Solar Charge Controller

[mtnman1989]

I need some recommendations on a Solar Charge Controller. I want to upgrade my solar charger. I have a 100 watt solar panel with a cheap charge controller with lights only. I want to upgrade to a decent charge controller which shows me the current voltage of my battery and how many amps of charge I am getting from the sun. We boondock about half the time and sometimes as much as a month at a time without any power. I also have a generator when needed. I do not intent to add any additional panels so I think a 20 Amp solar charger will work fine. I do not want anything expensive, I just want to be able to see and verify that my solar system is working.
Thanks!
mtnman

[Almot]

Don't know about "more" - I thought it only reads AH/WH, in addition to V/A. Nothing else. Installed on the battery input side, it will read AH/WH into battery, i.e. daily harvest. Must be way to reset the daily AH - or disconnect button? Never had it, only saw the picture.

[mtnman1989]

The meter is installed and works great! I got it connected right to get the charging amps and battery volts i was wanting. It also gives me usage and more which I have to learn as I use the meter. Nice meter for less than $14. It fit nicely right under the solar charge controller and was light enough to attach with velcro and I did not have to cut a hole in my wall. It also hide all the solar wire connections. Thanks to all who posted.
mtnman

[grizzzman]

mtnman1989 wrote:
Almost,
There are only 4 wires on that meter, can you look at it and tell me the correct way to wire it so I can read amps and volts?
Thanks

How you choose to use it will decide how it is wired.
Read the Manuel (use the 3 wire hook up option, suggest a reset button)

[mtnman1989]

Almost,
There are only 4 wires on that meter, can you look at it and tell me the correct way to wire it so I can read amps and volts?
Thanks

[Almot]

mtnman - you should measure voltage in the morning, not in the evening.

At sunset, when it's just finished charging, voltage is unstable, descending from 13.6 where controller was keeping it. Late in the evening it may read 12.7 not because it's full but because it didn't settle down yet. Or - below 12.7 if there are any loads, while still being nearly full. Morning voltage before sunrise (and preferably without loads) will give you much better picture.

After battery has been charged, it takes 20-24 hours for voltage to settle down to its "true" level, but overnight is close enough.

Wire that little meter so that it would read amps and amp-hours too, not just volts. This, together with voltage, should be enough for your uses.

[mtnman1989]

I will be fine with that little 12 volt meter. I usually check my voltage at night, bed time. We use such a small amount of 12 volt that we have actually went out and set up and stayed 2 to 3 days and never get any sun for the solar panel or run the generator and we still have plenty of power left in the batteries. When it is like that it is easy to measure because it starts out high and just keeps getting lower and lower, no guess work is needed. Last time we went out one of my batteries had a bad ground connection and was not even in the circle and we still had plenty of power with the single battery.
mtnman

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Guesstimating state of charge by voltage reminds me of determining vehicle speed by whether or not there are flashing red and blue lights in the rear view mirror

[Almot]

Yeah, well, you get what you pay for.
I "suspected" that GT needs switching to work both ways, and mentioned this earlier.

mtnman should better wire it to measure "out" flow, i.e. from battery to loads. Then he'll know how much charge the battery has lost overnight after controller had brought it to Float the day before.

People think they can measure battery state of charge by looking at the voltage. This would be a close guestimate, but only in the morning, before controller kicks in. In the daytime, with controller working, even without loads, the voltage can only tell you that it's somewhere before or after the 14.4 peak. Or at the peak. But then, most cheap controllers have LED indicator for this.

[grizzzman]

mtnman1989 wrote:
Almot,
I ordered the GT Power RC 130A Power Analyzer you mentioned earlier from Amazon for $13. It should be here today. It had lots of great reviews. It should do what I want. As I stated earlier, I just want something that I can glance at and tell me my 12 volt system is where it needs to be. We do a good job of monitoring both of our RV 12 volt systems and we get many years out of a set of batteries with near zero no problems.

The little cheap solar charger I have seems to do a good job, I just don't want to get the multi-meter out every time I want to see the status of my 12 volt system.
mtnman

Please remember that the GT unit only works one way at a time (discharge or charge of amps) You would be better off with the gizmo Mex posted. I prefer the TM2030 with the SC2030 myself. Good luck with your project.

[mtnman1989]

Almot,
I ordered the GT Power RC 130A Power Analyzer you mentioned earlier from Amazon for $13. It should be here today. It had lots of great reviews. It should do what I want. As I stated earlier, I just want something that I can glance at and tell me my 12 volt system is where it needs to be. We do a good job of monitoring both of our RV 12 volt systems and we get many years out of a set of batteries with near zero no problems.

The little cheap solar charger I have seems to do a good job, I just don't want to get the multi-meter out every time I want to see the status of my 12 volt system.
mtnman

[Almot]

mtnman1989 wrote:
We usually have our small dual sport motorcycles and spend the days riding them. When we get back to camp each night, we shower, eat and sleep. During the day while we are gone the solar panel will usually restored any 12 volt power we used the night before.

Might as well leave it like this. No need to pay big bucks for a real battery monitor, though I would get some of those cheaper meters with amp-hour capability.

100W will harvest 20-25 AH on a good day, enough for a few lights and pump. Your situation is similar to mine, only mine is few times larger, so I'm fine on cloudy days too. You don't need to monitor a battery if you know that it's getting fully charged every day, and it doesn't sound like it's getting discharged too deeply (wouldn't be possible to fully charge with 100W panel then). My controller already has plenty of data on display - amp-hours harvested for the day, and if 14.6V peak was reached, and how long it stayed there before going into Float, and how long it floated. If it didn't have all this info, I would get some meter.

Viewstar I don't know, haven't taught myself to trust domestic Chinese brands yet. Looks like a decent controller though. Plenty of info on display, temp comp. This is not a substitute for battery monitor, no controller is. But in YOUR particular situation the display of Viewstar could be all you need.

[Searching_Ut]

I haven't played with any of the advanced programing yet. Got the solar installed last weekend, during the week I installed an inverter and have it wired, to include the wiring to where I'll install the transfer switch, but I am still waiting on it to get here. Doing a long weekend trip this weekend where I'll get the first chance to wring it out, see what sort of current draw I'm getting on stuff etc. This fiver is new to me, so I've only done a single overnighter without hookups so far. Being as how the fiver is parked on the street right now, I can't even run out the slides so I can turn stuff on and put a good load on the batteries yet to see what sort of charge rate I get when I run the batteries down a bit.

[grizzzman]

Searching_Ut wrote:
I just completed the installation of my solar system this weekend, and must say I'm very impressed with the Bogart Trimetric 2030 and SC 2030 combination. The amount of controllability the system provides is remarkable, as well is the ability the combination gives for DC system monitoring. I have mine hooked up to 5 paralleled 100 watt panels. We have a 4 day boondocking trip set up for this weekend so I can try it out better under camping conditions. Currently it appears my 3 group 24 batteries will be significantly holding the system back. I can't justify replacing this year as we don't have any trips planned longer than 10 days at a time. Next year we retire and then I'll add a better battery setup.

It can hard to explain just how adjustable it is tell you get into it. Have you set to L4 yet?

[Searching_Ut]

I just completed the installation of my solar system this weekend, and must say I'm very impressed with the Bogart Trimetric 2030 and SC 2030 combination. The amount of controllability the system provides is remarkable, as well is the ability the combination gives for DC system monitoring. I have mine hooked up to 5 paralleled 100 watt panels. We have a 4 day boondocking trip set up for this weekend so I can try it out better under camping conditions. Currently it appears my 3 group 24 batteries will be significantly holding the system back. I can't justify replacing this year as we don't have any trips planned longer than 10 days at a time. Next year we retire and then I'll add a better battery setup.