[Harleyguy]

Just so everyone knows the Solar Panel does indeed work as far supplying the 12 volt battery with power .But the users interface does not but from what I understand sometime in April it should have an update . If we do any software on the car the requires us to disconnect the 12 volt cable we also need to remove the Solar Panel fuse so there isn't any voltage being generated in the car that would prevent the car going to sleep after software upgrades .

 

[tyler]

RE: Solar Panel

good to know, thanks for looking into that

 

[Richard Carnes]

RE: Solar Panel

I had mine parked outside in the sun for the first time today, and lo and behold, the fan came on all by its little self. I've had her for over 3 weeks, but this was the first time it was hot and sunny (upper 30's, warm for us this time of year) when I went shopping (stay at home Dad, blah-blah-blah). I could actually tell a difference upon opening the door. I'm assuming this happened automatically, because I haven't changed any settings recently (except the seat, which I still have to reset just about every other time). I understand that the 'pre-conditioning' is turned off until a fix is in place, so I guess that's why I was so surprised. Okay, now that I think about it, maybe the fans were on for the battery, not the inside of the car. Hmmmmm. Either way, I swear it wasn't as hot inside as I'm used to after some time in the sun.

 

[Deep Ocean]

RE: Solar Panel

Richard, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you're living in Vail Colorado and its the winter. So its probably not that hot up there anyway. I think you're right that it was just cooling the battery pack. Living in Southern California, our car gets smoking hot in the sun, no preconditioning going on in our car.

 

[Grebechini]

RE: Solar Panel

Sorry guys but I disagree. My cabin fans definitely run and move air thru the cabin when my car is in the sun. Now I'm not sure if the "preconditioning" (heating or A/C as I understand it)is enabled, but there is air circulation taking place.

 

[Harleyguy]

RE: Solar Panel

Sorry guys but I disagree. My cabin fans definitely run and move air thru the cabin when my car is in the sun. Now I'm not sure if the "preconditioning" (heating or A/C as I understand it)is enabled, but there is air circulation taking place.

I kinda stand corrected the other day after working on one of our stock cars I walked by it and heard a fan noise I thought I left the car in ACC mode but when I opened the door it wasn't in ACC mode so I assume it was the Solar Panel coming into play with the system I haven't seen it on any other cars yet I guess randomly some cars it works in .

 

[kabalah70]

RE: Solar Panel

What outside air temperature are you all experiencing when you hear the fans running? Is the car locked when they are running?

 

[Deep Ocean]

RE: Solar Panel

New Update, the other day ( probably 75 degrees fahrenheit ) I noticed the fan running on my car while sitting in the driveway. So I take it back, I guess the fan does work after all.

 

[marswill]

RE: Solar Panel

New Update, the other day ( probably 75 degrees fahrenheit ) I noticed the fan running on my car while sitting in the driveway. So I take it back, I guess the fan does work after all.

I have notice the same thing. Seems to be working for me.

 

[kabalah70]

RE: Solar Panel

Perhaps I need to have the dealer look at that, since mine has yet to be running when I approach the car and it has been as hot as 87 F so far.

 

[Sportsmeddoc]

RE: Solar Panel

no luck for me here in AZ- always hot- 80's - had the car for 2 months- never had the fans run inside and in the sun quite a bit- how do I get that to work?

 

[kabalah70]

RE: Solar Panel

no luck for me here in AZ- always hot- 80's - had the car for 2 months- never had the fans run inside and in the sun quite a bit- how do I get that to work?

Since other people are syaing their's are running, I am thinking abotu reporting mine to my dealer to check when it goes in for 6.15 and my delivered damaged parts replacement.

 

[Fabulist]

How to Tell if the Solar Panel is Producing Power

There has been some discussion about how to determine if the solar panels on the roof of the car are actually putting out any power in the absence of a functioning solar power screen.

While driving the car home from the cars and caffeine event in San Jose today, I had the power flow screen on as I was driving and noticed, for the first time, that it actually changes according to the amount of sunlight that is hitting the solar panels. I may have been particularly slow noticing this feature, or maybe it happened to work today. Either way, it was the first time I noticed a direct way to confirm that the solar panels are actually providing power to the car.

I shot a very short (and not very good) video of it to share it with the group here. The video is embedded below. Look at the the part of the graphic depicting the car's roof and note what happens when the car goes under an overpass and is in shadow, and then when it emerges back into the sunlight.

http://youtu.be/Y--eS2EJt0w

Had anyone else noticed this? I am a little surprised that it did not come up when we were discussing whether the solar panels actually did anything. Sorry if you already know about this, but it is a surprise to me so someone else may find it interesting.

 

[Mike]

RE: How to Tell if the Solar Panel is Producing Power

I have been told by a very knowledgeable Fisker buddy that the solar panel is not in fact part of the generating plant yet. It is wired to go but has not yet been added to the software to enable it to operate. He says they are rolling out features with each software update to better track problems. Also, I'm told once operational, the roof's primary job will the interior of the car. By generating power used by the car interior it will cause less drain on the main batteries. As always.. who knows for sure but that's the latest I have heard.

 

[Harleyguy]

RE: How to Tell if the Solar Panel is Producing Power

I have been told by a very knowledgeable Fisker buddy that the solar panel is not in fact part of the generating plant yet. It is wired to go but has not yet been added to the software to enable it to operate. He says they are rolling out features with each software update to better track problems. Also, I'm told once operational, the roof's primary job will the interior of the car. By generating power used by the car interior it will cause less drain on the main batteries. As always.. who knows for sure but that's the latest I have heard.

I disagree the solar panel at this point does produce power the interface is what doesn't work .If I hook up my workshop tool I can actually monitor how much power is being produced . Also after software downloads and the car needed to go to sleep we remove the fuse #27 for the solar panel to make that the system goes fully to sleep . One other thing I don't think an ETA when the interface for the panel is going to be up and running with all the other issues the engineers are trying to fix the solar panel is on the bottom of the list at this point just my 2 cents

 

[BillyO]

RE: How to Tell if the Solar Panel is Producing Power

I'm not sure if the power is coming from the solar panel but if I sit in my car on a sunny day the interior fans come on low speed about 10 minutes after shutdown. I would hope it's not depleting the batteries.
BillyO

 

[Skibum]

RE: How to Tell if the Solar Panel is Producing Power

My car is currently sitting in my driveway on a bright , sunny Northern California day. I just walked by the car and could hear the interior fans working...

 

[Karma 2012]

RE: How to Tell if the Solar Panel is Producing Power

My car is currently sitting in my driveway on a bright , sunny Northern California day. I just walked by the car and could hear the interior fans working...

What about the voices? What are they saying? j/k

 

[tyler]

RE: How to Tell if the Solar Panel is Producing Power

yeah from what I've gathered on the matter so far the solar panels have always worked however they were not properly integrated into the control panel yet so we cannot see how much work it is actually doing. On my car regardless of how much sun there is I get the same dark graphic on the displayed you showed in your video. I'm curious if you've upgraded to 6.15 as they may have finally gotten it to properly integrate with the control panel in this software update

 

[Fabulist]

RE: How to Tell if the Solar Panel is Producing Power

[video=youtube]http://youtu.be/Y--eS2EJt0w[/video]

My apologies for posting my observation regarding the Energy Flow screen as a new topic. I should have posted it in the Solar Panel thread to preserve the continuity of the discussion. So I merged the two threads to avoid covering ground we have already covered.

The only point of my post was that I noticed for the first time that the car's energy management system appears to acknowledge when there is power flowing from the solar panels (direct sun) and when there is no power (shade). While this does not answer the question of what happens to the energy that is being generated, at the very least it appears that car is reacting to the power being generated is some way, and that is a way to know if the solar panel is producing power or not. Obviously, for more detailed information, we need to wait for an actual working solar energy screen. For now, all we have is a very general indication on the energy flow screen that the solar panels are producing power.