Solar Panel Monitor

[DDabs]

I just installed three 140W solar panels which are all connected to a Tristar 45 MPPT controller. I am trying to figure out what type of monitor to use. It seems the easiest option is to just go with the optional remote meter from Morningstar, which I would mount to the nav. station panel. I am just wondering if this provides enough information or if there's something else I should look into.

David

[sailorboy1]

Didn't you already ask this on your battery thread?

The solar monitor only tells you what the solar panels/controller are doing. That and your panel voltmeter could tell you everything you may want to know. But for me I have a Victron battery monitor to tell me what is going on with the batteries (amp hours, amps in/out, voltage). I installed my BM before I had the solar but like that it tells me what is actually going into the battery while the solar controller just tells me what it is putting out (depending on how you installed your system you may be able to use your panels amp meter to know this)

[colemj]

If you are only interested in knowing about the solar functioning and accessing 72 days of collected data, then the Tristar has a web server built into it and an ethernet port. You can either connect a computer through ethernet, or connect the Tristar to a router and access all of its functionality and data wirelessly through your computer's browser.

It is easier than it sounds - plug in the cable, open a browser and there you are. You can have it graph historical data to your heart's content. You can even connect it to the internet and control it remotely from anywhere in the world.

The Tristar monitor provides all of numerical historical data and shows what is happening in real-time, but you cannot adjust the settings through it.

Mark