Does anyone use this regulator? Would you recommend it? What do you like or dislike about it?
I would be using it with a 130 watt solar panel and two 6-volt golf cart batteries with 220 amphour capacity.

Very bottom of the barrel quality/function wise, wouldn't consider it myself.

Better to find a good 3 stage controller for a few dollars more.

Yup, that is an outdated "shunt" (on-off) Controller. At about $50 a Morningstar Controller would actually be cheaper and is a modern PWM device capable of bringing a battery to full charge.

Lew

So now I know that I didn't get the great deal I thought I was getting on a barely used SolarPro CC20. Grrrrr.
Now my question is more technical. How can I use this controller to the best of its abilities? What does it do or not do that is not good for charging my batteries? Are there ways that I can compensate for its inadequate performance? Before I toss it out, I would like to see what it does under the best use conditions.
I presume others out there have this controller (I believe it was standard equip. on Nash/Arctic Fox RVs a short while back if not today.
If you are using one would you mind sticking your neck out and telling me how it is doing, what problems are you having with it?

Cheers, John

John, the CC-20 acts like an electronic switch, connecting the Panel(s) to the Battery(s) when battery voltage drops to 13.0V and disconnecting Panel output when system voltage rises to 14.4V. The problem is that it cuts off charging the instant voltage reaches the setpoint (14.4 or user adjustable from 13.6 to 15.3V). Remember that lead-acid batteries need to have the voltage held at 14.4V for something like 2-4Hrs in order to reach a full State of Charge. The CC-20 won't do that, instead simply leaving Panel output disconnected until Battery voltage drops to 13.0V. New Solar Controllers (BTW, the SolarPro CC-2000D is one such-wish you had it) hold charge voltage at 14.4V by using a scheme called Pulse Width Modulation, wherein Battery voltage is sampled every few milliseconds and system voltage is regulated appropriately.

One thing you can do is to fool the controller a bit. When the "charge" light goes "off" (electronic switch has disconnected Panel output), turn on some small load (a light, for example). This will bring battery voltage down by removing surface charge and the CC-20 will thus kick back "on" more quickly than if the batteries are in a no-load condition. With this type of Controller you will still get full Panel output as long as the batteries are low. It is only when you are trying to get that last 10%-20% to reach Full SOC that these Controllers don't do the job. That is why if only Solar is used for charging they are battery killers, because never bringing the batteries to full SOC leads to "Sulfation". As long as you occasionally (others here suggest at least once a week) bring the Batteries to a Full SOC by some other means (charger or built-in converter/charger) it will be OK.

BTW, if you didn't get a Manual with your CC-20, there is one at Manual.

Lew

Thanks geysergazers! I have been reading up on controllers, like I should have done before hand. So I understand what you are saying about the CC-20. I have the idea that at least when we around the TT during the day we could make it a habit of charging the battery in the laptop pc when the cc-20 stops charging the TT batteries. This would be a useful way to take down the voltage on the TT batteries. So now my question is do you happen to know if the pc battery is being charged while plugged into an inverted (we have a small 400 W. one), but the pc power is turned off?
At some point I will probably just admit that the cc-20 is not worth all the trouble, but I always prefer to try alternatives to junking something.
Cheers, John

quote:

So now my question is do you happen to know if the pc battery is being charged while plugged into an inverted (we have a small 400 W. one), but the pc power is turned off?

Every Notebook 'Puter I have seen does in fact charge it's battery as long as it is plugged in, regardless of whether "on" or "off".

Lew

Thanks Lew. I think you're right. We'll see what happens when we finally get our TT this summer and set it up for solar.
John

John, URwlcm. We bought our first Solar Panel Summer '96 when our coach battery was going dead in response to charging and running the IBM Thinkpad Jan got to take home for the summer. It was a 33Cell 3Amp Siemens which did keep that Laptop going. Now we require more Toys so a 125W Kyocera Panel, Solar Boost 2000E Controller and a Lifeline Grp27 AGM battery are the thing. If doing it again I would skip the fancy MPPT Controller (not enough benefit for the $200 price tag) and use the $50 Morningstar unit.

Lew