How to Install MC4 Connectors on Thunderbolt Solar Panels from Harbor Freight
Hey welcome back to the channel today We're going to put mc4 connectors on our Harbor Freight Thunderbolt solar panels It's 100 watt panel and it comes with a Proprietary end let me show you what I'm Talking about So this is the type plug that come with It and it's well we used to use a lot For like battery chargers stuff to put Different types ends on it's not Waterproof and the mc4 connector is Waterproof it's very convenient and I Understand why they use it but the the Pretty much the standard now is the mc4 Connector for all solar applications It's waterproof and it clicks together So before we actually start cutting Wires on our our panel here let's let's Walk you through how to actually do an Mc4 connector so here here's the layout We have the positive native cable the Metal connectors and the mc4 plastic Portion of the connector this is a Little bit counterintuitive the positive Wire will have the female connector the Metal connector you can see the male Goes into the female here but it has the Male in for the plastic and the plastic Male end is always going to be your Positive so it's just reversed on the Negative the negative wire you'll have The male piece of metal and then the a Female connector you'll see that So now we're going to go ahead and crimp
These together if you're going to do a Lot of solar you need to get a solar Wiring kit I picked this up off Amazon It's Relatively new but it's been really Really good so far it has a wire Stripper it has the crimpers and it has The tools to work with the mc4 connector So this is just an mc4 connector setup Now we're going to crimp on the metal Connector to the wire but there's some Steps that you got to take and this is a Common mistake First thing you're going to do is you're Going to take the cap off of the rubber Grommet and you're going to put the wire Through this first before you strip the Wire back otherwise you got to push it Over all the wires So there you go it's with our wire Strippers here this kit you can get on Amazon I'll leave a link for this Full disclosure we get like a couple Pennies if you was to buy it but yes That's just it's a nice little kit [Music] And there's our strip nice and clean So the next thing we're going to do is Put our wire Again you're going to keep the crimp Aimed up the opening up and then Clamp it all the way down Give it a tug It's a good good fit right there
So the next portion With a cap thing fell off this end Normally your cat wire would be really Long cap can't fall you're going to take The female metal in and put into the Male plastic in Just push it into the seats all the way You'll feel it click in then you have Your little rubber grommet that comes Down A little spreader and then we're going To tighten this up Now the little kit comes with the tools Actually to tighten And you have two of them so you can put Them on both ends both ends and tighten At the same time that's going to Waterproof this again give it a little Tug so that is your positive side with The male in now let's do the female side With the negative again before we start Stripping the wire back we're going to Put the camp the ends on a little cap And the waterproof grommet Before we put this on That way or before we strip the wire That way you're not pushing it above the The wire so we're going to put in our Stripper get the right amount Love these strippers they do a good job This is tin coated copper that's a Little bit more expensive but it's a Really good solar wire All right I'm going to
I'm trying to get it where you guys can See it's really not meant for you to see [Applause] Still it's good Good firm connector Again these cats wouldn't fall off if The wire was completely long but in this Case that's what's happening now we're Going to take the mail in and put into The female connector I didn't make this up this is just what They're called Put the rubber grommet in Tighten these together So in this case this is where you would Hook up your to your solar generator or If you're going to do something like a Series in your panels to increase your Voltage you would then just connect your Positive to negative to create your Series Now you can go ahead since you already Have these connected put your little Wrenches that come with a kit And give them a nice little tightening So that we know that the waterproof Grommets are crushed all the way I feel Pretty good about it Now let's go do it on the actual solar Panel so now we have our solar panel Here and we're going to chop the wire Off it's always good to have this out of The direct sunlight because there is Current and I am going to still just to
Be on the safe side I'm going to snip One wire at a time so that I'm not Grounding the solar panel out Way Overkill but hey better better to do It than not so I'm going to strip these Wires back where they're Separated into two wires again we have Our positive or negative the positive Wire is completely red mostly red with a Little black strip the negative wire is Mostly black with a little red strip Again so we're going to put the positive The male goes to the positive Female goes to the negative and then Vice versa the female metal goes to the Positive and the male Goes to the negative All right first thing we're going to do Is put our caps on Scoot them out of the way so we're not Busting with them and then we're going To strip this wire Can Thunderbolt solar panels by Harbor Freight be put in series well if you Hang out to next week I'll put out a Video explaining if you can or you can Foreign ERS in in the crimper The next step is to take the cap off of The female plastic piece put it through Put all the little grommet We're going to strip the wire Now we're going to put the The male metal piece on
Yeah It does that nice little crimp here you Can see it's very professional Good tug then we're going to take the Female end Put the male metal in into the female End again we're going to push it in And you'll feel just a little click Rubber grommet Tighten this up Now this is a thing you don't want to do So you're dealing with with live power Now this is on a solar panel so it's Making some electricity you don't want To put these two together it'll be it'll Ground it out I'm not saying that it Would damage it but you know don't do it Just don't do it there you go we have Our mc4 connectors on our 100 watt Thunderbolt solar panel from Harbor Freight I also have this solar panel Tool kit I'll leave a link in the Description of this video and also for The connectors if you want these kind of Connectors that thing's alive you see it Pop loose This system will track the Sun and Increase the productivity of your panels About 40 percent watch the full length Video of this install at this link [Music]
