"Morningstar" (1 Viewer)

[old-mo]

I have a "Morningstar" Pro Star 30, Solar Charge Controller.

Can some one tell me what the normal read out is in the digital readout ?

I am getting =

1. Battery Volt`s = 13.3
2. Solar amps = 0.6
3. Load amps = 0.0

The three lights above which I think are to do with the state of the battery`s the first one is permanently green, and above it says fully charged..

The panel on the roof which is laid flat is approx five foot by two and a half foot..

are these about right??

I know nothing about solar or the workings. :Sad:

Thanks.

 

[pappajohn]

sounds about right to me.:thumb:

600 milliamp charge will be floating the battery as its fully charged.

0 amp load cos you have nothing turned on (presumably)

those panel dimensions indicate around a 120w/130w panel or even more.

 

[old-mo]

sounds about right to me.:thumb:

600 milliamp charge will be floating the battery as its fully charged.

0 amp load cos you have nothing turned on (presumably)

those panel dimensions indicate around a 120w/130w panel or even more.

Thanks for that,,

Nothing turned on, so will that amp loads spring into life as things (battery) are turned on, and is that panel man enough to do a bit of wild camping?

I have other than the engine battery,, two (2) leisure battery`s, I am not sure what size they are. (Cannot easily get to them to see what amperage they are.. both look pretty new)

Thanks pappajohn. :thumb:

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[pappajohn]

yes. turn on some lights and the load reading will show something and the charge rate will increase a bit providing the suns out.

thinking about the panel size, it could be as high as 180w which will do very nicely for wild camping again providing the sun shines of course:Cool:

 

[old-mo]

"pappajohn",, I put a load of lights on and the load reading still said 0.0.. :Sad:

I did a self test and all the readings where correct and the self test said everthing normal,,
just wandering why the load read out did not show different when a few lights were put on.. any idea`s ?

thanks.

 

[ocsid]

If I can come in here:
It appears that the Morningstar has not been wired to manage the load output from the battery. Thats neither unusual or anything to worry about.
The Morningstar can switch off the batteries output so you cant inadvertently flatten your battery; this is a feature not really required in an occupied MH and I did not wire it up on mine either. I prefered to leave all the exising wiring as Hymer made it and just used the Morningstar as a solar cell regulator.

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[vwalan]

i agree .it apears most never wire the reg ulator in properly to give a load reading. .i cant imagine how i would wire a 2.5 kw inverter through mine. its abit like the percentage battery reading what a lot of tosh. (some have one).i use a 10 quid reg from maroc works fine . if sunny batteries get charged if dull some times they get abit flat then inverter sqeals, turn it off wait for more sun.

 

[old-mo]

Thanks for that "gents",,, battery is showing full and the self diagnostic thing came up

(------ normal). after running through about a dozen other things that all tallied up with the manual..

Another little poser for you knowledgeable lot..

Parked up electric steps are out,, start engine or just turn ignition on and close door they go in, open door they go out whether engine is running or not but will not go in if you close the door unless the ignition is on.

Surely you should be able to put them in when parked up and not in use,, The reason I ask, picture yourself in a parking bay and you cannot put the step in and they stick out 2-3 foot lorry or whatever comes in a bit close and takes steps with him,,

Tried to get in touch with previous owner to no avail,, any idea`s.?

Thanks

 

[Geo]

As I understand it,
The load indicator is not to indicate what load you are pulling from your batteries, but a totally separate 12 volt low amp output from the controller that only supplies an out put when your batteries are full, when batteries need charge it will stop supplying that output and anything connected to it will stop working until the batteries are full again and spare charge is available
I have my phone charger connected to my load out put and only when batteries are full will it send spare charge to the phone charger, it then reads what the phone charger is using and displays that,if i then put lights on in the van to drain batteries the charger stops working, the display shows 0.00 output until batteries are up again and so on, if nothing is connected to the load output then 0.00 load will be displayed all the time
Geo

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[ocsid]

As I understand it,
The load indicator is not to indicate what load you are pulling from your batteries, but a totally separate 12 volt low amp output from the controller that only supplies an out put when your batteries are full, when batteries need charge it will stop supplying that output and anything connected to it will stop working until the batteries are full again and spare charge is available

Geo

You have motivated me to dig out the data sheet for my SS-10L and read the spec!

"low volt load disconnect is 11.5 volts
low volt load reconnect is 12.6 volts"
It has a 2 second disconnect delay so it's not fooled by transients and its accurate to +-100mv. Strangely its load rating is not given so I assume it can only handle the 10 amps that it charge is rated at.
And it is there to stop discharges that would otherwise drain and damage the battery.

Just for completeness the charging voltage regulation is 14.1 volts with the shunt for "sealed" batteries in place and 14.4 with it removed for "flooded" batteries.