Review on 🌞 Renogy 100W 12V Monocrystalline Solar Panel Suitcase + Waterproof Charger Controller: Off-Grid Portable Foldable 2Pcs 50W with Built-in Kickstand by Steve Lawrence

Okay - I really like these panels - but I've had a few failed attempts at using them and thought a good review might be useful to others. Simply put, I like to play around with things. The woman would have screamed and brought it back. The kit does not include a battery that supports the settings in the control board. Without them, you'll have to reset the date, time, and battery type every time you reconnect it to the battery. Also, the documentation doesn't say what type of battery you need. This is CR1220. It's designed for a computer motherboard, so you probably won't find it at the corner grocery store. The good news is that it only costs about $4. The panel does not come with any documentation at all. You have to download it from their website. There's not even a quick help card to show you the various screens on the control panel. I laminated this side and put it in the panel sleeve. The clock date and time format is displayed in the book as 00.00.0000. I tried setting it to MM.DD.YYYY and it didn't work. The current format is DD.MM.YYYY. The controller runs on a battery that you charge. If the battery is less than 11 volts, the controller will not turn on and you will not be able to charge the battery. I thought about bypassing the controller and connecting directly to the panel... Someone else could test this theory and let us all know if something explodes... So don't leave your portable generator at home. There's a balancing mode on the controller that's supposed to charge the battery once a month, which extends battery life. Life. If, like me, you only use the bar once a month, you probably don't want this to happen on your hike. To turn it off, set the leveling time to 0 minutes. The cable is too short. Decided to extend it. I bought 10 feet of 12 gauge wire and soldered the connections. The cable is ok but I really had to do a long test before taking it on a hike because it didn't work in the desert. Later I diagnosed a loose contact in the fuse holder. I bought a more convenient fuse holder at an auto parts store and soldered it into my cable. Then it seemed to work fine - for about a day... Then one of the quick connectors had a bad connection - so I cut them out and soldered the wires and fuse box directly to the battery alligator clips. Now it seems to be working great. I tested it for three days and it still works. I understand that the controller is not weatherproof. It folds under the dash to keep direct rain out, but I don't know if foggy mornings will be an issue. I glued plastic tape to the frame in front of the controller - like a flapper valve. If I ever have problems with that, I'll let you know. I'll give it a 3.5 - just because I had to fiddle around with it so much. But I hope my problems were unique. If it had a backup battery and I could charge a dead battery (less than 11 volts left), it came with a longer cable and instructions, the controller was weatherproof and ready to go I would give it a 4.5. That!