Solar pannel diy polarity identification

[Mg451]

Made my own solar connectors. However I'm wondering now if I've color coded and mixed up the gender of the fittings? I have a 4 to 1 splitter the 4 inlets say positive but the 1 outlet says negative.wtf? I've attached pics you can see the + or - signs and the color of the wire for each one I'd like to connect the red to positive on my mppt and the black to negative on my mppt.im not sure if I've made my connectors color coded to the right wires

[dksail]

When using these devices to wire in parallel as they are intended for, make sure to keep all positive wires (usually Red) all the way through to the charge controller. Same as all negative (usually Black).

It is hard to see from your pictures exactly what is going on. It looks like you might have it wrong. I am not sure why they label the devices the way they do. Just to make sure, after you connect the panels to the 4-way, check the voltage to make sure you have the + and - correct before connecting to a shut-off or the charge controller.

Depending on what panels you are using the amps could get quite high, so make sure you have the right wire to carry the charge.

You might also want to add in-line fuses on each positive wire when putting more than three panels together.

[Mg451]

Yes I'm wiring 4 50 watt pannels using the splitter to get them down to 1 wire for ease of penatration through the coach roof. I assumed 200÷12v is 16.6 amps I'm using a vicrton.mppt 75/15 and 12awg wire.

[wholybee]

It isn't really helpful to describe the connectors as positive and negative even though that is how they often are described. Because a positive wire would of course have both connectors at a junction, just in the opposite direction as on the negative wire.


The positive wire coming from the panel should be female. It plugs into a male, also a positive wire. Yours are backwards but will still work fine if you don't want to redo them as long as you don't cross polarity-that is you need to be consistently backwards everywhere.

https://www.donrowe.com/v/vspfiles/p...ners_guide.pdf

[HeywoodJ]

100% with wholybee. Just think of the + and - marks as male and female. Your panel cable males plug into female connectors on the joiner, and then the joiner has a male plug out the back end. Your panel cable females connect to males on the other joiner, and then you are presented with a female on the other side.

Basically, you end up with one of the same connector of which you originally had four. General industry standard is the female is positive (although the female is the one with the protruding extension - go figure - it is the shape of the pins, not the housing).

Guessing, but I would suspect the mark above the single connection is correct for standard panels and you can just ignore the four marks on the other side.

[Mg451]

Thanks looks as if I did put mine on backwards. I'll switch it for the future so my red wire is + black is -. Looking at your link you sent see step 4 it doesn't specify if that crimp should be on bar wire ot on insulation

[dksail]

When calculating your voltage and current, make sure you are using the Vmp and Imp listed on the back of the panels. Just because it is listed as a 12v panel, the Vmp is likely around 19 v. Your current will likely be around 12 amps with 4-50w panels.

[Wotname]

As a generality - the gender of a connector is determined by the gender of the contacts, not the housing. Often but not always, the housing gender is the opposite of the contact.

Anderson connectors are an obvious exception to 'the rule'.

[Mg451]

I wasn't sure about that. Hypothetically If I'm getting 50watts at 19v that's 2.6 amps times 4 pannels that's 10.5 amps going into the mppt charger. The charger then reduces the volts down to say 12. Do the amps stay the same too?

[dksail]

Your charge controller will reduce the voltage to what it is programmed to, such as 14.4v for a lead acid battery bank. The amps wil go up to match the power (watts) you are getting.

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by Wotname

As a generality - the gender of a connector is determined by the gender of the contacts, not the housing. Often but not always, the housing gender is the opposite of the contact.



Anderson connectors are an obvious exception to 'the rule'.

Mostly true
Both the connector and the contacts are male or female
The contacts are typically the reverse of the connector but not always only mostly always
But you name a connector by the sex of the connector not the sex of the contacts
Eg your video cable is a male connector with female contacts but is named male

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

Mostly true
Both the connector and the contacts are male or female
The contacts are typically the reverse of the connector but not always only mostly always
But you name a connector by the sex of the connector not the sex of the contacts
Eg your video cable is a male connector with female contacts but is named male

Huh?
This may be true of HDMI, but NOT true for BNC, DVI, or Composite video cables.
It is not true for any RF connector, or D type connector, or Molex, etc. And it is not true of MC4 solar connectors. In almost every case, the gender is determined by the gender of the contact.

I refer you to the link I posted previous, the instruction sheet for MC4 connectors, which clearly shows both the gender and electrical polarity.
https://www.donrowe.com/v/vspfiles/p...ners_guide.pdf