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Hi
Does anybody have use separate regulators working in conjunction and do you have any problems.
We have x2 80w through a Steca mppt and x1 120w through a morningstar(with a fox display), the Steca one will not work correctly now unless the other is disconnected, it was not cutting out and taking the voltage to 15.3.
The morningstar is now disconnected and the Steca is working fine, with the Steca disconnected the other worked fine.
The engineer is emailing Steca to see what they think.
The system has been fitted a year, when first fitted the Steca one was showing faulty but then, after a few weeks was ok, very strange to now manifest again after so long.
I would simply just put the 120 watt panel and 80 watt panel together and use one controller... thats the problem i would think, just make sure the controller is able to take at least 10 amps.... my view it would not matter connecting the both together as they only supply current which would make a 200 watt panel on a very good day in the middle of summer in this country...
Actually 280 watts of panels but yes I agree 1 regulator is better. Although 2 should work independently as they should only respond to battery voltage
Yep seems the most logical thing to me, strange the engineer did not try it, its not going to do any damage at all... my view with two controlas is that they may well be fighting each other, so its always best to have just one regulator for one set of batteries.... others may differ but thats my view..... enjoy your camping i'm off down to cornwall in the morning....
The engineer said he would not connect them through one regulator as they are different wattages and if you do there may be an issue that the lower wattage one will bring the higher one down to its level.
ie the 120w one will bring the 160w(x2 80w) down to 120w, so you have x2 120w, 240w instead of 280w.
I agree that if it was possible to stick them all through one regulator which is a 20amp one so would suffice.
I do know someone on here said Kyocera wrote to him and said you shouldn't mix different wattage ones together for this very reason.
I have three panels controlled by one solar regulator which I can switch the charge between two battery banks. However, I do get a conflict with the main vehicle controller/charger (Calira) when the battery is full. They fight on voltages, one pushes it up to 14.4v and the other knocks it back. You can watch it cycling. I solve it by switching the solar to one battery and the other battery to supply. Giving the children separate toys to play with.
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