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  • Charge Controller Problems

    HI all, quick story about my school project (ironically due in 11 days):

    Currently have a 50W 12V panel attached to a Morningstar SG-4 hooked up to a standard 12V lead acid battery. Controller has been working great during previous tests pushing out 2A consistently. While finishing up the wiring (panel and controller disconnected from battery) the battery was accidentally shorted to the negative terminal through a relay we are using. At first we didn't think anything of it so we hooked everything back up...little did we know the relay seems to be shot because there is no continuity through it whatsoever (tested with and without power to the coil). Threw the relay out and wired up the controller straight to the battery and took it outside -- no current. it was about 6pm and slightly cloudy but not dark by any means.

    I'm having a hard time believing a potentially fried relay could cause any problems with the controller once it was hooked up. Am I safe to assume the SG4 charge controller won't have an output unless the panel voltage was greater than the battery voltage? Meter read .001-.002A. Battery was at about 12.2V. Sorry for the stupid questions.

  • #2
    Hi Thomas, I moved this thread to the off-grid 12v section. I wont be able to help much with this stuff, 6pm might be to late for the panel, as in not enough grunt in the sun. Someone who know's this stuff should pop in at some stage, good luck with it cheers.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by ThomasMillerJr View Post
      HI all, quick story about my school project (ironically due in 11 days):

      Currently have a 50W 12V panel attached to a Morningstar SG-4 hooked up to a standard 12V lead acid battery. Controller has been working great during previous tests pushing out 2A consistently. While finishing up the wiring (panel and controller disconnected from battery) the battery was accidentally shorted to the negative terminal through a relay we are using. At first we didn't think anything of it so we hooked everything back up...little did we know the relay seems to be shot because there is no continuity through it whatsoever (tested with and without power to the coil). Threw the relay out and wired up the controller straight to the battery and took it outside -- no current. it was about 6pm and slightly cloudy but not dark by any means.

      I'm having a hard time believing a potentially fried relay could cause any problems with the controller once it was hooked up. Am I safe to assume the SG4 charge controller won't have an output unless the panel voltage was greater than the battery voltage? Meter read .001-.002A. Battery was at about 12.2V. Sorry for the stupid questions.
      Well I can think of two reasons you are not getting any charging amps.

      The first is that even though the sun is out at 6PM it is not strong enough to really provide any amount of output amps.

      The second is that it is possible your battery is fully charged and even if it was Noon your charge controller would be producing little to no charging amps.

      A third but remote possibility would be that somehow there is an open connection inside the battery which would not complete the charging circuit.

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