Understanding Solar Power Systems.

I would suspect any number of circumstances:

• panel angle to the sun plays a huge part
• blocking/shading by trees or other items
• the MPPT itself (I wouldn't put too much trust in a MakeSkyBlue to collect all of the available power.  Cheaper MPPTs tend to be pretty terrible at actually doing their namesake...tracking the maximum power point)
• power losses in the wires (especially if low voltage, high wire gauge and long distances are involved).

I regularly max out my Morningstar Tristar TS-MPPT-60 at the registered 60A current limit.  At 56v battery, that's 3,360W out of the MPPT (though my clamp meter doubts that amperage by an amp or two)--from a dozen 245W panels, totaling 2,940W nameplate.  But these panels are in absolutely clear sun, at approximately a 15-degree South angle.  And I calculated out wire losses when purchasing the wires, adjusting the setup to minimize losses.

Of all the possible scenarios, I'd put the blame on an MPPT first, especially if it's at the MakeSkyBlue/PowMr level.

There are a lot of factors. Some that Sid didn't already point out:

1) Putting panels in series distinctly reduces the power exported by all cells in that string when any panel in the string is shaded.
2) Using higher pv voltages relative to your system voltage decreases efficiency. (More voltage drop, more losses)
3) Insufficient heat dissipation - for example when not spacing them off of the surface they are mounted to. As the cells get hot, their effective output becomes lower.
4) Mismatched panels. Particularly of different voltage spec can be a major loss of power output.
5) Bad charge parameters - or too small battery bank. Check that your batteries really can take that much charge.
6) Inadequate sun - unsurprisingly, the cells are rated based on a pretty bright standard - a mild haze could be holding you back 20% or so.

What i would do...
Make sure that you check every string in your array for amperage - make sure all the strings are actually producing power (ideally pretty darn close to the same) - a single failure in a string will effectively fail that entire string.
Check your pv voltage and amperage and compare it to your battery voltage and amperage. See if the losses are in the controller.
Look at a trend of your output - if you have a distinct "cap" during the brightest time of day, the controller is holding you back. (No data trend? disconnect a string and see if the power drops proportionately)

Yeah, I figured the make sky blues might be the cause. the one I got 10 panels on seems to run its fan  none stop when its only outputing 30a.  Yeah I found out a few weeks ago that I had a string for some reason wasn't working with the other two strings even though they are same voltage and amprage. changed out one panel and still got the same results, however if you run it by it self it runs fine.  Have yet to figure out why its acting as such.  so I run it on its own on my damange make sky blue since it don't push it hard enough to make it sizzel.

my everfor or what ever the name of the solar charger, I got 10 panels on it at 100v, seems to generate more power then the  mskblue.  So what solar charger would I need to get that isn't expensive that I could get to replace the two msk blues, I had a victron 15a, but some reason its not working. I at least need two 40a was thinking of getting two more of the everfor 40a or 60a tracers to hold on until Sid bless his heart, ever gets caught up and make the GS Solar charger, that can do 100a with two 50a chargers in one unit :P. . .

In about four months after I finish buying a few more batteries was going to buy some more panels I saw on amazon 300w that are going for $212 bucks Figured if I start buying two a month I can really get some power, and place those in the back facing south east for morning sun.  I think I got my main solar array at a 30 degree tilt..  sort of like the roof, but mine are not on the roof, will take some photos and post them next time, I hand built the system by my self 😛  the main array has a 400w wind turbin mounted on the back side about 25 ft in the air. its geting pulled down and play on a power pole that will tilt and swing up on two other poles to push it up nearly 60 ft into the air when I get done building it lol. I need clean Air.

Hmm, I hit 54a today, after doing a it of changes, like there was a solar cable that had a bad connection in the mt4 houseing, the wire wasn't even connected to the metal it came out, so replaced it, then replace a wire that was going from the bus bar to the shunt that was heating up, I thin k it was because the ring lug was over size and wasn't getting all the contact it needed. fixed that.

Also today is cloudy, but, either way its going up, just got to wait for a real good sunny day to see how high it will hit.

First thing to understand is that a 100 watt rated panel is highly unlikely to ever produce 100 watts.

The reason for that is the way panels are tested and rated. The standard test method requires a solar illumination of exactly 1Kw per square metre, and the power output is then measured.  That is perfectly reasonable, so that all manufacturers rate their panels at the 1Kw figure tested in a laboratory.

Now depending where you are, the actual solar radiation can vary a lot, depending on altitude, and latitude, and time of day and time of year, atmospheric conditions and so on, even in a clear blue sky.  Conditions in outer space may be more favorable, but down here on the ground, a typical optimistic figure might be 80% of panel rating.

Maybe a little more, or maybe a lot less. Even ambient temperature comes into it.  Colder is better. Hot dusty conditions can be really bad.

Another factor is panel orientation.  You might be struggling to reach 80% even with the sun directly in front of the panels in a clear blue sky.

Then there can be electrical losses from wiring and the conversion efficiency of the solar controller.  Fifty percent does seem rather low, but sixty to seventy five percent might be the most you will ever see at your particular location.

 Fifty percent does seem rather low, but sixty to seventy five percent might be the most you will ever see at your particular location.

I get  450 watts ftom 660 watts  Sunpower solar panels   with MSB for 10 hours  now   which is 68 percent .    

FWIW, i like the EPEVER Tracer line of charge controllers. Mine isn't maxed out yet - but it doesn't even break a sweat at 80 of 100A.
Little pricey up front though, but still damned cheap for what you get.

1 hour ago, NotMario said:

FWIW, i like the EPEVER Tracer line of charge controllers.

My only complaint with the two Epever Tracer 8420ANs that I have...is the very slow charge regulation.  This means that if a large system load suddenly turns off (i.e. your A/C shuts off), the charge controller is very slow to throttle down--meaning that your batteries very likely can get overvoltaged (especially if LiFePo4 like I have).

Other than that, I've been pretty happy with them, especially the fanless design.

Cheapest half-decent charge controller that I'm aware of right now.

Yeah, ideally have some kind of dump load to absorb the spike. In my case, the LA batts will take a small hit - minimal voltage spike because the amperage demand wont decrease to zero when the LFP charge fets open. The need to resolve this issue was present early on because i use alternator generation.

I'm sure one could make a simple circuit with FETs or something. The load doesn't need to be much, just needs to keep the load above zero during the spike. Turn that surge into some heat. There is a product to protect alternators using the same concept.

Well, I just fried one of my solar panels yesutrday when I was organizing all my wireing in the eletric room, and well one of the solar cables was bare metal connectoror at the moment  that was going to the make sky blue and well lets just say that little cable decided to touch the postive bus bar, and yeah boy heard a loud pop and sizzeling, .  This morning went out and yeah out of the five panels on that string one of them is dead, it won't beep my meter when I test to see if its a open panel.  I think the soalr charger is dead as well. 

One thing I noticed about my EPEVER Tracer 40a is that if you test the wire from the panel to see if you got a open end, it won't do it, however if you do it to a make sky blue it will beep, I'm guessing the EPEVER Tracer  must have a one way resistor to prevent feed back. where as the make sky black don't have anything.

So is there any way to fix a solar panel from a over voltage feed back?  Or do I need to just pull a buy another panel of the same kind from amazon and swap out the bad for a replacment?  Lol. . .

Oh and yesterday I hit up to 70A 

Likely blew an internal fuse and/or the blocking diodes.  Unfortunately, as most solar panels are of a sealed construction, YMMV.

Well, oddly enough, it still works, went to check it again while it was sunny and it was outputing voltage , so hooked it back up, and worked on the line to the solar charger, and found a break and at the same time I shortten it by 15ft on each line and got the five panels back up. so far I've hit 70a, and that wa around 11:30 in the morning.  Yesturday I generated 221ah, considering with all the clouds and storms we got rolling in. but funny thing is my solar array from 6:30 to 6:30 for 12 hours generate power. I got it setup as I want at the moment, might tilt the second array later when I get a some what a small tree removed, and its full sun I can have somebody over while we move it up and down while I watch the amps to see where is the sweet spot is, and then I can lock it down, and mark it for summer tilt, then I can change it in the winter if it needs it.

My next solar array I'm going to have it where I can tilt it and use a single 2x4 that is cut to the right tilt lenth and then I can cut another one for winter time and all I have to do is change the board.

My main array can't be changed its fixed as it is, since I cut everything and its unable to be changed. the second array is linked to the main from the front and can be moved up or down as needed. once I get the tree moved and the rest of the holly stump removed.

Was doing more wireing, well running the wire from one pole to the other side to the corner of the house pole and along the house into the eletric room, I did some eletrical signal test, to see how the eletric is streaming from the panels to the make sky blue and the tracer.  the make sky blue seems to ripple a hell of a lot, I mean its not a steady stream of eletric, however, on the tracer, its a steady stream and it only changes in pitch depending how much power its getting.

Is there any diff between the tracer and the standard everfor?  I saw on amazon there were two different version.