...if our battery drains below a certain point, I can plug in the Zamp panels all day long and it won't charge. However, if we hook the trailer up to the tow vehicle and start it up, even for less than 5 minutes, then unplug it, it starts charging. Same thing at home. This morning I had to plug in to short power for about 30 seconds before the Zamp panels started charging. 

Am I doing something wrong here? The manual isn't much help.

Some additional information on the Zamp panels:

I had similar issues so far as "getting the Zamp panel to charge."   I have a "generation l" Zamp 80 watt panel.  Zamp is currently around "generation 4" in their panels so some things have changed over the course of time.  They have upgraded their solar controllers and also changed their connectors for the panels.  

Anderson Connectors -  Previously Zamp used the Anderson connectors (shown below) on many of their earlier panels.  They have changed their connectors to a molded connector specially designed for their solar panels and no longer use the Anderson connectors. The Anderson connectors have been around for a while but they experienced problems with them (e.g., solder connections were breaking, some people were experiencing poor connections, etc.).  The Anderson connectors can still be purchased from Zamp to accommodate the earlier generation panels.  

I experienced the symptoms noted above and Zamp sent me out new Anderson connectors and although this did help, I eventually ended up upgrading my 30 amp controller and received the newer style connectors and my panel now charges quicker and is much more efficient.  


Pre-Molded Connectors -  This is the new style connectors Zamp uses on their panels and they seem to perform better.  



AGM Battery will not take a charge -  As noted above when a battery is deeply discharged they will not take a charge and many are destined to the trash heap when in fact these batteries are capable of being revived/reused.  All is not lost however and when a battery seems to be dead and the charger will not accept the battery (nor turn on to charge it) there is a trick that you can use to revive a dead battery and get your battery charger to begin charging again.  The video below will show you how to accomplish this and hopefully save some batteries from being tossed onto the scrap pile.

https://youtu.be/Slqd73ZOQvI?t=216