[Upgraded] 30A Solar Charge Controller, Black Solar Panel Battery Intelligent Regulator with Dual USB Port 12V/24V PWM Auto Paremeter Adjustable LCD Display (30a)

5 stars! It does the job for the rock bottom price of $10. Be amazed! Ok, here is reality. I have used this unit for 7 months to experiment with a 100W system. It regulates the charging of my very nice no maintenance lead acid batteries. It knows how to do this and most of the time it also knows that I am setup in 12v mode. 1. Do not use the 12v extension or the 5v USB connections. They really are not functional for any reasonable current output. The board will stress, a resistor heats up on the board and the LCD will blink out temporarily. I have not fried the board but I would advise connecting all power draw, USB or otherwise through a fuse block directly from your batteries. Sometimes the controller decides for no good reason that you are in 24 volt mode. This isn't good because it seems to happen when my battery is almost fully charged over 13V. That means it will try to overdrive well over 14V and possibly 6 or more amps into a full battery. This is no good. If you catch this your first easy sign is the battery charge picture will say barely charged... Disconnect the solar, then the battery... Wait 15 seconds then plug the battery back in... Carefully connect your solar panel. Pray it stays in 12V mode At the moment I unplug the solar panel when the battery is mostly charged and the system decides that it's 24V. I am only using this as a test bed drawing small energy for 5V USB networks at the moment. When I get serious and add more power and a proper converter I will pay good money for a real controller. So, great for the low price of $10 , great learning tool but pay real money if you want a reliable system you can count on.

Pulling 13amps out of a 200 watt panel. Adjusting angle to Sun was the most important “setting.” You get one chance to connect wires to the controller. After that the Phillips will strip and the holders will not be effective. It just falls apart. That said, for $19 it’s a bargain. Not sure if it charges the lifepo 100ah to full SOC or not but can say that battery can do some heavy lifting in the evenings before voltage drops. Extremely happy. Excellent controller for dedicated tactical purposes. I made a maintenance cart that provides its own 110v outlets. If I don’t ever touch it again, keep it dry, not knock it around, and use fuses, it will work until it doesn’t while maintaining safety for myself and other components. Tomorrow a second 200watt panel will be added in series. Should work no problem. I plan to get a couple more of these.

I personally depend very heavily on reviews that are posted on Amazon, as do many other consumers. I not only read what reviewers say, but look to see what their pictures reveal about a products true quality and description. I aim to not only feature the products I review in many different aspects, analyzing many qualities, I also provide my own opinions on ALL the good AND bad experiences I have with the product I review. I take time to learn and use a product as it was intended before I review it, and I have used this specific product thoroughly. My rating system: 5 - Met all my expectations. Was described and pictured perfectly. Exactly what I wanted and needed. Extremely useful product and a great value. Would recommend to family and friends. 4 - Very good product. Exactly as described. May have a minor flaw, mentioned in the review, that does not detract from the products perceived value. Would recommend to family and friends. 3 - Average product. Not exactly as described, or misleading advertising or product pictures. Possibly substandard build quality, or something else explained in the review. Would mention as an option to family and friends, but not recommend. 2 - Wouldn't recommend this product. Poor build quality, not close to being as described. Flimsy and fragile. Difficult to use due to product flaws. 1 - Do not purchase whatsoever. Usually only given if product lasts only a few hours/days/etc. I do not leave 1 star reviews without contacting the seller. I will be returning the product. I did NOT receive ANY discount for this product. I simply enjoy reviewing every one of my purchases.

This PWM solar controller is the least expensive controller you can buy, but it works. They have been making them similar to this for years, and I just replaced my old one. PWM controllers are supposedly not as efficient as the much more expensive MPPT controllers, but if you are just trying to use a portable solar panel to a power station or battery, this is a good place to start.

I purchased this as a backup for an existing charge controller. I was surprised at the small size, light weight, and lack of cooling. There are no vents on the side or fins in back so I mounted it with a fan in back. The connector accepts up to 10 gauge wire, so not good for 60 amps. Also, the PV, battery, and light out are common positive so beware of grounding conflicts. The linked manual says it can use 30 to 46V solar panels with a 24 volt battery. By convention solar panel name plate voltages are given as 1/3 volt/cell so 36 cells would be called 12 volts, 60 cells called 20 volts, so 46 volts would be 138 cells. I intended to use it with 120 series cells but then there is a label on the device saying Max PV voltage 50V. 120 cells under STC would give about 76 volts, so I had to resort to using a 12 volt Pb battery and 2 parallel 60 cell panels for testing. I find that this is a PWM controller with a single voltage set point. (See o’scope photo). The 50 volt limit makes some sense for PWM since excess voltage is wasted. It would not be suitable for Lithium batteries under any conditions because the full PV voltage is connected to the battery for short periods. The terminal block seems good for 16 to 10 gauge stranded wire but only engages about 1/4" so I added a strain relief for reliability as shown in a photo. Also had to grind down the diameter of a #1 Philips screwdriver a little to get it to fit freely into the screw sockets. The menu screens are not as shown here or in the manual. The actual sequence is Battery voltage, Temperature, PV amp, Load amp, PV AH, Load AH, PV off (adjustable, the actual set point), Load on V (adjustable 12.6 or less), Load off V (adjustable), Load timing (adjustable), 61. There is nothing (like turn on a fan) to do with the temperature except to look at it.

Purchase for someone else they love it..

Well, appears to be charging from my array so far, but getting off to a rocky start. Is mis-reporting my panel voltage, frequently dissagrees with my measured charging current gauge, and keeps forgetting all my programmed settings so far. Can't seem to trust what it's readings say. Will have to watch and see how things shake out with it.... After a week - product claimed to be for up to 60 amps output, but will not pass more than 6.1 amps, even with 3 clean, full bright sunlit solarpanels capable of pushing more than 18 amps of charge current. Used to hold a steady max of 14.3 volts going into my battery bank, but is now over volting, pushing up to 17 volts into my batteries depending on the sunlight conditions. Afraid to run the charger now for battery damage. Can't trust it anymore. Right now rating just 1 star....

I gave it a five star cause the product is nothing wrong with. It just wouldn’t work for what I wanted. I didn’t return. The product ain’t gonna return the product. There might be someone that can use the product that I might know product just was not for my application shipment no problem Product received as described. I just couldn’t use it with my life lithium battery just walked the direction said.

I am using this device along with a 100 watt Coleman panel I bought from Canadian Tire that came without a charge controller (thanks for nothing Coleman! 🙄). Works exactly as promised/described on Amazon's listing. I like that I can configure the output power level to the battery, the charge level and the cut off (battery full) level myself (for now I've left them on the defaults). Very simple to use & adjust. The accessory 12v power output connector is an interesting idea, but as another reviewer mentioned, it seems to come on and off on a whim. I was under the impression from the instructions that it would turn on when the panel was inactive (at dark), and back off once it was charging again (when sunny) when set to 00. But when I tested this by disconnecting the panel to simulate dark, it came on and stayed on after the panel was reconnected. Weird. There is some kind of timer control to it, I didn't really explore it much more, but you can set it from 00-24. Does it just count time down from the setting once you set it? Who knows, there is very little information about it in the instructions. (As is typical with Chinese products purchased on Amazon). The USB outlets charge at a reasonably fast rate (my Samsung phone was at 39% & claimed it would be fully charged in two hours). The only other concern I have is regarding those very USB outlets. They are active even when the panel is disconnected (ie: when only the battery alone is connected). This tells me they are drawing and converting 12v from the battery to 5v for the USB outlets constantly. I suspect this could lead to a slow vampire draw on the deep cycle battery when/if the system sits idle without any panel connected to it or at night. But if you always have a panel connected, that shouldn't really matter - the daytime solar charging would likely more than make up for it. I was getting 13.1/13.2 volts into my battery under a heavy overcast sky late in the day, my panel was putting out more than 18 volts at the time. I definitely highly recommend this simple little controller, I'm completely satisfied for under $20 (including taxes).

Macht was er soll....

Perfecto funciona.

Funkar perfekt. Lätt att förstå och lätt att installera.

Je déconseille, na pas fonctionner plus d'une heure deja HS, port de charge usb défaillant, à fait cramer tout le contrôleur, article à éviter