Adjustable Boost Power Supply DC-DC Constant Voltage Current Charging Module

[sam_sam_sam]

I want to know if I could hook up a solar panels to this boost converter would I have any issues doing and I would have issues what would they be

Adjustable Boost Power Supply DC-DC Constant Voltage Current Charging Module

https://www.ebay.com/itm/116497313155?var=416785404161


Here are some of the description from the eBay seller

The main parameters:
1. Product name: High-power non-isolated DC boost module power supply.
2. Product model: 100A2000W.
3. Input voltage: DC12V-60V.
4. Input current: 100A (maximum).
5. Input power: 2000W (maximum).
6. No-load power consumption: less than 2W.
7. Output voltage: DC15V-80V.
8. Output current: 50A (maximum).
9. Output power: 1850W (maximum).
10. Conversion efficiency: 92-96% (efficiency is related to input and output voltage and current).
11. Working temperature: -20~50℃.


Very important question I have do I need a solar controller to be able to use this setup if so what type do I need to use

I have some battery packs that I have tested so far and will work nicely with with what I have in mind doing I just need to find some higher voltage and about the same current output that I have now solar panels but do not want to pay an arm and leg for them

[sam_sam_sam]

Here are pictures of this boost converter
One note this device has some weight to it

What do you think of this boost converter it's design and the quality of it

And like always they use Chinese made capacitors which will be replaced after some testing has been done

[eccerr0r]

hmm... interesting... it can actually pass 500W through each of those cores? Wow. Will have to see if I can get that much power going through a homemade boost from 24V to 36V though i wonder how many mosfets I'll need.

I tried boosting 24V to 120V with a much larger core, maybe it was overkill though only passed 10A through or so, peak. The 120V was only around 2A...

[CapLeaker]

Use that directly on solar panels? Why… just wire them panels in series to get higher voltage. To me this is only good if you hook it up to an alternator and then charge something like a ecoflo, jackery or bluetti solar generator.

[sam_sam_sam]

Right now I just doing testing on this device to understand its limitations and how to evaluate it for any particular situation I might want to consider using it in

Unfortunately the sun is not corpora ting with me today maybe tomorrow I might get better results

But to answer your question about even if I use solar panels directly I should still use some type of solar panel controller to regulate the voltage and current to the battery pack that I am charging unless I have this concept totally wrong

Because just using solar panels is going to over charge battery packs of what ever type of battery cells that I intend to use unless I choose to get solar panels that are rated for the battery voltage maximum which is not easy to do

Now the solar panel controller I just got done testing was ok it does have some limitations that can be worked around but this is not my biggest issue
I do not like the fact that you have to have a battery hooked up to all the before you hook the solar panels to it to me this inconvenient as it can be I want something that I can hook up to the solar panels and hook whatever battery pack I want to it

[eccerr0r]

sun has not been cooperating with me past few days either. I'm just collecting what I can with the GTI so the panels I have facing the sun are all doing what they can to earn their keep. Mostly. The amorphous panels are not fully doing their job to earn their keep due to poor conversion, but better than the ones inside my house, which are totally being wasted...

No I don't have a glass house.

BTW anything you connect solar panels to, it's best they are MPPT. That's why my amorphous panels are not fully contributing to their keep...

[CapLeaker]

What battery pack voltages and chemistries do you want to charge? And MPPT all the way.

[eccerr0r]

i think he wants to charge arbitrary batteries, hence making an untenable problem...

[sam_sam_sam]

i think he wants to charge arbitrary batteries, hence making an untenable problem...

Please read the description of this device unless they are full of crap


https://www.ebay.com/itm/22613507765....c101506.m1851

[CapLeaker]

I read that listing. These is no effing way this boost converter does 2000W continuously. Way too small for that.

Here is the problem I am having with it:
A: the rated wattage is not going to be anywhere near 2000w continuous.
B: Just think about it… as wider the input and output voltage and the current drawn and boosted from this unit as much harder it has to work.
C: what do you do when a cloud comes and blocks the sun? Probably it would be better to put a lead acid battery and a charge controller in between.

I think Sam wants to charge different type of battery pack sizes that go up to 48V with one solar “charging station” where he doesn't want to rip the panels on a roof apart and rewire it for every different battery size charged.

Supposedly you can use it as a boost or as a buck converter, but note the lowest output voltage of 15V. Could it be used I suppose hooked up as a buck converter and the solar panels (3) in series, yes… but you also have to watch the grounding and adjusting the current sense correctly.

This being said, kind of waste of solar panels as your not getting to do anything with the extra generated power that way.

[eccerr0r]

still don't see how this helps. If you have an unknown changing quantity of batteries you want to charge and that number could be 0 when it's fully disconnected and you worry about the charge controller, that's really a no-solution case.

How are you planning to connect this thing? Maybe that's what needs to be known....

[sam_sam_sam]

This is why I doing this type of testing so I can see why something will not work the way you might think it should I have not decided how I going to do anything at this point in time I just looking at different options and understanding how they work by doing real world testing scenarios in good condition and not so good conditions

Here is what keeping me not wanting to do GTI based inverters
one you can not find a split 120 volt neutral 120 volt GTI inverters that do not cost an arm and a leg and maybe even more than that
Not being able to have battery on charge and use the battery pack when need

Now I could go the hybrid inverters instead but they are also a little bit pricey as well I only right now interested in a one kilowatt hour system I do not know if this is an appropriate solution for what I think about doing but I want a way to know exactly how much power I am producing for my in my shed

[CapLeaker]

I have given up on the "exact" measurement on how much power my units produce. You will drive yourself crazy doing so. Tempertature, clouds, sun angle do weird things like you see amperage spikes / peaks on a cloudy day that are way over what the system should produce compared to a sunny day. My panels are over 11 years old now.

[eccerr0r]

Heck I don't even bother running split 120/120 GTI, just feed into one branch. It actually all comes out in the wash at the end. If I really want to be anal I could just stick a 240V autotransformer on my two halves and it would balance out as if I did a full 120/120 but it wasn't even necessary.

If you aren't planning to dedicate a bank of batteries for your panels, you should just do GT.

[sam_sam_sam]

Well I did some testing on this boost converter with just one solar panel
one note it will not charge a 24 volt battery pack on just one solar panel you only get barely one amp ( which is not acceptable for what I want to do I want at least 3 amps or better )

In coming amperage is 5.1 @ 16.5 volts ( on the MPPT controller that I used I got 6.1 amps out put but went by the meter on the controller )
Out going into the battery pack 3.54 amp @ 20 volts ( 5.1-3.54=1.56) loss of current from going into the boost converter versus output of the boost converter equals 1.56 amps not sure exactly how to figure out its efficiency

I know that you loose some amperage when you boost voltage but the question is the result acceptable for efficiency results

Battery voltage extremely low on charge on a battery pack that the battery cells are way out of balance and the battery charger refuses to charge anymore

It will not charge a 12 volt battery pack even though it says that it can at least not when it almost charged I will have to run this later on a discharge battery pack which I do have at the moment

Unfortunately the sun wants to play hide and go seek so it hard to get accurate amperage reading even though I am using a dc clamp meter which is pretty decent

One note this boost converter does not behave the way other boost converter that I have tested before so I am not sure how efficient this boost converter is in the long run but I plan on testing it on a battery pack and see how it behaves in this setup as well

[sam_sam_sam]

If you aren't planning to dedicate a bank of batteries for your panels, you should just do GT.

This is my plan once I decide that I have a decent solar panel system charging controller and run the device that I want to run

One of my plans is to make tool solar panel charging station because I do not need them quickly anymore because I do not use them for work anymore I just used them at home

I have one very important question to ask you how does a 220 volt GTI inverter run 120 volt electrical device on each leg I can not see how this could be efficient way of doing things

[sam_sam_sam]

I am testing a 12 volt Lipo 4 battery pack that has a enclosure with battery post that was for parts from BH a couple of years ago and I just got around testing the BMS board and it seems to function correctly turning off the charging voltage at 15.2 volts a little higher than I would like but it does not take long to get there

The original battery pack cells were good except one rail which was totally dead no voltage at all

Here is the battery pack that was referring to that I going to make a 30 amp hour battery pack out of it

The battery discharge cutoff voltage 8.45 is a little bit lower than I would like but this not the troubling thing about it is that it turns back on again and you discharge more but it goes down extremely fast and shuts off again it just keeps repeating I guess one reason is that I was testing it at 10 amp load so of course your voltage is going to drop when you get to 90% of your amp hours
it got to 5.85 amp hours and it is rated at 6 amp hours so I can not complain about the battery amp hours that I am getting

The BMS protection board mosfets barely got warm to the touch at a 10 amp load very good results from this BMS board

I just have to use a device that has a low voltage cutoff or put a board module that can do this function and be done with the issue with BMS and turning back on when it should not do this

If the sun is out playing tomorrow I going to use this battery pack and see if I can recharge with this boost converter
I can do a 20 volt battery pack with one solar panel lets see if I can do a 12 volt battery pack as well and do I get basically the same amperage as I did with the 20 volt battery pack or will it be higher or lower like I saw today with the battery pack almost fully charged

[eccerr0r]

I said "to hell with inefficiency" ... "I'm powering my *refrigerator and 24/7 PCs* with my solar panels!" because of my GTI.

I remember I had a small hobby charger and this thing charges my 12V packs (all LiFePO4, LiMnCo, PbH2SO4) with its integral switching mode PSU. The 24V packs my solar panels are 36V and I'm currently using a resistor to current limit to charge them, and timing them... and hoping the BMS cuts them off. They do!

Yeah maybe 80% efficiency with the SMPS but that's better than the linear PSU I was trying, hell that thing was around 60% efficient, and that's not counting the inefficient GTI. The resistor charger is more efficient though kind of dangerous...

[sam_sam_sam]

That is interesting results from your testing ( have you considered using a linear voltage regulator ic chip in current mode you might not loose as much inefficiency just a thought or using a 5 amp buck converter for charging unless you battery pack voltage is high than 40 volts then using a resistor might be your best option )

The BMS protection board work decent but if was doing this the way you plan on doing I would make a voltage high limit cutoff and not completely rely on the BMS protection board especially if you are not continuously monitoring it just in case the BMS fails to respond properly and turn off the current to battery cells and depending on the device that you plan on using dose it reliably cutoff the low battery voltage consistent at the same voltage each time when tested then I would not rely on the BMS for this function either

Now the cheap MPPT solar panel controllers do a decent job turning off the voltage at the voltage that it is programmed for and the results are repeatable because I did test this function several times in different ways and loaded the battery then removed the load several times and each time it shut off the current at 14.6 volts that function works perfectly and I would have no problems not monitoring it with out being extremely worried about weather or not it works now I do not know after many days of use will it function perfectly like it does now who knows but I am going to hook up my data logging multi meter and track it for several weeks once I mount the solar panel on my shed and make a more permanent installation

This is the reason I am doing the testing that I am doing because I have a preconception ideas how things should work but find out that I thought would work a certain way might not work the way you think it should

Sometime after doing something I realize that there is a better way of doing something

This is also the reason on the MPPT solar panel controller I got the cheapest ones I could find for testing and realize that the way I thought it works is quite different than the way it really works but the results are not disappointing but when it came to this boost converter I spent more money on than I should have but I figured that if it does not work very well on the solar panels it might work great for a car battery boost station that could be used in a remote location that does not have an electrical outlet near the car and I know that the concept works because I have built a small one that I have used a couple of times but it current output is not what it should be but that how I know that the concept actually does work if you have enough charging current so you do not have to wait a hour for a totally dead battery and if I used a fairly large amp hour with high current capacity battery cells it would not take very long before you can start the car without having any issues as long as the battery pack is not damaged in any way

[eccerr0r]

Yeah it is dangerous, was planning on building a dual LM317 CC/CV linear charger in the meantime (~70% efficient straight from panels) though technically... I should be able to use that linear supply and bypass the transformer/diodes and have the same efficiency... HMM...