Hi thanks a lot for your video I brought a second hand kings solar panel using your advice following along I tested each panel one cell was dead. Made the adjustment and now running again at almost full power great video.
Great to see what's inside! You can measure the panel section voltages without disconnecting the braided wire links. Overall voltage will obviously be 11/12 of previous value and current will NOT change, so only ~8% loss 😊
Glad it was interesting! Yes that's true you don't have to disconnect the braids - the panels are in series so provided the other end's disconnected your reading's not going to be affected by the other panels. I just did to be absolutely sure there was no outside interference in my measurements.
Great tips! I will add some fabric between the individual panels when packed to mitigate scratching, as I just purchased a value panel 😁 Used blankets were not well priced, sometimes dearer than similar quality new blanket 😮 I purchased a 50A Renogy controller (not much more $ than 30A). It has MPPT, DC-DC AND can charge my start battery too❕
Yep that's a good idea, so long as you remember to use them and keep the dividers clean. The risk with pieces of material is that they can just lie around a campsite and get dusty and in the way, and end up being less effective than they could. But if you store them somewhere clean and out of the way and remember to use them it should extend the surface life of a cheaper blanket.
Hi Craig, I can't recall if I didn't say it in the video, but I remember it was 11/12ths of the previous output. Given I usually got around 75W from Kings 200W blankets, I'd guess around 70W.
Hi mate, it was a Red Devil butane powered soldering iron. I think I just used the existing solder but it's always good practice to add some new solder because the flux in the solder helps to make a good joint.
You could but it wouldn't work. The benefit is that if a cell failed the blanket would still give some output. However the big problem is that the output voltage would be extremely low (around 1.6v I'd guess although you could measure it), which would be too low to run the regulator and the low voltage would make it more susceptible to cable losses. At the moment you've got all those solar cells lined up in series which means the voltage from each cell adds together to give you the total of 20 volts or whatever they put out. If you put all those cells in parallel, then you'll only get the voltage of one single cell, but with the current increased by 12x. But with very low voltage you get many more losses in cables. So bottom line, it wouldn't work 🙂
My good wife and her mother spent about an hour hand-stitching it all back together! It was slow and painful but looks as good as new now. Although since then a new fault has developed so I'm going to have to undo at least a part of that! :(
Hi Garry, I don't think so unfortunately. The coating is one of the compromises with a cheaper blanket. The only thing I could suggest if it's stopping light getting through is to just carefully scrape it all off. I imagine it's there for a reason so this may introduce other issues, but if it's already that far gone you may not have much to lose. Good luck!
@@electron-1979 Theoretically yes, but the solvents in polishes can sometimes react with plastic and make them go milky. So it could make whatever's underneath to go milky as well. I guess you could easily test it on a small corner first.
Wouldnt it be possible on Monocrystaline panels, to simply Shade each minor "array/panel" one at a time instead of the total removal of all array covering?
@DOCWHOK9 it depends how they're wired up. On this unit, no that wouldn't have worked, because all panels were wired in series and there were no bypass diodes. This meant the one cell panel stopped all current flow and you had nothing to measure. However if you had a different configuration and the panel was just low output, then yes you could shade the panels one at a time and see which cell / section shading didn't reduce the output further, and then you'll know which is the dodgy one. But you still have to open it up to fix it.
@@TheMusingGreg Cool, great explaination. I think it would be great to have a switch that could convert a panel from serial parallel, and then that test would be easy. Itad be even better if panels auto-bypassed when faults occured.
@@DOCWHOK9 Yeah that would be fun to do for us electronics nerds! Although probably impractical in production - the extra wiring and complicated switching would increase cost and complexity for no practical return for 99% of users.
Depends what you're trying to measure / achieve. If you mean at the end of the video when I was measuring the voltage coming out of the regulator and going into the battery, then yes. Which part of the video are you referring to?
The first thing I try is re solder all the wires on the copper strip you get dry solder joints and this fixers it sometime, if that don't work bridge the faulty one out like you did.
Yep that's a good point Jim. I was hoping to find something like that when testing all those links before I went on to testing each cell, but if I'd found nothing then I would have done exactly that. Cheers!
The straps are actually reasonably solid if you mean the ones around the outside with the velcro. But yeah the panels themselves aren't super solid but I guess that's part of the deal with thin panels!
Hey mate I have the same blanket and I can only get 5 amps out of it on a good day full sun and my meter is saying it's only getting 50w would there be a faulty panel on mine like you show here? Or if one panel is faulty it won't work at all?
Hi Dale, I can relate to that! Mate it could be faulty, however there are a few other things to check first: 1) how full were your batteries? If the batteries are already nearly full the regulator won't take full power from the panels. Try connecting it to a flat battery and see how much goes in. 2) make sure you check all the connections from the panel to the regulator, and then to the battery, are all tight and clean. I had low current at one point last year and it turned out one of the bluepoint / cable joiner connectors I'd used in the system was a bit loose. After tightening up the screw connector the output lifted by about 20%. 3) I assume the panels are clean? Dirty panels will give reduced output. If yours is faulty it would have to be in a different way to mine, because as you said yes if one panel fails completely and goes open circuit it stops the whole system working. It is possible however that one or more panels might be losing their oomph which would lead to a general reduction in power. If that's the case, if you've eliminated everything else and it's still under warranty, you might be able to get a replacement. FYI, I've got a brand new Kings 200W blanket unit to pit against a brand new Redarc solar blanket in the next couple of months. So stay tuned (and subscribe if you haven't) as it should be a very interesting comparo! Cheers, Greg
Hi. I have a 120W (4-panel) Kings blanket. It gave me up to 100W charge when new. I only get 42W max. Now. When it is in full sun and I cover the first 2 panels near the cable connector, there is no change in output. Assume these 2 panels have an issue but still let the charge of the other 2 panels through. Just 2 months out of warranty. Bummer.
Update: took it back to the 4wd supacentre store as per instructions that I got by email. Was told it can be resolved the next day and I will receive a call. Never got a call but went back the next afternoon only to be told they can't do anything. Wasted 2h/120km driving. Cut open the blanket at home and found a broken braided wire (it's short and the solder made it hard/brittle). Design fault. Should have made the braided wire longer to avoid the hard part being in the fold between panels. Temporarily taped it with electrical tape and it works again. Will need a better long-term solution though. Also, after drawing a diagram, it made sense that it only put out 50%...
i have a king's 250 w solar blanket, not showing any watt's on a watt meter, disconected the straps connecting each panel, each individual panel show's between 21.4 v to 22.8 v, anderson plug show's 21.5 v, but no watt's on the one panel it's connected to !! any suggestion's please
What's it plugged into? It sounds like whatever it's connected to isn't drawing any current. If you've got 21V at the Anderson plug it means all the panels are working, as you've found. But with no current flow, you get no power (power = voltage X current). Make sure it's connected to a working solar regulator and a battery which needs some charging, and check all the connectors between the blanket and the battery.
If you can't get any sense out of your setup, go to Jaycar and buy this resistor www.jaycar.com.au/100-ohm-5-watt-wire-wound-resistor/p/RR3274 - if you plug your power meter into the output of the blanket, and then connect this resistor across the output of the power meter it should draw about 0.2A, which at 21v will be close to 5 Watts on your meter. That will eliminate any issues with the battery or wiring.
Hey mate I've got your same solar blanket and seems not working properly anymore. Same as you. Did Kings change your old broken solar blanket with a new one? I mean did they replace your old one with a totally new one? Of course mine is still under warranty. Please let me know Cheers 🙂
@@TheMusingGreg Good on you! What proof did they want you to show? Cause something similar is happening to me as well, but wouldn't know what to say to them.
@@fulviomorrone6995 In my case it was easy as there was no output, so a multimeter showing 0 volts when connected to the output connector was sufficient. When it was low output in an earlier faulty blanket it was harder, but I still showed the output current and voltage going into a battery from which you can calculate the power (Power = Voltage x Current) and showed how far below the rated output it was. I show this a bit at the start of ruclips.net/video/cfCM_p21cGs/видео.html. They accepted it after a while and replaced that one too.
yikes they suck... 3amps? I get 6amps from a 100w rigid (6kgs) 1m x .5 .... and it works on super hot days(5.7amp). Kings weighs less than 6kg (5.5?) so lol why would you bother. Get a panel that actually outputs what it says
Yep I've heard panels work better, but they're physically a lot bigger so people may not always have room to store them. Blankets tend to be a lot more compact which is probably why some folks choose them, certainly that's the case for me.
@@TheMusingGreg Yes thats the narrative... but a 1m x.5m is small and even a 4x4 setup has a roof component/space. for hikers yes a blanket would be the only choice though their needs are tiny as they cannot store much. (charge a phone camera or light?)
@@markwright196 It's not just a theoretical narrative, it's reality - at least it is for us in our caravan. Space is at a premium when we're travelling as our vehicle and van aren't huge, so for us a compact solution is very important. I'm travelling with five blankets at the moment while testing different brands, yet I'm able to fit them all in because they're compact. There no way I'd fit something 1m long in any of the spots I store my blankets - it's too long for the cargo area of our vehicle and too tall for any of the nooks I can tuck my blankets into. On our 4x4 roof rack there's a canoe, shovel, MaxTrax and body boards so there's no room for a solar panel there, although I don't need a panel on my vehicle anyway. I get not everyone would have the same space constraints, but it's also not just hikers who might need something smaller than 1m long.
@@markwright196 It's not like there's physically not the room if it was the only option. A folding panel could sit on a bed, or on the table, on the floor or the van for example. But I don't want things just lying around getting in the way otherwise you can't just pull over and have lunch in the van if you've got all this large clutter in the sitting area or walkways. I like to store things in designated storage spots which are by definition out of the way. And the places I have available for storage aren't large enough to take a 1m folding panel.
Which bit in particular Deb? I fast-forwarded through a couple of sections which were just repeating the same process over and again but the rest was at normal speed. I'd appreciate knowing so I can improve that in future. Thanks!
@@debtaylor4989 Maybe we've crossed wires here? You said it was too fast from 15:19 onwards, but the video is only 15:19 long. So I figured you were having a joke. Did I misunderstand? 🤔
![[TESTED] KINGS vs REDARC solar blankets - shoot-out! 🤠](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AActNzBZ9FA/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks mate, got the same Kings panel, the first one I tried was knackered, bypassed and now she’s working good as gold! Cheers
Great glad it got some more life out of it for you!
Hi thanks a lot for your video I brought a second hand kings solar panel using your advice following along I tested each panel one cell was dead. Made the adjustment and now running again at almost full power great video.
Brilliant, good work! Glad the video was helpful. Cheers!
Excellent video thanks for going through the fix. Was great to see how they are made and will try and fix mine now.
No worries, thanks for watching and glad it helped!
Great to see what's inside!
You can measure the panel section voltages without disconnecting the braided wire links.
Overall voltage will obviously be 11/12 of previous value and current will NOT change, so only ~8% loss 😊
Glad it was interesting! Yes that's true you don't have to disconnect the braids - the panels are in series so provided the other end's disconnected your reading's not going to be affected by the other panels. I just did to be absolutely sure there was no outside interference in my measurements.
Great tips!
I will add some fabric between the individual panels when packed to mitigate scratching, as I just purchased a value panel 😁
Used blankets were not well priced, sometimes dearer than similar quality new blanket 😮
I purchased a 50A Renogy controller (not much more $ than 30A). It has MPPT, DC-DC AND can charge my start battery too❕
Yep that's a good idea, so long as you remember to use them and keep the dividers clean. The risk with pieces of material is that they can just lie around a campsite and get dusty and in the way, and end up being less effective than they could. But if you store them somewhere clean and out of the way and remember to use them it should extend the surface life of a cheaper blanket.
Hey. After the repair how many Wots was is producing?
Hi Craig, I can't recall if I didn't say it in the video, but I remember it was 11/12ths of the previous output. Given I usually got around 75W from Kings 200W blankets, I'd guess around 70W.
What was the one style heat gun you used? Also, did you just use the existing solder and melt it back together or did you add mode solder?
Hi mate, it was a Red Devil butane powered soldering iron. I think I just used the existing solder but it's always good practice to add some new solder because the flux in the solder helps to make a good joint.
Could you change the kings blanket from series to parralel? And if so what would it do?
You could but it wouldn't work. The benefit is that if a cell failed the blanket would still give some output. However the big problem is that the output voltage would be extremely low (around 1.6v I'd guess although you could measure it), which would be too low to run the regulator and the low voltage would make it more susceptible to cable losses.
At the moment you've got all those solar cells lined up in series which means the voltage from each cell adds together to give you the total of 20 volts or whatever they put out. If you put all those cells in parallel, then you'll only get the voltage of one single cell, but with the current increased by 12x. But with very low voltage you get many more losses in cables.
So bottom line, it wouldn't work 🙂
@@TheMusingGreg ahhhhh ok. Thanks for clearing that up for me. Wasn’t to sure. I might have a go at looking at my 200w kings blanket on the weekend.
No worries good luck! If you've got one dud cell like I did you can just bypass that and at least get some power from the others.
Great job. Good to see what's under the covers. What did you do to button the fabric back up after the bypass repair?
My good wife and her mother spent about an hour hand-stitching it all back together! It was slow and painful but looks as good as new now. Although since then a new fault has developed so I'm going to have to undo at least a part of that! :(
I followed your repair with success, however the plastic coating over the cell is in such disrepair do you know if this can be repaired
Hi Garry, I don't think so unfortunately. The coating is one of the compromises with a cheaper blanket. The only thing I could suggest if it's stopping light getting through is to just carefully scrape it all off. I imagine it's there for a reason so this may introduce other issues, but if it's already that far gone you may not have much to lose. Good luck!
Cut & polish?
@@electron-1979 Theoretically yes, but the solvents in polishes can sometimes react with plastic and make them go milky. So it could make whatever's underneath to go milky as well. I guess you could easily test it on a small corner first.
Wouldnt it be possible on Monocrystaline panels, to simply Shade each minor "array/panel" one at a time instead of the total removal of all array covering?
@DOCWHOK9 it depends how they're wired up. On this unit, no that wouldn't have worked, because all panels were wired in series and there were no bypass diodes. This meant the one cell panel stopped all current flow and you had nothing to measure. However if you had a different configuration and the panel was just low output, then yes you could shade the panels one at a time and see which cell / section shading didn't reduce the output further, and then you'll know which is the dodgy one. But you still have to open it up to fix it.
@@TheMusingGreg Cool, great explaination. I think it would be great to have a switch that could convert a panel from serial parallel, and then that test would be easy. Itad be even better if panels auto-bypassed when faults occured.
@@DOCWHOK9 Yeah that would be fun to do for us electronics nerds! Although probably impractical in production - the extra wiring and complicated switching would increase cost and complexity for no practical return for 99% of users.
Hi so you put the volt meter between the kings nppt charger and the battery?
Depends what you're trying to measure / achieve. If you mean at the end of the video when I was measuring the voltage coming out of the regulator and going into the battery, then yes. Which part of the video are you referring to?
The first thing I try is re solder all the wires on the copper strip you get dry solder joints and this fixers it sometime, if that don't work bridge the faulty one out like you did.
Yep that's a good point Jim. I was hoping to find something like that when testing all those links before I went on to testing each cell, but if I'd found nothing then I would have done exactly that. Cheers!
How did you sew the blanket back together
My good wife and her mother-in-law did it for me! :D They use thick cotton, canvas needles and solid thimbles if I recall!
Looking at those straps one could imagine any rough sort of treatment or accidental dropping of the panel could cause one of those straps to break.
The straps are actually reasonably solid if you mean the ones around the outside with the velcro. But yeah the panels themselves aren't super solid but I guess that's part of the deal with thin panels!
Hey mate I have the same blanket and I can only get 5 amps out of it on a good day full sun and my meter is saying it's only getting 50w would there be a faulty panel on mine like you show here? Or if one panel is faulty it won't work at all?
Hi Dale, I can relate to that! Mate it could be faulty, however there are a few other things to check first:
1) how full were your batteries? If the batteries are already nearly full the regulator won't take full power from the panels. Try connecting it to a flat battery and see how much goes in.
2) make sure you check all the connections from the panel to the regulator, and then to the battery, are all tight and clean. I had low current at one point last year and it turned out one of the bluepoint / cable joiner connectors I'd used in the system was a bit loose. After tightening up the screw connector the output lifted by about 20%.
3) I assume the panels are clean? Dirty panels will give reduced output.
If yours is faulty it would have to be in a different way to mine, because as you said yes if one panel fails completely and goes open circuit it stops the whole system working. It is possible however that one or more panels might be losing their oomph which would lead to a general reduction in power. If that's the case, if you've eliminated everything else and it's still under warranty, you might be able to get a replacement.
FYI, I've got a brand new Kings 200W blanket unit to pit against a brand new Redarc solar blanket in the next couple of months. So stay tuned (and subscribe if you haven't) as it should be a very interesting comparo!
Cheers,
Greg
Hi. I have a 120W (4-panel) Kings blanket. It gave me up to 100W charge when new. I only get 42W max. Now. When it is in full sun and I cover the first 2 panels near the cable connector, there is no change in output. Assume these 2 panels have an issue but still let the charge of the other 2 panels through. Just 2 months out of warranty. Bummer.
Update: took it back to the 4wd supacentre store as per instructions that I got by email. Was told it can be resolved the next day and I will receive a call. Never got a call but went back the next afternoon only to be told they can't do anything. Wasted 2h/120km driving. Cut open the blanket at home and found a broken braided wire (it's short and the solder made it hard/brittle). Design fault. Should have made the braided wire longer to avoid the hard part being in the fold between panels. Temporarily taped it with electrical tape and it works again. Will need a better long-term solution though. Also, after drawing a diagram, it made sense that it only put out 50%...
i have a king's 250 w solar blanket, not showing any watt's on a watt meter, disconected the straps connecting each panel, each individual panel show's between 21.4 v to 22.8 v, anderson plug show's 21.5 v, but no watt's on the one panel it's connected to !! any suggestion's please
What's it plugged into? It sounds like whatever it's connected to isn't drawing any current. If you've got 21V at the Anderson plug it means all the panels are working, as you've found. But with no current flow, you get no power (power = voltage X current).
Make sure it's connected to a working solar regulator and a battery which needs some charging, and check all the connectors between the blanket and the battery.
@@TheMusingGreg thank's mate, i'll keep messing with it , see if i can get some sense out of it
If you can't get any sense out of your setup, go to Jaycar and buy this resistor www.jaycar.com.au/100-ohm-5-watt-wire-wound-resistor/p/RR3274 - if you plug your power meter into the output of the blanket, and then connect this resistor across the output of the power meter it should draw about 0.2A, which at 21v will be close to 5 Watts on your meter. That will eliminate any issues with the battery or wiring.
@@TheMusingGreg fixed, must have been a dodgy solder on the connecting strap's, thank's for your help mate :)
Cool glad you got it sorted!
Hey mate I've got your same solar blanket and seems not working properly anymore. Same as you.
Did Kings change your old broken solar blanket with a new one? I mean did they replace your old one with a totally new one?
Of course mine is still under warranty.
Please let me know
Cheers 🙂
Yep they replaced this one under warranty as I sent them sufficient information to show it was faulty (i.e. zero output).
@@TheMusingGreg Good on you!
What proof did they want you to show?
Cause something similar is happening to me as well, but wouldn't know what to say to them.
@@fulviomorrone6995 In my case it was easy as there was no output, so a multimeter showing 0 volts when connected to the output connector was sufficient. When it was low output in an earlier faulty blanket it was harder, but I still showed the output current and voltage going into a battery from which you can calculate the power (Power = Voltage x Current) and showed how far below the rated output it was. I show this a bit at the start of ruclips.net/video/cfCM_p21cGs/видео.html. They accepted it after a while and replaced that one too.
Interesting video, time to tear down our dead Kings 200w and see if I can do the same thing.
Yep you've got nothing to lose and may well at least get some output back. Good luck and hope the video helps!
yikes they suck... 3amps? I get 6amps from a 100w rigid (6kgs) 1m x .5 .... and it works on super hot days(5.7amp). Kings weighs less than 6kg (5.5?) so lol why would you bother. Get a panel that actually outputs what it says
Yep I've heard panels work better, but they're physically a lot bigger so people may not always have room to store them. Blankets tend to be a lot more compact which is probably why some folks choose them, certainly that's the case for me.
@@TheMusingGreg Yes thats the narrative... but a 1m x.5m is small and even a 4x4 setup has a roof component/space. for hikers yes a blanket would be the only choice though their needs are tiny as they cannot store much. (charge a phone camera or light?)
@@markwright196 It's not just a theoretical narrative, it's reality - at least it is for us in our caravan. Space is at a premium when we're travelling as our vehicle and van aren't huge, so for us a compact solution is very important. I'm travelling with five blankets at the moment while testing different brands, yet I'm able to fit them all in because they're compact. There no way I'd fit something 1m long in any of the spots I store my blankets - it's too long for the cargo area of our vehicle and too tall for any of the nooks I can tuck my blankets into.
On our 4x4 roof rack there's a canoe, shovel, MaxTrax and body boards so there's no room for a solar panel there, although I don't need a panel on my vehicle anyway.
I get not everyone would have the same space constraints, but it's also not just hikers who might need something smaller than 1m long.
@@TheMusingGreg If you have a van then I have a hard time seeing the limit. I have a avan and it fits fine, which is one of the smallest vans.
@@markwright196 It's not like there's physically not the room if it was the only option. A folding panel could sit on a bed, or on the table, on the floor or the van for example. But I don't want things just lying around getting in the way otherwise you can't just pull over and have lunch in the van if you've got all this large clutter in the sitting area or walkways. I like to store things in designated storage spots which are by definition out of the way. And the places I have available for storage aren't large enough to take a 1m folding panel.
Too fast
Which bit in particular Deb? I fast-forwarded through a couple of sections which were just repeating the same process over and again but the rest was at normal speed. I'd appreciate knowing so I can improve that in future. Thanks!
@@TheMusingGreg around 15:19 and on for a bit I couldn’t keep up
@@debtaylor4989 😄
@@TheMusingGreg huh
@@debtaylor4989 Maybe we've crossed wires here? You said it was too fast from 15:19 onwards, but the video is only 15:19 long. So I figured you were having a joke. Did I misunderstand? 🤔