29BHDS solar

[Mustang65]

One important thing to remember about the Morningstar. When powering up the system, connect the batteries to the Morningstar first, then you connect the SOLAR panels to the Morningstar. When shutting down the system (for maintenance or what ever), you disconnect the SOLAR panels from the Morningstar first then you can disconnect the Morningstar from the batteries. I have breakers between the panel & batteries & Morningstar. Two gray boxes in the picture.

If you pull the Morningstar from the batteries first, you can trash the Morningstar electronics ($$$$).

One thing you may want to add to your setup is a regular Wi-Fi router, like you use at home. I purchased one that had a 12VDC transformer to operate it, I then fused/wired it directly to the TT's 12Volt system. It runs 24/7/365 and I can access the Moringstar HTTP Live data page from my tablet, smart phone or laptop. Makes monitoring the system so much easier (from inside the house - between trips, or in and around the TT)

Let me know what your output (amps) is to the batteries. When I discharge the batteries to around 12Volts, the next day the Moringstar is putting out 19.5 amps at the batteries. Panel is rated at 30Vots VMP, about 7.5Amps IMP.

Don

 

[JMC-JAY]

Good info Don. I will have a Midnite solar box with 150A DC breakers into and out of the Morningstar.

Our panels are rated very similarly. With three of them I hope to see output in the 40A range.

 

[Fire Instructor]

Have you found out where the pre-wire terminates inside the unit yet? I've got a call into Jayco Customer Service, and they haven't got me an answer yet. There was a label in the basement that said that the wire was behind it, but it was nowhere to be found!

BTW - Mine is a Jayco North Point 377RLBH.

 

[JMC-JAY]

I haven't figured it out yet...

 

[playersz28]

Mustang, nice clean install. What is the shunt for? I don't see any sensor wires on it.

I have an old LinkSys router that was sitting around. It's a 12v wall wart so I'll tie that into the trailer 12v so I have an AP for my monitor electronics to use.

 

[jsallman1]

Yeah, hoping to use as little of the #8 as possible to get me through the roof. And then I'll take larger wire to the controller.

And the panels are 24V and rated at 30. I plan to try them in series which would equate to 90V @ only 7.8A.

So on my 2016 29BHDS, I believe the solar wiring is on the tongue, left side as you face the trailer just under the gas bottles. You can see the blue sticker on many of the dealer photos of units. Thats all the prewire I thought there was. I have been on the roof of a few times and not seen any evidence of solar wiring at all nor any stickers. I was explained the prewired solar was for a panel that goes on a stand on the ground not the roof.

If there is actually wiring in the roof somewhere on this model, I would love to know. Pictures after you install would be very interesting.

Good choice on the trailer by the way, we like ours, especially the larger water capacities.

 

[Mustang65]

Mustang, nice clean install. What is the shunt for? I don't see any sensor wires on it.

The shunt on the bottom is the 500Amp shunt (between battery negative terminal and frame ground). The reason for no sensor wires on it because I take them off after each time I test my Arduino/Raspberry Pi2 microcontroller program to monitor the Time/Volts/Amps/Ah script that I am writing... coming along slowly, as I have so many honey-do projects going, Christmas and all that, along with setting up our 2 new laptops and a Windows tablet... need about 6 more hours in each day.

The shunt that is a little above the 500amp one is a 100Amp shunt, that sits between the TV and the TT. I can see what the TV is actually contributing. And one more will be between the TT and the battery, for discharge.

Don

 

[JMC-JAY]

So, now that you say it, I realize I mis-remembered this link being only for the fifth wheels:

http://www.jayco.com/products/fifth-wheels/luxury/pdf/solar.pdf

When I saw it, I mentally filed it away that my trailer would have it. Not so much, I guess. Ok, so I'll just pull some cable after all. With the fridge in the slide out, is there an obvious spot? Maybe into the overhead storage above the queen bed?

 

[JMC-JAY]

More stuff delivered... I'm going to install and wire everything on a piece of plywood before installing it. So I started laying things out and looking at wiring options to keep it clean. I think once I have the wire and see how flexible it is things can get a little closer than is shown below.

Midnite Big Baby box
Midnite MNEPV40 for input from panels to controller. I went 40A so it could support the panels in series or parallel.
Midnite MNEPV80 for output to batteries.

Both breakers are 150V DC.

Blue Sea T fuse for the inverter. Magnum recommended a 300A fuse.

Blue Sea on/off switches. One for inverter and one for the batteries.

SquareD load center for the sub panel with two 15A breakers for the outlets that I will pull over.

 

[jsallman1]

So, now that you say it, I realize I mis-remembered this link being only for the fifth wheels:

http://www.jayco.com/products/fifth-wheels/luxury/pdf/solar.pdf

When I saw it, I mentally filed it away that my trailer would have it. Not so much, I guess. Ok, so I'll just pull some cable after all. With the fridge in the slide out, is there an obvious spot? Maybe into the overhead storage above the queen bed?

You could probably get it down well concealed as you said in the front the queen storage, the pantry area (furnace and schwintek controller under that) or the entertainment center, the water pump is actually under a false bottom on the entertainment center.

If you got the bedroom AC pre-wire you MIGHT be able to repurpose that as well just access from the roof rather than the ceiling, I am sure its a dedicated wire back down to the electrical area. We did get that, but after using the AC a few times I really cant see adding a second unit on top of a 15K main unit. It would have to be VERY hot to need that.

 

[playersz28]

The shunt on the bottom is the 500Amp shunt (between battery negative terminal and frame ground). The reason for no sensor wires on it because I take them off after each time I test my Arduino/Raspberry Pi2 microcontroller program to monitor the Time/Volts/Amps/Ah script that I am writing... coming along slowly, as I have so many honey-do projects going, Christmas and all that, along with setting up our 2 new laptops and a Windows tablet... need about 6 more hours in each day.

The shunt that is a little above the 500amp one is a 100Amp shunt, that sits between the TV and the TT. I can see what the TV is actually contributing. And one more will be between the TT and the battery, for discharge.

Don

I'm working on something similar but using a TI CC3200 board. What are you using for the current sense off the shunt? I have an INA219 but don't have the shunt yet to test it against.

 

[Cdash]

More stuff delivered... I'm going to install and wire everything on a piece of plywood before installing it. So I started laying things out and looking at wiring options to keep it clean. I think once I have the wire and see how flexible it is things can get a little closer than is shown below.

Midnite Big Baby box
Midnite MNEPV40 for input from panels to controller. I went 40A so it could support the panels in series or parallel.
Midnite MNEPV80 for output to batteries.

Both breakers are 150V DC.

Blue Sea T fuse for the inverter. Magnum recommended a 300A fuse.

Blue Sea on/off switches. One for inverter and one for the batteries.

SquareD load center for the sub panel with two 15A breakers for the outlets that I will pull over.

Too bad that you couldn't just do two of those while you were at it and let me have the other setup.....

A question for you - one of my thoughts with mine is to be able to run the half fridge in the outside kitchen full time. Have you seen anything, or have any educated guess on the draw of that unit? Was thinking if I went with two 6V Trojans and a couple solar panels with a good controller and a good low draw inverter that I could keep the beer cold all the time.

Outside the half fridge, i'd only be running lights, pump, furnace only when needed and possibly a little TV or Radio. I am thinking that it would work fairly well, although I haven't really figured out the number side of it yet.

Hopefully we will be ordering our camper in the next couple weeks.

 

[Fairenatic]

Not sure if anyone answered this but the factory prep for solar is only rated for 20 amps. That is about 250 watts in solar panels.

Looks like a great project. I have been doing my own research and with 500w of panels, I should be able to run the fridge off the batteries and still have enough reserve for everything else.

Good luck with your project.

P.S. I would have gotten the generator first, unless you just do not need AC or back up emergency power.

 

[JMC-JAY]

Anyone else's project always wind up looking like this?



Oh well... 4/0 and 2 AWG welding wire showed up. Along with the crimper, heat shrink tube, etc. The wire is very nice, made in USA, flexible, nice exterior jacket. I bought it from Crimp Supply at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0161NYO2O and the have various lengths available right from the Amazon page.

Using a Hobart 770122 crimper, and along with a 2 LB sledge its doing a nice job. Wiss 0890CSJW "Electrical Cable Cutters" are making clean cuts in the 4/0 welding wire.

 

[JMC-JAY]

A question for you - one of my thoughts with mine is to be able to run the half fridge in the outside kitchen full time. Have you seen anything, or have any educated guess on the draw of that unit? Was thinking if I went with two 6V Trojans and a couple solar panels with a good controller and a good low draw inverter that I could keep the beer cold all the time.

I haven't seen anything, but we have the same fridge in our outdoor kitchen, so I'm curious to know. In a perfect world, I'll have enough battery to run ours. Clearly that means having the inverter on 24/7.

 

[JMC-JAY]

Not sure if anyone answered this but the factory prep for solar is only rated for 20 amps. That is about 250 watts in solar panels.

Looks like a great project. I have been doing my own research and with 500w of panels, I should be able to run the fridge off the batteries and still have enough reserve for everything else.

Good luck with your project.

P.S. I would have gotten the generator first, unless you just do not need AC or back up emergency power.

Appreciate the confirmation on the solar prep.

I've got a generator on the list... i don't expect to need it very often, so i hate to spend the money. But having the second source of power for the places we intend to camp will be pretty important for peace of mind.

 

[playersz28]

I bought a 2kw genny for this year and next yr I'll do solar. I'm thinking 750w right now but I'll monitor usage this winter to see what I actually use. My RV was gen-prep'd but no genny so I tied my inverter in the auto-xfer switch. I'll order one of the hydraulic crimpers from off the net or pick one up at HF for when I do the rework next year.

Looks like you're headed towards a nice neat setup, Mustang's is a real clean layout, makes me want a label maker

 

[Cdash]

Anyone else's project always wind up looking like this?



Oh well... 4/0 and 2 AWG welding wire showed up. Along with the crimper, heat shrink tube, etc. The wire is very nice, made in USA, flexible, nice exterior jacket. I bought it from Crimp Supply at Crimp Supply Ultra-Flexible Car Battery/Welding Cable - 4/0 Gauge, Red and Black - (5 Feet Red/5 Feet Black) - and 5 Copper Lugs - - Amazon.com and the have various lengths available right from the Amazon page.

Using a Hobart 770122 crimper, and along with a 2 LB sledge its doing a nice job. Wiss 0890CSJW "Electrical Cable Cutters" are making clean cuts in the 4/0 welding wire.

You sure you don't want to make two of these?

That is looking great so far. I hope to do as well when I get to doing that!!

 

[Big Sky-JAY]

Exciting to see your project unfold. Please continue to post pics as it comes along. Quality choice on products. We love our Magnum Energy inverter/charger & once our ship comes in to afford phase 2 we'll purchase the same Morningstar charger you bought. Thank you for sharing!

 

[JMC-JAY]

Thanks for the kind words guys. This is definitely a fun project that's coming along as well as I'd hoped...

Good progress this afternoon: