Hello, this is my first post on the forum so hope it in the correct section.
Ok i'm new to solar and have just bought some basic gear ie LG 300 panel, PWM charge controler although i soon found out that MPPT was better so bought a SMK MPPT 80A unit.
The Unit seems to work real well when it comes to charging although i have found one or two small glitches from time to time but nothing major, however i decided to install some DC outdoor lights the other day which would work off a timer so they would come on and go off at a set time, i used the load connection on the controller which is more than caperbal of handling the 40 watts that the lights will pull, the load max output on the controller is 60A.
The controller has three lights on the front panel RED when there is no solar coming in, BLUE (flashing) when charging BLUE (solid) when in float mode, GREEN load on
The problem is after dark when there is no solar coming in the controller goes to sleep and the red light comes on and by doing this it shuts down the load outlet (turnes off the green light) so when the timer kicks in there is no power from the controller so no lights.
I've connected the lights timer directly to the battery and all is working as it should but i can't help think that this must be wrong, what's the point of having a load outlet if you can only use it in daylight, i can't find anything in the user manual to say you can stop the controller from closing down after dark so this shut down looks to be automatic, i guess it's to save power.
Anyway if anyone has any ideas on why or how i could get around this i'd be very grateful to hear them, as i say it's nothing major but would like to now why if possible.
Take care
john
Ok i'm new to solar and have just bought some basic gear ie LG 300 panel, PWM charge controler although i soon found out that MPPT was better so bought a SMK MPPT 80A unit.
The Unit seems to work real well when it comes to charging although i have found one or two small glitches from time to time but nothing major, however i decided to install some DC outdoor lights the other day which would work off a timer so they would come on and go off at a set time, i used the load connection on the controller which is more than caperbal of handling the 40 watts that the lights will pull, the load max output on the controller is 60A.
The controller has three lights on the front panel RED when there is no solar coming in, BLUE (flashing) when charging BLUE (solid) when in float mode, GREEN load on
The problem is after dark when there is no solar coming in the controller goes to sleep and the red light comes on and by doing this it shuts down the load outlet (turnes off the green light) so when the timer kicks in there is no power from the controller so no lights.
I've connected the lights timer directly to the battery and all is working as it should but i can't help think that this must be wrong, what's the point of having a load outlet if you can only use it in daylight, i can't find anything in the user manual to say you can stop the controller from closing down after dark so this shut down looks to be automatic, i guess it's to save power.
Anyway if anyone has any ideas on why or how i could get around this i'd be very grateful to hear them, as i say it's nothing major but would like to now why if possible.
Take care
john
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