First Portable Solar Setup For Ham Radio – Bioenno Solar Charge Controller SC-4830JUD and ALLPOWERS 100W Solar Charger AP-SP-012-BLA Portable Solar Panel Kit

First Portable Solar Setup For Ham Radio – Bioenno Solar Charge Controller SC-4830JUD and TCXW 100 Watts 12 Volts Portable Solar Panel Kit ALLPOWERS 100W Solar Charger AP-SP-012-BLA AND Maybe Instead a Genasun GV-10L, 10 Amp 12 Volt MPPT Solar Charge Controller

 I just bought the following two devices off of Amazon with the goal of having a portable solar set up to use my ICOM 7300 when I am out standing in my field… or mountain top… or beach.

This particular folding solar panel weighs in at 5 pounds, solar controller is a little under 1 pound and the LiFePO4 24 amp hour battery is a little under 3 pounds. Even with my back problems, I can probably handle 9 pounds for power and 9 pounds for the radio.

The Gizmos

Click the following four photos for more information and current pricing:

Bioenno Solar Charge Controller SC-4830JUD

UPDATE: Am now comparing the Bioenno SC-4830JUD to the just ordered Genasun GV-10L, 10 Amp 12 Volt MPPT Solar Charge Controller. Comparison YouTube video coming soon!

TCXW 100 Watts 12 Volts Portable Solar Panel Kit 

UPDATE: Just sent back the above Solar Panel and got the following instead!

ALLPOWERS 100W Solar Charge AP-SP-012-BLA

Radio Used as Load – TYT TH-9800 Quad Band 50W Cross-Band

BTL24A360C Lithium 12V 24 Ah 360 CCA + Battery Tender

UPDATE: Just sent back the TCXW 100 Watts 12 Volts Portable Solar Panel Kit and got the following from Amazon instead!

ALLPOWERS 100W Solar Charge AP-SP-012-BLA

UPDATE: Am now comparing the Bioenno SC-4830JUD to the just ordered Genasun GV-10L, 10 Amp 12 Volt MPPT Solar Charge Controller. Comparison YouTube video coming soon! Loser gets returned to Amazon!

Will Update This Section Once I Receive and Test the NeW ALLPOWERS Panel!

This quick webpage is probably going to be modified and updated multiple times as I move through the process of getting this system working and tuned properly.

The current purpose of this page is to have an easy way to convey to both Bioenno and TCXW the problems I’m having so they can see the photos of my set up to see if there is a problem with my dumbassness or if one or both gizmos have a problem of some kind.

As of right now, on 4 July, I have everything working – sort of.

Current Photos

I took these quick photos as of July 4th, 2018 to show the vendors my set up and connections and some of the readings I am currently getting. Right now = only getting less than half the power from the TCXW solar panel:

Current Problems with TCXW 100 Watts 12 Volts Portable Solar Panel Kit

The battery appears to be charging – however, on this bright sunny day in Potomac Maryland near noon time, I can only see the maximum current flow from the panel to the controller of 2.1 A – no matter what the angle of the panel relative to the sun. The TCXW panel is advertised to provide 100 W of power. This means we should be seeing current of about 5.5 amps.

The above translates to me only receiving a maximum of about 38% of the advertised power for the solar panel. It makes me wonder if one of the two panels is not working correctly.

So, TCXW, what’s the solution so that I can get closer to the 5.5 A that I should be seeing?

Current Problems with Bioenno SC-4830JUD

I have heard great things about this company from several of my ham buddies and have high confidence that they will solve at least two of three problems and issues I have with the Bioenno solar controller:

1. Once I believe the battery is fully charged, the current flow from the panel stops. I get that this is normal. However, the current flow on the solar controller still shows a flow of exactly 2 A even though the separate power meter shows 0 A flowing.
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2. The battery symbol on the solar controller never seems to show any significant change to let me know whether or not my battery has been fully charged or not.
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3. My third problem and major complaint I have with the solar controller is its horrible documentation. Let me restate that: the four pages of the manual that are there are very good. The horrible part is that the manual needs to probably be at least triple in size so that it can fully describe all of the different screens and settings that are completely undescribed in the current four pages! (I do need to say that their customer support is outstanding and very supportive – but the manual needs to be fixed guys!) This is the one of three issues I do NOT have high confidence they will solve – even with its high importance.

Stay Tuned – We Live In Interesting Times

That’s all for now – check back for updates as I get answers from Bioenno and TCXW on solutions for these two gizmos!

Once I get to Point B with both companies and gizmos, I intend on producing a video for my YouTube Channel.

73 / 72,

K3RRR

-.- …– .-. .-. .-.
73 de Robert K3RRR
http://K3RRR.com
@K3TripleR
http://YouTube.com/user/K3RRR
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