My First MPPT Solar Charge and the Tracer 3215BN
Well, second actually... first one got cut short due to heavy clouds... and a long ways to go to 'full'.
First, I'd like to thank those who were kind and patient enough to help me along this solar path. As BFL once put it, there's lots to learn about solar. All the debates/discussions over pwm vs. mppt, and such, have proven very enlightening and educational, so thank you!
So, here goes:
Bank... 430Ah, four 6's, ocv @ 12.44v, 74%soc, -111Ah's
Solar... two 140w 12v poly panels, in series, manually tracked, thru 50' of 6awg to a Tracer 3215BN MPPT charge controller and MT50 Remote Monitor.
10:50am:
- clear skies
- Isc at the moment was 'about' 9a (x2). (clamp meter not that reliable)
- Voc 20.6v
10:55am:
at Panels... 7.9a @ 31.2v,
at Bank... 18.9a @ 13.0v
The highest amperage I saw all day was at 11:05am, with 19a to the bank. Mostly in the mid 17's to high 18's up until about 3pm. I was a little surprised, given the conditions. A couple days earlier, under mostly cloudy skies, I saw amps in the high 21's several times... but that may have been an edge of cloud effect thing?
At 1:15pm, I switched over to the Solar30 pwm, and saw a difference of 1a to the bank, 17.3a vs 18.3a, for a 5.5% increase by the mppt controller.
Back on mppt, throughout the afternoon amps tapered to the mid 13's range by 6:40pm, and by 7:40pm, amps to bank were in the high 7's.
(At 5:15, I laid the panels flat, east to west, and saw a difference of 5.4a to the bank, 10.4a vs. 15.8a, for a decrease of 35%, compared to tracked.)
Tracer decided the bank was full at 7:50pm, at a little over 7a @ 14.5v. According to the Trimetric; which I believe is very close to being dialed in properly (...will know for sure next time I converter charge); 6.5Ah's were still missing at 99% soc. I usually take things down to less than 4a at 14.5v. This morning, (the next day), after a night of very light loads, ocv was at 12.73v... should be more like 12.77v, so I know the bank was not truly full.
10 minutes after it shut down, the Sun went down behind some distant trees, so the panels crashed, so it wouldn't have made it to full, anyway. And it was not able to go into float mode, so I've yet to see how that goes. But this raises a couple of questions:
? How does the Tracer decide when the bank is at 100% soc?
? Is there a way to re-calibrate it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
bn series manual
mt50 manual
In a couple days I'll be doing another run, less deep, and an earlier start, hopefully. That way I can see how the controller handles what it believes to be a full bank.
Another thing I noticed was, when set to 14.5v "max boost voltage", the monitor said 14.6v, and it took the bank up to 14.56v, according to the dmm. When set at 14.4v, it topped out at 14.5v (monitor) and 14.44v (dmm)... which is exactly the voltage I'm thinking will sync up well with my P10 CEF setting of 85%, on the Tri.
There are some other programmable settings I'm not sure about, but I'll post them, later. I'd like to get this '100% soc' thing sorted out first and foremost, seeing as this will be my main means of top end charging.
Thanxx!
First, I'd like to thank those who were kind and patient enough to help me along this solar path. As BFL once put it, there's lots to learn about solar. All the debates/discussions over pwm vs. mppt, and such, have proven very enlightening and educational, so thank you!
So, here goes:
Bank... 430Ah, four 6's, ocv @ 12.44v, 74%soc, -111Ah's
Solar... two 140w 12v poly panels, in series, manually tracked, thru 50' of 6awg to a Tracer 3215BN MPPT charge controller and MT50 Remote Monitor.
10:50am:
- clear skies
- Isc at the moment was 'about' 9a (x2). (clamp meter not that reliable)
- Voc 20.6v
10:55am:
at Panels... 7.9a @ 31.2v,
at Bank... 18.9a @ 13.0v
The highest amperage I saw all day was at 11:05am, with 19a to the bank. Mostly in the mid 17's to high 18's up until about 3pm. I was a little surprised, given the conditions. A couple days earlier, under mostly cloudy skies, I saw amps in the high 21's several times... but that may have been an edge of cloud effect thing?
At 1:15pm, I switched over to the Solar30 pwm, and saw a difference of 1a to the bank, 17.3a vs 18.3a, for a 5.5% increase by the mppt controller.
Back on mppt, throughout the afternoon amps tapered to the mid 13's range by 6:40pm, and by 7:40pm, amps to bank were in the high 7's.
(At 5:15, I laid the panels flat, east to west, and saw a difference of 5.4a to the bank, 10.4a vs. 15.8a, for a decrease of 35%, compared to tracked.)
Tracer decided the bank was full at 7:50pm, at a little over 7a @ 14.5v. According to the Trimetric; which I believe is very close to being dialed in properly (...will know for sure next time I converter charge); 6.5Ah's were still missing at 99% soc. I usually take things down to less than 4a at 14.5v. This morning, (the next day), after a night of very light loads, ocv was at 12.73v... should be more like 12.77v, so I know the bank was not truly full.
10 minutes after it shut down, the Sun went down behind some distant trees, so the panels crashed, so it wouldn't have made it to full, anyway. And it was not able to go into float mode, so I've yet to see how that goes. But this raises a couple of questions:
? How does the Tracer decide when the bank is at 100% soc?
? Is there a way to re-calibrate it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
bn series manual
mt50 manual
In a couple days I'll be doing another run, less deep, and an earlier start, hopefully. That way I can see how the controller handles what it believes to be a full bank.
Another thing I noticed was, when set to 14.5v "max boost voltage", the monitor said 14.6v, and it took the bank up to 14.56v, according to the dmm. When set at 14.4v, it topped out at 14.5v (monitor) and 14.44v (dmm)... which is exactly the voltage I'm thinking will sync up well with my P10 CEF setting of 85%, on the Tri.
There are some other programmable settings I'm not sure about, but I'll post them, later. I'd like to get this '100% soc' thing sorted out first and foremost, seeing as this will be my main means of top end charging.
Thanxx!
