How to Program MPT-7210A Boost Solar Charge Controller - Setup Guide
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- čas přidán 19. 09. 2021
- This is a how to video about programming the MPT-7210A boost DC solar charge controller to charge my LiFePo4 powered riding lawn mower. It walks through nearly every single setting in the device including voltages, profiles, locking the control panel buttons, changing the backlight, and a brief overview of how this unit works versus other charge controllers. This setup guide also applies to many different setups not just mine. I will also show a quick demo of the charge controller running in my shed charging my lawnmower from a solar panel. Please note due to eye problems I am very slow to respond to comments, not much time at the computer. Thanks for watching. -DDSolar
#solarcharger #lithiumbattery #lithiumbatterycharger #chargecontroller #offgrid #offgridsolarpowersystem #offgridsolar #offgridandongrid - Věda a technologie
Thanks for the video. Just installed one on my golf cart.
Welcome! IT's a cool charger
I got this same unit awhile back, appreciate this detailed tutorial!
Thanks for this. I'm picking a unit up shortly.
Welcome! Hope it helps
Very helpful video.❤
Excellent, appreciate the good feedback :)
Thanks for this video
Welcome :)
Well explained ...Thanks... !
Thank you! You are very welcome, hope it helps!!
Thank you for the video.
I bought that unit, advertised as a mppt booster. I found that with a 200watt pv and a bit of fiddeling, it could run for up to 2min max, before boosting went instant to zero watt, then up to 15sec waiting, then sloooooowly climbing up again.. halting around 90watt.. then.. instant back to zero. Tested with two different panels and lord did i want to shoot the designer haha...
The panel was mounted on a small ev, and every cloud or shade from a tree on the road that i passed would turn off the unit.. and it would not start charging after comming back online, thou after your video.. now i know why. Thank you.
Anyway.. i plan to use it as a 60v charger for my ev instead. My normal charger is 4.8a but this is a 10a charger so in the next month i should be done setting it up so it can charge the ev at home. Ill prolly add another fan.
You are welcome sir :) I am glad this helped.
Sounds like a fun project... I hope to have an EV soon to experiment with. Let's just say this 7210a charger is really fiddly to get working! But I like it all the same.
Ciao molto interessante il tuo canale complimenti 🤝😁👍🔔
Grazie mille!!!! (Tradotto)
Hello , this is amazing tool!!!
The ONLY problem is the noise from the fun and i have a very easy fix, the factory have wrongly placed this fan very close to the chassis, all you need to do is take it away from t he chassis for a few cms and the fan is silent, you do not hear the fan you hear th e vibration from chassis, which is disturbing if in close environment
So> Take out the fan which is very silent by the way and for such a cheap fan very efficient and just place it, on the outside same side , with about 8 layers of double tape , so there is some distance of minimum 4-5 cms from the chassis, at the same side that the fan is ,
take then a plier and cut the metal pieces of the metal that was protecting the fan entry and place some gorilla tape around the fan so the the air is going into the rest of the chassis
Amazingly silent fan and mppt , i have it in my van years and does not produce any noise at all.
Hi, Good idea, this fix works well and is very quiet :)
Hi. Great video. Where did you get the blue LED volt meter that's above the controller? I need one this size to see from afar.
Hi and thanks! it came from ebay. DC 5-120V Mini Voltmeter Blue. This is a 2 - wire voltmeter. I like them a lot. They have other colors too.
I have a 36 volt battery for a 4 wheel peddle bike with an e-bike motor. If I understand you correctly, I can use a 12 volt panel with this charge controller set for 36 volts and it will charge the battery completely. Is this correct?
Hi, that is correct. It boost the voltage
Hi I have one of theses to charge a ebike battery but I have a quick question for thoses days when solar is bad ie cloudy. Can I just connect the mpt controller to a 12v battery to charge the 36v battery.
Hi Lee the charger was intended for a solar panel and is not really designed for use with a battery which can deliver huge current. But I see no reason why it wouldn't work. Maybe put a 5-10A fuse on the 12V battery or use something to limit the current to protect the charge controller. Could do a bench test, set the output current to something low and see what happens. This type of charge controller I would not push huge current through it. I have opened it and the design does not look very heavy duty. I use mine like a "trickle charger".
If the panels are delivering 0.9A? Or when the voltage trips? That was the info i was looking for.
Hi, I hope I am not misunderstanding your question, but this charger monitors the solar panel voltage and "tries" to pull it no lower than it is programmed. But at the same time, we can also limit the charging current, in which case the charger won't necessarily reach reach the trip point for solar panel voltage. Or vise versa. In my experience, it doesn't always work perfectly. And the user needs to know the approximate maximum power point of the solar panel to program in. This is a fully manual "MPPT" requiring human input. Hope that helps, if you have any questions just let me know. DD
@@solarpoweredge thx, seems like a power supply module more than a solar charge controller, or even a battery charger. I'm still dabbling in slow charging SLA batteries. I was shopping for better performance at low solar outputs. As far as I know alot of power is tripped off for safe charging
@rickyvenilal1713 welcome... technically it is a programmable DC boost converter. I've noticed in low light conditions it doesn't always work properly. Probably because it is powered by the solar panel itself
i wonder if this thing could charge a solar power generator... like a bluette eb70?
Hi, probably since 7210A is a DC DC converter without any MPPT. However the eb70 has its own charging circuit. Still it would be fun to try it and see what happens
mine seems to try to charge the 12v battery at the same voltage the panel voltage is. i am testing mine using a bench top power supply. seems like i read this can be used as boost converter, i wonder if i am stuck in that mode. i bought this used from a dude that probably set it up wrong, or broke it before he gave it to me
Hi it's boost only, so your battery voltage should be significantly higher than panel voltage. For example, you could use a 24v battery and a 12v solar panel. It cannot buck (reduce) voltage, only increase it. This is an odd device because most DC converting charge controllers reduce voltage. Hope that helps!
@@solarpoweredge it does help, and i will be watching your video and a few others again. i thought mine was bad and since curiosity got the best of me i bought a brand new one and it does the same thing, so apparently i have more to learn. i have been playing with solar for about 2 years now and have many much better controllers but just when you think you understand everything something like this comes along.
i have a ways to go, but i set my psu to 17v and the battery voltage to 28.8v it does seem to charge properly, well kinda, its now charging the batter at 28.81v x1.28a =35 watts, and the battery is full. its two tiny 12v 12ah agm batteries i used to testing stuff like this. maybe 17v is too high. i will play around with it more.
@@jasonbrown467 Hi 17v is fine. It just needs to be significantly below min battery voltage because it can only boost up, never buck. From those numbers it looks like the battery is charging fine. One issue is since the batteries are lead acid, how to handle float charge. This controller is very fiddly. I think it was intended for lithium batteries mostly. There can be a lot of trial and error setting it up for a particular scenario. It took me a long time to figure the right settings to charge my mower, without overcharging it or collapsing the solar panel voltage. I have it working pretty good now.
Here what is the maximum open circuit voltage of the solar panels to be used. I have 38 volts V oc panels
Hi. Your panels should be fine. On mine, 60V is max input. Battery needs to be higher than input voltage, as this charger can only boost the voltage upward.
Добрый день. Каким током заряжать акумулятор 36 вольт 10 ампчас если подключить вместо солнечной панели блок питани. Интересует каким током можна заряжать максимум чтоб быстро зарядить акум и не сильно навредить акуму. и вообше каким амперажом можна заряжать, потому как на данный момент имеется заряядное устройсьво на 2 ампера но очень долго заряжает, хотелось бы чтоб заряжать очень быстро и имееться даный контролер и блок питания. Чтоб заряжать 36 вольт велосипедный литий ионный акумулятор от етого устройства не через панель солнечную а от блока питания, то какой блок питания лучше купить на сколько воль должно быть на выходе и сколько ампер должно быть ? Спасибо !
Добрый день, hello, I would suggest caution, no more than 5 Amps on the output because this controller is not very powerful and the fan is small. They are known to fail from overheating. But you could upgrade the fan for more cooling. If you have a 36 volt adjustable power supply, that might be a better option.
Здравствуйте, я бы посоветовал соблюдать осторожность, не более 5 ампер на выходе, потому что этот контроллер не очень мощный, а вентилятор маленький. Известно, что они выходят из строя от перегрева. Но вы можете обновить вентилятор для большего охлаждения. Если у вас есть регулируемый источник питания на 36 вольт, это может быть лучшим вариантом.
Что касается зарядки с помощью источника питания, подходящее зарядное устройство может также выдавать 5 ампер, что позволит зарядить его примерно за 2 часа. Я бы не рекомендовал заряжать аккумулятор на 10 ампер-часов током 10 ампер. Конечно, это возможно, но это вредно для стаи. Также необходимо обратить внимание на конечное напряжение заряда и убедиться, что зарядное устройство прекращает зарядку, когда аккумулятор полностью заряжен. Надеюсь, эта информация будет полезной, хорошего дня. Я использовал переводчик, чтобы написать это, надеюсь, вы сможете это прочитать. С Уважением
The panel voltage setting (at 2:15) doesn't work reliably for me. My unit maintains this voltage for a few moments, then starts slowly drifting downwards until the power source shuts off.
For example, if I set it at 12V, and use all the amps I can get, it maintains 12V only for a little while. When I check in after a few minutes it's working at around 11.5V, then 11V... then eventually the power source collapses and the controller resets.
I wonder if I have a defective unit or if it's a feature.
Yeah I've seen similar behavior on mine. It might be a "feature". Can you try 13-15v instead? I usually set mine just above the maximum power voltage listed on the solar panel's label, and work from there. It's a little unstable but runs for many hours like that. Another option is to limit the current, I've tried this and it works OK. This is a programmable DC converter in reality and it doesn't know where the MPP is. You kind of have to guess at the settings and experiment.
@@solarpoweredge Thanks, good to know it's a feature and not just my unit!
I have a solar panel + 12v "buffer battery" setup for charging different things, so I need the lower voltage limit to actually stay at 12V and not drift continually downwards. Unfortunately the MPT-7210A doesn't work for very well for my purposes then. I've yet to find a better alternative though!
Out of curiosity, I tested using a 36V battery (40V limit) as a source instead. It took about half an hour for the input voltage limit to drift from 40V to 38V, probably the same time it would've taken to drift from 12V to 10V. So with higher input voltages the problem is not so bad, but still exists.
(On a side note, I've read the fan can cause some issues, but I tested with and without a fan, so this problem is not fan-related.)
That's annoying. I am using only a solar panel on the input. The battery could slowly decrease in voltage if it discharges. It depends. Yeah unfortunately this thing doesn't seem to be the right fit for the job. It seems it would reduce or stop the output instead of letting the voltage slip below the correct setting if the battery voltage drops too much. I am guessing you need a programmable DC-DC converter for the job, but one that accurately follows the programmed settings. I don't know of any affordable alternative, this 7210A is kind of an unusual and niche product.
This device is designed only to use with 24v batteries or more. If you use 12v batteries you need additional step down buck converter for the output. 300W 20A DC-DC Buck Converter Step Down Module is under ten bucks with shipping from ebay. People say that the device really has the MPPT properties too, but it's very slow to react on voltage drops.
Does anyone know how to make the fan speed setting (at 12:25) actually have an effect? I've seen some videos where it does affect the fan speed, but I don't understand why the setting works for them and does nothing for me.
My fan is always at maximum speed and making quite an annoying sound.
I will install a different fan at some point, but would be nice to be able to turn it down in the meantime. I use 1A or less so I'm pretty sure it's not overheating or anything.
Maybe there are several versions with different micro code. That fan is pretty annoying. I plan to mod the cooling later to get rid of the noise, maybe I'll do a video about it.
@@solarpoweredge Cool! I'm still waiting for my fan to arrive so I haven't actually done it yet, but I'm thinking any 12v 3-pin computer case fan on this thing should (hopefully) work. Some of them should be very quiet too.
I'll try cutting the 2-pin cable on the stock fan and connecting the + and - of the new fan to it.
Absolutely, that should would work, would be interesting to see how it performs
@@solarpoweredge the computer case fan works nicely. It's quiet at maximum speed too, so it doesn't matter that the setting doesn't do anything.
Nice!!!
have it buy to. i have 24 volt akku, then i cant use buy a 100 watt 36 volt modul ? its only step up works fine? need a 18 volt modul ???
Hello, that is right. This charge controller is supposed to charge a battery with higher voltage than the solar panel (it boosts the solar panel voltage UP to the higher battery voltage)
@@solarpoweredge ah ok, sorry my english gg. all say i need for an 24 volt system a 36 volt panel, with normaly mppt or pwn ...but the mppt 7210 only can step-up ? ok, than i buy a 18 volt now. sorry its my first test, build, mini ehh island ? solar ehh factory:) tanks :)
Hello, it's OK I can understand you :)
You are right!
With a Normal charge controller (step down, PWM or MPPT, 24V battery) you can use a ~36V panel, yes.
With a MPT-7210A (step up boost converter, 24V battery) you need a ~18V panel. It will boost the voltage up to ~24V.
Hope this helps!
Hi would this be ok with a 300 / 400 watt panel to charge a 48volt golf cart set up
Hi! yes it should work. Note this charger has a weak fan and will overheat without it. Might want to upgrade the fan to something with ball bearings, and don't run too high power. I use it to charge my lawn mower from a couple of 100w panels.
@@solarpoweredge thank you
No problem!!
Other model higher dc inputs , higher wattage?
I haven't been able to find one with a higher wattage
As soon as the sun goes down and Solar stops producing the screen shuts off. Is there a way to keep on all the time. My other CC screen stays on as long as it is connected to a battery but not this one
Hi, it's because this charge controller is a bit odd, it's powered by the solar panel only. I'd suggest adding a digital voltmeter or display of some kind to the battery so you can see the voltage of the battery after the sun goes down.
@@solarpoweredge Also I have 24V LI battery from chevy volt. I have set the limits at 25V on Charge Controller but it keeps on charging after 25V mark. Thoughts
@@Burtchiropracticrehabilitation Based on what my controller does in testing. This charge controller may slightly exceed the voltage set point (but not to like 26v in this case, I mean it may go slightly over 25v). I've seen it do so. However it should drop the current down slowly as the last part of the battery fills up. This is the CV part of the CC-CV charging method this controller uses. Keep an eye on the current and you should see it start to reduce. Eventually it should drop to almost no current. Also the CC-CV indicators on the screen will change over, or at least they should.
@@solarpoweredge It went all the way to 27.5V. had to disconnect and use fans to bring it down
@@Burtchiropracticrehabilitation Wow that's seriously bad. Assuming it's programmed for 25V it might be a defective unit or a firmware bug. I've never seen mine do that.
Where can I buy one in the USA?
Sometimes Amazon or ebay have them in US stock
Hi can you tell me if I'm doing something wrong or if mine is faulty.
I have set up all of the settings and saved them under 00 and 01 all is fine untill the sun goes down. The next day when the controller powers up it returns to default which is right annoying. I reset all of the settings and save them again and it's groundhog Day the following morning Amy ideas?
Hello, that is a strange one, can you try setting the changes, press OK to save, then power cycle the controller at that time and before sun down. If it doesn't keep the changes right away, I am guessing either #1) the changes aren't actually being saved or #2) maybe the firmware version is different and perhaps there is a bug. It could even be a faulty unit. On my controller I have to press OK to save, guessing it's the same for yours.
@@solarpoweredge thank you I will try again I have two units both seem the same I'll have a play and see probably worth me posting here if there is differences.
Do you know of any other units like this that are buck type with a 60 volt input? I am working on designing one but it's hard to get hi current as most designs are only 1 or 2 amps.
NP, this charger is rare and unusual in that it is a Boost type and has a really interesting screen and UI. But it cannot drop the voltage from the panels, only raise it. I suspect there are multiple versions of it floating around, hard to tell - they all look the same.
If you search for "boost charge controller" there are a handful of other options, not easy to find good ones though.
For buck type with 60V input, you will have endless options. With those units, high voltage in and lower voltage / high current out isn't a problem at all. Example I have a Outback flexmax 80, so theoretically 80 amps into the battery max.
@@solarpoweredge yes usually use Victron mppt charge controllers but trying to find a lo cost option that does Max volt point tracking rather than mppt like the boost one. There's a great 5amp device called a CN3791 it also says mppt tracker but it's not it's a MVP like the boost but max input volts is 30 volts
Oh right if you want to just hold a specific voltage on the input, there is at least one big programmable DC converter on the "Amzn" site. If I post links they will probably just disappear. Searched for "buck converter mppt". The ones that have this feature usually are programmable and have a screen and buttons. I cannot say if they're really MPPT, but some of them just track whatever voltage you set. Similar behavior to the 7210A. I am not sure if they meet your requirements, but might be worth a look.
the fan on my one was so loud
You're right it's loud!!! Might try a slower fan and/or mill out the aluminum material covering over part of the fan. I think that's part of the reason it's so loud.
@@solarpoweredge ya ill open mine as well and see if i can replace it with a pc fan or somthing
The Fan noise is the first thing which makes you think " there is something wrong " as the fan makes so much noise... It is something which needs to be improved . The issue is not easy to ignore .. sounds like the unit is crying out for attention 😄
@@johnnyuppal7878 i also have a prob where it just keeps trying to restart all time i think thats in the settings thou lol
These are the strangest controllers. I find them too inefficient for daily use. For my tiny house i need good mppt that can adjust to clouds and winter vs summer conditions.
This unit is useless for that. You have to manually adjust and its just annoying. Also even with the best settings it puts out about 50% of a real solar charger. My makeskyblue cheap chinese mppt charger works better than this one.
But i found a use for it!
My ebike 56.4v charger died so im using my mpt-7219a to charge my bike battery by boosting my 12v battery power up to 56.4v. The most it will deliver is 50watts even though i have 5amps available it wont do more than 0.5 amps but its better than nothing.
So as an adjustable dc dc step up boost charger with a good screen it will come in handy for various projects.
It really is a very niche charger. Nice screen. I use it for my 48V lawn mower. Works good. I mentioned in one of my videos it's just a programmable DC boost converter, no MPPT at all. And yet I can't stop using it. If they come out with a bigger model, I'd buy that too.