[RE-wrenches] apollo charge controllers

[Mick Abraham]

The function described by Todd was not present when I last evaluated the
Apollo unit...and that would represent a major upgrade. Apollo's amp hour
meter is much like the TriMetric...and I believe they have even licensed the
original technology. The Apollo/Tri-Metric also cannot automatically
calculate the battery efficiency...another major item on my wish list for
high end battery monitors.

The Blue Sky i series does integrate the ah meter and the charge controller
logic better than anything I've seen but it can't buck down the voltage over
as wide a range compared to the Apollo or other big MPPT
controllers ...smaller amperage rating, too. Blue Sky i series does
automatically calculate battery efficiency, however.

All in all, the holy grail for the "every desirable feature" charge control
integrated with "optimum" battery monitoring is still over the horizon. It's
a terrific concept which makes the unobtainium all the more disappointing.

Mick Abraham, Proprietor
www.abrahamsolar.com

Voice: 970-731-4675


On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 12:00 AM, <toddcory at finestplanet.com> wrote:

> So do the charge controller and amp hour meter communicate so they agree on
> when the batteries are fully charged?
>
> Todd
>
>
>
>
> On Wednesday, March 17, 2010 12:02pm, "R Ray Walters" <ray at solarray.com>
> said:
>
> We have a couple out in the field. A bit of hassle to upgrade the firmware
> at first, but Apollo was very helpful, and sent us a free interface to do
> the update.
> I'm sure that's all cleared up for current versions, by now.
> Now a couple of years later, we've had zero trouble, and we are running
> well over 70 amps continuous.
> The wireless Trimetric meter option is a pretty good reason to use Apollo
> for off grid projects, too.
>
>  R. Walters
> ray at solarray.com
> Solar Engineer
>
>
>
>
>  On Mar 16, 2010, at 6:14 PM, Nick Vida wrote:
>
>   wondering if any wrenches have any opinions on the Apollo charge
> controllers T80 in particular.
> I heard they had some technical issues not to long ago- is that resolved?
>
> thanks,
>
> nick
>
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