Kid Manual

The KID Solar Charge Controller Instructions
Initial Set-Up and Use
These instructions are for firmware revision 1 856. New features are added frequently.
Now that your KID is all wired up, solar panels in place and connected, battery bank
installed and any loads connected, it is time to turn things on.
Get a digital meter. Good low cost meters are readily available so there is no excuse to not have one.
You will need one if support is ever required.
Check list:
Make sure all breakers are off. You didn’t have them turned on while wiring, did you?
Measure the battery voltage to insure you don’t have a bad battery or bad connections.
Read from Battery plus to battery minus to get your nominal voltage. A 1 2V battery should
read between 11 .5 and 1 3.00. By the way if it does read below 1 2V, that is not a good
sign! Then measure it again at The KID terminals. It should be the same as at the battery.
Measure the output of the PV array from the PV minus to the PV plus at the point of connection
at the PV input breaker. Then turn the PV input breaker on and measure at The KID terminal
block PV+ to PV-. A 60 cell module in sunlight should read about 37VDC. Two in series will read
about 74. Three in series should read about 111 . Don’t worry if you are off by 1 0% or so. The
PV Voltage needs to be about 30% higher than the battery Voltage in order to start charging.
Please do make sure that the panels are pointed at the sun, that the sun is completely on
each panel with no shading and they are not inside of a garage. The sun must be
illuminating the entire solar panel (s). You would be surprised how many people don’t
understand this concept. Our tech support people talk to them all the time. It is easy to
avoid this situation. Leave your Load breaker off for the moment.
“Search Mode”: Turn on the battery breaker. If this is the first time it has been turned on, you
will see KID Searching. If no other unit is found then The KID will skip right to the Start up
menu". If another unit is found The KID will ask the user for the communication mode. The
communication cable MUST be connected to the other unit and both units powered up for
search mode to find other units in the system.
KID Searchi ng . . .
other uni ts 05
If your battery bank is 1 2V, then hit the right arrow key to advance to the next set up selection. If you have a
different battery bank voltage than what is displayed, then hit the up or down arrow key until the desired nominal
battery voltage is displayed. Once the correct voltage is displayed, hit the right arrow key.
Battery Nomi nal
Vol tage i s 12V
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