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  • Positive ground solar charge controller help

    I just discovered that the solar charge controller I bought for my camper van solar setup is positive ground. So I need some help.

    First of all, someone explained it to me like a light switch. So normally, the negative wires are connected and the positive wires act as the switch, but with this charge controller it is like the positive wires are connected and the negative wires act as the switch.

    But my problem comes with actual negative grounding of my solar setup.

    This is my plan: I have wires going from my solar panels through a breaker which then goes into the charge controller. Then positive wire goes from charge controller to a fuse on the positive busbar. The positive battery is connected to the other side of that fuse. Connected to the battery side of the fuse is an on/off switch. Then there is a fuse on the other side of the on/of switch. The other side of that fuse is the positive wire from the inverter.

    The negative wire goes from the charge controller to the negative busbar. The negative wire from the battery goes to this busbar, and the negative wire from the inverter goes to this busbar. I was going to ground this negative busbar to the chassis. The seller of the charge controller said that I should wire everything normally, but that the "controller, battery, busbars, and inverter should not be grounded".

    So now I'm confused. I learned that I should not use the Load terminals of the charge controller and that is fine. But why should I not ground the negative busbar to the chassis. And if I don't ground it, how is my system ground? And I don't think I should ground the positive busbar to the chassis, right? I'm so confused, can someone please help?

    Multiple responses from different people are welcome!

  • #2
    My procedure would be find a negative ground charge controller. Bruce Roe

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    • #3
      Im with Bruce, get a neg ground controller.

      It will be difficult and more costly to get your batteries charging off the Van alternator with that controller than it would be to get another contoller.

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      • #4
        I am thinking of getting a negative charge controller because this is just confusing.

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        • #5
          I'd refer to the actual manual for the controller and not depend on someones opinion or possibly faulty recollection.
          The name brand stuff seldom has issues like this.
          Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
          || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
          || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

          solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
          gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister

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          • #6
            Update: I am returning the positive ground charge controller and buying a negative ground charge controller. It would just be too much work to make it work the other way. Even just the confusion of this one day was not worth the hassle. Thanks for your feedback.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Mike90250 View Post
              I'd refer to the actual manual for the controller and not depend on someones opinion or possibly faulty recollection.
              The name brand stuff seldom has issues like this.
              The manual doesn't state anything about the grounding of the controller or the rest of the electrical system, so I just don't feel good or confident about it.

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