200W Portable Monocrystalline Solar Panel

I've been dabbling with solar since the pandemic mainly small USB type-A based stuff and a 100W panel which shorted on me last year thankfully with no magic smoke here in the UK and wanted something I could just grab and travel with especially abroad at short notice that wouldn't attract much attention. I found this Atem Power 200W blanket by accident around 3 months a go via a random internet search but couldn't find a way to get it imported to the UK. I contacted Vic offroad directly to ask about the included Anderson SB50 and PP cables to ensure they use the standard ARRL wiring convention which they thankfully do out of the box so I knew this kit would be perfect for my requirements. I tried ordering this from another supplier direct from the States but they couldn't process my order so in desperation I tried ordering from Amazon.com directly and my order was shipped out using DHL in record time. I was shocked to see how quick it was moving through the DHL network and it actually arrived a day earlier than the scheduled delivery date so I was chuffed to bits as we had a rare late August sunny day. The panel comes with a 5M extension cable terminated with standard grey Anderson SB50's on each end, an SB50 to PP30 short cable wired to the ARRL standard, a PP30 to 4 way cable with ends for 8mm, 5.5 x 2.5mm, 5.5 x 2.1mm and aviation plug. The panel is extremely well made and isn't too heavy to move between locations it has a very thick sturdy rubberised handle perfect for the inclement UK weather so even with a bit of rain on the folded panel its still very easy to grip. I decided to hook up the panel to some of my 12V LFP batteries the next day after placing the panel flat on the ground ensuring the panel was covered by the sun. I hooked up my existing LFP controller which puts out 14.6V using 10 AWG SB50 to MC4 cables ensuring the polarity was correct but I was getting no output what so ever so I decided to hook up the included MPPT controller and it fired up instantly. For some reason my old controller died without any warning so not the fault of this panel as it also produced no open circuit voltage on my existing Ecoflow 60W panel. It took me an entire afternoon to suss out how to set the controller to LFP basically you need to hook the controller to a battery and long press the "set" button until the LED begins to flash then you can short press to cycle through the various profiles which are clearly noted on the plastic casing. Around mid day, I was getting a stable 120W with very hazy partially cloudy conditions with fluffy clouds moving across the sky occasionally dropping to 90W as the conditions changed but the open circuit voltage from the controller was 15.4V so I hooked it up to a 12V 26Ah LFP battery which began to charge with no issues but the BMS would cut power after a couple of minutes so I was beginning to think the controller was faulty. After changing to to LFP later the same day which outputs a solid 14.3V the battery charged completely fine. In bright cloudy conditions with no sun I was getting around 50W going into the battery and it briefly shot up to 140W for a few seconds around 13:00 BST during a brief patch of clear sun so everything is working completely fine. In the summer months I'd expect to get around 160W plus in sustained sunny conditions so I'm more than happy with the output I've seen so far. If there is one negative with this kit I wish the cables were slightly thicker say 10 AWG but they are more than thick enough to charge your batteries at a reasonable rate. Instead of using the included 5M Anderson extension lead I used my 1M long 6 AWG SB50 lead feeding the controller from the panel which produced very stable power to my batteries. I just wish this had some kick stands on the back to make it easy angling the blanket towards the sun but for ultra portable travel setups you can't get much simpler than this. You just need to ensure you hook up a battery to the controller before connecting to the panel. The controller takes a few seconds to ramp up but it works extremely well. Unlike cheapy controllers this remembers the battery type once its been set which is excellent. The only negative about the controller is the cables use really small rings to hook to the terminals may be 4mm size I'm not sure but all the cables are well insulated so no issues there. I'm glad this came with prefitted cables to the solar input and battery terminals. There are 1 set of load terminals which I won't use but you could hook up something like some LED lights if you wanted. The controller has metallic fins on the underside which helps to get rid of the heat when it charges above 10 amps. This panel when folded up is extremely small and is only slightly larger than my Ecoflow 60W portable's profile so it will easily fit into a suitcase. So in summery this panel is extremely well made, works as advertised even here in the UK comes with all the cables you need to hook up to batteries and most power stations and comes with a half decent MPPT controller. Anderson SB50 cables are easy to obtain and the SB50 ensures you won't get any connection sparks or have any issues with polarity unlike with MC4 cables especially when extension cables are involved. I hope you found this review helpful. Thank you if you made it to the end.

I bought this panel for camping, and have used it 10-15 times so far, and with every single use I've been disappointed. I have never seen more than 70 watts out of this panel. I have tried angling it directly into the sun. I've tried covering portions of the panel to deduce whether an internal connection is broken and maybe not contributing, but saw a corresponding drop when covering each section, so I'm farily certain there are no broken connections internally. I ditched the included charge controller, since my battery system is 36 volts, and have been using a different MPPT boost converter. I have other SMALLER foldable portable panels that out-perform this panel significantly, and actually live up to their rated wattage.

So I got my panel today, got to test it right before a storm started rolling in. In a clear sky flat on the ground, I pulled 168 watts. Not bad for the conditions, but the setup is kind of puzzling. For some reason, they put their own version of Automotive 50 amp generic power pole connectors with their brand stamp on all the main parts, and then gave an adapter to a 30 amp connector. Why???? For starters, the connectors are obvious knockoffs, but more importantly they are totally unneeded. 200/12= 16 amps. Even if they use the same connector on the 300 watt panel, it’s only 25 amps. Instead I’d wasting all that space on the automotive sized connectors, they could have used smaller storm factor connectors and saved half the space o m the external storage bag. Thankfully, these giant connectors aren’t too hard to pull apart with a careful hand and a pair of pliers, and then you can put genuine 45 amp connectors in their place. Once you mod that, you have a much better connection that is still overbuilt for the capability, but you end up with a half empty storage bag you can fill with other items.

La puissance mesurée fournie par le panneau solaire en plein solein, lorsque j‘émet à 100w avec mon Yaesu FT-891.est de 140-150w. C‘est trës performant et je peux opérer pratiquement au autonomie sans consommer une part d‘énergie de ma batterie au lithium. Parfait pour les POTA. L‘unité fait son poids et je ne recommande pas la randonnée avec, mais en canot ou en traineau, c‘est le moyen idéal pour être autonome en nature.

I bought this 200w solar panel and mppt charger and was excited to take it out camping to charge a house battery for a fridge to stay running for a few days. I tested this setup at home and it seemed to be working fine but as soon as we got out to our spot it wasn't charging the battery at all. Hugely disappointed I figured the charge controller might have been junk so I ordered a Renogy 20A mppt to see if that would improve things. Under full sun the panel was only putting out 60 watts under absolutely perfect conditions compared to its 200w rated output. I took it out camping a second time and sure enough it was barely pulling a quarter of it's rated output. I hate the fact that I spent my hard earned money on this garbage, do yourself a favor and buy literally anything else because anything else is better than this solar kit. As a side note I'm an electrician with solar training from SAIT so I understand what I'm doing with the connections. Unacceptable

Like that it's easy for me to take with the pop up to charge the 12v. Lots of power especially when in direct sun. Never ran out of battery power even in low light conditions

It should provide way more juice than it currently does. I have a feeling that it might be the controller that is not efficient. I bring it camping for my little camper. While it helps and I have never had a dead battery because of it. I feel like it does just enough to keep things going. Others said the controller is a bit underwhelming so that will be my next step. That and get a hookup for my solar on the side. It needs a different plug.

Work great câble to baterie is 10 feet long easy to cary u can put it anywhere where thé Sun is. Very happy of it