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External Solar Port on T@B 360

rickpoolrickpool Member Posts: 18
in Battery/Electrical & Solar
I am trying to figure out whether the external solar port inside the Nautilus box (360 Black Canyon) connects to the Victron MPPT controller or directly to the battery?  Have seen conflicting information, but I am hoping it connects to the existing controller.  I  am OK limiting charging amps from solar accordingly, as I’d rather not buy/install/configure a separate controller for my 200w suitcase if I can help it.
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  • Yoshi_TABYoshi_TAB Member Posts: 555
    edited February 23
    Hi, We have a '25 360CS and it was not connected to the solar controller.  It was connected directly to the battery.  I did a point-to-point wire verification, and it was not, at least in ours.
    2025 360 CS 
    2021 TAB 320 BD (w/new owner having fun)
    2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee
    Southern Maryland
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  • pthomas745pthomas745 Administrator, Moderator Posts: 4,466
    Grab a multimeter and see what you get.  The voltage from the meter should be basically the same as the voltage from the Victron app for battery voltage.  I don't think that any of the SAE ports were ever wired any other place than to the battery on any trailer, at least trailers from the factory. 
    2017 Outback
    Towed by 2014 Touareg TDi
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  • Gomers2Gomers2 Member Posts: 95
    I don't think you'll be able to get a firm answer from this forum. You need to check. Mine was not connected to anything. Just remove the square head screws and lift off the panel underneath the driver side bunk. It's pretty easy to trace where the two wires end up. The fact that they are not connected is not necessarily bad. You may not want to combine mismatched panels on one solar controller. Ideally the best results come when all panels on a shared controller are identical. The good news is you can get a very reliable and inexpensive solar controller for your suitcase panel, in fact it may come with one. Mine did not, but I located the second controller in the camper so that the voltage is not down converted until right before it's used, which I think is slightly more efficient. That second controller goes then through the smartshunt as well. (POS to positive battery or positive bus, and neg to the load side of the shunt). The suitcase controller is the black box in the upper right corner. I did add pos and neg bus bars to reduce stacking of connectors on the shunt and battery itself, but those are not strictly speaking necessary. 
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