Charge controllers

[PlethoraOfGuns]

I used to be all team Renogy. Never had an issue with any of their equipment. But their customer service is pretty much non existent, so I left them behind. Any MPPT controller is going to cost money. You're paying for the magic technology they have. Not sure how one can cost as low as $20, but I have no proof otherwise.

I've heard nothing bad about Victron. I was indeed concerned about their equipment not having screens. But everyone swears by them. They are indeed built like tanks, super high quality stuff. I bit the bullet on my last build and couldn't be happier. I can sit outside by the campfire and monitor all the stuff from my phone. It's kind of addicting. If the Bluetooth ever fails, which I've never heard of, you can connect via cable to computer and such.

Whatever you get, do the research, take in all the opinions, and make sure your numbers are right, crossing all your i's, and dotting all your t's. Buy once cry once is such a true statement/feeling.

 

[ldsreliance]

A $20 MPPT charge controller is not MPPT. It is a PWM charge controller. This has been debunked dozens of times by various other Youtubers in the past. Now, they can be good controllers, maybe even better than a normal MPPT. But not real power point tracking.

A true MPPT charge controller has large transformers and requires good sized heatsinks and a large inductor(s) to properly downconvert . That all takes up space. So if your "MPPT" charge controller is only an inch thick or so, it can't be real.

You can start getting into real ones in the $40-50 range sometimes but they still have problems. Typically, their sampling rate is very slow and they can't track rapidly changing conditions. A lot of times their efficiencies will be in the low to mid 90's instead of 99% like the $100 and up crowd.

You get what you pay for is still true, folks.

 

[jimindenver]

Without taking the controller apart and seeing the buck converter coil and computer board you can simply touch the leads of a voltmeter to the terminals of the solar panel wires going into the controller. Read the same voltage of the battery and you have a PWM. Read higher than the battery, like 18 volts for a 12 volt panel and you have a MPPT.

Back in the day there were plenty of companies putting MPPT stickers on PWM controllers. Tracer, now epever was one of them. It made it hard to convince people that the Eco-Worthy 20 amp MPPT controller was real. It was the first sub $300 20 amp and sub $200 anything MPPT controller put out in 2012. For $102 it made the cheap high voltage panels I got back then usable. It got me started into solar and concepts like using the power to do more than just charging batteries. It also let me be the first to prove that you could have air conditioning on solar without a monster bank to run it. Cheap panels and a inexpensive working MPPT controller meant that you could have a 250 watt system for less than $200. Sadly Eco-worthy no longer sells them.

This season I pulled two fake MPPT controllers sold by a vendors in the tents out of systems, So if it looks too good to be true it probably is.

 

[jimindenver]

this one is fake. Sold under a number of name plate in both MPPT and PWM.

fake MPPT

 

[ldsreliance]

this one is fake. Sold under a number of name plate in both MPPT and PWM.

fake MPPT

100% correct.  The other dead giveaway is the 100A version with what looks to be the same case.  Are you kidding me?  That thing would fry in a split second at 100A.

 

[wayne49]

At that Amazon link above:
---
Question:
Pwm or mppt ? The product description states that this unit is an mppt, the user manual states it is pwm
Answer:
it has all the pwm functions and it is better than pwm
By Autoday (Tools/Lights) Seller on December 31, 2018
---

It's a PWM AND it's better than a PWM.

 

[bullfrog]

Must be a slight problem with translation! Lol!!!

 

[Scott3569]

Omg that's some funny crap.. yeah I have come to learn how to spot fake product, wish has solar panels and the specifications are absurdly off..