Rogue MPPT, 490W and charging mysteries
Now that we were finally all in one place - me, Rogue 3048 and my rig - it was time to have some fun. 1)Battery: old starter, tested beyond dead, plates above the water. No wonder, 8 months in Mex...
Forum Discussion
OP here. Stopped floating AGM for 2 days as wanted to prevent the nearly dead starter battery from dropping too low. It was losing charge at ~8% a day, can drive but can't let it sit for long. Will start a new thread on this starter batt tomorrow.
Q to Marc. I realize that dying battery is not the best tool to work with, but still...
It stays in ABS at 14.4 (setpoint 14.7) - fine, controller just does what the battery can do, healthier AGM behave more normal. Current on starter batt dropped gradually to 0.5 A, setpoint FLOTR=1A - Rogue doesn't allow setting less than 1A, but here is what looks odd:
1) darn batt won't go to float. The batt is to blame, I agree.
2) Controller hates this junk, and is "steping up MPPT" - some sweep mode that it does once in a while in ABS, but it does this sweep every few minutes. He doesn't do this to healthier AGM (unless light conditions change abruptly), so this is must be how Rogue should work, i.e. no problems with Rogue.
Oh yeah, got 3 multimeters - mine and 2 from neighbors, to test the Rogue display accuracy. Nope, no consensus. One borrowed meter agreed with mine, and another one - with Rogue. When I get back North, will take my meter to the friend's shop to check on standard equipment, but I suspect I know the result. Rogue has got one of displays with ~0.08V on the higher side. Had I bought one of those $20 Ebay babies, I wouldn't worry about 0.1V - with setpoints curved in stone, be it ABS 14.5 or whatever, whether batteries like it or not. Wouldn't even know what the ABS is - green indicator lights up, so the battery is "somewhere" between 80% and 99% SOC :)...
Other than that, display is rather informative and it's nice being able to adjust everything and even access the data log from the front panel.
3*100 AH AGMs are back in float. Yes, they go to 14-something as soon as Rogue wakes up or restarts after panels had been disconnected and re-connected. Starts from bulk-MPPT at sunrise, when sun clears the mountains V rises to ABS 14.7 as it should (plus cooler morning temp correction 0.2V or so), then goes into ABS for a second or two, then to Float ~2A after 2 days of floating.
Q to Marc. I realize that dying battery is not the best tool to work with, but still...
It stays in ABS at 14.4 (setpoint 14.7) - fine, controller just does what the battery can do, healthier AGM behave more normal. Current on starter batt dropped gradually to 0.5 A, setpoint FLOTR=1A - Rogue doesn't allow setting less than 1A, but here is what looks odd:
1) darn batt won't go to float. The batt is to blame, I agree.
2) Controller hates this junk, and is "steping up MPPT" - some sweep mode that it does once in a while in ABS, but it does this sweep every few minutes. He doesn't do this to healthier AGM (unless light conditions change abruptly), so this is must be how Rogue should work, i.e. no problems with Rogue.
Oh yeah, got 3 multimeters - mine and 2 from neighbors, to test the Rogue display accuracy. Nope, no consensus. One borrowed meter agreed with mine, and another one - with Rogue. When I get back North, will take my meter to the friend's shop to check on standard equipment, but I suspect I know the result. Rogue has got one of displays with ~0.08V on the higher side. Had I bought one of those $20 Ebay babies, I wouldn't worry about 0.1V - with setpoints curved in stone, be it ABS 14.5 or whatever, whether batteries like it or not. Wouldn't even know what the ABS is - green indicator lights up, so the battery is "somewhere" between 80% and 99% SOC :)...
Other than that, display is rather informative and it's nice being able to adjust everything and even access the data log from the front panel.
3*100 AH AGMs are back in float. Yes, they go to 14-something as soon as Rogue wakes up or restarts after panels had been disconnected and re-connected. Starts from bulk-MPPT at sunrise, when sun clears the mountains V rises to ABS 14.7 as it should (plus cooler morning temp correction 0.2V or so), then goes into ABS for a second or two, then to Float ~2A after 2 days of floating.
