KID Manual Firmware 1797 REV D

The Kid Solar Charge Controller Instructions
20 | Page
1 0-268-1 REV D
Set-Up and Use
These instructions are for firmware revision 1 795. 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. They can be had for as low as $4.00 at Harbor freight, 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 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 you 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” : The kid will perform a unit search the first time the unit is powered up for the first 5
seconds, if another unit found the unit 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.
Turn on the battery breaker. If this is the first time it has been turned on, you will see this: if no other
unit is found then the Kid will skip right to the Start up menu"
If your battery voltage is 1 2V, then hit the right arrow key to advance to the next set up selection. If you
have a different battery 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 Nominal
Voltage is 12V