Association Forum - Charge Controller

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Charge Controller - Solar Panel

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

jerlim
Master Marine Consultant

Member Avatar

USA
1484 Posts

Initially Posted - 07/23/2016 : 17:42:27

Just got a new controller to replace the poorly functional model sold by WM...

This new controller has 6 terminal screws. 2 for the cable coming in from the panel, 2 for the leads which feed the battery - and now to the point - there are 2 terminals apparently intended for a load...it shows the image (icon) of an incandescent bulb...what does this mean?

Jerry

islander
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
4029 Posts

Response Posted - 07/23/2016 : 18:41:17

Not positive but if you were to use the panel as a power source with out a battery in volved such as powering a light you would connect the light to those terminals.

Scott-"IMPULSE"87'C25/SR/WK/Din.#5688
Sailing out of Glen Cove,L.I Sound

Voyager
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
5429 Posts

Response Posted - 07/23/2016 : 22:09:45

So you're saying it might be a solar flashlight??? Could it be an indicator light showing when the regulator is operating?

Bruce Ross
Passage ~ SR-FK ~ C25 #5032

Port Captain � Milford, CT

dalelargent
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
198 Posts

Response Posted - 07/23/2016 : 23:29:59

It is not an indicator light: as mine has a separate charging indicator light AND those same 6 terminals. I don't actually understand what they ARE though. Even after reading the manual, it made no sense to me and I decided it didn't matter. Let's just says there may have been some translation issues with my manual. :)

1989 c25 WK/TR #5838
1998 Catalina 36 mkii
1983 Vagabond 14

jerlim
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1484 Posts

Response Posted - 07/24/2016 : 07:40:11

I have the same issue w/ the manual and language...and hold the same conclusion..

Jerry

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
3478 Posts

Response Posted - 07/25/2016 : 03:35:57

Not sure if this helps but I have a Morningstar Pro 15 solar controller with a digital readout. It was at the time I bought it toward the high end, as far as cost, for a solar controller. It is now...10+ years old. It has a good instruction pamphlet and has more terminals believe 8. Two are for hooking up the solar panel. Two are for charging the battery bank (and there is a selector switch depending on whether you are charging a flooded, AGM or Gel battery). Two additional terminals are for running a load, directly, and...two terminals (optional) are for hooking up sensing lines, forget how they are hooked up (I would have to see how I did it or review the manual) but they are for sensing temperature, voltage and/or taking into account the length of the lines that charge the battery, directly. They are basically used to tweak how it charges the battery. These last two terminals do not have to be used but I recall the manual mentioning it was for better or more accurate charging of the battery bank and/or should be considered to utilize if the lines that charge the battery are rather long in length. The first few years, I did not use those terminals but then I hooked them up. It is not noticeable exactly how they effect the charging. In any case, I suspect your two terminals are for directly running a load that can run off the amperage your panel puts out, hourly, which will fluctuate from basically zilch to the max your panel actually puts out....so they won't run all loads via direct hook up with the solar panel and obviously, the panel will only put out it's max during the mid-day when you probably would not need a flashlight except to look inside storage areas...and you should have a battery operated spotlight, onboard, anyway. If you have a low amp fan that has slow, medium and high speed, perhaps hooking up those terminals directly to the fan and having the fan set to low speed, you may be able to run the fan and it's speed may fluctuate depending on how much juice your solar panel is putting out and varies with sun exposure. I do not utilize the direct load terminals.

Larry
'89 Robin's Nest#5820, Potomac River/Quantico, Va
http://catalina25.homestead.com/olarryr.html

Edited by - OLarryR on 07/25/2016 03:53:18

OJ
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
4382 Posts

Response Posted - 07/25/2016 : 08:08:06

This parallels what Larry is saying above - listen carefully to the verbiage at 1 minute 10 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uhj6dgjbhw

The Genasun controller in the video however does not have "Load" terminals.

1989 C25 TR/WK, #5822
1973 McVay Minuet 19
1975 Jester 12
1981 C25 SR/SK, #2428
1981 C22 SR/SK,
Tanzer 16
Sunfish

"There is nothing, absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." Kenneth Grahame

Edited by - OJ on 07/25/2016 08:27:13

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
3478 Posts

Response Posted - 07/25/2016 : 09:50:47

I listened to a good bit of the UTube video and also did a little bit of checking on the web. Morningstar sells high end solar controllers but not all same technology. My Pro 15M is actually a PWM type controller which performs similar to the shunt controller in the video versus the GenuSun MPPT controller that max's out the amps vs the shunt controller. I also checked online the manual for the Pro15 M and this is what it has to say about the sensing lines I mentioned:

"Battery sense connections are recommended if the controller is more than 5 meters from the battery." Well, my controller is not far from my battery bank and even though my leads to the battery are not in a direct line due to aesthetics and perhaps have a longer length to them than needed, they are probably about...8'-10' long and so the sensing lines probably have no benefit being used for my setup.

The UTube makes a good point of the benefit of an MPPT controller over a shunt or PWM controller but having reviewed a few articles just now on the web, the benefit of the MPPT is much greater for large solar panels versus small panels where the cost of the MPPT controller then becomes a decision factor vs the smaller benefit you can derive from it with using it on a smaller solar panel.

The main reason I bought the Pro15M was that I could tell at a glance, throughout the day, what the solar panel was putting out in amps and what the battery resting voltage was when the solar panel was not charging and what the battery voltage was when it was getting charged or right after it was charged. It also has indicator lights as to if the battery was being charged or was at full charge.

Anyway, this gets away from original topic - All these controllers are best for charging your battery vs using it onboard for very miniscule direct load usage. I would ignore the addl terminals for running direct loads except if you can find some real use of it versus using a 12 volt adapter plug off of your battery bank, thus leaving the controller to do it's main function - Charging your battery bank. But no harm in experimenting as to just what you could run off what I suspect is terminals for direct loads.

Larry
'89 Robin's Nest#5820, Potomac River/Quantico, Va
http://catalina25.homestead.com/olarryr.html

Edited by - OLarryR on 07/25/2016 09:52:29

Akenumber
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
247 Posts

Response Posted - 08/21/2016 : 13:21:25

I also have one with load. If you get one from harbor freight I comes with a couple of light bulbs. Pretty sure it's just a selling feature.

Ken
San Diego
84 C25 SR/FK 4116
The KRAKEN

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.