AGM Battery Charging THE PRIME DIRECTIVE

Itinerant1 wrote:

I'm using the PT100 and it does integrate nicely with the Magnum inverter/ charger (hybrid) following the settings set throught the Me-Arc. This is with GBS LiFePo4 Batteries which have their own EMS CPU (shunt and more) so no BMK.
The PT100 will work with 12v panels except they need to be in series. Mine are 160w (22.50 VOC) panels, 2 in series 4 sets parallel to combiner box, 1,280w. On occasion I will get P04 code which is "Power Limited" (Internal Frequency) happens at +/- 1,150w _ 75-80a area. It's been in service for 2 years now fulltime with no apparent problems.
I spoke with the installer and some systems don't like the PT100 with the lower voltage from panels and he corrected the issue, don't know if that was using a different controller or added panels in series.

I wish Magnum would do a smaller 50-60 amp controller that can do 12v panels. The other thing that kept me away from it was its physical size and mounting requirements (must be mounted vertically, 15" tall with 1" above, 6" below clearance). Magnum is making a small 10a MPPT controller now but I think they are just rebranding something else as it doesn't integrate on their network either.

I actually really like my Tristar MPPT, temp corrected, fully programmable, passive cooling, Ethernet with built in web page and modbus for monitoring and 97% efficiency at 13 Vmp. Has to use a separate remote display since it doesn't integrate with the Magnum remote, but I haven't bothered since I watch it on my computer.