Rogue MPT-3024

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

HC,

Couldn't ask for more,,,, I await your response. I am almost ready to order one,,, except I really don't need another controller,, but I like the concept.

Tony

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

yes i do apoligize I have been swamped and need to find the time and rersources to make this test happen. I should have time to get to this soon with any luck.

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

I've got one too. I am waiting to write a full report when I get it installed for real, sometime after the first of the year.

My first impression is how solidly it is built. Compared to the BS 2012ix I am currently using, this is a tank. (compared to the BZ controller that I use as a bench test once in a while, there is no comparison!)

The display is very easy to understand and navigate. The book, is way better and much more in depth than most electronics these days, where they expect you to access info on line. (very helpful for those of us that live in remote spots with little or no internet service)

I set up a test bed to play with it. I plugged it into a truck battery, and ~120 watts of Solarex panels. With the lights on in the truck, outside temp near freezing, the battery voltage was showing ~9 vdc. The meter showed Pv voltage of ~ 16.5, current ~6 amps. The battery side show consistent 7+ amps, (with the battery showing ~12.5 vdc) The wattage display showed ~90 watts. Given the fact that the sun was hazy, no reflection off of snow or water, leave panel ef of ~90%. Pretty good if you ask me.

The cumulative wh and ah data recording seem intuitively correct. (I didn't bother to test the BTS system for just this test.)

One of the nicest things is the mounting box and lugs are big enough so that you don't have to struggle to mount large gauge wire in the enclosure. The powder coating is nice. All in all, I can't wait to get it up and running. When I add the couple of panels I bought I will be a little bit over it's design limit in terms of total wattage/current available, but since my shading moves across the panel sets, I don't expect to come up against the 30 amp design limit except very rarely with edge of cloud events.

Sometime later in the winter I will post a more complete review. I would have no hesitation to recommend this controller. Given it's quality and price point, there is little to compare it to. It beats the Blue sky series hands down. The only potential competition is the new Morningstar MPPT.

Tony

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

Ok I have my grid tie system running I ran the Rogue CC yesterday and harvested 1.2kwh today I ran a new out of the box FM60 and harvested 1.4kwh the days where equal sunwize my 3 1kw arrays performed the same today as yesterday. Now I did check the Rogue with my fluke meters and its display is dead on all the time I did not get to do that today on the FM60 due to a family emergency but will tomorrow. My experience has shown the FM60 is over rating itself so the 2 controllers may be equal. Look for an update tomorrow

The one issue I have here is that my 660 watt array is shaded all day by tree limbs real small ones but still there so I don't know if this means the OB is more efficient or better at handling shading. I will look at peak watts and see if one was able to out perform the other?

My next logical step is to split the array and feed both controllers together at the same time.

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

Ryan,

Thanks for all the time and work you're putting into this! Any news on the Outback's meter? Any chance of using external watt-hour meters on the two controllers while running side-by-side? Also, if you split your array, will one half be as equally and identically shaded as the other half? I've found that different patterns of shading sometimes cause a controller to react differently.

Robin,

I'm not really expecting slack. A product should be able to stand on its own merits. I wouldn't say mine's "not even close," if that's what you're implying. All I ask is for people to give it a fair shake while keeping their egos in check.


Marc

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

HalfC,

Thanks for doing this.

I have gotten a 3024 and am very happy with it so far. I won't be able to do a real side by side comparison to a BS 2034 until sometime in March, but as of now, it seems to be doing exactly what is said it would. In March, I will set it up with an A/B switch so I can compare side by side with another controller, using the Tri-metric as a meter.

Tony

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

I really don't feel I can split my array right now and be fair. The shading is random. I did get a meter on the Outback and as I suspected it was reading about a Half an amp high so that brings them closer. The following day was nice and I switched them back and the Rogue controller made right at 1.3kwh so My conclusion so far is it is Pretty darn close to the FM series.

As the days get longer and my pannels get unshaded I will try to set them up side by side and log them threw a pair of trimetrics maybe? If I can find my second one it is missing in my well organized shop.

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

Marc,
I saw your MPPT unit back in Maine when I was there. I didn't spend much time with it, but I must say, Nice Job !!! It looks like it works pretty well actually.

boB

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

I was playing around today with my controller and a single panel. It was remarkable that the MPPT output wattage followed the input wattage almost perfectly through a variety of conditions. For example if the input showed 50 watts, (which coincidentally is 80% of STC wattage of 63) the controller showed an input of ~3.12 amps @ 16vdc.

The out put showed 3.9 volts @ 13.0 vdc or,,, exactly 50 watts!

I wore out the numbers on the calculator chasing the numbers and every time they came out with in a .01 volt of the same.

With a simple connection to the truck battery, with the lights on, dropping the battery to ~12.3 vdc (The battery was charged to start) I was seeing ~ 4.01 amps at ~ 50 watts, with an simple MPPT boost ~25% if my math is right. (And we all know the chances of that being true,,,,LOL).

So, so far in simple testing I am very impressed. It tracks the MPPT quite well and fast, it converts with very good efficiency and the data logging is very good. I wouldn't expect to see 25% mppt gains on average, but to see these numbers in a simple test is pretty impressive.

The only suggestion that I have so far is that I think the unit goes to sleep too easily. (And then takes too long to wake up). That said, it goes to sleep when the output drops to <.1 amp and then stays off for 5 minutes. I suspect that with a full array of ~300+ watts it wouldn't go to sleep unless it really needs to. One of the consequences of "sleeping" is that the controller treats each sleep period as a new "day" throwing off you calcs if you are tracking that closely. It would be nice if there were a clock function on board. That would solve the tracking issue, but then (I assume) you could then track the peak output over the course of days, seeing that your MPP was at 1:00 pm today, and at 2:15 the day before. All sort of useful information regardless of how I could react to it.


I will be home in a few weeks and will put it to the real side by side test against the BS 2512ix. I have a pretty good idea of who will win.

Tony

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

Neil,

I know that, but the documentation from Rogue, states efficiencies ~ 98% at those currents, and with only 50 watts on line, 95-98% is within the decimal points of the metering. For example the meter shows 50 watt,, no decimal, but if you take V*A in it might actually be 50.9 and it will show 50.

And if you calc V*A out it might calc 50.001 and show 50 watts. So the .9 watts would be ~1.8% difference, certainly within the range of the documentation. It is a bit like a cat chasing it's tail however, because as the numbers change,,,, the numbers change. By the time you have committed the relevant numbers (V,A, Watts in)
V, A out) at least one will change enough to throw the calc. off a decimal place at the very least.

My whole point is not that the controller is 100% efficient as I understand that is not possible, but that it comes it at or near spec. It will be interesting to test on the bigger array,, ~450 watts and see if the numbers are as close,

Tony

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

I think Mark's smaller MPPT controller is pretty efficient. I am impressed with the way it works. I have been watching 600 watts pretty steady and it does not really get warm. I have found the data on the screen to be very accurate the volts in and out and amps out are right on. I to have all sorts of ideas for features but I supose there is a balance between cost and features. but the 2 biggys I would like to see are Aux output and ETL/UL listing but I understand the last one is a biggy.

Now that my array is not shaded any where near as much I will split it into 2 arrays and see what I can do for testing.

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

The early testing I did with the hall effect sensors showed that from one part to the next they strayed a little, so I just allowed for a little tolerance as given in the specs for the unit. But from what I've heard in the field, the end product seems to be pretty accurate. I know my Trimetrics here aren't exactly lab-quality either, so with everything there's going to be a little give and take.

Ah, yes, the UL listing. I would like to move forward on that, but I understand cost can be considerable. It is something that I'm looking into in the near future. I'm also taking that recommendation for an auxiliary output into consideration.

Thanks again for the updates/thoughts/testing.

Marc

Re: Rogue MPT-3024

Yep, more capacity is in the works, too. Now if only I could get 110% efficiency...I'll let you know how that goes..haha.

Marc