RV / Camper Design Example

[joerossjr]

Sunking, could you be so kind as to add shore power connections to the circuit, since this is intended for RV/Mobile applications? I know a converter is required, but the gauges of wire and fuse sizes are something I don't want to try and figure out, then get them wrong!! Is there a Charge Controller (CC) that has shore power inputs? Since it controls the voltage from the panels to the battery, it makes sense to me that it would also be a good idea to have it in complete control of the charging of the battery bank.

I have read about converters that have 3-stage charging... well the CC already does that.

Is the "Battery Isolator" the same thing as a solenoid that I have read about? Is there no solid state equivalent as opposed to a relay that will eventually wear out?

[Tamnakz]

A battery isolator is a solid state device. To my understanding (for a two battery setup) it's a pair of giant diodes to make sure the batteries can never feed each other. You MUST fit an isolator to your vehicle that's designed to work with that vehicles particular voltage regulation circuit, otherwise you'll chronically undercharge your batteries and put your vehicle electronics at severe risk.

A battery isolator (in my opinion) is vastly superior to a battery isolation relay.