TriStar TS-45 day/night sensing with a hybrid wind/solar setup

[Beaufort]

According to the TS-45 manual, this charge controller can sense day and night and uses this to count days (for equalization intervals) and other stuff (?).  The assumption is that it's designed for solar and can see periods of no charging as night.  So when you have this controller in Diversion mode with both wind and solar input, what happens to the charge profile?  The wind blows at night and for an evenly balanced system, the controller can't see any significant difference.   Any ideas?

[ghurd]

Not sure I understand where the idea comes from.  What page did you get that idea from? 

The lighting settings are adjustable for hours so there must be a clock in there somewhere.

When connected for Diversion, the controller can not really tell if it is windy and sunny if the loads match the charging, but it still manages to state every 28 days.

G-

[Beaufort]

Page 27, under "Day-Night Detection:  The TriStar will automatically detect day and night conditions.  Any functions that require measuring time or starting at dawn, for example, will be automatic."

The chart on page 26 also indicates "night" when showing the 4 stages of solar charging but I always understood the stages of charging to be controlled according to battery voltage (or perhaps rate of voltage change, to be more accurate).  The chart shows that bulk charging happens in the morning, PWM absorption around noon, and Float charging afternoon.  This and the "Day-Night Detection" leads me to believe that they're doing something to the profile according to the time of day.  I'm sure this is wrong based upon everything we know about battery charging, but it's confusing in the manual.

[ghurd]

The terminal voltage basically decide where it starts in the solar mode.
In the morning, a solar charged battery will be around 12.8V if it was unloaded all night. So it starts off in Bulk, until it reaches Absorption.  It stays at absorption for a time, then drops back to float.
As the sun goes down or shortly into night, the battery voltage drops below float.

If the PV voltage is below say 66% of the operating voltage, 99% of the time it is a pretty safe bet it is entering 'night'.


The section you mention is for solar PWM charging.  Using the controller in the Diversion use will disable most of those specific abilities.

The primary dip switches decide what effect the secondary switches will have.
If it is set in Diversion mode instead of Solar, the rest of the switches control different things.

Basically, you are asking about a Day/Night function controlled by switch #8, but it has 3 different functions depending on the switches before it.
(see page 2, section 1.3)
It can not do lighting control in the diversion mode.

G-

[Beaufort]

The section you mention is for solar PWM charging.  Using the controller in the Diversion use will disable most of those specific abilities.

That's what I was looking for....thanks G!  Does it still do PWM charging through those 4 stages in Diversion mode?

[ghurd]

Yes it does.

You understand how a LED is On or Off, and how PWM makes a LED appear brighter or dimmer?
This video is a great example- it shows a LED semi truck light at night, with a windmill doing the charging, and a TS-45 in diversion mode.
The light is in parallel with the dump load resistors (and it has a flyback diode to protect the controller and LEDs from the the wire wound power resistors voltage spike, page 37, section 5.4, fig 5.3).
http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm249/Southbuck7/?action=view&current=MVI_0209.flv

G-