profdant139 wrote:
OP here. Very interesting discussions!!
I will take another hard look at my controller -- I am pretty sure it is molded onto the back of the panels with plastic -- not designed to be removed. It would take a lot of courage for me to cut it out and move it to the battery. What if I mess it up? These suitcase panels are not cheap.
I think I understand, though, why the manufacturer designed a less-efficient "all in one" system. The goal is a consumer-friendly "plug and play" portable solar panel -- nothing to do but just hook up the cable. The more complex the system, the greater the sales resistance.
I know that my 12.7 daily reading is not a full 12.8, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say. We routinely boondock for a week at a time, using the solar panel to top up the battery to 12.7 every day. We have never lacked for power. (Admittedly, we are very frugal.) So the panel is providing us with more than mere maintenance -- the power system does just what we need it to do.
If it were doing nothing more than maintaining the battery at its then-current charge, we'd gradually run out of power during the week. We don't.
I like the idea of chopping up my cable into pieces and attaching as many segments as needed. But I'd still have to transport all of the pieces.
If the controller is molded on, a decent PWM controller for that size panel is likely pretty inexpensive, you may need to do some rewiring depending on how the controller is connected to the panel.
In any event, having the controller on the panel is a big drawback and is going to be a definite negative to getting decent charging current.
I've 'modified" over a dozen portable panels for friends and myself, I've managed to bypass the "attached" controller pretty easily. In some cases they use mc4 connectors betwen the panel and controller, so bypassing the controller is "easy peasy, others I needed to open the controller and disconnect and add MC4 connectors. In all cases the typical use was 2 or 3 panels, so in the pass through either went a MPPT controller or a 30A PWM controller from midnite solar (BRAT)
