Re: [Elecraft] Solar Charge Controllers (was Field Day)

2016-06-09 Thread Jim Brown
On Wed,6/8/2016 8:42 PM, Jack Brindle wrote: Thee is an issue with the cheaper solar controllers - they tend to place the switching transistor in the ground leg, making connections difficult. For example the Sunforce controller that Jim mentions uses an N-channel FET as its pass transistor,

Re: [Elecraft] Solar Charge Controllers (was Field Day)

2016-06-08 Thread Jack Brindle
Thee is an issue with the cheaper solar controllers - they tend to place the switching transistor in the ground leg, making connections difficult. For example the Sunforce controller that Jim mentions uses an N-channel FET as its pass transistor, in the ground lead. If you then connect the

[Elecraft] Solar Charge Controllers (was Field Day)

2016-06-08 Thread Jim Brown
Yes on all counts. This unit would be described as a simple hysteresis controller -- it doesn't pulse the charge current, it simply turns charging on if the battery voltage is less than full charge, turns charging off when that voltage is reached, and turns charging back on when battery