johnsomerhausen
New member
manufacturers vs DIY\'ers
Sometimes the manufacturers or their staff don't know their products... I ecently bought a Siemens solar panel and was pretty confused by the instructions, so I e-mailed Siemens Solar (which in the meantimes had become Shell Solar...) an asked about the wiring, because the instruction sheet showed only one junction box, with two screws to put a conductor to, whilst there were two junctions boxes, one having molded in a drawin of two possible connections plus the possibility of adding a blocking diode, but their was a diode installed at the negative junction box); the e-mail I received in reply spoke about the possobility of connnecting to either of two srews at each junction box (doesn't make much sense to have useless hardware...). So, after an inconclusive telephone conversation with the author of the e-mail, I took out my multimeter and checked for continuity. I found that only one screw in each junction bocx gave me a reading, so I put the wires there and brought the panel in the gardenin full sunshine. The readings of voltage and current were up to specs. Another incident: the 6 years old Vetus "monoshift" gear control started getting stuck in neutral (highly embarrasing in a Force 1 when you've just let go the mooring pennant); the red button refused to come out. I e-mailed Vetus to ask how to correct that situation and got a reply from their head office in Schiedam saying that the unit needed no maintenance and that the control cables were too tight. I then phoned the office here in the US and the manager told me he had forwarded my e-mail to them as he was flummoxed by the phenomenon, never having heard of that before. He agreed that it was probably salt that was jamming up the button and that I should try rinsing it thoroughly. So don't take the manufacturer's information as the bible...
john
Sometimes the manufacturers or their staff don't know their products... I ecently bought a Siemens solar panel and was pretty confused by the instructions, so I e-mailed Siemens Solar (which in the meantimes had become Shell Solar...) an asked about the wiring, because the instruction sheet showed only one junction box, with two screws to put a conductor to, whilst there were two junctions boxes, one having molded in a drawin of two possible connections plus the possibility of adding a blocking diode, but their was a diode installed at the negative junction box); the e-mail I received in reply spoke about the possobility of connnecting to either of two srews at each junction box (doesn't make much sense to have useless hardware...). So, after an inconclusive telephone conversation with the author of the e-mail, I took out my multimeter and checked for continuity. I found that only one screw in each junction bocx gave me a reading, so I put the wires there and brought the panel in the gardenin full sunshine. The readings of voltage and current were up to specs. Another incident: the 6 years old Vetus "monoshift" gear control started getting stuck in neutral (highly embarrasing in a Force 1 when you've just let go the mooring pennant); the red button refused to come out. I e-mailed Vetus to ask how to correct that situation and got a reply from their head office in Schiedam saying that the unit needed no maintenance and that the control cables were too tight. I then phoned the office here in the US and the manager told me he had forwarded my e-mail to them as he was flummoxed by the phenomenon, never having heard of that before. He agreed that it was probably salt that was jamming up the button and that I should try rinsing it thoroughly. So don't take the manufacturer's information as the bible...
john
