Why are there three terminals for the solar panel (one + and two - )? Why not just one + and one - ?
1478897
After looking at the drawing on the unit...the drawing shows that the positive wire of panel one and two goes to the first terminal (see the hump in the diagram). The first panel negative goes to the second terminal and the second panel negative goes to the third terminal. The reason for this configuration is to double the amps going from the 2 panels to the one battery. Still may have to use crimping terminals (spade or fork).
1478898
Sorry- looked at my controller and the positive is shared. Hook the negative from each panel to separate neg (-) terminals. Both positives share one terminal.
48198
There is room for more, though the slots are not all wired. I honestly can't recall if we added one, or two. I want to say two. We did that to extend the period of light because of seasonal shading. I know that the come on at dark (which here is currently about 8/8:30) and are still lit when I come downstairs at 6. Original batteries, almost a year.
2276991
Don't know why someone said only use with 2 to 3 panels at the most -- these adapters are obviously meant to connect 4 panels into a single output cable. What really counts with a solar panel is the maximum amps of current it will put out -- rating a panel in watts is just a convenient marketing term, since most people think they know what "watts" are because we've all changed a light bulb. But "watts" is simply what you get when you multiply a panel's maximum volts by its maximum amps. The seller of these adapter cables specified their amp carrying capacity in another answer and said: The adapter has four input cables and a single, thicker combined output cable with its copper conductor diameter measuring 3.42 mm (equivalent to a gauge 10 AWG), rated to carry 40 amps by the very conservative NEC - National Electrical Code, which is used for all residential building codes in the United States. Assuming the seller measured the diameter of the copper conductor correctly, then the limiting factor is the 40 amps of combined current the output cable can handle. So you could connect 4 panels to this adapter, each with a maximum output of 10 amps, and safely have a total combined current of 40 amps running through the output cable. Someday we may have consumer solar panels which output more than 10 amps, but the most you will see any panel put out right now is 3 to 8 amps. This 4-into-1 adapter cable was designed to do a specific job and seems perfectly capable of doing it. Of course, you would have to be sure that whatever cable or device you plugged the output cable into was also able to handle the maximum combined amps that your 4 connected panels would be producing.
493279
It's the panel (looks just like the pictures) which has a small box on the backside where the two cables come out (the positive cable and the negative cable). The cable had the 'solar' standard electrical connectors at the ends. Packed in a custom styrofoam box in the cardboard sleeve box. Pretty much what you see is what you get, just the panel.
1776212
Yes, You Can Use As Few As 3 Panels. Please See My Review Of This Product As There Are "Cons".
148161
Of course friend, the panel is high efficiency, full sun generates 22 volts, you need a charge controller 12 Volt so you do not overload the system, it will keep you charged and when the battery is charged, disconnect, which prevents damage to your batteries!
268266
We have been using these to charge one battery at a time. We use it on a island in Belize. Some have two terminal but cannot remember if the one a above does. I don't be going out yo the island until next week if you need me yo check them please let me know.
159171
what little I do now is that heating is the most demanding and you would need multiple of these not sure how many.In addition there is battery load to consider you see your panels are only as good as were you are storing the excess solar energy & that means batteries and plenty of them!Hope my answer is helpful to you I will say building a small system for myself forced me to learn more about solar.
1736596
I bought two panels, have not installed them yet. Starting out with 4 batteries @ 100 amps, plan on going to 8 and adding two more panels
1226942
The terminals go to a relay. Depending if you want normally open or normally closed, put the + lead on the center and - on either of the two outside terminals. The other small connector is for the 12vDC per to run the board.
1680504
The positive and negative wires from the solar connect to the appropriate connection in, in the contrle. The positive out goes to the battery + and the negative out goes to the battery negative post. The controller is not grounded, no ground terminal.
493281
It's the panel (looks just like the pictures) which has a small box on the backside where the two cables come out (the positive cable and the negative cable). The cable had the 'solar' standard electrical connectors at the ends.Packed in a custom styrofoam box in the cardboard sleeve box. Pretty much what you see is what you get, just the panel.
420930
What are you using "load" for? I plugged the Schumacher solar panel into the "power" connector and the "load" connector is not used. If you are using the "load" connector for an accessory and polarity is important to you, examine the leads on this item. It shows the positive and negative terminals. The red wire is positive and the black is negative.Schumacher WM-12 Cable Connector for Battery Charger/Maintainer
543238
You would have two wires (I use #10 copper braided wire) coming from solar panel to controller then two wires from the solar controller to battery.
1968472
You're probably thrown off because it had two sets of terminals. That's so you can run these in series. You can attach neutral to either one of the terminals of one pair and vice versa for hot, and it doesn't matter which one. So if you only have one wire, you have one empty terminal on each side.
1854697
These are parallel connectors. Two males connect to the two females, and resulting in one male. Since male from the panel is normally positive, the single output is still positive. They shouldn't have marked the two inputs on the connector.
1136676
You can connect 2 of these. However, this will increase resistance at the terminal. We also carry a USB adapter that can connect to this which you can unplug when you need to charge the battery. http://www.impactbattery.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=mbusb&x;=0&y;=0