Ctek 250S Dual Solar Input - information

Submitted: Saturday, Sep 14, 2013 at 18:10
ThreadID: 104322 Views:7839 Replies:5 FollowUps:16
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Some months ago there was a discussion on MPPT and Solar and such chargers, and I suggested there shoul dbe no reason you could not use a high current power source of any descrition for the solar input - not just solar.

So just as a follow up on this and for information to anyone that may be interested, I recently tested my 250S with a high current supply for charging the batteries via the solar input and it appears it will charge at a max of 20 Amps the same as the alternator input (if the power source is capable).

The supply I used is not stabilised and starts about 17.5V at 0 Amps and ends up at about 12.5V at 16 Amps into the Ctek on initial charge, and I am assuming this is the best point determined by the MPPT of the Ctek. Should the supply be capable of more I would expect I would see 20 Amps into the Ctek at initial bulk charge.

Given there are 13.8 high current power supplies "off the shelf" these may be suitable for such use rather than messing around with additional multi stage chargers for people that have unused solar inputs and want to mains charge their batteries when at home.

This came about for me because I tried a couple of multi stage mains chargers directly connected to the batteries with the Ctek also connected and the chargers tended to get "confused" and not charge. So rather than have to mess about disconencting the Ctek, or buying the specific Ctek charger to do this, I decided to look at a different way.

Ken
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