Welcome to Motorhomefacts, we are a thriving motorhome community (Largest in Europe). Why Not JOIN NOW and get instant access to more of the website. It costs nothing to join and only takes a few minutes. We have 200,000 different people visiting our site monthly and this amount of motorhomers in one place guarantees a fast response to any questions you may have. We also have unique facilities not found elsewhere such as our Online Logbook, stopover tracker, Motorhome directory with Ebay type feedback and the largest repository of motorhome campsites reviews found anywhere
When fitting the charging regulator (controller) is it best to have it near to the solar panel, near to the battery or does it not matter?
As far as I can see there is no great advantage in having loads run directly from the controller as it will only be these loads that are switched off when the battery is low. Also running loads directly from the controller usually means that a larger amp controller is needed.
Have I got it right?
It doesn't really matter but as some regulators do temperature sensing of the battery then it is better to be close to the battery.
When your battery is getting discharged to a low level wouldn't be nice to automatically dump some of the non-essential loads that are taking it down? This facility is only available on 'larger regulators' so I concede your last point but if you have load terminals already because of your choice of regulator why not use them.
For those with integrated systems its no use your controller knowing how much goes into your battery if it doesn't know how much is coming out as well It will always tell you your battery is more fully charged than it is
______________________________________________________________ Regards Frank - - please follow me on twitter @FrankieBryant
Denn wir haben nichts in die Welt gebracht; darum offenbar ist, wir werden auch nichts hinausbringen.
RIP Peter and Fiona Our thoughts are with you Chris and Graham. Fighting with Mavis and Ray
Plusnet, Safari 5, G5 PowerPC iMac running OSX 10.5.8, Salisbury UK : Get behind early - it gives you more time to catch up.
Hi Kev
Unless you are charging run down battery's in optimal charging conditions you never get near what the literature says the panel can produce.
I have 100w's which can produce around 5.5a but in fact on a sunny day up north I only get between 3a and 3.5a in Spain on a glorious day I have had 4.5
I did ask some questions about setting up the regulator, as I don't think the manufacturer knew what panel I had, but no one was prepared to give a definitive answer .
I was looking at my regulator while away this weekend and I'm not sure it's set up properly, and would like some expert advice on what levels to re-set it up with, if there is someone who can help.
The current set up is as follows.
Load 000004 (odd as nothing on it at all, and why so many zeros?)
Battery SOC 80%
Charge off at 11.00V
Load off at 10.9V
Load on at 12.6V
Charge 000058ah (what is the pic below saying 58ah, .58ah or 5.8ah?)
The instructions posted earlier show how to do the adjustments, the English is not too good, but I can just about make sense of it, enough to make the changes reccomended.
Kev.
PS I'm not sure if it would make a difference to any suggestions, but the two 110ah batteries are not yet connected together, not had the room to get underneath yet to run cables.
I don't know how I came across this but as I have.
The information you provided shows your charge cut off is set at 11 volts ? This means that anything over 11 volts in your battery will stop the solar panel charge going into your battery. So it is no wonder that you've never seen more than 1 amp of charge as you say in a later post.
Best thing you can do is press the reset button which will restore the default settings and the 12.7 volts charge cut off.
EDIT actually the reset may not restore defaults.
You need to press the menu button repeatedly until the "charge off xx.xx" appears in the display and then press the + button until it says 12.7 then press OK. That's it.
P.S. the ah display 0000058? is how much charge has been delivered since first installing or since last RESET
I'm going blummin daft Charge cut off should be THIRTEEN point SEVEN.
Really? Are you saying every modern car is wrong at 14.4V
______________________________________________________________ Regards Frank - - please follow me on twitter @FrankieBryant
Denn wir haben nichts in die Welt gebracht; darum offenbar ist, wir werden auch nichts hinausbringen.
RIP Peter and Fiona Our thoughts are with you Chris and Graham. Fighting with Mavis and Ray
Plusnet, Safari 5, G5 PowerPC iMac running OSX 10.5.8, Salisbury UK : Get behind early - it gives you more time to catch up.
14.4 permanently on the leisure batteries will cause gassing and loss of electrolite surely.
The default setting is 13.7
This is also the output from my onboard mains charger as my batteries never indicate more than 13.7
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
All times are GMT + 1 Hour Page 5 of 8Goto page : Previous1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8Next
Germany
Our thoughts are with you Chris and Graham. Fighting with Mavis and Ray 
.
Charge cut off should be THIRTEEN point SEVEN.
