Solar panel regulator / controller.

[trevskoda]

have a feeling ,Trev ,that NASA are going to be moving to N.I. because that is where the technology is????

Ha dont think so though the we unit works fine and holds my batterys up but it does not smart charge them and i would use my mains numax for that about every 8 weeks or so.
Some of the smart chargers are very good but when they go wrong it costs lots which i would think cheaper to buy a new battery.

 

[listerdiesel]

Most of the 'proper' MPPT controllers, as opposed to those just labelled as such will have multiple battery types in their setup menus, but I don't see 'battery conditioning' as such, just multi-stage charging which isn't the same thing in reality.

We have four of these in use, two in the trailer and two in the Mercedes:

300W MPPT solar charge controller 25A 12v with LCD | eBay

Peter

 

[listerdiesel]

It does on the latest two, but not described when we bought them.

Peter

 

[harrow]

Battery conditioning is sometimes what they describe pulse charging in the float phase. It may be that this is done by your controller but they didn't mention it. Worth checking with a good multimeter or an oscilloscope: that looks like a good unit, judging from the specs. I'd like to know if it pulses in float.

Conditioning cycle.

On a 12 volt battery raising it's voltage to 14.1 volts

That's all that's required.

What I would like to see is the leisure battery charged up to this voltage, 13.8 volts is not enough.

Where I used to work we had huge power plants with open cells that you rodded between the plates with a stick to remove any spikes, these cells where each much bigger than an automatic washing machine.

The standby generators (the size of a double decker bus) and used to start up on compressed air.

Recently we used to run the generators and we had 4 of them to put power back onto the national electricity grid.

Now that's what you call more that a few amps, big boys stuff.

 

[wildebus]

This is quite a good explanation and illustration of the equalization phase to balance the individual cells.

That is a screenshot from the Amperor Associates Power Integrator that manages the Solar Charging and Alternator Split Charging into the Leisure Battery (this is the unit I mentioned in my first reply and the one I have installed)

If you have a search on line, you will see a similar type of diagram for the CTEK Dual 250 to show its charging regime.

 

[jolmartyn1]

Charging leisure and vehicle

I Have a 120 watt solar on the roof and 2 x Identical 100 AH batteries in the leisure area. The charge is driven into the LBatts from a quality regulator. I now have a BatteryMaster from vanBitz feeding my vehicle battery, Works well. Before I had this bigger van, I used a CTEK charger in my Romahome to replace a Zig that broke. I did however run a CTEK lead from that vehicle battery so I could charge that battery from the CTEK. It was a great starter anyway, never ever had a issue with the poor starting problems.
Research and research again. Read reviews and buy quality
Jol

 

[listerdiesel]

Ours cycles up to 14.4V then stops charging and lets the voltage fall back to 13.80. Then it starts again after a while.

We use twin 50A chargers for getting the batteries up quickly, they are set to 13.80V and act as shore supplies when we are on EHU.

Peter

 

[oldish hippy]

ther are fake ones out ther from Ebay mr b said mttppwas theone to get loads of videos on YouTube discussing the good and bad ones