Premium brand MPPT controllers - is he right?

[ErikFinn]

Hi folks,

I'm finally in a situation that I have an opportunity to upgrade my solar with one of the premium MPPT controllers, which I personally consider to be the following three ones (not necessarily in this order):

Midnite Classic MPPT
Outback Flexmax MPPT
Morningstar Tristar MPPT

Then I stumbled on the linked blog. Some of you might have read his blog in the past, like I have done on a few occasions (and he has had some pretty good points) but oh boy oh boy does he not appear to be happy..

So I wanted to ask you guys who are in the know, is he on to something? Or does his opinion represent "just a one-off"?

What you guys think?

Thanks

MPPT problems blog

[DeepFrz]

Victron gets good reports on here.

[Bleemus]

Never heard a Morningstar user complain. That speaks volumes to me.

[john61ct]

Nicest thing about Victron is the 75/15 is under $100 so you can really optimize for shade by dedicating one SC per one or two panels.

Have you already got a good SoC battery monitor?

[ErikFinn]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Nicest thing about Victron is the 75/15 is under $100 so you can really optimize for shade by dedicating one SC per one or two panels.

Have you already got a good SoC battery monitor?

Does the Victron feature fully customizeble charging set points? For maximum battery bank longevity I would prefer that. Instead of preset generic FLA ranges (Trojan T105 bank).
I just ordered a Victron BMV-702 and a Merlin Smartbank with a Smartgauge.

[john61ct]

Yes, need to use an add-on dongle. Also to get live monitoring on your phone.

If you buy from a good outfit like Alan at Bay-Marine, bet he'd set them up per your specs before shipping out. Manuals are online.

[john61ct]

Nice BM's there, I believe the BMV and SCs can communicate over phone wire.

[john61ct]

Link to your panel specs, how many?

[softdown]

My Outback is exceedinly easy to program though many people will never really need to change charge parameters. Schneider also makes a reliable charge controller....I think.

All the aforementioned names are excellent.

[john61ct]

Heart begat Trace in the 90s, bought by Xantrex, bought by Schneider.

C40's go for about $100 on eBay, solid units but no longer state of the art, and woeful customer service.

[ErikFinn]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Link to your panel specs, how many?

At the moment I have 8 x 85W old 12V nominal panels, but looking to upgrade these in the future with something larger, maybe high voltage panels. Thanks for the Victron MPPT suggestion, they actually don't look too bad. I do remember Maine Sail promoting them.

[john61ct]

Then look for 200-250W, 24V nominal or grid-tie type could be right up to 65Voc, but I think sweet spot 36-50Voc.

These would well match the 75/15 at 1:1 with each panel.

"Overpanelling" past 220W and higher wattages if fine if you get a killer deal, greater output in suboptimal conditions and overall, but anything past 15A gets thrown away in peak conditions.

Don't exceed 20A lsc input, just like past 65Voc, risks overloading damaging the SC.

Double the Watt numbers above for a 24V bank system.

[john61ct]

For now 4x 75/15s would each handle a pair of the current panels, in serial would get higher total output if shading isn't an issue.

Could do half in parallel and half in series to test the difference, would be interesting, if you do report back here.

[FredVeroMakani]

These (pic) are the settings you can change for your type of battery on the Victron Mppt with the Bluetooth dongle and app.
Easy to use, a few connection issues but works fine once Bluetooth is reset.
I use it with Firefly batteries, and works great.

[ErikFinn]

Thanks guys, been researching the Victron Bluesolars and downloaded the Victron connect app. Looks quite promising. But I noticed the Victrons do not appear to support battery temperature sensing with a sense cable. Only has an internal temp sensor but nothing to sense the bats. Dang. IMHO battery temp sensing is very important. I'll have to think this now..

Here is what Maine Sail said about a bigger Victron. (I was looking at the Bluesolar 100/30)

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2134598

BTW Victron "Smartsolar" MPPTs appear to have bluetooth built in, no dongle required. The "Bluesolars" require the dongle for customised settings.