mppt charge controller - ZLPOWER ??

[electricsuperduty]

Yes, I know all about the cost differences and why, BTW I drive a Ford Super Duty 1 ton Dually 4x4 Diesel that gets 19+ on the hiway and the wife drives a Ford Taurus. Some China parts are actually made in Tiawan and or Korea, because cheap labor sometimes equals cheap quality control. I am going to check in on this controller, thanks for sharing, thats why I joined.

[conntaxman]

mppt /algorithm

electric. I have read about that SL-40A and asked alot of questions about it and Also called the companies in the USA. and asked questions about theirs , in the low price range. When I got mine i checked its preformance and another person did and he also found that it worked as it said it would.
Back to why it cost much LESS. First is that the Labor over china is soooo cheap, and they make all the parts their, and most likely they only want to make small amounts of profit per iteam, this way they will sell many more and really make more money that way.
Second reason is that the United States companies buy ALL the components from china. ha ha ha. and they want sooo much for labor cost, and if their is a Union involved then the cost is even Higher.
Any way. the one I bought Works.
I always try to buy American . all my cars are American! are yours?and all those other's that say don't buy it if it isn't made in the USA. What kind of car's do they drive.
everyone have Fun with their Solar. even if it dosen't pay for itself.

[electricsuperduty]

Buyer be-ware of Import Inverters and charge controllers, read up on reviews.

[conntaxman]

mppt /algorithm

polecat... So far it's working very good.And it is doing MPPT. mine is anyways.

[Polecat]

Thanks for the testing and posts;

I'm ordering one of these today, as the cost is less than buying the components to build one myself. If I find anything different, I'll post it then.

[conntaxman]

mppt /algorithm

Thank you both, because I don't take none of that kind of sh.. from no one.Two things that I can't stand is a lier and someone who steals. From way over here I would find a way to make it misreable that company and I would work on it .
Glad you two are on this forum and are very smart.
tks again
John
"I always keep my 6 helpers on my belt"

[tonigau]

John,
Sorry about that...

It does put out more amps than input so I would say yes on the MPPT, also the design "looks" like MPPT, I have nothing to convince me that it is not MPPT charge controller.
What is unknown at this time is how good it is at tracking the MPP under all operating conditions & its real efficiency spec. , which considering it is a low priced product is not very relevant anyways.

A far as charging a battery from sunlight with acceptable efficiency, the SL-40 will do what I want for now, its better than what I had previous.
I also wanted some hardware to experiment with.

Toni

[Sunking]

ok, so now both you have a good idea of what this is. So now tell me ., so if it ISN'T do what the mppt dose let me know so that I could

John I am not testing the unit so I cannot answer with certainty. From the little bit of test results Toni preformed, it might be in some capacity with some significant limitations.

As for me personally I would never consider using such a product just because the manufacture specs are so vague with missing information, low Voc input, and a few of them outright fraudulent like 99.5% efficient. Also from what Toni is reporting the RS-232 port is not compliant with TIA-232-F making it useless.

[conntaxman]

mppt

ok, so now both you have a good idea of what this is. So now tell me ., so if it ISN'T do what the mppt dose let me know so that I could "" CALL them s of a B. 'es up and tell them I want my money back. Im one guy that dosen't like getting F' ed over.
tks
John
Next will be the BlueSky I think it was a 1225 A or something. But that said it was a boaster.

[Sunking]

Here is the wording from the manual

Toni that is what set me off the manual, which I have not read and the specs are bologna.

Regardless of irradiance level the Vmp is always Vmp as anything below or above is less than maximum efficiency which is the huge problem with of any PWM charging algorithm. Anytime you pull the the voltage down from Vmp is a loss of power, even minute power levels. 17 volts @ .1 amps, is greater than 16 volts @ .1 amps. All quality MPPT controllers operate from Vmp to Voc, not Vmp to Isc.

Do not misunderstand I am not arguing with you, but the claims of the manufacture are silly like 99.5% efficient, 55 Voc max, no max power input vs battery voltage. Hogwash!

[tonigau]

Quote Originally Posted by tonigau View Post
The unit does do "PWM" mode, but only if the SP voltage is close to the battery voltage (eg: low solar insolation).

Toni beg your pardon but that does not jive with IR curves. Vmp knee voltage does not vary very much if at all with respect to irradiance (amount of sun light). It is the Imp current that varies proportionally to irradiance level, not the voltage.

Very true, It would have been more correct for me to state " When power is low" (assuming the tracking algorithm is doing its job)

At very low solar irradiance levels the DC-DC converter would unlikely be operating at its optimum efficiency, thus there will be a point where it is more efficient to connect the solar panel direct to the battery in series PWM mode.

Here is the wording from the manual
[QUOTE]When conditions are such that insufficient PV power is available to produce an
increase in output current, the unit will stop it

[conntaxman]

mppt /algorithm

Just did another test. Same 2 panels [[[[readings from the other day.I had 2 panels. panel A was17.10 volts@3.1 amps panel B was 17.54 volts@2.3 amps]]]] in series.
Started with battery voltage or 8 volts. This time I put an amp meter in series with the controller and + battery.Test voltage off panels was 36 then when I hooked everything up I took a reading off the plus and mins while it was charging. and it started out at 18volts and read 2 amps. Then while the voltage was raising in the battery to 12vdc the amp's went up to 4 amps.It seemed like that more battery voltage the more amps would be going in, Then the amps started to decrease, then the panel voltage would be going up and down.
Im still charging the battery. Sun is not quite as bright as the the other day, And panels are in a different location.
John

[Mike90250]

For testing , if your battery is fully charged, hook a couple of headlights to it, or rig the panel up on the car, and connect to the battery under the hood, turn headlights on, that will now pull power from the controller.

Most controllers, you connect to the battery first, and then attach the PV. If you have more than one panel, cover them with a blanket while attaching wires, cuts down on the sparks!

[conntaxman]

mppt /algorithm

The meter was not the problem, it was you not knowing what you are doing. Try that same thing with an expensive meter and you will get the same exact result

FWIW the battery you tested with was already fully charged up, so very little if any current flowed. That is why you seen the voltage go up so quickly.

........
Im going to get another meter, and also just a amp meter that you tie inbetween and the amps go through.
How low should the battery be to test it when everyone says, the voltage will be low and the amp's will be high.
Wait. with the pwm if the panels are putting out will say 3 amps in series that is all you will get even if the voltage is high. with the mppt were the voltage is high and it WAS 3 amps , now it will lower the voltage and increase the amps./
John

[Sunking]

I put my meter on amps and hooked one end to the controller and the put the other lead to the battery, and my probe wire on the meter ha ha fried, and smoked. so I pulled it off quick, but too late, now i need another meter. I guess I will have to get a regular amp meter.
Only in about 10 to 15 min the battery was charged, I was only a motor cycle battery.
so I still have NO idea . ha ha ha

The meter was not the problem, it was you not knowing what you are doing. Try that same thing with an expensive meter and you will get the same exact result

FWIW the battery you tested with was already fully charged up, so very little if any current flowed. That is why you seen the voltage go up so quickly.