The mystery of the solar panels

His parallel parking skills are far better than most cars that park in here!

After checking over and over at the solar panels output while away at Waitangi Weekend we were getting a maximum of 0.7A output from 2 panels on a clear sunny day when normally they put out somewhere around 13-14A so a MASSIVE reduction. After doing some reading and talking to Nick B about it I was not really any better off and was thinking the solar charge controller had crapped itself so was trying to decide whether to order one and take it up incase it was that. However I decided to run through some test procedures and try ascertain what was actually going wrong. So after work on Friday Emma and myself took off from home and arrived at the boat around 9pm, had an early night and was rearing to go the next morning only to find heavy fog/cloud cover meaning testing of the panel was going to be near impossible. It was such heavy fog that the rescue helicopter for Marlbrough had to land in the marina carpark and the crew headed to the cafe for breakfast where I was giving them some cheek asking if they didn't want to take the car to breakfast. Anyhow after a good cooked brekkie at the Slip Inn the day began to clear and soon after the chopper took off we were out testing the panels which didn't help at all (YouTube tutorial lies!), anyhow after a lot of head scratching I began checking over all connections starting at the panel all the way to the batteries, and voilà there was a corroded connection in a biscuit block. As soon as I chopped the bad bit out and reconnected the panels started putting out over 10A and it was only mid morning so its looking good! Since the weekend was still young we decided to get to work and have a spring clean and go through all the stuff aboard, pull it all out from the nook it resides and either toss it if useless or put it back in a more suitable place, this whole process got rid of heaps of spare parts for things we didn't even have aboard any more. Then I changed the engine belt, checked water, altered gear shift cable bracket position and by then we had enough of work and decided to relax with some dinner out before returning to watch Top Gear Burma special. Sunday was pretty relaxing and we headed off late morning for a relaxed trip home in plenty of time to sort out washing and all other things most people despise about spending their weekend doing. So all in all a good productive weekend and actually saved money after not having to buy a new charge controller! win win! Roll on Easter/ANZAC long weekend!