Midnite solar DIY series questions

[Zolarhill]

Recently got a 150v/60a MPPT charge controller, Midnite DIY series(MNMPPT60DIY).
Picked it up to replace a couple PWM controllers and to add a few panels.
Here are the questions
-at 12.7 volts after the sun is down it reads 43-44% soc, when I plug in the batteries parameters(Trojan L-16) 8 wired for 4@12v. However when it uses its own parameters for FLA it reads 100% soc. Am I going to have to live with it reading low or what settings can I change?
-in those setting there's one called capacity, would that refer to amp hours? And one called address, is that for communications or number of batteries maybe?
-and one more, it's bulk charge settings. For returning to bulk charging what should that be set at?

[Mike90250]

Did it not come with a manual ? It's a new line for Midnight, and it sounds like you are an early adopter .

[Zolarhill]

Ahhh, yes it did come with a manual. And i found the majority of my questions answered by it.
However the controller being made in china shows in the manual. Bulk is referred to as boost charging, and a few mismatched words here and there.
I'm hoping I'm not the first adopter here in any case.
The capacity and the address are left very vague, I've played with them both, and haven't seen a difference, albeit I was only able to play around for a few hours.
But I'm sure someone has experience with the soc reading radically different between settings. If I remember correctly it was based of of the bulk charge voltage. I think Trojan recommends 14.2 while the controller uses 13.6 as default. I do not have the paperwork with me at the moment. Either way seems like a drastic jump to me.

[Mike90250]

I follow Midnight pretty closely, and the DIY line has just come out. You may want to ask at their forum, about the
issues you have - http://midniteftp.com/forum/index.php

[chrisski]

The best way you can tell your SCC is fully charged with the battery is when its sunny out and very little current is being prouduced by the SCC. This should be the end of Absorption mode or float mode.

[Zolarhill]

Thanks for the link to the midnite forum... Looks like the diy series is brand new, didn't realize that. Figured it was out for a few years, where I'm located it takes a few years to get new technology to trickle down to us, but times, they are a changing.
Ill try to let you know how it works out for me, anything I should look for, anything you folk want to know about while I'm being the guinea pig?

Float charge should be roughly 10% of battery bank AH correct? So in my case 1740 ah should be floating around 17 amps @ 13.5v. Which before this charger I was lucky to get 45 amps in using pwm's. Lucky for me it's a weekend retreat so I don't have to worry about getting full charge in a day at that rate... Impossible.

[Mike90250]

Don't forget, any loads you have on daytime ( inverter in idle mode ) tool chargers , will subtract from charging power

[SunEagle]

Thanks for the link to the midnite forum... Looks like the diy series is brand new, didn't realize that. Figured it was out for a few years, where I'm located it takes a few years to get new technology to trickle down to us, but times, they are a changing.
Ill try to let you know how it works out for me, anything I should look for, anything you folk want to know about while I'm being the guinea pig?

Float charge should be roughly 10% of battery bank AH correct? So in my case 1740 ah should be floating around 17 amps @ 13.5v. Which before this charger I was lucky to get 45 amps in using pwm's. Lucky for me it's a weekend retreat so I don't have to worry about getting full charge in a day at that rate... Impossible.

Try to understand that with a slow charge rate you can end up sulfating the battery plates which will harm them. So even if you don't use the system every day the batteries will want to be cycled and charged up to 100% at the rate they like (around a C/10 rate works for most FLA batteries).

A slower charge rate may work but the batteries will not last the time you hope for.

Oh and 17 amps is only 1% charge rate for a 1740Ah system not 10%.

[Zolarhill]

Yeah, pretty minimal draw on the place. I can spend the weekend up there with no charging going on, and not drop DOD past 50%. Only loads are the controllers and a radio during the summer months when I'm not there.
That slow charge is what I'm working on fixing right now, this controller replaced a 20 amp PWM. So can can put in 120 from the solar in peak conditions now, an improvement but still not enough. Sulfation is why I have new batteries now, those old ones somehow managed 10 years, with a significant drop only in the last year or so.... I'm sure they were failing way before then, but over batteried system and very little usage covered it up well. Next up is another MPPT or two, more panels, and 48 volt in the future.
And yup, realized my mathematical error a bit later that night...