I'm new to solar I was wondering How I should hook solar controller to trolling motor battery and battery to main motor. Thanks
How to hook solar controller to two separate boat batteries
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You cant connect one controller to two "separate batteries" You could only parallel them which basically makes them a bank of batteries but you cant discharge them separately without unevenly discharging them. This will cause premature failure due to , now, uneven charging. bottom line, just don't do it . Get separate controllers and separate solar panels, or go thru the hassle and danger of swapping all the connections on a regular basis.2.2kw Suntech mono, Classic 200, NEW Trace SW4024 -
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You can always use a battery isolation module, just as you would for an RV with house and vehicle batteries.
Depending on the isolator design, you may need to increase the voltage settings of the charge controller (unless it includes remote sensing.)
For this to work, however, the two battery banks would need, at a minimum to be the same chemistry, target SG, and type (since all of those can influence your selection of charging voltage setpoints.)
In other words, I would not mix AGM with FLA that way, but deep discharge mixed with Cranking Lights and Ignition (CLI) might be OK.
Note also that if you use two separate Charge Controllers (CCs), particularly at least one of them is MPPT type, you must not try to run them from the same panel array at the same time.SunnyBoy 3000 US, 18 BP Solar 175B panels.Comment
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The controller is 30amp and I need to run the wires about 20-25ft from controller to battery. So what gauge wire should I use?Comment
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I will not tell you, I will tell you how to figure it out. Go look for yourself, use Critical 3% Chart. Find the 30 amp column and distance row. OK what did you come up with?
My best advice since this is a Marine application is to use batteries with like charging voltages which is pretty simple to do using Marine Batteries as that is what they are designed to do.
FWIW you may have a 30 amp controller, but unless you have a 400 watt panel with MPPT controller, or 550 watts with PWM controler, you will not have 30 amps. So choose your current wisely or else you will end up spending more than you have to. By code with a 30 amp controller the smallest you can use is 10 AWG which is about 1/2 the cost of 6 AWG.
Last edited by Sunking; 05-28-2017, 12:54 PM.MSEE, PEComment
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