Suspected Converter Problem

pianotuna wrote:
There likely is an automatic circuit breaker in the positive feed near the battery bank.

Solar controllers are often wired directly to the battery bank, hence the need for a fuse near the battery bank. I tend to class these as catastrophic failure devices, so a fuse is "faster" protection than a breaker.

There is a breaker that the battery is connected to on one post, and the DC panel is connected to on the other post. This would provide protection when running off battery power.

The {old} converter outlet wire quickly disappeard behind a wall. I'm presuming that this wire also runs to the DC panel. There is no visible circuit protection on this wire. I don't see anything at the DC panel either. This leads me to believe this wire is not protected at all (factory setup). Thus, when you are powering your DC off the converter, the feed to the DC panel has no overcurrent protection. When running off the battery, you do.

Here's is the electrical path when running off converter:

Converter output --> DC Panel --> Circuit Breaker --> Battery bank

When running off battery:

Battery bank --> circuit breaker --> DC panel (conv output wire would also be energized, but irrelevant here)

The cabling upgrades I made did not modify this. BFL is spot on - before AND after my wiring upgrades, there is no circuit protection to the DC panel when running off the converter.

I intend to fix this.

This all assumes there is no hidden breaker or fuse stashed somewhere on the converter output that I have yet to find.