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Bateria Power MPPT Solar Charge Controller Bench Test and Review - lithium or AGM battery #mppt
May 9, 2024
Bench test and review of the Bateria Power MPPT Solar Charge Controller SunRock 20pro. In this video I will do a quick unboxing, show you what comes with the controller and test it on my workbench. I will perform a bench test by attaching a "synthetic" solar panel to the input and testing the unit's maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm. Then I will put it to work using a real world test scenario.
š¢ Learn How to Use a Multimeter: Basic to Intermediate!
https://youtu.be/F-L4pT5FvM0
This charge controller is a very small and compact unit which can easily replace standard 10-20A PWM charge controllers. It has a simple one-button interface to set the charging parameters. But if that's not enough, there is a bluetooth version which enables advanced configuration via a smart phone application.
This charge controller was provided to me for testing and evaluation by the manufacturer. I am not paid for this review and will simply share my opinion and findings from my own experience.
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If you wish to purchase this controller or a similar one, here are links, or visit the Bateria Power website directly:
š¢ MANUFACTURER PROVIDED LINKS:
Links to Amazon: https://bit.ly/46N4fo7
Links to official website: https://bit.ly/47KEp5e
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0:00
So I'm heading out to my workshop and I'm going to do a quick bench test of the charge
0:19
controller to see if it actually does MPPT. So I'm going to go ahead and set that up here and I'll be right with you
0:26
Now it's really early in the morning and there's no sun. So I want to go ahead and run some voltage into this charge controller
0:32
How do you go ahead and test a MPPT charge controller when there's no sun
0:36
The answer is you can use a bench power supply if you do it correctly. So I'm going to go ahead and do that now just so I can see this controller run and see if
0:43
it works. Now for the battery I'm going to use this battery here
0:48
It's a LiPo 4 30A just so I have somewhere to put the power
0:52
This charge controller comes with these SAE connectors and these are very common in boating
0:57
RV, automotive. It kind of hints at a broader and more mobile application for this charge controller
1:03
Of course it does have mounting locations at the corners so you can attach it to a board
1:07
which is eventually what I'm going to do. They also give you this interesting little gadget here
1:10
This is actually a polarity reverser for SAE connectors. Now you've got to pay attention when connecting SAE connectors because there's no obvious
1:17
indication which is positive and which is negative. But just so you know that's what this device is for
1:22
It's included in the package with the charge controller. If you're not sure which is positive and negative on the connector just use your multimeter
1:28
before connecting anything. This goes for all equipment not just charge controllers
1:32
This charge controller should not be connected backwards so you should not swap positive
1:36
and negative. Potentially you could damage it. So I have to make sure to get positive and negative correct
1:41
On the right side of the charge controller it's clearly labeled output so that's where the battery would go
1:46
You put the battery on first and the input, which is right here, is where you would put
1:52
your solar panel. And they recommend putting the solar panel on after the battery is connected which is
1:56
pretty standard advice. So I'm going to go ahead and power it up
2:00
Make sure I got the polarity right, red to red, black to black. Okay, so it says the battery is 100% it's on gel so I'll have to change that because
2:10
I'm charging a lithium iron phosphate battery. Interesting display. It shows you the voltage of the battery and the current, I assume that's the output
2:19
This charge controller has a very simple one button interface which is kind of interesting
2:24
It kind of seems to be catering towards those simple one button charge controllers you get
2:27
that are normally PWM except this one is MPPT. So I'm interested to see how this one performs and I would consider replacing or augmenting
2:36
some of my PWM charge controllers with MPPT charge controller that's small and compact
2:42
And in fact I have a large number of charge controllers and many of them are in my solar shed as I call it for long term testing
2:49
The one button interfaces are very simple looking and clean. They can be a little challenging to learn
2:54
This charge controller does have temperature compensation for charge profiles. It's showing the temperature in both Fahrenheit and Celsius
3:01
Okay, you can see error codes, obviously there's no error code right now
3:04
And then back to the main screen. So very simple. Let's see if I can change it to lithium iron phosphate, LIFEPO, that's what that means
3:11
Okay, so a long press gets you into the battery mode. You can select which battery you want
3:18
So I'm just going to do LIFEPO4. I think a long press should save it
3:23
I do a long press and it's 12 volt, yeah, okay. We're going to do 12 volt LFP
3:30
Wow, that's really easy. I thought I would have trouble with that
3:34
I usually struggle with one button interfaces but no, I figured it out
3:37
How do you test a solar charge controller early in the morning like it is now when it's
3:41
very dark and there's no sun? To do that you can use a bench power supply
3:45
What I'm going to do is I'm going to set up my power supply to simulate a solar panel
3:51
Right now I'm setting the current on the power supply and I'm going to set it to something like, you know, 1 amp or something like that
3:57
It doesn't need to be exact. That will be fine. And I'm going to set the voltage to something that would equate one of my solar panels that
4:04
I use here in the shop. And I'm going to use this to test the MPPT charge controller on the bench first
4:11
I've connected the bench power supply and now I'm going to feed that limited power
4:15
into this charge controller to see how it behaves. And when you first connect it, it does put a little bit of current out
4:22
What it should do is sweep the voltage input to see if any power is going to come out and
4:26
it does. There it goes, 300 milliamps. And right now it's hunting, trying to find the maximum power point
4:36
Of course this is a synthetic test. It's not a real solar panel and so it's doing the best that it can
4:45
And what I do see is I've limited the current to just over an amp and I'm getting 1.4 amps
4:48
on the output. Oops, the clip slipped off. And in fact the power supply is only putting out about an amp of current
4:58
Meanwhile this charge controller is getting about 1.3 to 1.4 amps. So right there you have what's called a DC conversion
5:04
So that proves that the unit is indeed doing a DC to DC conversion
5:09
And many charge controllers claim to have MPPT and they don't. And this one is actually doing a DC conversion
5:15
So an MPPT charge controller is simply a DC to DC converter that has a microprocessor
5:21
that's controlling it and it's watching the input and it's watching the output
5:24
And it's verifying that the maximum amount of power is being developed simply by holding
5:29
the solar panel at wherever it produces the most power. And that voltage varies
5:34
It's a moving target and you never know exactly what it's going to be
5:38
Now this charge controller is hunting around a little bit and that is very common
5:42
It's trying to figure out where the best power is. And since I'm using a bench power supply, you know, it's not acting exactly like a solar
5:48
panel and so it is trying to hunt around a little bit. MPPT charge controllers are known for hunting
5:54
Hunting just means it keeps changing the impedance between the input and output trying to find
5:58
out where the most power is. And in fact you could say that that is exactly what the charge controller should be doing
6:04
So this battery has got quite a bit of charge in it already and that's why it's already
6:08
blinking at 100%. But I can see it is working. It was very easy to change the settings and I'm going to go ahead and hook this up to
6:13
a real solar panel and I have some different ideas how I'm going to use this thing and
6:17
how I'm going to test it and I'll show you that next. Now this charge controller has an option to install a phone application which will allow
6:23
you to change all the settings, set points, parameters and whatnot. For advanced users that makes a lot of sense
6:29
For somebody who just wants to charge and maybe they're a beginner, that's why you have the one button interface
6:33
This way you have the best of both worlds. Advanced users can download a phone application, use Bluetooth and change every little detail
6:39
on the charge controller. And people who don't care about that kind of stuff can just push the single button
6:44
change their battery type, hit set and enter and go. That's all they have to do
6:49
They give you a user manual and they go through all the details about what you get, how to
6:55
hook it up, what it can do. And they also show you the different types of batteries that you can charge
7:04
And we see here there's a no load loss of 20 milliamps. That means that generally speaking this charge controller is going to consume about 20 milliamps
7:10
of power. That's running the DC converter, it's running the microprocessor. And there's always going to be a little bit of overhead when running a charge controller
7:18
It's always going to consume a little bit of power, even at night. And they give you this IP45 rating
7:23
Now I'm not going to dump this thing in water or leave it out in the rain, but apparently it is sealed and it's designed to have some resistance to moisture
7:30
Now I cannot open this device to show you the inside, that would destroy the waterproofing
7:35
But I'll just take their word for it, IP45. And they give you some information about the LCD display, state of charge indicators, and
7:44
a simple guide on how to change the settings by using the single button
7:50
And I thought I would struggle with that, but I didn't. It was actually pretty easy to figure out. It's pretty intuitive
7:54
I've seen way worse, believe me. This guide shows quite a bit of information, including the error codes
8:00
So E00, which we saw earlier, means no error. And interestingly, they do have solar reverse polarity errors and battery reverse polarity errors
8:08
So E13 and E14, that's interesting. It doesn't make me feel like hooking it up backwards to see what happens
8:13
I don't want to experiment with that. Now I made myself a quick adapter cable to connect my solar panel to the automotive SAE connectors
8:22
And I'm just doing a polarity check to see that the cable is made correctly
8:26
And to do that, I'm using my multimeter. And if you want to learn how to use a multimeter, there's a link in the description
8:32
And this is just to make sure I don't hook the solar panel up backwards
8:37
To connect the battery for the first experiment, I have a different cable I'm going to use
8:41
All right, there's my setup. I've got a 50 watt solar panel
8:45
And my charging cable I made, I got that going into my car
8:51
And it's right there, coming out right here. There's the charge controller
8:55
I used my own 12 volt cigarette plug adapter to SAE with the polarity reverser that they
9:01
provided with the charge controller. And I'm just going to switch on the car's accessory port
9:07
All right, there we go. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and connect the solar
9:14
I've set it to AGM for now. That'll be enough for me. Now let me go ahead and connect the solar panel
9:20
Solar panel is connected. However, the sun keeps going in and out, so that's going to be a problem
9:25
So I'll just wait for it to come out. The sun is starting to come out, and now I'm getting about, yeah, getting about 40 watts
9:37
or so, and it's charging right through the cigarette outlet, right through the cigarette plug
9:45
You can see it's plugged in right there. Now I wouldn't want to put more than maybe 5 amps into that, maybe 6 or 7 at the most
9:51
Sun is going in and out, but I can see that the charge controller is reacting to it
10:00
Seems to be working. So yeah, this is really handy, and I'm going to use this
10:04
This is going to be very useful for me. The benefit of this kind of setup is I can charge my car battery without opening the hood
10:12
That's very useful and very handy. For some reason, this charge controller reminds me of one of my favorite automotive battery
10:16
chargers seen here, except I can use solar power instead of grid power
10:21
I thought it would be useful if this controller could take care of charging my cars. As you can see, it works well
10:25
I would not recommend attaching battery clips though, because it would be too easy to connect the charge controller backwards and potentially burn it out
10:32
A quick summary of my thoughts on this charge controller after using it for a while
10:35
The MPPT functionality worked great for me. I couldn't find any reason to complain
10:39
It's great for grab-and-go charging in the field with the proper cables and connectors
10:44
The one-button interface is convenient for quickly changing to a different battery type
10:48
The SAE connectors can be confusing. One must always pay attention to the polarity to avoid mistakes
10:53
But these are well-established connectors found everywhere, just like a car 12V socket
10:57
More advanced users could cut the wire and use something else instead. In short, I can recommend this charge controller for small setups and mobile grab-and-go charging
11:05
Based on how it performed, I think it will get quite a lot of use around here. If you want to buy one, the link is in the description
11:11
Thanks for watching and see you next time
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