0xkruzr
New Member
So, I'm doing a refit of a pontoon boat with 2 48V electric motors. Won't go terribly fast, but will go, and that's enough. I'd like to have solar charging for it, tho. Which brings me to this question:
Frequently in the tech world some OEM producer of equipment ends up quietly surpassing "name brand" big vendors -- HTC and their smartphones in the early 2010s springs to mind as an example -- and buying their stuff early ends up paying off in terms of quality and support. I'm curious if there are "off brand" producers (i.e. not Renogy or Victron) of solar and DC power gear in general out there that are similarly worth taking a look at in terms of feature support and quality. Looking for the kind of functionality you get out of, for example in the Victron world, a 150/35 charge controller, Cerbo GX and screen, and battery monitor shunt, specifically with a view toward being able to handle at least 2KW of power and a sensible attitude toward getting data out of your system and control into it -- from reviews, for example, it sounds like the Cerbo has weird restrictions as to what you can get from WiFi vs. Bluetooth vs. other connectivity options.
I haven't dived into Renogy much; if you guys think they might be a better solution than Victron for this application I'd be all ears.
Frequently in the tech world some OEM producer of equipment ends up quietly surpassing "name brand" big vendors -- HTC and their smartphones in the early 2010s springs to mind as an example -- and buying their stuff early ends up paying off in terms of quality and support. I'm curious if there are "off brand" producers (i.e. not Renogy or Victron) of solar and DC power gear in general out there that are similarly worth taking a look at in terms of feature support and quality. Looking for the kind of functionality you get out of, for example in the Victron world, a 150/35 charge controller, Cerbo GX and screen, and battery monitor shunt, specifically with a view toward being able to handle at least 2KW of power and a sensible attitude toward getting data out of your system and control into it -- from reviews, for example, it sounds like the Cerbo has weird restrictions as to what you can get from WiFi vs. Bluetooth vs. other connectivity options.
I haven't dived into Renogy much; if you guys think they might be a better solution than Victron for this application I'd be all ears.