charge controller overall view of the
solar system
DC switches and busbars
are discussed in previous videos now
it's the time to introduce the charge
control in this video we will be talking
about solar charge controllers here are
the topics that we will be discussing in
this video solar charge controller is
one of the main components of the
off-grid solar system simply it manages
charging the battery bank charge
controller is a voltage or current
regulator which ensures a healthy charge
profile for the batteries and protect
them from overcharging solar charge
controller goes between the solar panels
and the battery there are mainly two
types of solar charge controllers pulse
width modulation or PWM charge
controllers and maximum power point
tracking for MPPT charge controllers for
this installation we have chosen an
MPPT charge controller MPPT charge
controller tracks the output of solar
array and adjust the charging voltage
and current so that the obtained energy
from the batteries is always maximized
the overall performance of an MPPT
charge controller is usually up to 30%
more than it's similar PWM counterpart
what is also great about MPPT charge
controllers is that they can accept
higher input voltages from the PV array
and turn their voltage to current to
increase the charging performance of the
solar system here the simplified
schematic of an MPPT charge controller
is presented the main principle is to
get electrical energy from solar panels
and provide the most efficient charge
profile for the batteries the sampling
circuit gathers the information from the
solar system and sends data to MCU
MCU as the brain of this
structure controls the whole circuits
and manages several tasks such as
collecting info running search
algorithms checking the battery status
and providing functional electrical
commands according to the state of the
charge of the battery and a PV array
input maximum power point is determined
by the MCU and the driver circuit is used
to provide the optimum amount of the
charging voltage and current for the
batteries batteries are not always
charged with the same profile multistage
charging function is usually provided in
an MPPT system to adjust the
charging profile with the batteries the
state of charge this ensures the
batteries health and prolongs its life
let's now look at the charge controller
itself you can see five buttons three
LED indicators
six terminals a temperature sensor input
and rs-485 port there are three pairs of
terminals at the bottom of MPPT charge
controller the first pair is employed to
connect the solar arrays positive and
negative terminal the second pair is
dedicated to connect the battery to the
charge controller and the third pair
connects the DC load to the charge
controller but why we need a temperature
sensor MPPT charge controllers are smart
devices and as we know heat degrades the
efficiency of an electrical system so
temperature sensors are employed in
charge controllers to avoid extra high
or low temperatures
for instance lithium batteries are
involved with explosions in the
temperatures below zero so the charge
controller manages the proper operation
by temperature sensor. now let's
introduce the controller buttons of the
MPPT charge controller PV button
demonstrates the voltage current power
and cumulative energy stored BATT button
illustrates the voltage current
temperature and the state of the charge
of the battery load button demonstrates
the voltage current energy consumed
energy and different modes of DC loads
respectively set button is employed to
change the display style of the
parameters and together with the power
ESC button it is also used to enter and
exit the setting interface of the
controller for setting parameters there
is a separate video about parameter
settings of the MPPT controller which
you can find in our channel here you can
see different types of charge
controllers both MPPT and PWM some
controllers are also designed modular so
that they can be used according to their
specific applications it should be noted
that all types of the charge controllers
employ same standard terminal
configurations
however some models have different
terminals monitoring LCD is not the only
device which monitors the charge
controller parameters using the rs-485
port there are lots of devices and
choices which provide means for
monitoring here are some of those
devices remote meter or MT 50 data
logger bluetooth adapter
and Wi-Fi adapter rs-485 port also
enables to get connected with the mobile
and PC in next videos we will learn more
about how to connect and use each device
in more details
