battery controller died
 

Recently bought one of those inexpensive (~11) 5 amp battery controllers for my solar powered farm gate.

Bought the 5 A model as the maximum measured current draw from the battery while opening the gate was ~ 2.5 amps. But today the gate stopped in mid opening and now there is no voltage on the pins labeled "load".

The battery is essentially fully charged and the PV panel is pushing out current.

Thinking of rebuying a similar unit with a 30 A capacity.

Thoughts?

Steve

I would connect a relay with its coil supplied by the Output port, and use that to switch power direct from the battery to your gate motor. Place spike suppressor diode (IN4007 or similar) across the relay coil and motor coils. There is no reason to spend more for a bigger replacement.

Cheers
Mike (NZ)

The 30 amp replacement is about another $2 . . . compared to the 5 A unit.

Steve

Link for controller and/or gate opener? Maybe an app note?

Your gate opener might have executed the controller with a spike, if so your new controller could meet a similar fate.

Pat

On further review . . .

In this application, I'm not sure why your charge controller needs to feed the gate opener?

Why not just connect the gate controller directly to the battery (with appropriate fuse, yada, yada). When the opener runs, the charger will see a slight depression of the battery voltage, and try to charge it, but current through the charger is limited by PV output. Direct connect to battery should suppress any spikes that apollo forgot to deal with in the opener (found your other post).

Also, motor starting current (transient) can be as much as 10x what you see on an ammeter. Maybe your controller has a fuse on the load output?

Pat

Pat,

Excellent points.

Attached is a link to the low cost controller I purchased. The information on this E-bay link describes the controller.

To your point of connecting it to the battery, this is exactly what I did to give power to the gate controller board (after the controller power output died). Although I did measure the gate opening current (Fluke meter) at ~2.5 amp, it can't "see" spikes which likely did in the controller output. Excellent point on the 10X transient (I knew this, but it didn't register at the time of purchase).

The controller does not have a fuse, but the main circuit board for the Apollo gate opening does (15 amp). It did not blow.

The reason for the controller is to prevent night time back feed to the PV panel, prevent overcharging of the battery and to give me a visual indication of the battery charge state (series of LEDs that progressively show battery charge) and the integrity of the PV panel (green light when charging).

The deep cycle marine type battery is expensive and I felt an $11 "investment" to help assist the battery would be worth while. Previously, I just used a blocking diode to prevent night time drain into the PV panel.

Thanks!

Steve


12V 24V 5 10 15 20 30A PWM Solar Panel Battery Regulator Charge Controller | eBay

Data sheet helps, thanks.

Charge controller is a good investment, I wasn't questioning that. Just wondering why the load needed to be controlled by it. So, from the data sheet, I see the controller will cut off load power if battery is depleted (10.5 to 11.0 volts). Good plan.

This spec gives me pause:
The total rated current of solar panel and loads must be smaller than the rated current of the controller.

Something to check, I see from your previous post that your panel might be 0.5 amp, might want to check that again. The controller seems to have an auto reset cut-off for over current protection.

The Apollo fuse might be a slow-blow type to allow the start transient, or they could have a "Soft-Start" on the motor which would take care of the transient.

Another thing I notice with these generic controllers on ebay is many are intended for lighting applications, the load is cut off when daylight is sensed.

You might want to run the opener directly off the battery and connect a green LED to the load output to help indicate battery charge state. Maybe keep an eye on the battery voltage for a week or so.

Here's the best feature I found in the specs:
Thunder protection

Yea! It's protected from really loud noises! Maybe even those super-loud cows!!

Pat

Hook the gate directly to the battery through a fuse. The controller should be able to keep the battery topped off just like the alternator in your car.

If the float voltage is not kept right, you will damage the battery. You're sort of taking that risk when you use no-name CHINA MADE junk. No guarantee specs live to what they claim and those no-name China sourced products' claim should be taken with a grain of salt.

Use a multimeter to check the float voltage. Given how many cheap switching AC adapters I have measured were well within tolerance, I wouldn't be surprised if that charge controller was also spot on.

The specs of products can depend on who's marketing it. It's not unusual to find things on eBay that gives you a range of specs but can not deliver those specs at the same time.

For example, efficiency given in "up to"
voltage range and current specs that can not be used together.
Or, requires external heat sink to utilize the rated output, etc.