HQST 30A MPPT - couldn't help myself and took a chance

So I was poking around Amazon last week and came across a 30A MPPT from HQST listed for $54.99 that has a lithium charge profile built in. I convinced myself that it was worth a shot at that price so I pulled the trigger.



The next day when I checked Amazon the price was at $79.99 (I suspect I stumbled upon and took advantage of a pricing mistake) but it's on sale for $69.99 on the HQST site. The manual can be found here.

Now I don't expect this to be some magical unicorn SCC, but for those of us who tend to build smaller, portable solar power stations it seems like a nice budget option. It has a low max voltage (50V) which means if you're doing a small 12V system with 100W panels like a bunch of people do, it's a 2s2p configuration for your array. I didn't consider that a deal breaker so I went for it.

So far it seems to work as advertised. I'm going to keep testing it over the next few months to see how it fares.

hi bob,

im a newbee looking to make a 2 panel 200w system for camper and was checking out this controller. its gonna be parallel set up and just dump into my battery bank. i was gonna get the thermostat and bluetooth module as well. what are your thoughts on controller so far and is it pretty straight forward ? do you think i can add 2 additonal panels for toal 400w laer with this set up? thanks in advance for your help

brkylnkid said:

hi bob,

im a newbee looking to make a 2 panel 200w system for camper and was checking out this controller. its gonna be parallel set up and just dump into my battery bank. i was gonna get the thermostat and bluetooth module as well. what are your thoughts on controller so far and is it pretty straight forward ? do you think i can add 2 additonal panels for toal 400w laer with this set up? thanks in advance for your help

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Welcome to the forum. This charge controller is fairly straightforward and comparable to the Epever and Renogy controllers with respect to setup. On paper it will certainly support your plan of 200W initially, growing to 400W later. Just adhere to the instructions, limitations, and requirements in the manual.

I haven't had a chance to test mine as much as I wanted to since I got distracted by an unexpected solar project recently.

I didn't see a Bluetooth module option for it. Can you post a link to that? Thanks.

Bob142 said:

Welcome to the forum. This charge controller is fairly straightforward and comparable to the Epever and Renogy controllers with respect to setup. On paper it will certainly support your plan of 200W initially, growing to 400W later. Just adhere to the instructions, limitations, and requirements in the manual.

I haven't had a chance to test mine as much as I wanted to since I got distracted by an unexpected solar project recently.

I didn't see a Bluetooth module option for it. Can you post a link to that? Thanks.

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i apologize i may have gotten it wrong about BT module. I picked up a renogy BT-1 module when i thought i was getting a renogy setup but cant seem to get an order in with those guys, BT-1 unit uses a rj12 connection and thats what it looks like on the HQST 30A MPPT however the info on amazon says its an RJ11. they look the same but it may not work

brkylnkid said:

i apologize i may have gotten it wrong about BT module. I picked up a renogy BT-1 module when i thought i was getting a renogy setup but cant seem to get an order in with those guys, BT-1 unit uses a rj12 connection and thats what it looks like on the HQST 30A MPPT however the info on amazon says its an RJ11. they look the same but it may not work

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That definitely won't work. I already tried it...

oh thanks
i tried emailing hqst about what module will work. have you tried contacting them? what is there customer service like?

brkylnkid said:

oh thanks
i tried emailing hqst about what module will work. have you tried contacting them? what is there customer service like?

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I haven't tried contacting them. Up until buying this charge controller I've only had their solar panels and those have worked flawlessly. So I haven't had any reason to use any support or service.