Cheap Charger and Good Charge Controller ?

Re: Cheap Charger and Good Charge Controller ?

tr0y wrote: »

Hi -

I was wondering if anyone has thought about adding a point to attach a charger ahead of the charge controller so that you could use an inexpensive charger to charge your batteries and let the controller manage how the power is sent into the batteries ?

Is this a bad idea ? I can isolate the attachment point via breakers, what am I forgetting here ?

Thoughts ?

Not a bad idea as such, but it's one of those "it all depends" things.
Most cheap chargers are regulated on a basis of Voltage. As such they don't put out steady current. Also they tend not to have very "clean" DC (half-rectified, as it were) with no filtering. Charge controllers won't like that (especially not MPPT type, although that would be a very expensive choice for this project anyway).
Solar panels try to put out steady current. This is what the charge controller is expecting; it does the "Voltage managing" on its output.
Now with the right battery charger (or power supply) and the right charge controller it could work.
But possibly buying a decent charger in the first place might be more practical. A "for instance": http://www.solar-electric.com/pomaxrech.html