Skip to main content

Simple 10 Amp Solar Charge Controller Circuit Diagram


This is a Simple 10 Amp Solar Charge Controller Circuit Diagram. The SCC2 is a solar charge controller, its function is to regulate the power flowing from a photovoltaic panel into a rechargeable battery. It features easy setup with one potentiometer for the float voltage adjustment, an equalize function for periodic overcharging, and automatic temperature compensation for better charging over a range of temperatures.

10 Amp Solar Charge Controller Circuit Diagram

10 Amp Solar Charge Controller Circuit Diagram


The goal of the circuit design was to make a charge controller with analog simplicity, high efficiency, and reliability. A medium power solar system can be built with a 12V solar panel up to 10 amps, the SCC2, and a rechargeable battery. The SCC2 works with lead acid, NiCD and NiMH batteries with ratings from less than one to several hundred amp-hours. With the appropriate parts selection, the SCC2 can be operated at 6V, 12V, 24V or other voltages.

Specifications:
  • Maximum solar panel current: 10 Amps
  • Night time battery drain current: approximately 1ma
  • Nominal battery voltage: 6V, 12V or 24V.
  • See the full SCC2 specifications for more information.
Theory:
The SCC2 acts as a medium power DC current switch between the + terminals of the PV and battery. Diode D1 prevents reverse night time current flow from the battery back to the PV panel.

When the PV voltage is high enough to charge the battery, zener diode D2 conducts and turns on transistor Q2. Q2 switches the power for the rest of the circuit on. The circuit is switched off at night. IC2 provides a 5 volt regulated voltage to power the comparator circuits, it also provides a reference voltage for comparator IC1a.

When the battery voltage is below the desired full voltage and needs charging, comparator IC1a turns on and activates Q1 and Q3, this allows the solar charging current to flow into the battery. Note that Q3 is a P-channel mosfet, this allows the circuit to be wired with a common ground for the solar panel and battery. The solar current loop is drawn in heavy lines on the schematic.

When the battery reaches the full charge point, IC1a operates as a comparator based schmidt trigger oscillator, it switches the solar current off and on. The switching causes the battery voltage to oscillate a few tens of millivolts above and below the desired set point. A rail-to-rail op-amp is required for proper operation, 741 style op-amps will not work in this circuit.

The red/green charging/full LED is driven between the output of IC1a and IC1b. IC1b has an inverted version of the IC1a signal. Pin 5 of IC1b only needs an approximate center point to work as an on-off comparator, it is connected to the varying IC1a pin 2 so that it does not require another reference divider circuit.

The resistors and thermistor on the input side of IC1a form a resistive bridge circuit that is used to compare the battery voltage to a reference voltage coming from IC2/R8/R9. The potentiometer adjusts the voltage point around which the circuit will oscillate on full charge. Resistor R7 adds positive feedback to IC1a for a schmidt trigger characteristic and C6 sets the maximum frequency of oscillation. The thermistor provides thermal compensation, as the temperature goes down, the float voltage setting goes up.

The equalize switch, S1a, forces the circuit on for intentional overcharging. Switch S1b and R1 can be used to select a different float voltage range, you can experiment with this by using different values of R1, typically R1 should be greater than 1M.

Alignment:
    Use:
    Connect the solar panel to the SCC2 solar panel input connectors, connect the battery to the SCC2 output connectors. Put the solar panel in the sun, and watch the battery charge up. Systems where the battery is frequently discharged way down should occasionally be run in equalize mode for a few hours or a full day. It is best to monitor the battery voltage during this operation, disable equalization if the battery voltage goes above 16V (12V version).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Electronic Extended Play Circuit Diagram

This is a Electronic Extended Play Circuit Diagram. A single op amp-one of four contained in the popular LM324-is operating in a variable pulse width, free-running square wave oscillator circuit, with its timed output driving two transistors that control the on/ off cycle of the tape-drive motor. The Oscillator` s positive feedback path holds the secret to the successful operation of the variable on/ off timing signal.   Electronic Extended Play Circuit Diagram The two diodes and pulse width potentiometer R8 allows the setting of the on and off time, without affecting the oscillator`s operating frequency. One diode allows only the discharge current to flow through it and the section of R8 that it`s connected to. The other diode, and its portion of R8, sets the charge time for the timing capacitor, C3. Since the recorder`s speed is controlled by the precise off/on timing of the oscillator, a simple voltage-regulator circuit (Ql, R3, and D4) is included.  Connecting the spe...

Power Amplifier with voltage regulator 4 × 50 Watt TDA8588

Power Amplifier with voltage regulator 4 × 50 Watt TDA8588    The TDA8588 is a multiple voltage regulator combined with four independent audio power amplifiers configured in bridge tied load with diagnostic capability. The output voltages of all regulators except regulators 2 and 3 can be controlled via the I2C-bus. However, regulator 3 can be set to 0 V via the I2C-bus. The output voltage of regulator 2 (microcontroller supply) and the maximum output voltage of regulator 3 (mechanical digital and microcontroller supplies) can both be either 5 V or 3.3 V depending on the type number. The maximum output voltages of both regulators are fixed to avoid any risk of damaging the microcontroller that may occur during a disturbance of the I 2C-bus. The amplifier diagnostic functions give information about output offset, load, or short-circuit. Diagnostic functions are controlled via the I2C-bus. The TDA8588 is protected against short-circuit, over-temperature, open ground and open VP ...

Digital Voltmeter Circuit with ICL7107

Description. The circuit given here is of a very useful and accurate digital voltmeter with LED display using the ICL7107 from Intersil. The ICL7107 is a high performance, low power, 3.5 digit analog to digital converter. The IC includes internal circuitry for seven segment decoders, display drivers, reference voltage source and a clock. The power dissipation is less than 10mW and the display stability is very high. The working of this electronic circuit is very simple. The voltage to be measured is converted into a digital equivalent by the ADC inside the IC and then this digital equivalent is decoded to the seven segment format and then displayed. The ADC used in ICL7107 is dual slope type ADC. The process taking place inside our ADC can be stated as follows. For a fixed period of time the voltage to be measured is integrated to obtain a ramp at the output of the integrator. Then a known reference voltage of opposite polarity is applied to the input of the integrator and allowed to r...