i reckon the simplest of fixes would be to completely cover roof top panel when connecting up the portable panel ... as i said before in storage with cover on .. battery charges no prob .. and bms picks up battery info as  normal .... dont realy want to mess about connecting panel to panel etc .. if roof top panel in shade then should be fine !!!

Both your solar inputs need to be regulated before going into the battery, so no you shouldn't "bypass the portable regulator when connected directly to battery".

It will be fine to have two regulators feeding the battery at the same time. So no need to cover the permanent panel whilst the portable panel is connected.

However, the portable panel negative needs to be attached to the 'load' side of the Manager 30's shunt, not direct to the negative battery terminal, otherwise the manager 30 will not be able to detect the current going into the battery from the portable panel and it's State Of Charge display will be incorrect.

I did it a bit differently with my caravan. My permanent panel and an Anderson for the portable panel both fed into the solar input of the Manager, after going through switches so I could choose one input, or the other, or both in parallel. In this case I did bypass the solar controller on the portable panel as both are going through the solar controller of the Manager 30. Also, if you are putting two panels in parallel through the Manager solar controller they should be close in voltage characteristics.

goldenyears wrote:

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Thankyou mamil for your help much appreciated the connection on battery is through an anderson plug from regulator with negative wire going to chassis .. so is it just a matter of disconnecting chassis connection and connecting this to ground on the shunt ? bit confusing ...

 

thanks  again i'll get there !

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At some point the negative from the solar has to be connected to the battery negative for a complete circuit to be made, even if this is via the chassis. So, look for where your chassis is connected to negative, and so long as this connection is on the load side of the shunt - no problem, but if it is direct to the house battery negative terminal (or anywhere between the shunt and the negative terminal) then the current flowing in or out of the battery from any negative chassis return items, including the portable solar panels, won't be measured by the Manager 30. It will still work, just that you can no longer trust the SOC readout on the Manager remote. Easiest way to check is plug your solar into the Anderson with nothing else on (charger or load), and see if the Manager remote display shown current going into the battery. 

goldenyears wrote:

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mamil connected negative from solar to earth on shunt .. read out on manager gone into calculating mode with regards to battery condition etc will wait and see if goes back to normal ... no battery condition shown .

 

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 That's normal. Any time the Manager has been disconnected from the battery it will go into the calculating SOC mode. You'll need to charge it up to 100% then it will reset and you'll be good from then on.

goldenyears wrote:

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Any particular reason why you separated each panel with a switch ? AND didn't just hook as i have done ? 

 

 

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I wanted both my fixed panel and portable panel to go through the MPPT controller in the Redarc Manager because it's better than the cr@ppy one that came with my portable panels! But rather than having them permanently paralleled into the Redarc, the switches allow me to switch to just one, or the other, or both as the sun and shade conditions change, so the one in shade doesn't drag down the one in sun. So in short - ease of use and maximum flexibility!

goldenyears wrote:

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Using my portable and roof panel togeather do you think there could be any issues regards voltage ? read somewhere shouldn't go over 32volts ... I guess the bms would stop any faults .. now that the portable goes through the shunt ..  both panels 150 watt each

 

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One of the unfortunate limitations of the Manager 30 solar input is that it is limited to 32V which means you cannot use household panels as their VOC exceeds this.

Likewise if you connect two 12V nominal panels in series, their combined VOC will be above 32V.

So, you can only connect your two panels in parallel so the voltage stays the same and the current will double.

my vehicle