I have just ordered one of Morningstars 60 amp charge controllers to give it a try. Any one have any experience with them? I did not get the remote panel since I use a Cruzpro meter to monitor my system. I can watch voltage and amps with it and its inside the cabin already. I might use the serial cable and software some just to experiment with though.
Offgridman
<A HREF="mailto:sandfella1@cs.com">sandfella1@cs.com</A>

Since I last posted I have received my Tristar and been using it. I the optional temperature sensor installed on the batterys. The temperature compensation seems to be working quite well. The batterys have been staying around 15.3Volts due to the cold weather. I have not gotten the serial cable / software to work yet. Not the controllers fault but the old 486 I am trying to use it with I think.
Not enough room to attach the serial cable without jaming tight against the LEDS though. Morningstar might want to address this issue as well as leaving some provision for keeping the cable connected with the cover inplace.
So far I a generally happy with the system
The Battery SOC Led's do not agree with my battery monitor though.
See ya
Offgridman

You can make your own serial cable that needs almost no clearance.

The parts can be found at db9 parts an for under a buck for the connecters and shells , use cat 5 wire for the interconnect.

Sounds like the unit has some issues. Thanks for the informative postings !!

Update on Tri-Star 60
I have noticed a significant decrease in the amount of Distilled water being consumed by the battery bank.
Offgridman

Well it is now 11/18/2007 and I have just had to replace my Trojan T605's (bank of ten each) I choose to use the Crown 225 batteries to replace them with this time. My local battery supplier speaks highly of them and I get 10% more battery for the money $1080.00 for ten of the Crown batteries. My last battery bank lasted about five years or more. I am looking for the receipt to pin the date down. I have been very happy with the Trojans service. Here are a couple of things I noticed about them they only needed water about every six months for the first three and a half years. Then the frequency increased to every three months for about a year and a half. After about four years I notice the cases were showing signs of swelling noticable on the ends, slightly but noticiable. About a month ago I watered the batteries and decided to check them a couple of weeks later for water level. I found two batteries acid level was down to the plates. I took this as death throws (shorting of the plates) So I pulled all of them out of service and replaced them.

Now, I still have the Same Charge Controller that I had in 2003 and I cannot say enough good things about it. Morningstar makes a good product and it has taken care of my battery bank for years without any input from me. I will take a look at the new ones just because of the age of mine and see if the new ones warrant a replacement. You can bet I will keep my old one as a spare. I Love my Tri-Star 60

Oh yea, if you live in a hurricane prone area and plan on removing your solar panels when hurricane come around.

Mount them together in pairs of 50 watt modules NO larger and you will be able to handle removing them from the roof by yourself OK.

I now have this setup and it only takes about an hour to remove them and about 3/4 day to reinstall.



Offgridman

i hope you have better luck with the new batteries. i see you never mentioned about how much pv power you have. not sure if a battery temperature sensor is available for that controller without looking, but if you don't have one and it can take one, then by all means get one.

Yikes, I'd expect 5 years from a marine deep cycle battery, I thought the special purpose ones were supposed to be in the 10 year range.

Someone with experience - correct me if I'm wrong. I'm planning an off grid system to be installed in a couple years, and want to find out now, what I should expect for flooded cell batteries.

A marine battery is just a cross between a standard car starting battery and a true deep cycle battery (from what I have read)... If it is really being cycled, 5 years seems like the outside range of what I would expect for life (I would expect closer to three year life).

Even the "golf cart" type deep cycle batteries seem (again, just from reading around here and other places) are really only 3-5 year type batteries.

If you want 8-10+ year life, I think you will have to go with the better batteries that have longer warranties and are designed for this type of service (such as Surrette or Crown).

Making sure the banks are watered and fully charged every 1-2 days, plus using a battery temperature sensor and battery monitor of some sort, seems to be the minimum for a long and happy battery life.

You can read Wind-Sun's Battery FAQ here:

http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm

From their FAQ, here is a list of typical battery lives:



Also in the FAQ is the point that depth of cycling dramatically affects life too.... Roughly, cycling 10% batteries will last 5x as long as cycling 50%--so do you purchase 5x the number of batteries to last 5 times as long--probably not as you have your money tied up longer and you have just plain aging added in there too which may prevent the 5x as many batteries from lasting truly 5x as long...

If your application does not allow you to remain above 80% SOC before recharging (sulfate hardening seems to get worst after a battery has been stored for more than one day at less than 80% state of charge), one of the AGM brands (Concord????) says that their batteries will not sucume to sulfate deposits and they rate their batteries for 80% cycling (not the 50% that is normally recommended for flooded cell batteries).

In the end, a little would probably help too...

Just my two cents...

-Bill

OGM,

Trojan’s new warranty for solar energy applications is seven years. Accordingly, five years out of your Trojan T-605’s (“smallâ€￾ 6 V deep-cycle batteries made for floor scrubbers) may be a bit on the short side. As Bill indicated, depth of discharge can affect battery life. Other factors that can affect battery life include charge voltage settings, maintenance, and ambient temperature.

Trojan recommends fairly high voltage settings for their batteries. The best standard TriStar 12 V battery charging setting for the “shortâ€￾ Trojan batteries is probably setting #6 (14.8 V Absorb, 13.4 V float, and 15.3 V EQ; manual page 27). A PC is required to use Trojan’s exact settings via the TriStar’s “customâ€￾ setting (#8 ). A remote battery temperature sensor is also a good idea.

Periodic equalization is also an important maintenance procedure for flooded-cell batteries. I didn’t see any discussion of this essential maintenance step in your posts. Here’s a link to Trojan’s on-line maintenance manual: http://www.trojanbattery.com/Tech-Suppo ... nance.aspx

A battery bank with a large number of parallel strings can also be problematic. I suspect that five parallel strings is a large number, no matter who you ask. However, good, heavy interconnecting cables, and "diagonally opposite" connections of the main cables, can alleviate many performance problems associated with many parrallel strings.

When looking for new batteries, a smaller number of larger batteries (i.e., L-16's or 8D's) would allow for fewer parallel strings and battery-to-battery interconnects. Another advantage to larger batteries is that there would be fewer cells to maintain.

Finally, it can get a tad warm in Alabama. Optimal battery operating temperature is 77 F, and higher temperatures reduce battery life, so do what you can to keep the batteries cool and especially out of direct sunlight.

niel brought up a good question: How big is your PV array (Watts STC)? Similarly, how big (V x Ah) is your new battery bank? The issue is that a small PV array and/or large loads can prevent proper battery recharging. Such "deficit recharging" can contribute to reduced battery performance and longevity.

In summary, I’d recommend you program the TriStar to Crown’s recommended voltage settings, that you follow Crown’s maintenance recommendations (including periodic equaliization), that you consider larger (and therefore fewer) batteries, that you keep the batteries cool (you may need an insulated battery box), that you use an RTS, and that you try to limit average discharges to ~20% of bank capacity.

HTH, and good luck with your new batteries!
Jim / crewzer

hello everyone,

im currently working on a new project and i cant figure out how to make it work. Im trying to communicate with my tristar mppt 60 using 232 and i cant seem to make it work.

I attached my 232 cable and tried using MSVIEW but no response. I tried using null and straight through cables but still no luck.

ANybody tried communicating with the mppt60?

Thanks.