dison4linux
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2020
- Messages
- 15
Greetings, I just replaced a cheap PWM charge controller with a Tracer 1215BN. I have the BlueTooth box so I can monitor the stats on my phone.
At the brightest hottest part of the day I'm seeing 0.05A / 1.1W charging current and the panel voltage being 21.5V which is near open circuit voltage for that panel.
The mode shown is currently "Boost" I've never seen it go into "Bulk" charging which I think it should be because the battery voltage is 12.2V (flooded).
I have tried using the "default" settings for the controller (Sealed) and also changed the setting to "flooded" which is where it is currently.
Are there any other settings I can change to get it to pull in more juice from the solar panel? I've tested the short circuit current of the panel and I can get over 0.6A in full sun... more than 10X greater than the current I'm pulling in from it now, and almost 8X greater power.
I have heard others say that a 10W panel isn't enough for this controller to act correctly but I want to confirm that is true before I drop $100 bucks on a bigger panel, as I don't really need any more than 10W to keep this battery topped off.
In the current state, the battery self-discharges faster than the controller is charging it. I'll upload a screenshot from the App.
Thanks,
Jon
At the brightest hottest part of the day I'm seeing 0.05A / 1.1W charging current and the panel voltage being 21.5V which is near open circuit voltage for that panel.
The mode shown is currently "Boost" I've never seen it go into "Bulk" charging which I think it should be because the battery voltage is 12.2V (flooded).
I have tried using the "default" settings for the controller (Sealed) and also changed the setting to "flooded" which is where it is currently.
Are there any other settings I can change to get it to pull in more juice from the solar panel? I've tested the short circuit current of the panel and I can get over 0.6A in full sun... more than 10X greater than the current I'm pulling in from it now, and almost 8X greater power.
I have heard others say that a 10W panel isn't enough for this controller to act correctly but I want to confirm that is true before I drop $100 bucks on a bigger panel, as I don't really need any more than 10W to keep this battery topped off.
In the current state, the battery self-discharges faster than the controller is charging it. I'll upload a screenshot from the App.
Thanks,
Jon
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