spospe Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 We have just returned from an eight week tour of Scandinavia (mostly Norway) and experienced an odd problem with our solar regulator. We got to the Arctic Circle (in Sweden) for the 'night' on 15th May and the regulator, a ViewStar VS 1024N showed an error message of, "PV MOS-1 Short". I reset the regulator and the error message went. For the whole of the time we were in the Arctic this error message would appear, usually every 24 - 36 hours. After coming south of the Arctic Circle the appearance reduced and by the time we left Norway it had ceased to appear at all. One characteristic of driving in Norway is the prevalence of tunnels, many of them quite long. My suspicion is that a combination of 24 hours a day of daylight and unpredictable 'nights' (caused by the tunnels) affected the regulators charging cycle and caused the problem with the error message. The View Star works on a 30 day charge cycle and needs time and date information when it is commissioned. Driving in a country where day length is over 24 hours and can also have multiple shortish nights seems to play havoc with the system. There do not seem to be any lasting effects and back here in the UK everything seems OK again. Anyone else had this issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted July 5, 2019 Author Share Posted July 5, 2019 A further observation to the problem is that China (where the View Star regulator is made) does not have any territory in the arctic and in fact is well south of it. My guess is that the manufacturers have never considered the problem of 24 hour daylight at all and that their regulators are not fit for purpose north of the Arctic Circle. I do wonder at other makes of regulator and how many people have had their battery's life shortened as a result.of overcharging due to the regulator's charging regime being fooled by the conditions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve928 Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 I don't have the same regulator but I didn't notice any problem with our charging from the panel on our similar trip from which we've just returned. We went as far north as it's possible to go, up to Nordkapp, and everything appeared to be working normally with the regulator being on its float voltage of 13.5 every time I checked. It doesn't have the capacity to generate error messages though. I can't immediately see why the problem you describe would affect my regulator because when driving in tunnels the alternator voltage would be above 14V anyway so the regulator wouldn't detect any drop in voltage at the battery that would set it back into its boost mode. The same applies to permanent sunshine when (I think..) it will only reset to boost upon a drop in voltage due to current being drawn. It does sound like a peculiarity of your particular controller/regulator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikefitz Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 The regulator in a low cost pwm type and the error message sugests a problem with one of the switching semicomductors. During to long day light hours the circuits would be working overtime and I suspect a over heating problem. It may be useful to check the unit is going to float voltage, in my experienice many pwm chargers spend too long at high charging voltages. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve928 Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 Solar gain a go-go: midnight on 4th. June at 71 degrees North at the North Cape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted July 5, 2019 Author Share Posted July 5, 2019 As a slight aside, in 2008 we did an extended tour of Norway (this was when you could take a ferry from Newcastle direct to Stvanger) and we came home with a destroyed leisure battery. The reason for the battery failure was that the solar regulator was wired by the dealer in such a way that whenever the engine started, the battery supply to the regulator was cut. This meant that when the engine was switched off (in daylight), the solar panel was connected to the regulator and the regulator saw about 21 volts and assumed a 24 volt supply and switched itself from 12 volt working to 24 volt and (over eight weeks) boiled the battery. Our present regulator is correctly wired and I am sure that we do not have an installation problem this time, but it is very significant that the problem occurred at the arctic circle going north and went away when we came south of it. I have written to the makers of the View Star and when (if) they reply, I will share it with the Forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted July 11, 2019 Author Share Posted July 11, 2019 No reply from ViewStar at all. It may be uncharitable on my part, but I do not think that their customer services unit is at all interested in dealing with individual queries (now if I were buying 100,000 units .....) My regulator continues to function perfectly in the UK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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