this is actually quite awesome since it's ver efficient for the charge controller not to draw anything during the night(also extending the life of the batteries greatly in certain conditions). If you have a high DC voltage you can also run most AC appliances.
90v on the battery side makes sense for 72v systems as you generally charge 12v lead acid batteries at a max 14.4 voltage and that comes to around 86.4v for a 6 battery system :)
The higher battery voltages mean batteries are arranged in series to make 72v ,so for high power inverters there is less conversion losses to higher AC voltages
I think the solar panel voltage setting is the starting point for the MPPT algorithm. If you enter a setting close to the maximum power voltage of your panel, the algorithm gets to a steady state quicker.
If you use a boost converter that effectively eliminates the need for a series diode on the panel. Higher battery voltage means lower current thus less power loss in the wires, also the charge controller won't drain the battery during the night because it's a boost converter.
Hi Julian. You mention that you use the MingHe as your bench power supply. I was wondering if you are still using the DROK power supply from Postbag #53. I was thinking of getting one of these DROK ones as it seemed to be quite feature rich. With its dual displays and the possibility to set everything while not having the output turned on. To me that looked like a very good cheap option for a bench power supply. I would really appreciate your thoughts on the DROK in case you are still using it. Thanks and cheerio!
The technical specs are the same as my charger MPPT CTK 300 has. It has less options, only a simple "display", only one button, 3 LEDs ... but NO FAN, what means NO NOISE! :-) Outdoor usage is better possible than the device in this video. The user can setup the voltage (24, 36, 48, 60, 72 and user-defined), no more options, but for me it is enough. Price between 25 - 35 Euro. Videos about it from Adam Welch (english), YT-ID omAhsQqwWSo and tkDRNbAWZo0
Ming He would be pronounced Ming Hugh like the u in ugly Ming He the e in Chinese has the u sound in ugly. the i in Chinese has the long e sound like in Lee, so Ming Hee would be spelled Ming Hi I like your videos and they are almost addictive. Subbed
Question please: I have this device powered by a 20 watt solar panel from which I can get 22 watts. From there I am charging a 48V 17.5Ah li-ion battery. Problem is that I can barely get much amperage flow. During charging it's showing a amp rate of .22, not even 1 amp. At that rate it would take a very long time to get a full charge. Do I need more power from the panel? Perhaps boost up the amps allowed while programming? I would love to get at least 2 amps, Any ideas?
i'm guessing it is powered from the solar panel so it won't ever drain the battery. Wouldn't it still work for mppt if the solar panel side went through a buck regulator with current limiting to set the impedance, and then was boosted up to the higher voltage for lower losses along the wires?
what do you think of having a dc-dc step down between a PV panel and a regular pwm controller? My 175w panels put out around 26v each, but my system at this stage is 12v. Would it work?
Your assumption is pretty right: connect your 36-cell (18V) pannels in parallel for up to 10 A = 180W solar power: Boost converter will wake up with the sun to boost charge battery at 24V or much more. Or use 72-cell (36V) panels with 36V battery might perform direct charge until battery voltage rises above MPP setting, to make the boost converter help it a view volts up.
Might work up to 144-cell series on 72V battery (*10A = 720W solar power) with the direct charge via internal diode the battery will clamp solar voltage to prevent any higher (no open circuit). + Advantage: the solar battery reverse discharge protection diode comes for free in this design... ==> seems usefull for many separate PV module strings to independently charge a central battery bank via common rail
With any cheap device called "MPPT", please do not expect true MPP-Tracking feature with inteligent micro-controller, but rather a MPP aware design with some fixed MPP adjustment. Automatic MPP-Tracking may or may not be included + implementations may differ regarding ability to handle shaddowing & differnt temperatures in parallel strings.
Nice video! Hmmm, I love that this system has an easily movable control panel (the whole thing could easily be re-cased in a larger box) but not sure about how it is powered by the solar side. I suppose one could wire in an independent rechargeable battery to power the display. So unlike other systems do you not run the risk of frying the controller if you plug the panels in first? Also the boost conversion vs buck is strange to me. Isn’t boost conversion less efficient than buck conversion (does boost generate more heat)? Also do most mppt controllers use fans (I only have a few Renogy PWM controllers but am doing research before buying an MPPT)? So many questions on this one! 😂
MPPT charge controllers with a boost converter topology are becoming more common. One obvious situation where this would be useful is say you have a golf cart with a 36 volt battery circuit and you wish to mount say a nominal 12 volt 150 watt panel on the roof of it. There is no reason why MPPT cannot be instituted with a boost converter, but obviously you lose one of the most touted advantages of MPPT i.e. being able to run higher voltage/lower current cables from your panels. But if your panels are close, this isn't really an issue. And you can certainly still find maximum power point with the boost converter based circuit. Furthermore, for those who are "rolling their own" charge controllers, a boost converter may well be an easier circuit to get running at good efficiency levels than the more usual buck converter approach.
Hi Julian you think I can charge my ebike batteries from 36 to 52 volts from my campervan solar panels?will have 100 watt x2 plus 3 x30watt panels on roof soon.I have 2 mppt controllers .a renogy rover 20 amp and 2 epever 10 amp mppt s available.of course I can use my Krieger 1100 watt inverter with ebike chargers also but if plenty of sun can hopefully charge ebike batteries.I do normally connect 2 x 110ah leisure’s batteries in parallel .my 12v compressor fridge is on all time.I do have a dc to dc. Charger also that runs off vw t4 2.5tdi engine .cheers .steve
I've ordered an ebike and I'm hoping to charge the battery with a solar panel together with a minghe mpt7210A. The ebike battery is rated at 500watt hrs. If watts =volts x amps and I attempt to charge the battery with 2amps, then volts=500 devided by 2=250v. Since the mpt72A is boost converter which has a limit of 72v, am I right in saying it will keep on charging the ebike battery at 72v at constant current, but will simply take a longer period of time for the solar panel to fully charge the ebike battery? If this is a stupid question, please disregard it. Not only but also, can you remember how much customs charges you paid to have the mpt7210A imported from China into the uk? regards Rob T
Don't most solar panels tell you how many volts they produce..? and if you have 2 panels at 18v, would you increase the solar panel setting for the combined voltage..? or would that require arranging the solar panels in series to bring the total input solar voltage up..? This is all so confusing. :) Thanks Robb PDX
On connecting car batteries you always do whichever is connected to the chassis last, if you did the other last and your wrench touched the chassis/body it would be a direct short and sparks would fly.
What do you think of those instructions? "Display devices are easy to pollution easily broken, the installation process and avoid touching the collision force, use screws to secure the controller firmly, avoid installation in order to avoid irreparable damage to the internal circuitry in severe vibration device." translation; "don't break the cheap screen". lol.
Carl Vasos the input max listed is a lie. this ONLY boost voltage. so a max 60 volt, is ONLY if you have 72 v batteries. i got this thinking i could use my 24 v panel [42 open v], to charge my 24 volt battery. but NO . with 24 volt bat. it has ONLY a max of less than the 24 volt of my battery.
So what happened ?? :) I'm dying to know. Could you charge a 12V battery with it, or it had to be 24V or greater? Did the device lose power when the solar panel is disconnected? If so, did it remember your settings? And, how did it perform, regarding charging current vs. solar input current.
No, it won't work with 12V battery systems - which is a shame. It remembers most settings, but not the "output on" setting, so it won't automatically start charging each morning when the sun comes up.
We are fixing to buy some 300 watt solar panels. We almost purchased 100 watt panels from Home Depot here in Florida because they are on sale for $109 each. Then we decided to go with the 300 watt panels because they are only $178 each local. This is a huge savings. I would say people should take into account three things. #1 What are you powering with your solar system? If it is lights only and maybe a couple tiny fans, look for the best price per watt. You should try to get the best price per watt anyways. If I was powering as much of the house as possible, I would get a better more reliable solar panel for a little more cost. If I were only running lights and a few small fans, I would go with the cheapest panels that are of a manageable size for me to install. #2 if you are doing the job yourself, buy panels in a size that you will not endanger your life. Panels that are much taller than you would be very hard, if even at all possible to install alone. #3 What size batteries are you using and how many? If you are using 7AH 12 volt batteries, you only need a smaller array with smaller panels. If you are using 100 AH batteries, then you need a bit larger solar panels and a bigger array of panels. If you are using expensive, giant batteries like 400AH batteries, you need large enough panels and array to also run conditioning cycles to maintain the life of the batteries. Currently I have just expanded my battery bank from 4 to 8 batteries. I use Group 31 Deep Cycle batteries made by Duracell from Sams Wholesale Club and Exide Nautilus 31 from Home Depot. I pay about $100 U.S. dollars and they are about 115AH batteries. I power a couple 12 volt led lights, 6 volt and 9 volt fans and a 6 volt Dual Alarm Clock. I can run one fan, charge 4 cell phones and a 7 inch Android tablet every day and only need to do a charge cycle every 3 or 4 days. I also have a 12 volt portable dvd player I watch two or three movies a day sometimes. This is on the 4 batteries. I have not connected the 4 new batteries in yet. My batteries are all less than a year old, accept maybe one of them is two years old but it charges to the same voltage as the other three. I have six 15 watt solar panels from Harbor Freight Tools. We got two if the 45 watt kits. The panels are rarely used to charge the battery bank with. Usually we charge them with the local power in our house. This system is actually a battery backup system for if the power goes out. I do run some things off it though, so it does not just sit and do nothing. If needed, i can charge with the solar array. I just choose not to, this way the solar panels last longer.
And how much is that in euros? You haven't activated article 50 yet! Till then you're still a fellow European and there's free flow of CZcams videos between our countries... :-)
If it looks like a box of chocolates (Forrest Gump reference), DON'T EAT IT, it probably contains glass shards and mercury or some other kind of poisonous substance, like the imported dog treats and foods (no, I dunno why they import dog treats/food from China).
why waste your time with these inexpensive and cheap charge controllers? it's just a buck/boost controller, it would be easy enough to design your own. there are even purpose built IC's for this exact purpose.
You do the best videos for loafing around the house with my newborn
:-)
Good vid. I have a few of these. This is why a good manual is important. Thanks
Nice seeing you back.
Thank you
Another interesting video, thank you Julian.
this is actually quite awesome since it's ver efficient for the charge controller not to draw anything during the night(also extending the life of the batteries greatly in certain conditions).
If you have a high DC voltage you can also run most AC appliances.
90v on the battery side makes sense for 72v systems as you generally charge 12v lead acid batteries at a max 14.4 voltage and that comes to around 86.4v for a 6 battery system :)
The higher battery voltages mean batteries are arranged in series to make 72v ,so for high power inverters there is less conversion losses to higher AC voltages
great to see you back. could you possibly do a review on a maplin 300w modified sinewave inverter?
I think the solar panel voltage setting is the starting point for the MPPT algorithm. If you enter a setting close to the maximum power voltage of your panel, the algorithm gets to a steady state quicker.
I thought to mension that I managed to use the 7210A to charge a 12v battery! input at 14v! outputting 13.68v at constant 4w. Working great :)
It will be very handy to charge from basic solar panel (12V) any ebike battery from 24V to 72V.Thank you !
George Ale I agree. Perfect for the motorhome.
2:43 "Don't turn it on, take it apart" -EEVBlog
I said that out loud lol
YESS !!! THE CITTING MAT IS BACK :DDD
*cutting
***** not in the yt app ...
I just got this thing and ran into the same suprise as you lol
If you use a boost converter that effectively eliminates the need for a series diode on the panel. Higher battery voltage means lower current thus less power loss in the wires, also the charge controller won't drain the battery during the night because it's a boost converter.
Hi Julian. You mention that you use the MingHe as your bench power supply. I was wondering if you are still using the DROK power supply from Postbag #53. I was thinking of getting one of these DROK ones as it seemed to be quite feature rich. With its dual displays and the possibility to set everything while not having the output turned on. To me that looked like a very good cheap option for a bench power supply. I would really appreciate your thoughts on the DROK in case you are still using it. Thanks and cheerio!
The technical specs are the same as my charger MPPT CTK 300 has. It has less options, only a simple "display", only one button, 3 LEDs ... but NO FAN, what means NO NOISE! :-) Outdoor usage is better possible than the device in this video. The user can setup the voltage (24, 36, 48, 60, 72 and user-defined), no more options, but for me it is enough. Price between 25 - 35 Euro. Videos about it from Adam Welch (english), YT-ID omAhsQqwWSo and tkDRNbAWZo0
Ming He would be pronounced Ming Hugh like the u in ugly Ming He the e in Chinese has the u sound in ugly. the i in Chinese has the long e sound like in Lee, so Ming Hee would be spelled Ming Hi
I like your videos and they are almost addictive. Subbed
Now that was interesting... a couple of more comments from Fla-bushcraft Prepper and I may well become fluent in Chinese... :)
I think I may have found it's niche. I charged my 48v 10Ah with a 36v 4.4 Ah hoverboard battery. It was awesome!
Question please: I have this device powered by a 20 watt solar panel from which I can get 22 watts. From there I am charging a 48V 17.5Ah li-ion battery. Problem is that I can barely get much amperage flow. During charging it's showing a amp rate of .22, not even 1 amp. At that rate it would take a very long time to get a full charge. Do I need more power from the panel? Perhaps boost up the amps allowed while programming? I would love to get at least 2 amps, Any ideas?
i'm guessing it is powered from the solar panel so it won't ever drain the battery. Wouldn't it still work for mppt if the solar panel side went through a buck regulator with current limiting to set the impedance, and then was boosted up to the higher voltage for lower losses along the wires?
what do you think of having a dc-dc step down between a PV panel and a regular pwm controller? My 175w panels put out around 26v each, but my system at this stage is 12v. Would it work?
the voltages are standard batteries voltages in china (Ebikes mostly)
Your assumption is pretty right: connect your 36-cell (18V) pannels in parallel for up to 10 A = 180W solar power: Boost converter will wake up with the sun to boost charge battery at 24V or much more.
Or use 72-cell (36V) panels with 36V battery might perform direct charge until battery voltage rises above MPP setting, to make the boost converter help it a view volts up.
Might work up to 144-cell series on 72V battery (*10A = 720W solar power) with the direct charge via internal diode the battery will clamp solar voltage to prevent any higher (no open circuit).
+ Advantage: the solar battery reverse discharge protection diode comes for free in this design...
==> seems usefull for many separate PV module strings to independently charge a central battery bank via common rail
With any cheap device called "MPPT", please do not expect true MPP-Tracking feature with inteligent micro-controller, but rather a MPP aware design with some fixed MPP adjustment.
Automatic MPP-Tracking may or may not be included + implementations may differ regarding ability to handle shaddowing & differnt temperatures in parallel strings.
Nice video! Hmmm, I love that this system has an easily movable control panel (the whole thing could easily be re-cased in a larger box) but not sure about how it is powered by the solar side. I suppose one could wire in an independent rechargeable battery to power the display. So unlike other systems do you not run the risk of frying the controller if you plug the panels in first?
Also the boost conversion vs buck is strange to me. Isn’t boost conversion less efficient than buck conversion (does boost generate more heat)?
Also do most mppt controllers use fans (I only have a few Renogy PWM controllers but am doing research before buying an MPPT)?
So many questions on this one! 😂
It lights up when you from the solar pannel not the battery
Any chance you can measure the efficiency of this device
MPPT charge controllers with a boost converter topology are becoming more common. One obvious situation where this would be useful is say you have a golf cart with a 36 volt battery circuit and you wish to mount say a nominal 12 volt 150 watt panel on the roof of it.
There is no reason why MPPT cannot be instituted with a boost converter, but obviously you lose one of the most touted advantages of MPPT i.e. being able to run higher voltage/lower current cables from your panels. But if your panels are close, this isn't really an issue. And you can certainly still find maximum power point with the boost converter based circuit.
Furthermore, for those who are "rolling their own" charge controllers, a boost converter may well be an easier circuit to get running at good efficiency levels than the more usual buck converter approach.
+xanataph Good points Xan. I'd really like to see an MPPT controller built around the LTC3780 buck boost chip.
Hi Julian you think I can charge my ebike batteries from 36 to 52 volts from my campervan solar panels?will have 100 watt x2 plus 3 x30watt panels on roof soon.I have 2 mppt controllers .a renogy rover 20 amp and 2 epever 10 amp mppt s available.of course I can use my Krieger 1100 watt inverter with ebike chargers also but if plenty of sun can hopefully charge ebike batteries.I do normally connect 2 x 110ah leisure’s batteries in parallel .my 12v compressor fridge is on all time.I do have a dc to dc. Charger also that runs off vw t4 2.5tdi engine .cheers .steve
I've ordered an ebike and I'm hoping to charge the battery with a solar panel together with a minghe mpt7210A. The ebike battery is rated at 500watt hrs. If watts =volts x amps and I attempt to charge the battery with 2amps, then volts=500 devided by 2=250v. Since the mpt72A is boost converter which has a limit of 72v, am I right in saying it will keep on charging the ebike battery at 72v at constant current, but will simply take a longer period of time for the solar panel to fully charge the ebike battery? If this is a stupid question, please disregard it. Not only but also, can you remember how much customs charges you paid to have the mpt7210A imported from China into the uk?
regards Rob T
Handy, a pre-bent bracket!
I wonder if that was shipping damage, or just ended up that way in manufacturing and no one gave a shit.
1:09 dat peel feel
Is it possible to feed a auxiliary battery via a cigarette lighter socket with this device? Smart alternator 12V --> auxillary 14,8V
I have a problem with mine I follow the instructions but it will not stop at the battery charging voltage. But goes well above. Any tips ?
Don't most solar panels tell you how many volts they produce..? and if you have 2 panels at 18v, would you increase the solar panel setting for the combined voltage..? or would that require arranging the solar panels in series to bring the total input solar voltage up..? This is all so confusing. :) Thanks Robb PDX
Then connecting batteries, so you not do positive then negative so to lower the chance of sparks? What I always was told when fitting car batteries.
On connecting car batteries you always do whichever is connected to the chassis last, if you did the other last and your wrench touched the chassis/body it would be a direct short and sparks would fly.
Daniel Armstrong
Yes, also the chassis acts as a loads.
The thing on the connector, with a USB connector on it, what is it called?
What do you think of those instructions?
"Display devices are easy to pollution easily broken, the installation process and avoid touching the collision force, use screws to secure the controller firmly, avoid installation in order to avoid irreparable damage to the internal circuitry in severe vibration device."
translation; "don't break the cheap screen". lol.
Hi, when are you reviewing the MingHe 900w booster? Is it any good?
I have an idea for how I might use that booster. Just waiting for another module to arrive. I'll probably use it close to its maximum 120V output.
Color: Green
Material: Aluminum Alloy
Display: 160*128 TFT Color LCD Display
Input Voltage: DC 12-60V
Output Voltage: DC 15-90V, Adjustable to accommodate 24V/36V/48V/60V/72V Battery
Output Current: 0-10A Adjustable
Output Power: 20-600W
Working Modes: MPPT and DC-DC
Item Size: 131 * 96 * 54mm / 5.2 * 3.8 * 2.2in
Carl Vasos the input max listed is a lie. this ONLY boost voltage. so a max 60 volt, is ONLY if you have 72 v batteries. i got this thinking i could use my 24 v panel [42 open v], to charge my 24 volt battery. but NO . with 24 volt bat. it has ONLY a max of less than the 24 volt of my battery.
11:12 interesting I got no idea what I'm doing
is it real mppt or not? does it work well? I can not find a cheaper mppt charger exept this
So what happened ?? :) I'm dying to know.
Could you charge a 12V battery with it, or it had to be 24V or greater? Did the device lose power when the solar panel is disconnected? If so, did it remember your settings? And, how did it perform, regarding charging current vs. solar input current.
No, it won't work with 12V battery systems - which is a shame. It remembers most settings, but not the "output on" setting, so it won't automatically start charging each morning when the sun comes up.
That... sounds terrible useless for a solar charge converter!
MPPT = manual power point tracking. (-.-)
True but it's Better than nothing
Can you show us the pcb and the components, please?
Yes, I'll make a part 3 with more detail on the PCB
+Julian Ilett Great, that you!
What solar panels do u use in watts would be nice to know
We are fixing to buy some 300 watt solar panels. We almost purchased 100 watt panels from Home Depot here in Florida because they are on sale for $109 each. Then we decided to go with the 300 watt panels because they are only $178 each local. This is a huge savings. I would say people should take into account three things.
#1 What are you powering with your solar system? If it is lights only and maybe a couple tiny fans, look for the best price per watt. You should try to get the best price per watt anyways. If I was powering as much of the house as possible, I would get a better more reliable solar panel for a little more cost. If I were only running lights and a few small fans, I would go with the cheapest panels that are of a manageable size for me to install.
#2 if you are doing the job yourself, buy panels in a size that you will not endanger your life. Panels that are much taller than you would be very hard, if even at all possible to install alone.
#3 What size batteries are you using and how many? If you are using 7AH 12 volt batteries, you only need a smaller array with smaller panels. If you are using 100 AH batteries, then you need a bit larger solar panels and a bigger array of panels. If you are using expensive, giant batteries like 400AH batteries, you need large enough panels and array to also run conditioning cycles to maintain the life of the batteries.
Currently I have just expanded my battery bank from 4 to 8 batteries. I use Group 31 Deep Cycle batteries made by Duracell from Sams Wholesale Club and Exide Nautilus 31 from Home Depot. I pay about $100 U.S. dollars and they are about 115AH batteries. I power a couple 12 volt led lights, 6 volt and 9 volt fans and a 6 volt Dual Alarm Clock. I can run one fan, charge 4 cell phones and a 7 inch Android tablet every day and only need to do a charge cycle every 3 or 4 days. I also have a 12 volt portable dvd player I watch two or three movies a day sometimes. This is on the 4 batteries.
I have not connected the 4 new batteries in yet. My batteries are all less than a year old, accept maybe one of them is two years old but it charges to the same voltage as the other three. I have six 15 watt solar panels from Harbor Freight Tools. We got two if the 45 watt kits. The panels are rarely used to charge the battery bank with. Usually we charge them with the local power in our house. This system is actually a battery backup system for if the power goes out. I do run some things off it though, so it does not just sit and do nothing. If needed, i can charge with the solar array. I just choose not to, this way the solar panels last longer.
i just ordered the same unit for
£10 on amazon
plus ill be doing a vid about it later today as i only got a 15w panel lol
And now I don't longer have those they failed completely now I have 3 320w solar panels the aren't cracked and produce rated
Is that real MPPT
But I never heard of England getting sun.
Where have you been?
On holiday :)
Probably in Amsterdam eating funky cakes and pumping all the hookers.
+Shaun Dobbie Portugal/South America more likely :)
Why did you buy it if it doesn't suit your system?
Unit kindly supplied by Banggood.com - bit.lc/4Z94 - didn't buy it
Sounds like the description wasn't clear enough to provide that information!
And how much is that in euros? You haven't activated article 50 yet! Till then you're still a fellow European and there's free flow of CZcams videos between our countries... :-)
USD is approx equal to EUR now, because of european taxes.
Here is a mod to make it much quieter. czcams.com/video/0jmwxWSlRWQ/video.html
Oof..
How to set auto-on
czcams.com/video/f0Br1Q57IoE/video.html
Billions of people, millions Chinese Americans/British & they can't do english documentation
You never know what you're going to get from China
If it looks like a box of chocolates (Forrest Gump reference), DON'T EAT IT, it probably contains glass shards and mercury or some other kind of poisonous substance, like the imported dog treats and foods (no, I dunno why they import dog treats/food from China).
why waste your time with these inexpensive and cheap charge controllers? it's just a buck/boost controller, it would be easy enough to design your own. there are even purpose built IC's for this exact purpose.
Not that'll do MPPT at ten amps, there aren't. I have actually designed one, but it's a bit more involved than that. An arduino is involved.
***** linear technologies makes one. You don't need an arduino for anything.
***** actually, a ton of companies make mppt charge controller IC's for any current level