[RE-wrenches] APsmart and charge controllers

[Bradley Bassett]

I had a talk with tech support at APS about using the APSmart RSD devices
in my DC coupled system. I found it hard to understand him so I'm not
completely clear on what he said. One thing was clear and that is they do
not test these for use with charge controllers, so can't support that use.
Other than that I think he said that they require a certain amount of
resistance on the power lines to stay powered up. He said that it would not
likely stay powered up when connected directly to a battery bank, and would
not stay powered up on an open circuit.

What I ran into using 2 strings of 4 modules in series is in low light they
would turn on, voltage would rise to open circuit voltage, then collapse
back to 0. The charge controller would turn on when the voltage rose and
turn off when the voltage fell. Repeat over and over.  When full sun was on
the array it would stay connected, but operated at a voltage indicating one
each APS was not turned on in each string.

I now have Fireraptors on the array which of course works fine. But what a
lot of wire to deal with. Also note that the Fireraptors work fine powered
up with 15 volts instead of the specified 24 volts.

Has anyone successfully used these with any charge controllers?

 Brad Bassett
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