IdahoFlyGuy
New Member
- Joined
- May 22, 2021
- Messages
- 2
I have a small 20hp Mercury outboard motor. It has electric start so has a charge coil to charge a start battery. It is a small boat so I don't want to add the weight of a starter battery but I am interested in using the charge coil to charge up a 12V 18ah LiFePo4 battery to run my fish finder. The charge coil is rated at 4.6A at 900 rpm and 11.5 A at 5,000 rpm. I do a lot of putting around at low speed mapping with my fish finder and wanted to use the outboard to keep the battery topped off when I did that. The fishfinder takes 1.8 amps. I haven't been able to find any small DC-DC chargers but wondered about using a small PWM solar charge controller. I see that Renogy has the Wanderer 10A PWM Charge Controller. It says it can be used with lithium and is only 10 amps so seemed like possibly a good match.
So my question is can you use a PWM charge controller with a charge coil and should I be worried about the 10 amp controller being to big for the 18ah LiFePo4 battery. I don't really understand the difference between a DC-DC charge controller for charging off an alternator and a solar charge controller so looking for some education. Then there is also the fact that this is a charge coil and not a true alternator.
Thanks for any insight you can provide.
So my question is can you use a PWM charge controller with a charge coil and should I be worried about the 10 amp controller being to big for the 18ah LiFePo4 battery. I don't really understand the difference between a DC-DC charge controller for charging off an alternator and a solar charge controller so looking for some education. Then there is also the fact that this is a charge coil and not a true alternator.
Thanks for any insight you can provide.