Solar charge monitor in a box

[AbyssUnderground]

Hello all,

Today I decided that my setup was way too "rough" and messy and that I wanted to do something about it. So I did.

I got a 0-15v meter, a 0-1A meter, my charge controller, a plastic box and got to work. I came up with what you see in the pictures below.

It has:

1. x 0-15v meter showing battery voltage
   
1. x 0-1A meter showing charge current from the panels
   
1. x switch for the backlights
   
1. x charge controller built into the box
   
   

It took me 2 hours to drill and file out the holes for the meters and c/c to go into. The fitting and wiring took about an hour. The wires to both the battery and the solar panels come out seperate sides.

The insides:

The front:

The front with the backlights on:

The box came to an overall cost of about £20 ($40) (each meter was £8 ($16)).

What do you guys think? All comments welcome!

Andy.

[drdongle]

Looks good though you might want to reduce the voltage to the LED's!

[AbyssUnderground]

The voltage is fine, my camera just over reacts a bit. Its a resistor suitable for 12v down to white LED voltage (i forget the value), but there are also two LED's in series so thats half the voltage again for each.

[Opera House]

I'm stumped.....What is that "no garbage can" symbol on the regulator?

[commanda]

Being European, it's probably to do with ROHS (reduction of hazardous substances).

It was probably soldered with lead solder, and therefore can't be put into landfill.

Just a guess.

Amanda

[Darren73]

Electronic goods are now considered hazardous waste in the EU, even the ROHS compliant stuff has the symbol on it.

Darren

[AbyssUnderground]

Thats right. Anything electronic, like PC's, PCB's etc have to be disposed of properly. You cannot just put them into household waste and I beleive if you are caught dumping large amounts there is a fine but Im uncertain.

[PaulJ]

   Looks good, have you had a close look at the charge controller's voltage? I have an identical unit (I think - I'll check the exact model no. tomorrow) and its voltage settings out of the box were way too low.

   It open circuited the panel when the battery was at about 13.4V, and reconnected at 12.8V, not enough to even maintain a proper float charge IMO.

   I opened mine up and put a couple of Schottky diodes in series with the Zener that was sticking out of the goo the circuit board was cast in, got the switching voltages up to a more respectable 14.3V/ 13.7V respectively.

   I might have been unlucky and just got a dud regulator. If yours has the same problem I can post pictures of my "repair" if you want.

    What sort of battery are you charging? How big is it, how big is your panel? 13.4V is too low for any "12V" lead-acid, but if you have an SLA (gell cell) then 14.3V is too high - just use one Schottky and the max voltage should be around 13.8 - 13.9V.

   Paul.

[AbyssUnderground]

Mine cuts off at 14.2v and turns back on at 13.1v. Its charging a 17.2Ah SLA battery. I have 6 watts of solar. Its only putting out 50mA as I type this but its overcast and the sun is almost round the corner of the house.

Ive had the C/C open before and there are a few pots which I would think adjusted the voltage.

[PaulJ]

   Sounds like yours is ok then, I must've got a dud or an older version.

   I just looked at mine, it's the same model no., looks identical except mine is missing the rubbish bin picture. Inside, the whole circuit board is encased in some sort of blue resin with just the indicator LED's and the top of the zener sticking out. No pots or any other means of adjustment visible. Interesting.

   Paul.