Static Shock!
I was sitting in the camper doing paperwork and noticed the battery voltage getting low from running the inverter. I reached up to the solar charge controller to press the button to show amps charging...
Forum Discussion
covered wagon wrote:
How does the charge controller know what charge regime to provide if we ourselves can only read the rate of charge voltage being pumped in and not the actual batteries state of charge, unless the controller is shut off and the batteries are allowed to settle? Sorry about the lengthy question.... how does any stage charger know for that matter? Is it a preset charge sequence based on the batteries initial state of charge. After all is said, I understand the only real way is to check specific gravity in each cell.
This may sound off topic, but what I'm getting at is if there is an alternative or
simpler way in avoiding a controller altogether???
Solar panels put out about 17 or 21 volts which is too high for batteries. The controller converts that to an appropriate voltage as it senses battery state of charge. You tell the controller what batteries you have, it does the rest.
Torklift makes an armored battery box with a small unregulated solar panel to maintain batteries. I understand this works ok because the panel is small and provides little current.
There are members who have this setup and could add much more.
