Can Charge Controller Work Without Solar Panel?

[kimsong]

Hi, I am new in this forum and I have just bought some items to make a small home solar lighting system. I have a charge controller, a battery and an LED light. I have ordered a 40W solar panel but yet to arrive so I decided to test the charge controller.

I off the timer and light sensor available in the charge controller itself according to the user manual given. I then connect the battery and LED light to the charge controller. I presumed if the sensor and timer are off, the LED light should work even in the day time. But I got no light!

Note, the LED light and battery worked perfectly without the solar charge controller.

Please help!

[inetdog]

Hi, I am new in this forum and I have just bought some items to make a small home solar lighting system. I have a charge controller, a battery and an LED light. I have ordered a 40W solar panel but yet to arrive so I decided to test the charge controller.

I off the timer and light sensor available in the charge controller itself according to the user manual given. I then connect the battery and LED light to the charge controller. I presumed if the sensor and timer are off, the LED light should work even in the day time. But I got no light!

Note, the LED light and battery worked perfectly without the solar charge controller.

Please help!

What maker and model is the CC? Is it actually a solar lighting controller rather than just a simple CC? It sounds like it.
Most of those will sense the current from the panel itself as an indication that it is daytime and will inhibit the Lighting Load output because of that.
If your manual says that you can disable that feature, double check your work.

[kimsong]

What maker and model is the CC? Is it actually a solar lighting controller rather than just a simple CC? It sounds like it.
Most of those will sense the current from the panel itself as an indication that it is daytime and will inhibit the Lighting Load output because of that.
If your manual says that you can disable that feature, double check your work.

Thanks for your reply.

I bought it from Ecoworthy and the manual does show me how to off the timer and light sensor. The image of the product is as follow: Charge Controller.jpg

[inetdog]

Thanks for your reply.

I bought it from Ecoworthy and the manual does show me how to off the timer and light sensor.

Well, having it "work as a normal Charge Controller" would not necessarily include having the Load terminals powered unless the battery is in float. I would suggest that you connect your LEDs to the battery directly or provide a separate Low Voltage Cutoff circuit.

What is the battery voltage when you are testing?

[SunEagle]

Thanks for your reply.

I bought it from Ecoworthy and the manual does show me how to off the timer and light sensor. The image of the product is as follow: [ATTACH=CONFIG]2956[/ATTACH]

I Think I found a manual on how to set that dip switches.

I am not exactly sure if this is correct but maybe you can try it out. The settings are determined using a digital or base 2 format.

The first 4 set of switches (1,2,3,4) sets the sensitivity of the light sensor. You really only use switches 2,3 & 4. The next 4 switches (5,6,7 & 8) are for the duration of operation in hours.

So for switches 2,3 & 4. With them all down your setting is 0. With #2 up and the rest down your setting is 1. With #3 up and the rest down the setting is 2. With #2 & #3 up the setting is 3. This continues until with #2,#3 & #4 up your setting is 7.

For switches 5,6,7 & 8. All 4 down is 0 hours. With only #5 up you have 1 hour. With only # 6 up you have 2 hours. Again the progression is the same way to count in digital form. When you get to all 4 up the setting is 15 hours.

I hope that helps you understand how to set up the timers the Ecoworthy controller.

[kimsong]

I Think I found a manual on how to set that dip switches.

I am not exactly sure if this is correct but maybe you can try it out. The settings are determined using a digital or base 2 format.

The first 4 set of switches (1,2,3,4) sets the sensitivity of the light sensor. You really only use switches 2,3 & 4. The next 4 switches (5,6,7 & 8) are for the duration of operation in hours.

So for switches 2,3 & 4. With them all down your setting is 0. With #2 up and the rest down your setting is 1. With #3 up and the rest down the setting is 2. With #2 & #3 up the setting is 3. This continues until with #2,#3 & #4 up your setting is 7.

For switches 5,6,7 & 8. All 4 down is 0 hours. With only #5 up you have 1 hour. With only # 6 up you have 2 hours. Again the progression is the same way to count in digital form. When you get to all 4 up the setting is 15 hours.

I hope that helps you understand how to set up the timers the Ecoworthy controller.

Thanks! That is the manual I have but yours is more detail.
I have finally received my 40W solar panel and spent hours on connecting the four items (SP, CC, Battery and LED light), that was sweaty .
Read the instruction and connected the system accordingly i.e. battery to CC frst, followed by load (LED light) and finally SP. No, still not not working....
Contacted the supplier of the CC and after a few email exchanges the company agreed to send a new CC to me.

[kimsong]

10A Fuse on a 15A CC?

Hi, I am confused about the use of two 10A fuses on the CC in my 15A CC. Please help.

[brekelwilles]

Hi, I am confused about the use of two 10A fuses on the CC in my 15A CC. Please help.

See, about 10A and 15A CC,,
If you have a BSI-1 then
10A is used as a supply of +BB-1 and which is used for Rear foglight &
15A is used as a supply of same +BB-1 and which is used for either Rear wiper or for the +VAN BOD2 Front electric windows, +VAN BOD2 Sunroof
And if talking about me then I'm currently using motion sensor security lighting only for my outdoor purpose.

[kimsong]

Thanks guys my solar LED light system is finally working after obtaining a replacement of charge controller from the supplier. My system includes a 40W solar panel, a 4.5 Ah battery, a charge controller and an LED strip with 21 pieces of 5050 LED chips. However, I have concerns over the battery rating, is 4.5 Ah too low?

[Mike90250]

Thanks guys my solar LED light system is finally working after obtaining a replacement of charge controller from the supplier. My system includes a 40W solar panel, a 4.5 Ah battery, a charge controller and an LED strip with 21 pieces of 5050 LED chips. However, I have concerns over the battery rating, is 4.5 Ah too low?

We have no way of knowing what sort of power the 21 pc LED strip consumes. Do you have any spec on it, or can you measure it's amp draw ?

4.5ah is pretty small.

[SunEagle]

Thanks guys my solar LED light system is finally working after obtaining a replacement of charge controller from the supplier. My system includes a 40W solar panel, a 4.5 Ah battery, a charge controller and an LED strip with 21 pieces of 5050 LED chips. However, I have concerns over the battery rating, is 4.5 Ah too low?

That battery is pretty small for just about any type of load. Is there any info on your LED showing a wattage or amp rating?

Based on your 40 watt panel and your PWM charger controller you should be able to go up to a 25 AH battery but it really comes down to what your load is.

You may just be starting out with that string of LED lights but you will probably want to add more lights or load which will require a bigger battery.

[Sunking]

. My system includes a 40W solar panel, a 4.5 Ah battery, a charge controller and an LED strip with 21 pieces of 5050 LED chips. However, I have concerns over the battery rating, is 4.5 Ah too low?

Way too small. The minimum size battery should be 20 AH based on a 40 watt panel with PWM controller. However all that is meaningless as you did not design the system to do what you expect it to do. A 40 watt panel with a 20 AH battery is only good 120 watt hours per day maximum usage. If you use more than that the battery will fail shortly.
With a 4.5 AH you are down to only 12 watt hours per day regardless of the panel size. Safe to say that is not near enough battery and will fail shortly. You need to determine how much power your lights need each day, then start over with a design.

[SunEagle]

I just did a Google search on the 5050 led lights. I found one that had 300 of these chips that was 5m long rated 14.4 watt/m. The 300 chips would come to about 72 watts at 12vdc so kimsong's strip of 21 chips comes to about 5 watts.

[kimsong]

I just did a Google search on the 5050 led lights. I found one that had 300 of these chips that was 5m long rated 14.4 watt/m. The 300 chips would come to about 72 watts at 12vdc so kimsong's strip of 21 chips comes to about 5 watts.

Thanks a lot SunEagle, does it mean the ampere consuming the battery is 5w/12V? If yes, the maximum hour the battery can light the LED light will be 4.5*12V/5w = 10.8 hours? The timer setting on the charge controller is 10 hours, according to the manual. The battery is indeed almost draining dry every night!

Now, I have another battery of the same rating; 4.5 Ah. Can I connect the two batteries together according to the following diagram to make a 9 Ah battery?

solar system.jpg

[SunEagle]

Thanks a lot SunEagle, does it mean the ampere consuming the battery is 5w/12V? If yes, the maximum hour the battery can light the LED light will be 4.5*12V/5w = 10.8 hours? The timer setting on the charge controller is 10 hours, according to the manual. The battery is indeed almost draining dry every night!

Now, I have another battery of the same rating; 4.5 Ah. Can I connect the two batteries together according to the following diagram to make a 9 Ah battery?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3024[/ATTACH]

The 5 watts was an estimate. Your battery is draining because you are using it all up which will shorten it's life. You really shouldn't run your lights more than 2 - 3 hours with that battery. Going 10 hours runs it dry.

You can wire the second battery in parallel like your diagram but when one battery is older than the other the newer battery will be used up and weaken quickly.

I would not wire them together. Just use up the old one and when it stops charging use the new one but again a 4.5 ah battery is very small and will be used up quickly. Best to go with a larger battery.