solar charge unit

[StressMan79]

I recently bought a SM55 solar panel from some dude off CL. He threw in the charger and swichbox disconnect and ~20' of wiring and a 12V flourescent bulb (all for 100 clams!). He did not include any wiring instructions. There are 6 wires. I figure two power wires from the panel(s), two charging wires to the batteries, and two sensor wires to the batteries. Why are there 4 to the batteries? It seems that you could just ask the charge wires to do double duty?

Does anyone have experience with a "smart charger" and its wiring?

Thanks

-Peter

[rreidnauer]

Need pics. Also, any info on the equipment you can provide. (make, model)

[spiralsands]

but it's possible your second set of battery wires is the "smart" part that tells your charger when to stop charging the batteries. You don't want to over charge them so the sensor probably will cut off charging when the return (sensed) current is a particular level.

But like I said, I'm speculating on your equipment. I'm familiar with charging circuitry for aircraft ground navigation equipment. Basically your charger may be switching between float and equalize charges?

[StressMan79]

I did some level of reverse engineering. Seems that the panel has two power + leads and 1 neg (ground) lead. The battery is hooked up with some 14 gauge 2-2wire romex. The white (ground) is hooked to the negative terminal and the positve is hooked to a fuse block. Anyway, here is what I think is going on. I only have one remaining question.

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm471/stressman79/solarcharger.jpg

the blue lines are the externals. All the black are internals. To make it true to reality, I added a separate ground line to the ground side of the panel. This actually attaches to a ground block in the controller box.

My question is two fold. 1-What if the right hand fuse on the panel goes, but the right one does not? Then there will be no voltage to the charge controller. 2-how can the charge controller work? it has to charge when the battery needs it and cut off the charge when it does not. the only lead to the CC to the battery is shorted to the panel voltage. How can this ever read the battery voltage? If the battery charge is sensed, how can the charge be shut down? Does the charge controller simply short the panel (and battery) to ground? The wires aren't big enough to take Isc.

Anyway, I think Ifigured out the external feeds, but I can't figure out how the CC actually works. I don't know what the model is, but I looked it up on google and had no manuals or hookup diagrams.

What do you think, Rod?

[rreidnauer]

It's so difficult for me to diagnose your problem with the info given. The diagram looks wrong, A lead through the controller and another around it to battery simply seems incorrect. I see no point to the lead from the panel to battery. Also, the controller could be functioning in one of three ways. 1) open on full charge 2) short to ground on full charge 3) or divert to load bank on full charge I don't know which yours is, but I doubt it's #3.

Are you sure those are both ground leads from the controller? If one were a positive sense lead, and a few diodes were included, (to prevent shorting of the battery) I could see this functioning as a shorting style controller.

Seems like a very unorthodox arrangement.

[StressMan79]

rod,

there are two black and two white leads from the CC. Both whites go to a common block where I suspect everything else is ground. The blacks are as shown--1 from the panel and 1 from the battery. I think it may have some charge-sense timer, perhaps a capacitor in the CC. Something like (pseudocode)

check panel voltage w/ lead 1
check battery voltage w/ lead 2
if voltage is available AND if needed,
CONNECT LEAD 1 TO LEAD 2 (charge duration may be a function of discharge state)
else disconnect Leads.

what do you think?

[rreidnauer]

Was this arrangement already wired up by the previous owner in this manner? (I'm assuming the fuses and such are an homebuilt arrangement) I'm not ready to assume the wiring is correct at this point. Also, I was just checking out the Siemens SM55 panels, which don't have three leads, (which wouldn't make sense either) just a junction box. Is there any information at all on the charge controller you can provide? I need to find more information instead of going on assumptions. The whole thing just seems wrong, (probably why he was selling it) but I want to help you out to get it right.

[StressMan79]

the clarification I can give:

the two leads from the + side of the panel go into fuses mounted in a siemens J-box, JN321.

The charger itself is a "smart Charger" with a subtitle of "20 amp PV charge controller" made by APT-Ananda Power Technology.

dunno if this helps, but maybe? I suspect that the second lead from the panel (inner loop) should not even be there. Then the panel could work like I hypothesized. I realize that it could not work as it was.

If you can find out something about this, I'd be etermally grateful, If not, could you at least suggest a way forward? maybe put a VOM on the leads from the pamel to make sure it's making some Juice?

Thanks.

Peter

[rreidnauer]

Thanks Peter. I got something to work with now. It's late here, so I'm punching out, but I'll get on it tomorrow. Later!

[rreidnauer]

Well, I dug and I dug, and looked all over, and I can not find anything on this APT Smart Charger anywhere. I feel like I've been on the hunt for Nessie!!! But I have thought a bit more about it. I'm nearly sure that the solar panel's + and - leads should connect to a white and black on the controller. Meanwhile, the other two leads from the controller go to the battery + and -. What I am concerned about is two things. 1) There is no distinction between which leads go to the panel or battery, and 2) It'd be unusual for a DC component to use black for + and white for -. It's quite possible the whites should be + and the controller switches the -.

It's to the point where I'd almost have to open the controller and study the board to make a firm decision. All above is strictly assumptions.

[StressMan79]

why I neglected to give the name, etc of the controller. I could not find anything either. I the problem is, I got a box and a panel. I got no batteries, and the panel and box were not connected (with all of the wires). The problem is that I don't know 1) if the internals are wired correctly and 2) where the external wires go if it is wired correctly. I think I'm going to start with the panel. Determine if it has juice, then see if I can try it with only the outer loop, and see if the panel works. One good thing about having my car stolen, is now I have an extra 12 V battery around for experiments (I stole it out of the recovered corpse of a car).

-Peter

[rreidnauer]

LOL, yes, it's frustrating. I agree with you about omitting the inner loop in your diagram. The only thing I think I might also change, is not tying the panels negative to the ground. (not that it shouldn't work that way)

[cntrydan]

I am probably not addiing anything all of you didn't find, but just in case, this website in item 6 mentions a "smart charger" and the company is APT or is abbreviated that way. Hope this lead to some more info.

http://aeropt.com/products/series.php?nav=product&menu=series&lanCode=en&cat=Lead_acid&catID=1

[Gabriel]

I am probably not addiing anything all of you didn't find, but just in case, this website in item 6 mentions a "smart charger" and the company is APT or is abbreviated that way. Hope this lead to some more info.

http://aeropt.com/products/series.php?nav=product&menu=series&lanCode=en&cat=Lead_acid&catID=1


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