Solar controller blinking Light

tteam

Hello T@B community. My wife and I, who have tent camped for over two decades, took delivery of a 2020 320S Boondock Lite Tuesday afternoon and promptly went camping at a near by State Park. What I currently need assistance with is related to dealer installed solar. With the solar panel (type unknown) they placed a Victron 75/10 controller. Every time we looked at the controller its blue light (ie bulk light) was blinking every 3 seconds. The Victron manual says this about the situation: "The bulk LED will blink briefly every 3 seconds when the system is powered but there is insufficient power to start charging." I am trying to figure out what this means and if something is installed wrong, or if this is a normal situation? Does the term power mean power being used or power being received by the solar panel?  Is there a minimum battery draw that is required to kick the solar into charge?  We were not hooked up to shore power, and the light blinked even when the panel was in sun. 

Now, even though the light was blinking, the panel that provides battery level in the T@B (which shows also shows water levels in the tanks) read C, and went down to G (Good?), but later in the day would then go back to C, yet the controller light was still blinking.  The dealer forgot to give us the flash drive with the manual, so I am not sure if C stands for charging, or charged.   Not sure how accurate the T@B panel with the C, G, etc. is.  Does anyone know what typical readings would be for the levels on the TAB panel? For example, at what remaining volt range for F and G?  

Our few day trip was more like our tent camping, so little power was used but for some lights at night.  With the blinking controller we became very judicious of use of power so as to possibly avoid having the CO monitor start to go off.

We did download the app for the Victron controller and that seemed to indicate the 12v battery was at about 12.41 v. Anyone aware of how accurate such a reading is from the app?

Thank you. Happy Camping.

Sharon_is_SAM

This from the thread below.  Most members do not rely on the C, G, F, L indicator lights.   You need a plug in 12 v voltmeter (Check Amazon for Innova for a common brand.).  Check your battery at rest without any loads including the solar panel feed.  


https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/5880/battery-monitor-panel-400

You can trust your Victor charge controller.  It appears your battery was charged already, hence the blinking light.  Your Victron blue tooth display should give you more information as well.  

JonW

Most solar controllers require connecting them to your battery first, before connecting to your solar panels.  It's possible the dealer did this backwards and what you're seeing is the controller being confused because of this.

Try disconnecting both and reconnecting your battery first to see if that makes it work better.

Just a thought...

ChanW

Agree with @Sharon_is_SAM. 

If your controller is the one with Bluetooth, you really ought to check out Victron's Bluetooth app. It's full of helpful info!