Has anyone using solar panels as the power supply for charging via the Nucular controllers' Converter function? Would there be any special considerations or would the controller operating as a converter effectively function as a charge controller enabling the use of panels direct with only a diode and no charge controller? I understand that if my panels are affixed to the vehicle, I'd need a switch on them to go panels direct to battery while vehicle is in use to prevent shutdown because it thinks a charger is connected, as well as pick up some solar charge while operating the vehicle.
I've used panels direct to battery before with a series of panels with an open circuit voltage somewhat above the max battery voltage to get the most out of my panels, but I had to manually monitor SOC to prevent over-charging. How would the Converter function react to an open circuit voltage of the panels higher than the battery max voltage? Along the same lines what kind of load would the panels "see"?
sn0wchyld said:
.... I wouldn't be surprised if the controller can be programmed with a simple MPPT bit of code for charging direct off a panel - its only a few lines of code to get a MPPT running (did it in uni as a project) so the controller could act like a solar controller, assuming there's enough spare memory etc - Vasilisk - im happy to dig up the code from that project if it helps - though im sure you could figure it out yourself anyway