I put a 100w solar panel on our Mac 26S. My intention was to have enough juice to run an LED anchor light and GPS anchor drift alarm all night and daytime fishfinder/depth, and GPS to keep me from having to plug in at a marina for a week or so. I have a Morningstar Sunsaver 20 for a controller, two deep cycle batteries, a fuse panel and a 3 terminal battery switch (1,2,both with a COM) . I have no directions other than the basic Sunsaver 20 manual. I'm getting spun trying to figure out this "easy for anyone but me" wiring hookup. Can I just go from battery switch COM terminal to Sunsaver controller + Battery terminal ? Then go from Sunsaver load terminal to breaker box? Both battery to controller neg. Would the outboard chargeing system damage the Sunsaver 20? If switched to "both" will it get solar trickle to both batteries? I'll be hooking +&- engine starter/charging wire directly to one battery (with inline fuse). At least I think that's what I'm doing. yah or ney. ok my crayons have melted. Thanks.
wireing solar panel, controller, batt switch.
- Thread starter Leftfield
- Start date
- Status
I kept it pretty simple and have our Mac S wired like above and have 200 watts of solar on the boat and the output from the charge controller connects where the outboard ties in.
I leave the 1-2-Both in 'both' all of the time and the switch on the right in the on position so that the batteries are combined.
I have the outboard always connected to the one battery at least to avoid damage to it. If for some reason I only wanted to run on the bottom battery I could put the switch on '2' and pull the positive cable off of the top battery, but don't ever do that. In fact when these batteries go bad I'm switching to two 6 volt golf cart batteries in series.
The above diagram and the rest of the new wiring ...
...on the Mac is explained in greater detail here...
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor2/inside-30.html
Good luck,
Sum
Our Endeavour 37
Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida
Our MacGregor S Pages
Mac-Venture Links
Why that Blue Sky unit?
Sumner - Saw your Blue Sky unit and hadn't seen that one before. Checked their site and noticed that it is "new". What is the difference between it and the SB2000E and why did you choose that one? Price-wise, they look almost the same.
I've got the 2000E and the new one didn't exist when I got it. By the way, I REALLY like it! That solar boost technology has really helped out a lot more than the 20 - 30% they talk about. I've seen the panels charging even when it was dark clouds and raining! Not much, mind you, but when you've got refrigeration, electric water pump, lights, radio, etc., every little bit helps.
http://www.blueskyenergyinc.com/products/details/solar_boost_2000e/
Sumner - Saw your Blue Sky unit and hadn't seen that one before. Checked their site and noticed that it is "new". What is the difference between it and the SB2000E and why did you choose that one? Price-wise, they look almost the same.
I've got the 2000E and the new one didn't exist when I got it. By the way, I REALLY like it! That solar boost technology has really helped out a lot more than the 20 - 30% they talk about. I've seen the panels charging even when it was dark clouds and raining! Not much, mind you, but when you've got refrigeration, electric water pump, lights, radio, etc., every little bit helps.
http://www.blueskyenergyinc.com/products/details/solar_boost_2000e/
I wish I could say that I have a real good reason for choosing the 2512iX over the 2000E, but I don't. I think when I first looked I saw the 2000 was more and assumed that it was because of the display. I already had a digital volt meter that read to .1 and was getting a digital amp meter that also reads to .1, so figured I didn't need the display.
I was looking at the 2000 a couple weeks ago and saw that the datasheet...
http://www.blueskyenergyinc.com/uploads/pdf/SB2000Edatasheet.pdf
...says that it is a 2 stage controller where the 2512i and 2512iX are 3 stage controllers. I also wonder why they confuse things by saying that ..
and then going on to say....
I've always thought that a controller was either MPPT or PWM not both at the same time. The great thing about a MPPT controller is that it manipulates the current output and can make the charge amps higher than the amps coming out of the panel where a PWM can't.
Now reading that I wonder if once the amps are changed by the MPPT that they are applied in a PWM manner. It looks like that is the case because in the specs for their other MPPT controllers they say ...
I guess I learned something new about these charge controllers.
Anyway the 2000E looks like a good controller, but one that is maybe being replaced at Blue Sky with the 2512 series. Of course that is just a guess. The 2512's can be networked and I think the 2000E can't, but that probably wouldn't apply to most of us.
I bought the 2512iX instead of the 2512i thinking I might use the separate charge circuit as I was thinking about having a separate battery back by the outboard to avoid running larger cables from the cabin area, but did that instead, so I've never used that feature. If I had it to do again I'd buy the cheaper 2512i.
We have six 80 watt panels (480 watts total) for the Endeavour now and still need to buy a controller. We will probably buy the Blue Sky 3024iL for that array. I've talked to them and it is 'just' large enough.
Good luck,
Sum
Our Endeavour 37
Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida
Our MacGregor S Pages
Mac-Venture Links
Don't wire the output of the solar charging to the battery switch. Attach it directly to one of the batteries so you can turn off the battery switch, and keep charging one battery.
As for the outboard, you can either connect it to the battery switch, or directly to the other battery. When I wired mine I attached the outboard to the battery switch output, but I think I would have preferred attaching it to the 2nd battery so that I could isolate the engine output from the house back if needed.
Not sure what type of outboard you have, but before you hook everything up, make sure you read this...
http://sailingit.com/blog/boat-projects/outboard-voltage-regulator
As for the outboard, you can either connect it to the battery switch, or directly to the other battery. When I wired mine I attached the outboard to the battery switch output, but I think I would have preferred attaching it to the 2nd battery so that I could isolate the engine output from the house back if needed.
Not sure what type of outboard you have, but before you hook everything up, make sure you read this...
http://sailingit.com/blog/boat-projects/outboard-voltage-regulator
Yep, I agree. Our outboard and the solar output along with the gen-set are all wired to the post in the diagram above in my first post that goes to the #1 battery. I do have a double pole switch in the solar circuit that if thrown disconnects the MPPT charge controller from the solar array on one side and from the batteries on the other. This was mainly put in just in case I wanted to turn the array off and the tech at Blue Sky said that it was better to disconnect the charge controller from both voltage sources, but not absolutely needed.
When we use to use the gen-set....
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor/outside-13.html
as our primary charging source. We would use one battery or the other. Then I found out that was a very inefficient way to draw down the batteries and/or charge them, especially with the gen-set. Now with 200 watts of solar we don't have to use the gen-set much, but once a week or so we will use it for 30-40 minutes to catch back up.
Once I realized the advantage of keeping the batteries in parallel we got the same manufacture and type batteries that were almost the same age and have always had the batteries in parallel since using the 'combiner' switch in the wiring diagram. This works much better and keeps the batteries healthier and is why we will sooner or later replace the 2 12 volt batteries with 2 6 volt batteries,
Sum
Our Endeavour 37
Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida
Our MacGregor S Pages
Mac-Venture Links
Hey all......thanks for all the info. I've gone from solar panel directly to a dedicated battery (#1) for accessories via controller. Battery selector switch out (COM) goes to accessory fuse bar. I have to switch to (#2) outboard charged battery to electrically start the outboard.....thus my accesories (depth, gps, nav lights etc) are then running off of outboard charge and solar continues charging #1 battery. If #1 is fully charged, and we are anchored, I can put the switch to both, if there is enough sun and daylite left. When running the outboard and gauges show both batts can take motor chargeing, I can put the battery switch to "both". We have a flat mounted (loss) 100w solar panel with a Morningstar Sunsaver 20amp that we mainly got to just charge a battery to power an LED anchor light each night so we don't need shore power. Controller has Solar +- , Battery +-, and Load +-. I don't have anything hooked up to the controller "load"as yet. When nesessary we have a little Honda 100w gen that will run the 2 battery marine charger that's hooked in for maintaining the flooded batteries via shore power. I think this'll get me by... see any holes in this basic program. Crayons and the one brain cell has melted over this simple task. Thanks again
Is there a reason you don't just put the batteries in parallel? I did what you are doing at first and it is more efficient if the batteries are pretty closely matched to just put them in parallel. That way they will both charge any time the outboard is running and/or the solar array is putting out. You won't pull either one down as far when not being charged.
If you first charge one and then tie them together the low one is just going to draw down the high one, so I don't see where you have gained anything.
Also I feel you won't be using the 'load' connections for anything. If you tied something to the 'load' connectors it would only receive voltage when the array is putting out as far as I can tell. I'm not sure what you might have aboard that would meet that criteria? As long as the controller is tied to the battery/batteries you are getting and saving the elect. you need and can use it anytime you need it.
The 'load' on these controllers can be used to take advantage of the arrays output if the batteries are full. Let's say you have a remote cabin hooked to a solar array. If the batteries top off and the controller goes into float then the array is just sitting there doing basically nothing. Now you could have a heating element in a water tank hooked to the load and use that excess electricity when the batteries are topped off to heat water.
Good luck,
Sum
Our Endeavour 37
Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida
Our MacGregor S Pages
Mac-Venture Links
I am liking my Blue Sea ACR and it has done a good job all this season with the charging sorce directly to the house and sending the extra to the cranking battery after 2 minutes of motor run time
I am liking my Blue Sea ACR and it has done a good job all this season with the charging sorce directly to the house and sending the extra to the cranking battery after 2 minutes of motor run time
Those are great units and I install a lot of them. Have yet to have one fail. I moved to the Blue Seas unit from the Yandina's as the studs are beefier and they can support an MRBF fuse right at the ACR that can often serve as the house bank fuse....
Thanks for the info on the Bue Sea Systems 7610 guys....
http://bluesea.com/category/2/productline/overview/387
I was thinking about getting the Yandina for the Endeavour, but as MS said that looks much better.
For our Mac and the original poster's situation I personally don't think you need the combiner as the outboards put out 6 amps at the most and don't draw that much during starting and you can pull start them if you ever get into a completely run down battery. Either run two 6 volt batteries for the house/starter or if you have 2 12 volt batteries combine them with an adequate switch. Again, just my opinion,
Sum
Our Endeavour 37
Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida
Our MacGregor S Pages
Mac-Venture Links
- Status