A charging system that needs electricity from the battery before it will
work properly is not "smart" in my world, where I often need to charge a
battery that is dead.
 It seems pretty  dumb to hook a so called "smart-charger" onto the battery
only to find it will not work, with a dead battery.   To me a charger that
actually can charge a dead battery is desirable...I think they've made
those..

   Solar controllers that can destroy themselves if you don't follow a
certain protocol when connecting them?....Oh...Kay....I'd say the companies
making  those will go out of business pretty soon, right?  You fellas who
bought them, you going to buy another?.....
   Is there a solar charger system that works?   Like: hook up  the neg and
pos and stick the panel into the sun....get some juice into the battery?
Probably is.   I think the one we use when we winter-out... (I don't have
it available here to say the brand) does work that way, but maybe it isn't
the most efficient, or something....
   We've never had any love trying to run with only a 12v refrigerator in
any vehicle.  When underway the 12v works ok... I guess..but to make 12v
sustainable for use in every situation it must be carefully done with
expensive and complex circuitry involved..
   Still, thanks for the warning, the heads-up about the possible Death of
Controller issue...If you'd just spent a few days driving to some remote
campsite way out in the boonies, planning on spending your vacation week
camping and you blew up your solar....you would be unhappy to have to go
back to civilization and replace it....

On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 8:51 PM, Neil N <musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:

> Heh. Well.... yes not my smartest hour.
>
> All this solar, batteries and truckfridge stuff seems kind of crazy to
> me at times.
>
> On 5/6/15, Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca> wrote:
> > I can see how you'd think it would be safe in dark garage. It's a pretty
> > innocent mistakes to make, not like the bonehead move I made with my 50W
> > panel, the one that I used as a portable with great success last summer.
> > This spring I allowed it to get blown over in the driveway, smashed the
> > glass.
> > Good news is I found a 75W Siemens panel to replace it.
> >
> > Alistair
> >
>
>
> --
> Neil n
>
> Blog: Vanagons, Westfalia, general <http://tubaneil.blogspot.ca>
>
> 1988 Westy Images <https://picasaweb.google.com/musomuso/New1988Westy>
>
> 1981 Westfalia "Jaco" Images, technical <http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/>
>
> Vanagon-Bus VAG Gas Engine Swap Group <http://tinyurl.com/khalbay>
>