Battery sense not working with Morningstar Tristar 45

System

Hey guys,
This is my first post here, so far Im really impressed with the amount of real technical talk and enthusiasts here.

Ive got a Sharp 123 watt panel, Morningstar Tristar 45 charge controller and a Discover agm 84amp hour battery.

Ive got two concerns now with the system.

1) My charge controller shows - invalid battery sense. Ive connected wiring to the battery sense terminals and made sure the polarity to hook it to battery was right but yet I cant get the charge controller to read the battery, even if I reverse the wiring polarity.

2) Im not using a remote temperature sensor, and the display is showing 130 degrees fahrenheit when its surely not 130 degrees. Im concerned that it showing a 130 degree temperature could possibly be cutting back on charge current going to the battery. This charge controller never came with a remote temp sensor, and Im sure I could buy one, but prefer not to if I dont have to.



So far, this is a experiment to see if I can properly charge the battery and charge small electronics with it. Id really love to build up a bigger system later for more power if this experiment goes well !

Thanks guys
Cory

niel

Re: Battery sense not working with Morningstar Tristar 45

get the sensor as it will help greatly in getting a proper charge to the battery. the controller i believe is defaulting to an internal sensor and will act on the controller's temperature and not the battery's temperature. that is a bit warm and could you verify the controller is in fact that warm when it says that temp warning?

System2

Re: Battery sense not working with Morningstar Tristar 45

niel wrote: »

get the sensor as it will help greatly in getting a proper charge to the battery. the controller i believe is defaulting to an internal sensor and will act on the controller's temperature and not the battery's temperature. that is a bit warm and could you verify the controller is in fact that warm when it says that temp warning?

Ok, Ill work on getting the remote temp sensor.

Its warm here in Texas, but its surely not 130 degrees. Its more like 80-90 degrees and the charge controller and the battery were shaded.

The unit also shows the charge controllers temperature and it showed 87 degrees which is about right.

I figured that if the RTS wasnt used that it would just turn off. Maybe when the RTS isnt used it displays 130f.

BB.

Re: Battery sense not working with Morningstar Tristar 45

Many times, the Temperature Sensor inside the controller ends up measuring the ambient+local controller heating (from processing current) during the day... Whereas the batteries with a bunch of lead and water tend to lag thermal changes and (hopefully) stay much cooler in your hot climate.

The remote temperature sensors really help by measuring the temperature of the battery (typically positive post) itself--which is really what you want instead of the controller's temperature.

-Bill

niel

Re: Battery sense not working with Morningstar Tristar 45

that is one of morningstar's drawbacks is the internal sensor to the controller as no sensor would be better than measuring the internal temp of the controller. we always recommend the use of the battery sensor anyway as it does give the battery a much more proper charge and it isn't expensive to get. imo it should be provided by morningstar as a standard out of the box accessory.
as to 130 degrees, that is off base and i hope the external sensor corrects this.

Vic

Re: Battery sense not working with Morningstar Tristar 45

AND, in looking at the TS-MPPT 45, "The Remote Temp Sensor is included" .

Even if the temp sensor was measuring ambient temp, just hanging in the air, it would almost certainly be lower (and more accurate) than the controller's internal sensor. Think that the TS temp sensors bolt to a battery's flag terminal. Look around, you should have gotten the Temp Sensor with the controller, if it came from normal a distribution channel. If it was previously used (unlikely as it is a 'new' product), you never know ...

Good Luck, Vic

niel

Re: Battery sense not working with Morningstar Tristar 45

the op did not say tristar mppt as there are pwm tristars as well and look down further on tristar options.
http://www.morningstarcorp.com/en/support/library/TriStar%20Datasheet%20English.pdf

Vic

Re: Battery sense not working with Morningstar Tristar 45

Niel, OH !, Yea, Missed that. On the original TSes, you are correct, the RTS was about 30-ish $, and not included.
Thanks, Vic