melted RJ11 jack

[Rob Linschoten]

This is a new one for me. We have 5 Classics on a follow-me network. One of them stopped tracking battery voltage.  Instead battery voltage went up noticably as PV went up. Then it would stop charging when it thought it was at the absorb voltage. My first thought was one or more fets were shorted, so I kept a careful eye on it when I powered it up again to do some more diagnostics (poor positive/negative connection to battery, etc.) That old familiar smell we all love, started to fill the room so I shut the unit down and had a look inside. Everything appears to be fine except the middle RJ11 is a melted mess. I pulled the unit out and replaced it. Will probably RMA it.

My question is: under what circumstances would there be enough current running through that phone cable to melt the connector?

[Wizbandit]

Follow-me was an after thought.  The jacks carry battery negative along with the data and this can be an issue with many Classics. You need to use/make 2-wire Follow-Me cables, clip the BLACK & YELLOW wires in a 4 conductor flat cable and just use the RED & GREEN.  You can just clip one end of the existing cables, put on a new plug using just red & green or split the cable and cut the black and yellow wires.

[Rob Linschoten]

Thank you! Jiggling the neg cable and retightening might have put a lot of current through that jack, not to mention if I had some open FETs on the negative bus at the same time.

Much appreciated.

Rob