Leonard Halvorsen via RFI <rfi@contesting.com> writes:
> Don't any schematics exist anymore of the old, original LINEAR Charge
> Controllers? If all you're going to do is charge a deep-cycle battery or
> three, and don't need to "optimize" anything to put it onto the Power Grid,
> why does anyone need a digital controller? If you're not an efficiency
> freak, then why bother with the digital stuff?
These exist, and they are basically voltage regulators. Which means for
a nominal 100W panel they are dissipating 18V-13V = 5V * 5A = 25W. So
you only get 2/3 of the power out of your panel. If that heat and less
power is ok, good luck.
Note that there are "PWM" controllers that avoid the heat and are more
efficient by being on/off varying duty cycle at 100 kHz, so the
switching device is hard on or hard off. But that has the same RFI
potential as an MPPT buck convertor.
Jim's point, which I second (after recommending Genasun to him years
ago), is that the Genasun controllers, despite being switching devices,
are designed well and are quiet. Teyh run cool because of their
efficiency, and you can actually get 100W out of a 100W rated panel.
Now, if there were no quiet switching controllers, then "just use
linear" would be good strategy. But there is a quiet one, and just
buying that one is good strategy. It may not be cheaper than oversizing
the panel, but the end result is lighter and easier to mount.
73 de n1dam
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