I’ve, been using the solar power system with two battleborn batteries for quite a few months now, and I really like it but imagine all of this in one box. So this little box right here has an inverter a charge controller.
An automatic transfer switch circuit breakers. Everything in off-grid solar power system needs. All we have to do is connect some batteries and some solar panels, and we are done that’s it. This is the board.
We’re gonna mount it on this manual is not covering this one. That’s kind of strange wait really is there no mounting brackets for the bottom are only two mounting holes on the top and there’s. No mounting holes on the bottom, so you’re gonna have to make your own brackets.
That’s, ridiculous. It pisses me off. I don’t know think that’s, a good idea. Alright, we’ll. Just do it anyways! Alright, it’s done that just doesn’t seem smart, having only two little screws to hold this whole thing on tada.
You know, so you guys see this. It’s connected at the top, but not at the bottom. So if you want to use this in, like a mobile installation and or of your van, you need to put like a strap across here or something and mount it down tight.
Alright, let’s, connect some solar panels and batteries to this thing, because this unit needs 24 volt batteries. I’m, going to take two 12-volt battle boards and put them in series. I’ve, been using them for various projects, so I need two parallel connect them so that they are the same voltage and then I can put them in series, and this is my method of equalizing, the voltage between to battle borns.
I have 4 gauge copper wire and they are in parallel, and then I have an amp meter on them and it tells me how many amps is going from one battery to another battery and when this number drops to zero.
That means that these batteries are completely done equalizing and they are the same voltage. So while the batteries are getting prepared, we are going to add these cables to the solar panel input terminals, and so you just have to loosen this screw with a flathead screwdriver shove.
This wire in there, and then I’m, going to have two solar panel arrays in parallel connected to this single charge controller on this unit. What’s really important, though, is making sure that you do not exceed the open circuit voltage limit of these controllers, and I forgot what it is, but it should be like 80 to 100 and at max 150, and my array is only 80s, so It will be fine, I’m, just gonna connect it right to it.
It feels like a pretty strong terminal that’s, a good sign, and now we have two wires connected to the solar input terminals, and I want to be able to connect whatever array or solar panels that I need to test.
So what I’m gonna do is mount them to this wall so that they will not put any strain on these input terminals, and I can always add different panels whenever I please – and you can buy these from the hardware store, they will Attach the wires to our board – and this is the first negative connected to my two solar panel arrays negative – I’m, not going to connect the solar panels, even though it’s nighttime.
Until I have the battery connected now, we need to add four gauge: copper wire to the battery terminals, so we can connect our batteries and they fit four gauge copper, perfect. Now that the negative is connected, I want to connect the positive, but I can’t because I’m using it to equalize my battle borns.
So we’re, going to add this extension cord as our AC input in output, just by an extension cord cut it open and then strip the wires and attach it to these inputs down. Here we connect the plug. That looks like this to the AC output wires, and this is gonna be our grid tie AC connection, so it should look like a normal plug like this, and you need to have the ground for this one now.
What we want to do is make sure that these cables are attached to the piece of wood, so they don’t get yanked out, and this thing’s practically installed. I just need to add some batteries, so the manual they gave me was wrong.
It’s, not for the right model, and I went on the DIY power wall group on Facebook and they actually showed me where I can finally get it. So I actually have the manual now and I actually had to find the software manually too, so it’s.
Funny it just is not on the website. The support for this thing is not good. After waiting a few hours, we only have point 7 amps going from one battery to the other battery, and I could wait another 6 to 12 hours for this to drop all the way to 0.
But it’s, plenty good enough for us, and also this will be able to correct for it over time anyways and if you guys plan to use a GM’s or flooded lead-acid. You need to put a fuse on your battery. For me, these have short-circuit protection, so I’m.
Just gonna put raw wires from the positive directly into our inverter. Now I have the battleborn batteries connected and now we need to turn it on Wow. That was pretty loud. People have complained about these fans being on.
I hope it’s, not gonna make this much noise all day long. That would be crazy. It does that noise every time you turn it off. So this is the output cable and I disconnected all of the loads and we are pulling 1.
2 amps is idle consumption and that’s. Twenty eight point eight watts, so that’s, not that bad. I wish it was a little bit better, but it’s, not 60 or 80 Watts that people say online. So it’s like 5:00 in the morning, and it start beeping and it’s like trying to charge it makes beeping noises and then it stops.
I’m like about ready to return this. This thing’s, freaking ridiculous right now, I’m experimenting with changing the settings on the MPP. I have it on solar priority mode, so that means it will power all of my little loads with solar and then the battery, and then when it hits a certain point, it will switch over to utility and it will charge it up a little bit and then That can change the charge rate and all sorts of other things, so it takes quite a bit that you have to read this manual, but there are good settings on this.
I do like that. Alright guys there is a setting for turning the alarm off it’s under 18 and you do b0f, oh my god, that’s, great check it out guys that beep is finally gone. I’m, so happy right now. What I really like, though, is that you can change all of those settings on this screen and I don’t think I actually need to connect this thing to my computer anymore, because it just tells me that I do want to connect it to The computer to see data logging for the day but yeah that’s, gonna be the next step and I still haven’t connected it to the computer, but yeah we’re gonna do it so I finally Got it to work, you have to use password administrator when you log in and the login is this little icon right here in the middle with the two people, and then it will automatically connect.
And now I can see my system stats. That was a pain in the butt man. You have to read the manual to figure this thing out in this little password it just it’s kind of silly anyways. We’re connected. Oh look at that.
It just disconnected for no reason: why did it do that, so I can’t, get it to connect at all again what the heck man! Why is so difficult, and now I just connected back for no reason at all. I did nothing and it just connected now that I have it actually connected.
I’m going through the parameter setting tab and you can change everything here, so everything that I did on the screen you can do in seconds on this little screen. So this is pretty sweet. It is working.
The only thing that I dislike now, after changing the settings and getting rid of the beeps and stuff is those fans. Do you hear those fans? They are very loud. Everything else is pretty good, though guess what just came in the mail.
This is the 800 watt 12 volt, so we’re gonna connect it to a 12-volt battery and see if we still have this fan problem and see what the idle consumption is like. Oh come on, and then this one, but oh my god, he turned off.
Does this one have a power saving mode and we don’t have a fan. Oh my god, you guys we might have found a good unit. No frickin way. This one has the same screen in her face, so it probably has the same exact options: oh god, we have to get rid of that beep.
Oh, we finally got rid of the beeping. No, it’s, awesome, okay, cool! So this is the idle consumption, its 1.2 amps at 12 volts. So it’s. 14 point 4 watts. That means that this this inverter uses half the consumption of the larger unit that we were just testing earlier, but this is only 1/3, the inverter size.
So that means that this idle consumption is not as good as the bigger inverter, but it’s. Low enough that if you have a limited solar array, it’s, not that hard to power 14 watts throughout the night.
This is actually the same as my large iandale 24 volt inverse it’s around 14 to 17 watts, so that’s, actually pretty decent, but it’s, not that good compared to like a Zant Rex or a Victor On with low idle consumption, those are way lower than these, so it’s a trade-off, but I still see this actually as an option, because these fans are nodding, you guys might think it’s.
Silly that I’m. Complaining about the fan, but I’m telling you the fans on the other one are so loud that it’s. Obnoxious, like those things, drive me nuts, I’m gonna try to shove that thing in a closet and see if I can reduce the noise of the fans, but you do not want to buy these units if it’s in Your living area with these fans, they are way too loud.
There is no way – and now I’m reading the manual and it says that it’s 15 watts for no load power consumption. When it’s empower saving consumption, it’s less than 5 watts. The max PV input is 500 watts, so you can connect.
500 watts of solar panel has an MPPT with 40 amps of output, and then we also have a 800 watt continuous, pure sine wave inverter. So if you have a small van, not an RV system, but a van system that you want to build this actually might work really well for it in programming is very easy on the screen and you can use any battery you want, you can use bowel boards.
You could even use a Tesla module. You can change the cutoff if there’s, lots of options in this one so yeah I do not like their 24 volt one and it’s, so silly about the fans. But that is ridiculous. If you have a shed and you don’t mind that high idle consumption or you’re, not going to be using the inverter all day, they sure get the larger ones, but this small one is great as a small system.
I really wish they had something in the middle like a 1500 or a 2000 watt inverter without any fan noise. That would be perfect. If so, we’re gonna connect some wires and test. This thing out. This is underpowered for my main system size, but I just want to see it would be a great stress test for it, and now we have the AC power cables connected now.
I connect the two battle boards in parallel and we have the MPP up on my wall. Now it took like 20 minutes. I like this one, it’s, so easy and small. You can throw it on the wall and connect it very quickly, but you can hear the fan and we need to get rid of it.
I think the fans on right now, because it’s, doing AC charging it’s connected to the grid, so it’s. Charging up my batteries, so I’m gonna turn that off and I’m gonna set all the other programming parameters.
So I think I’ll, be able to get rid of the fan, but we’ll find out in a second in programming. It is pretty easy. I’ve done it a few times. You just hold down the inter button and then it goes into setting mode and you press up or down, and you follow the manual you have to have the manual out and ready and go one by one.
But it’s kind of fun. It’s really easy, and it has some really cool settings in here. So I changed all the settings and I’m waiting for the fans to turn off. I hope they turn off. No way it worked, I’m, actually so happy right now.
What’s? Cool is, if it’s overpowers, the inverter it will switch over to the grid, and I didn’t know that this one has some cool settings. So, even though this is only eight hundred watts, it might actually work for my application.
In here, because I have grid power but out and really use it, but if I have a large load and it can kick over to grid when I need it, that’s perfect, I’m, actually pretty happy right now. I am so stoked.
I was pretty disappointed with the first one, but this is so cool. Look at its quiet. It’s, nice low power consumption if they could just make this button 24-volt with a slightly larger inverter. Oh, my god, I would love that thing.
It would be perfect. Actually let’s load test it. Let’s, put a thousand watts and see what happens so right. Now it’s, powering a heat gun, and I’m gonna put full blast and see if it connects to grid.
Oh, my god, it did it it connected to grid. Oh that’s, so sweet. That means, even though this is tiny, I can still use it for my house system that is so cool you guys true automatic transfer switch action right here.
This thing might be really popular you guys this would be perfect for revenge. Weller’s. Small quiet easy to install and it works so now the ultimate test. I’m gonna have this on here for a couple days and see if it actually works, because if there’s, something that I dislike, I’m gonna find it soon.
So I’ve, been using this unit for two weeks now, and the only thing that I dislike is the fans alright. So whenever it’s charging or you have a large load such as my water heater – that I use as a load dump when my batteries are full, these fans are on and you can hear it right now.
They are loud, and I do not like that. So, if you guys do want to buy any of these npp solar inverter systems, you need to make sure that you stuff it in a closet or you put it in a wooden box or in it.
Like a storage compartment, if you have a shed outside and you have a house system and you’re – trying to supplement it and use the automatic transfer switch to like power refrigerator, then sure you can totally use this perfectly fine.
But the fans turn themselves off at night when it is not charging and when there is not large loads. So it’s. Okay for me, and that’s, why? I’ve, actually had it on this wall. For two weeks it’s, because I’ve been too lazy to take it down and it works.
It actually does work as advertised and I actually really like it, but you cannot have it in a living area. It will drive you mad. These fans right now are pretty bad and you just don’t want to deal with that.
The next thing that this system excels at is the automatic transfer switch. So that means that when this battery is low or the inverter is being overloaded with too many watts, it will switch everything over to the grid, and I absolutely love that I will be playing late at night.
I play apex legends and when the battery gets too low it switches over to grid and it’s uninterrupted. My computer does not turn off it works flawlessly every single time, and I really like that. I think the most important thing that you guys need to know if you guys buy these is that you need to change the settings.
You need to make sure that every setting is set for your application. Unless the beeping will drive you crazy, you will have an alarm going off late at night time. You need to make sure that the settings are set, and you can do it all on the screen of this very easily or you can connect a USB cable to your computer and program.
It manually also the programs, a pain in the butt at first, but now that I have that administrator password set, I can plug in any time and change any of the settings and it’s very easy now. So let’s summarize the downsides.
We have loud fans, we have mounting bracket issues, we have a higher than normal idle consumption, but everything else works perfectly and it’s very easy to program. You could absolutely use this with a do-it-yourself, lithium iron phosphate or titanate battery, or even the AMC pack, that’s.
What most people use it for the power wool guys and those guys have used these for years I mean ever I mean this is an older company and people have been using them 24/7 for years. So I think these systems are really good in all of the downsides.
You can solve very easily. So I’m. Actually pretty stoked on this. I’m gonna make some new videos. We’re gonna talk about how to install them for a complete beginner. I mean look at the amount of wires on this.
We have one two, three four, we have a USB. We have two a/c power cables that’s; it. It takes literally minutes to install so overall, I’m actually impressed by these units. I have heard of some quality control issues, but it seems like the company they don’t respond quickly, but you can always return it and get your money back and get another one, and the quality control issues are very rare and in my experience The input terminals and everything else is high-quality.
I did not experience any problems at all and also they have been updating these versions over the years. So maybe those reviews are for older ones, but if you guys disagree and you find an input terminal that’s bad or thing that’s wrong.
That breaks, please let me know in my experience, it has been perfect and also I do understand that some of my viewers will say that a modular system is better and it’s. True, as an Trek’s, inverter is really really good for being just an inverter and an MPPT by Vic.
Truant is really really good if you buy the larger ones that do not have the small dinky input terminals and you can still build your own modular system. But I think that the majority of people don’t really care, and I think they’ll, be very happy with this.
In the downsides that I talked about a second ago, you can easily fix, so I think for beginners. This is gonna, be perfect, so yeah. I could talk all day about the pros and cons, but yeah. I think you guys got the main idea of this video.
I’m gonna make new videos that are shorter and user-friendly and how to install these for beginners. So yeah, please check back soon and I’ll talk to you guys later bye,
