outback solar mppt controller
anyone had any experience with the outback mppt controllers? I see solar blvd has a 10A for $99 and a 20A for $149. the 20 A would be a nice update from the morningstar 15A at a reasonable price...
Forum Discussion
Yes, you can do whatever you like for the situation. In Spring and Fall I set it to 14.8/14.5 and on nice days it gets to 14.8 late in the day and does a bit of 14.5 before dark.
In mid-Summer, long days, that means it gets to 14.8 earlier and spends way too long at 14.5 so the batts lose water all afternoon, being overcharged. So I changed it to 14.8/13.6. That still got the batts to full (hitting baseline SG as confirmed by hydrometer, not just from Trimetric info) before they got drawn down again from camping activities from supper-time on.
So it is not a bad thing to do the 14.8/13.6 routine on long summer "nice days" You don't go to a lower float as with "storage" while still camping and using the batteries to run things.
I tried 13.2 at first and the Trimetric showed when a load came on, I lost the solar charging input at first and there was a draw on the batts until the solar could pick up the slack. So that is why converters are set a t 13.6 for "normal" when on shore power. Same thing when on solar while camping. You need that 13.6
In mid-Summer, long days, that means it gets to 14.8 earlier and spends way too long at 14.5 so the batts lose water all afternoon, being overcharged. So I changed it to 14.8/13.6. That still got the batts to full (hitting baseline SG as confirmed by hydrometer, not just from Trimetric info) before they got drawn down again from camping activities from supper-time on.
So it is not a bad thing to do the 14.8/13.6 routine on long summer "nice days" You don't go to a lower float as with "storage" while still camping and using the batteries to run things.
I tried 13.2 at first and the Trimetric showed when a load came on, I lost the solar charging input at first and there was a draw on the batts until the solar could pick up the slack. So that is why converters are set a t 13.6 for "normal" when on shore power. Same thing when on solar while camping. You need that 13.6
