I have this controller. It's great! The only thing I would like there to have been is a timer option which turns ON at dawn and OFF at dusk, instead of the other way round. I'm using it for watering a greenhouse which I want to be done during the day, not at night. Great video. (The leaflet does explain battery type: b1 sealed lead/acid; b2 gel battery; b3 unsealed lead/acid. Not suitable for Li batteries).
@practicepatch i hear you. I have taken a bunch of different coloured leds to light up the area of our home at night where the street lights doesn't reach outside in an area we use for storage. I have a manual switch but it got really old fast doing it that way. I prefer using solar energy (hopefully wind energy in the future as well) and its hooked up to a battery i got from a Chinese shop. The missing link is the timer option your speaking off
battery type is super important. b1 is sealed. b2 is gel and b3 is flooded type batteries. there are more. check the manufacturer for those detail but those are the main three most will use
Battery type mode sealed lead acid is b1…. other codes b2 to b7 are for AGM, Gel, flooded wet, Lithium etc. As far as I know b1 sealed lead acid is the only type supported on this controller. It works as designed on lead acid and pretty good for the price paid. If you have an expensive LiFePo4 battery do not destroy your expensive investment with a limited/cheap solar controller…. just go buy a correctly rated Victron MPPT charger!
I believe the battery type is for what type of battery you are using. On other cheap controller B1 is general led acid, b2 is lithium ion, b3 liFeP04, b4 sealed, b5 gel, b6 floaded. Each has various voltage to charge that type of battery. At least that's what I think.
This is an excellent cheap controller , although the instructions for the one I have say lead acid only , this can be used for lithium ... AS LONG AS YOU HAVE OTHER CIRCUITRY WHICH KEEPS INDIVIDUAL CELLS OF THE BATTERY IN BALLANCE ..aka active balance ..... Active balance keeps the cells more effectively balanced than a "protection circuit" device ....The protection board(circuit) also protects from overcharge and too low discharge ... but you don't need that if you use the cheap controller in this video , just set the voltage settings you want.
Thank you save me from brain blow up, the Manual was uselss, so this helps bec most people mix up understanding what is Float , Discharged/Reconnect ,and Discharged stop. Best setup and play with it in ur backyard with any lights or anyhting to hook up homework of how use battery and solar charging hours. Make u happy ready go real camping not get battery right dead flat.
Not shown in this manual, but the manual I got with an MPPT controller identifies the battery types b01 = Lithium battery b02 = Gel battery b03 = Flooded battery (lead-acid) These controllers supposedly automatically identify the attached battery - they don't Set it manually for the correct battery if need be
@@GlenEdwards I figure #2.... But I am not exactly knowledgeable in this area, Looking online I find this "AGM stands for "Absorbed Glass Mat". As the name suggests, AGM batteries have a gel electrolyte and a glass fiber separator between the plates."
Thanks for showing. I have just ordered the 1000 watt version of this solar panel system with the hundred amp control unit. The control unit looks the same but 20 amp can keep you going.
Maybe yours works, but mine did not. I tried the 30A and the 100A models. The voltage reading (on both) was .6A higher than the rest of my meters. Neither model actually charged my battery. I have 2 sets of 2 batteries wired in series for 24VDC and 5 sets of 2 100W Panels wired in series parallel. Neither model gives me an output for the load. Don't know if the panel voltage is too high or low, and the user's manual does not tell me anything useful.
I think this is the video I needed. I just hooked up my system yesterday, and patted myself on the back at how well I’ve done. Lunchtime today the batteries are showing 17volts. Omg, I hope that’s just surface charge. Turned the whole lot off, search you tube for answers 👍thanks
You bet, thanks! This one might be more helpful too: How to Setup a Solar Charge Controller (menu, battery type & wiring) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EBjmAeNeDiE.html
Type b1 (default) is for a sealed battery like what's now typical for a car. B2 is a gel battery, b3 is a flooded battery, one with plates submerged in electrolyte and caps for each cell. Like from your dad's car.
I've set this up, and it was working for awhile. Then it quit it has the battery box flashing when the controller does this it shuts down my gate controller
Thank you! I set the floating voltage to 13.7V, but the controller ignores this setting and literally constantly boils the battery at 14.8-15V. Is there anyone with the same problem?
Hello.. I did buy this unit and id do not charge the battery at al. I hear about the cable must be G10 so what is wrong. I did change the cable to the battery to G10 and still not work. Must al the cables be thicker G10 cables ? I se that you do have a thicker cable that comes from the solar penal. How can i get a thinker cable to connect the solar penal to the controller ? Who can help me out of this so i can use it as soon as possible ?
I have the same controller and this video answered all my questions. The battery type thing also stumped me, possibly means lead acid? Who knows.? Lithium Iron battery controllers are expensive and as this controller only cost £5 it must be a lead acid type I guess.
You will definitely need to set the battery type depending on if you have a Lead Acid Battery or a Lithium Ion Battery. Having that set wrong can ruin the type of battery you have.
The 601 60L 6O1 is referenced in the Chinglish instructions. It represents a lead acid battery type. If you have another type you should perhaps change that parameter. Look at the specs on the right side and it will show you. Appreciate the vid. Trying to get my new battery backup set and your vid helped me.
Good point. I charge LiOn's and lifepo's with no problem with same charger. Just have to keep an eye on the parameters. I use it to keep my battery packs charged for my ham radios while my wife and I are camping.
Mine shows a battery voltage but when I connect to the solar panel, I get random flashing voltage numbers of around 10 and 20v and none of the 3 buttons does a thing.
I to using this Chinese solar charger controller.. in this you have feature disk to down. Change settings from load run 24hr to 12hr evening load will start automatically morning it stop... Nice video love from India 🇮🇳🙏
Nice and OK. But this was 6 years back. I am so eager to know if this unit still is in working order and if not, how long did it serve you. Also an update of long use or if there is anything else you want to add based on your own experience with this controller and battery you had. Have a great day.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I knew what the battery type setting was but had no idea on the rest. Battery is now way better and USB ports now work too. Thank you
Battery setting b1= agm b2= Dry cell b3=gel to my knowledge this controller is only good on lead acid batteries. If you have a smart lithium battery check with the manufacturer first before using this controller. Hope this helps
No one ever seems to have anything attached to the load output. I have a Carcoon that I am running off a couple of gel batteries. I have the Carcoon attached directly to my batteries. Unfortunately, a wire fell out of the charge controller from the solar panel and the batteries were completely drained. I have been trying to get them up and running again and it occurs to me that running the Carcoon off the load output would have allowed the charge controller to prevent the Carcoon from completely draining the batteries. Why does no one seem to use it?
Thanks for your comment! One problem is that the load section only allows up to 10 amps max, or 120 watts depending on your controller. So that limits a lot of people who want larger power draw. Check out my video I just posted about the load: How to Setup the Load on a Solar Charge Controller ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-v-iLu9DS558.html I hope this helps!
I just bought this controller and the flexible solar panel that comes along with it. I have no idea what cables I need to charge the battery. I only received the cables to plug to panel and insert in controller. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You’ll have to determine the correct wire gauge and wire it yourself. Under the charge controller are 6 ports that you can insert wire and use a screwdriver to secure them in place.
Scott - I'm using the same (12V/24V) solar controller to power a 12V, 8A pump. My plan is to connect 2x12V batteries to get 24V, then use a buck converter to feed 12V to the pump with increased amps. Do you have any experience using this controller to charge 2 batteries wired in series? TIA.
when it rains, lightning. the controller stays on if I set to 4 hours. so I am going to get a timer like on my other one and leave on 24/7 the controller. thanks for the explaining I still and like saying the Float hmm still figuring that out .12vdc lighting i should put to 12v?
It says in the manual the regulator can't be used with lithium ion batteries? So does that mean I shouldn't buy one? As I need to put a new one in soon.....
Unfortunately this charge controller doesn't let you set the load lower than 13.7, this number is on some batteries the max load, I had two sealed batteries connected to this controller which are overheated eventhough the setting was locked to 13.7, so it killed also my inverter at the same time.
I just bought/ordered one of these a few hours ago and jumped to YT to see what people are showing.. The one I ordered is a 30amp 12/24volt unit.. I enjoyed the video which gave me an early start in setting up.. One thing I would like to ask if anyone knows.. Question: If I put a 24 volt battery on the battery port, will the load side be 12volt or will it pump out the 24 volt. I do not want to burn my motor up.. Of course I have a volt meter that I can test after I get it if no one knows for sure.. Thanks.
Watched this yesterday because I don't have a manual and wasn't sure what the "hours" was even for. Been leaving it at 0 and using "load" button to turn on load. It appears that the hours setting is actually for automatically turning on a light at dusk for a certain amount of time. For people using this for automatic outdoor lighting.
Just watched the vid - and your sola icon is fully on my flickers ? Why is it not enough sun ? As I’m in a barn building it can’t be lose wire as I checked like 100 times 😢
As long as the wires are tight, sun is shining on the panel and the controller was setup properly (connect battery first), then I see no reason why it shouldn't work and have the solar icon flashing. Best of luck!
Can i use 2x12v gel batteries in series with these 12/24v solar controlers ? Can it charge the batteries at 24v ? I have a 24v ups to use as an inverter thats why i want to know if they can operate with a 24v battery
Thanks bro for explaining the controller. I have a question, I made a 12.6v lithium battery and Im using this controller to charge it and my question is can it be set up at 13.7v charge which the controller has as minimum charging or should I use the type of battery B2 on the settings to use 12.6v as the limited charge for this battery 🔋 🤔?
I have my panel connected, I'm sure all wiring is correct, but ZERO display. Does it need to be turned on, or does the reserve battery need to have some power to activate the controller? Cheers!
The main reason I watched this video is to get to know what the "battery type" means... Yeah.. Anyway if anyone in the comments knows what that means pls tell cuz I've got an old car battery and I don't know if that works. Great video though👍
I don't know what to set my controller at. How do I find that out? The instructions are extremely vague and don't cover what to set things at. I've also searched RU-vid and the internet for this information and have found nothing. Should I just use the default settings the controller came with? Anyone?
what setting should be used when you have this powering 2 12v batteries in a series? Would you jup the float voltage to 24 volts and not 12v (because 12v series outputs 24v)?
I don’t have experience with that specifically, but I’m quite positive that you would double the float voltage. And the controller might sense that automatically when you hook it up.
Hey man. I have a epever mppt controller without a screen. I have just bought a 110ah agm battery to replace the old 50ah lead acid one. How do I set up the new battery without a screen? Cheers
Oh, that’s interesting…I assume you have 1, 12 volt battery? Not a 24 volt or 2, 12 volts in series? If not, maybe it was programmed incorrectly. I don’t think there is a switch for 12/24 volt.
@@ScottsSolarProjects thanks for replying so soon. It’s only 1 12v battery. Now I’m looking for a new one on eBay but they all seem to be the same make, unless I want to spend £70 on a different brand. I won’t be doing that!
hello, i have this type of controller 30 amp. reading the answer from amazon about it, someone said i can go 250 watt input panels on 12 volt, or 500 with 24 volt. i have about 600 watts total in 12 volt panels. ioh, also that controller can accept 55 volts input. so can i do 4 panels in series to be 48 volt? and no where does it say the max for panels my controller accepts, just 30 amp charge. i have 4 car batterys, and what is the load side of the controller for if your invereter goes to the battery directly. bought everything, and about to try to install it... info please
Just make sure you do not exceed the 30 amp solar input. Remember that a solar panel can output between 18-24v, which if you want a 24v battery system, you would want to connect your panels in series so you have enough charging amps to actually charge the system. With this controller, you can’t connect 4 panels in series. The load side is just extra if you have something smaller you’d like to run off it. Otherwise just use your inverter directly off the battery.
does somebody know whether I can plug in the solar panel into the charge controller via the jack ports? Or those jack ports are only for output and not for input?
You have to do your own wiring. Choose the right gauge wires, strip them and you can stick them up inside the solar charge controller and tighten them down with a screw driver.
This seems to be the standard manual for all solar charge controllers. They explain nothing! What does it mean when the whole display is flashing? Or when led bulbs connected to the system start flashing on and off? My solar charge controller seems to be going kaput! The usb ports are not working any more
@razorsharpbt Indeed! Me too.Mine went kaput a day after I posted this. Upgraded to a slightly better one from Raggie which has worked decently since. Cheap definitely turned out to be expensive in my case.
I have a similar unit and it's confusing I have the 3 standard options I think the first one is the solar option which reads between 15 or 14 to 16 what is that do and the other two option RS when the battery is low at 11 volts and the battery is full at 12.6 volts I'm really confused by the option where it's 14 to 16 volts
@@ScottsSolarProjects thanks . so does PV actually allow it to out put 14.4 or 17.5 (which i wont) to the battery? does it actually cut off the load (provide to power out and the loud connectors)
From what I've seen it needs a battery. Thats the 1st step in hooking it up for a reason so it can dump the excess voltage. Get a small 7ah SLA battery and you'll be able to charge at night also.
Hmmm…I know that once the voltage is past 13 bolts, its easy for it to jump and reach a few volts higher. But if the inverter is beeping, maybe something is wrong with the battery itself..or inverter.
@@ScottsSolarProjects the controller itself shows 16 volts and the inverter also shows it, the inverter is connected to the battery itself not the controller
Great stuff thanks. One thing I found is you can't turn off the load on the USB ports. I'm charging fans in my poly tunnel. Turned load off and they continued to draw charge from battery. So just disconnected them. So renders the timer useless for USB
What does a controller like that understands as "float charge"? Mine(model identical to yours) would start upping the voltage at the start of the charge(early morning, 6h AM), than, as it gets to 14.4v(midday), it will keep it there until the end of the day(6h PM), even if I don't discharge the battery during the night, and even as the battery is pulling less than 200mAh of current from the charger. Shouldn't the charger go to "float charge" and try to keep my battery stable, from 13.0v to 13.7v (adjustable), when it is no longer getting usable current from the charger? Isn't that the dictionary definition of "float charge"? Ps: My inverter only turns itself on at 6h PM, so it can't be blamed for any "current leak", all the power produced by the solar panel during the day hours has only the battery as its consumer.
@@ScottsSolarProjects Very little, the inverter's standby current consumption is about 500mAh. So it normally decreases 0.2v or 0.3v at the most, if I have no load connected to the output. My system is controlled by an Arduino with a RTC(very precise), so I power on the inverter at 17.30h and shut it down at 6.00h. That's about the time I need the inverter on to power the lights. During the day the inverter is off, so all the power generated by my 150w panel goes to battery charge. Naturally, if I have a lot of lights on, the voltage can drop as much as 1v (from 13.0v to 12.0v) during the night, my system cannot pull more than 9 amps from my 100 amps stationary battery, that is by design. I keep it like that to avoid overdischarging it (though I have low voltage protection on the Arduino as well, it shuts down the inverter if battery voltage less than 11.5v).
@@ScottsSolarProjects Yes, I have a circuit breaker between the solar panel and the charger. Lets say I wait until 16.00h(quite a sunny day), by that time I know my battery is sure already fully charged... When I turn off that circuit breaker, the voltage in the battery starts to fall from 14.4v to about 13.4v or so, a bit quick and then stabilizes at 13.2v. That is evidence that this charge controller doesn't give a damn about what you set as "float charge". It kinda completely ignores it. If it worked as advertised, when I cut the solar panel off, the voltage would start dropping from the value configured on screen(generally 13.7v), don't you think?
@@ScottsSolarProjects I have my Arduino monitoring by a couple of hall effect current sensors, both, the current delivered by the solar panel(day) and the current usage by the inverter(night). This information is transmitted by WiFi shield to a software running as a service on my laptop, logging everything to an instance of MySQL Server. So naturally I can observe and calculate how many watts is being generated and how many watts is being consumed. A plus is the ability to monitor the battery's regiment of charge during the day. I can observe the Bulk and Absorption phases very well, but I cannot see the Float phase in action. I take my definitions of Bulk, Absorption and Float from here: www.chargingchargers.com/tutorials/charging.html
@@jefersonnl I have the same model and I'm getting a permanent 14.4V all day long. I live in a sunny region and I'm using 7Ah gel batteries with a 50W panel. Considering the load it should reach full charge in less than an hour, instead it overcharges the battery till dusk. I tried with the 3 settings b01, b02 and b03 but nothing changed, I also tried with bigger flooded batteries and with a cycle of deep disharge. It looks like a bugged firmware, maybe a bugged firmware revision, otherwise everyone should be having the same issue.
@@redundancyhit I went to great lengths to get to the bottom of this. I even built a microcontrolled telemetry unit to measure voltages and currents and log it for months(in fact, it is logging even now, I have millions of rows of data I can go trough and analyze). Nothing came from it. Things are close to ideal conditions and even so, the charger wouldn't turn to float charge mode. I also messed with b01, b02 and b03, changed nothing. I concluded that these cheap chinese "charge controllers" are just mere voltage regulators. On the web I came across other people having this same issue, just like us. It's PWM for sure as it relies on the technology to control voltage, but it's not a true charger. It's only capable of charge stages 1(Bulk) and 2(Absorption), it is unable to turn to stage 3(Float) coz it's not really true 3-stage. It's just another chinese counterfeit. I suspect it can overcharge your 7Ah battery and kill it pretty soon it if you're not careful. Lucky me have a 100Ah lead acid that is pretty tough. It's been running like this for almost 3 years without loosing electrolice. I have a circuit in mind that can do true 3-stage charge of a lead acid battery. One day I shall commit it to a circuit board. If I were you I'd use an Arduino to read charge current and battery voltage. As soon as the voltage gets to 14.4v and the current drops to 500mAh or less, I'd open a relay to disconnect the solar panel, and reconnect it only when battery voltage drops to less than 12.8v. That way your battery is going to last way way longer. It's just a hack, but a useful one.
I’ve got both arrows flashing perpetually, the solar does alter and create an illusion of charge, but because of the flashing arrows setting, no charge after, so idk what to do.
@@ScottsSolarProjects I basically have come to the conclusion the solar charger is broken, I’ve installed another charger and it works great. Thankfully they’re not that expensive. Appreciate the input.
Great video, cant get mine to work I have proper voltage coming in but controller doesnt show panal icon ,is there any way to set this thi g ti default.
Thank you for the explanation. Very detailed and to the point. I seem to be having trouble understanding what "load on" and "load off" actually mean. We are testing out setup before installing the panels in their permanent location and currently have 1 48v panel inside our tiny house with the garage door open and it seems to drawing enough power to be running our lights and my blowdryer with "load off". Any further expansion on how the load part works would be awesome and sincerely appreciated.
Hmmmm…not quite sure I understand your situation exactly. But, load on simply means that the far right positive and negative ports will be on to provide power to devices. If it’s load off, then it will then power off at those ports.
The two screws at the bottom right of the charge controller enable you to hook up a "load", for instance, a light bulb or something else that will run directly off the battery. This is all they are referring to by "load" for the charge controller in the video. You can turn it on and off with the button directly above those two contacts and the light bulb icon on the screen (as well as any load that is connected) will turn on or off accordingly. I'm not sure if this is what you were asking, but I hope this helps.
When it shows the battery level... is there not a way to have it show that to you not as a percentage but in total battery power? And is there a way to have the charge controller tell the max battery capacity? When you have more than one battery... or if you add a battery to a series of batteries, how do you know its reading the number/percentage on the charge controller as all the batteries, and not just one? Thank you.
On the main display, the battery icon does show you battery bars for how fully charged the battery is, though I’ve never tested how accurate it is. And no, it can’t tell you the battery capacity. If you have more than one battery connected in series or parallel, it will simply read all the batteries together as one voltage.
Hi, I have an issue of when I connect the panel to the controller, the voltage on the display goes from 12.2 which is the battery level up to 14.4 and then shoots back down to 12.2 and the solar panel charge icon disappears. This means the battery is no longer charging. The troubleshoot says reconnect panel which I’ve done several times but the same happens. I changed the upper limit in the voltage to 14.5 and noticed that the reading reached that level before dropping and stopping the charge. Any idea what’s wrong?
Exact same Problem here. The way I interpret this is as follows: 1. The charger charges the Battery until it reaches the limit you set in the menu (called "Float Voltage" in the manual) 2. Then it drops to a lower Voltage of 13.7 V 3. This means that the manual is wrong. You can set the "equalization stage voltage" aka. peak charging voltage, and the float voltage ist set at 13.7V and can not be adjusted. Can anyone confirm this? And when does it go from float to charge at peak voltage again?
@@zegezege2101 I think it's that the solar panel native output voltage is too high. Mine is around 35V which the charger can't handle. That info is not published however.
Hi, please help. My Solarmax Charger Controller (12V/24V 20A) is not giving out DC output after sun set even when the Battery is fully charged. How do i set it to give output all the time when the battery is full?
when i connect a load (12v lights on my boat) the battery charge icon goes blank or starts blinking, same happens when i add another battery in parallel, i got it to work a couple of times, but then the voltage drops quickly and the controller does the same again... any tips? i would like to connect either 4 12v batteries in parallel or 2 prll + and those in series for a 24v system. thanks alot for explaining the different setings. cheers!
@@ScottsSolarProjects would it help to charge them fully with a regular charger first? because i got em 2nd hand and they were discharged to around 10.5v, you think that's a problem?
