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Quick review of the Battery Minder SCC180 200W solar charge controller...
Right off the bat - whether one believes in desulfation or not, this is a decent charge controller for the 12v stuff.
Initially I was kind of put off by the casing that appeared to be the same as the el-cheapo "ping pong" hysteresis type controllers from the 70's, like the low end Sunforce stuff etc.
This is nothing like that. Rated for 200w or less panel power, it has a large finned heatsink on the back. With my 100w panel, it never got warm, even laying horizontally for initial testing. The wall-mount bracket is screwed into the fins, so that protects them somewhat when it isn't mounted.
It doesn't appear to be your typical CC/CV charger either. In use, especially as clouds came in, or the sun started to disappear, the absorb voltage rose a bit in what looked like an attempt to keep the current stable. This rise in absorb voltage is *temporary* and not full time.
This may be one reason I was not able to pin-down *exacting* voltages from the specs. Earlier ones mentioned 14.3v absorb, but I think that is generic depending on how the charge algorithm determines things based on voltage, current, time, etc.
In other words, I couldn't really pin down the algo, but it got the job done.
Mine came with an "at the battery" temperature probe, rather than the usual ambient probe, and I made use of it.
I'm usually skeptical of single-settings as a compromise for all lead-acid based battery charging (gel, agm, flooded), but found this unit doing some fascinating stuff - I just can't explain it or how it tries to optimize it.
There is some oscillating going on during charge, (good for cell equalization) but again it appears to be smarter than the usual ping-pong hysteresis controller.
Is it the world's best? Does it replace our "maximum smoke" settings? I don't think so.
BUT, I do know that this is going to be mated to my temporary folding panel setup where in an emergency or in a panic, I won't be frying batteries by using the wrong settings from the original controller.
Still - one has to do their homework to not undersize the panel compared to the size of the battery - no getting around that.
It is going to take me awhile to get to a final verdict. However, it does seem good enough for a plug-n-play setup, as much as I hate to say it. More time will be needed for evaluation, but at least it seems to do what it says it does.
I'd have no hesitation using one of these if the forums make your head explode.
Right off the bat - whether one believes in desulfation or not, this is a decent charge controller for the 12v stuff.
Initially I was kind of put off by the casing that appeared to be the same as the el-cheapo "ping pong" hysteresis type controllers from the 70's, like the low end Sunforce stuff etc.
This is nothing like that. Rated for 200w or less panel power, it has a large finned heatsink on the back. With my 100w panel, it never got warm, even laying horizontally for initial testing. The wall-mount bracket is screwed into the fins, so that protects them somewhat when it isn't mounted.
It doesn't appear to be your typical CC/CV charger either. In use, especially as clouds came in, or the sun started to disappear, the absorb voltage rose a bit in what looked like an attempt to keep the current stable. This rise in absorb voltage is *temporary* and not full time.
This may be one reason I was not able to pin-down *exacting* voltages from the specs. Earlier ones mentioned 14.3v absorb, but I think that is generic depending on how the charge algorithm determines things based on voltage, current, time, etc.
In other words, I couldn't really pin down the algo, but it got the job done.
Mine came with an "at the battery" temperature probe, rather than the usual ambient probe, and I made use of it.
I'm usually skeptical of single-settings as a compromise for all lead-acid based battery charging (gel, agm, flooded), but found this unit doing some fascinating stuff - I just can't explain it or how it tries to optimize it.
There is some oscillating going on during charge, (good for cell equalization) but again it appears to be smarter than the usual ping-pong hysteresis controller.
Is it the world's best? Does it replace our "maximum smoke" settings? I don't think so.
BUT, I do know that this is going to be mated to my temporary folding panel setup where in an emergency or in a panic, I won't be frying batteries by using the wrong settings from the original controller.
Still - one has to do their homework to not undersize the panel compared to the size of the battery - no getting around that.
It is going to take me awhile to get to a final verdict. However, it does seem good enough for a plug-n-play setup, as much as I hate to say it. More time will be needed for evaluation, but at least it seems to do what it says it does.
I'd have no hesitation using one of these if the forums make your head explode.