Free Charge Controller: Difference between revisions

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The goal of this project is to design a charge controller with [maximum power point tracking (MPPT)]. Maximum power point tracking allows a solar panel, wind turbine, etc to achieve maximum efficiency and deliver maximum power to a load. In this case, a load can be a battery, inverter, or the grid.
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The Free Charge Controller project has just released its second version! Version 2.00 focuses on implementing a charge controller with MPPT for charging a 12V battery with an 60 Watt solar panel. This is both an open source hardware and an open source software project. All documents, files, and anything you find on this website is free under the terms of the C'''reative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license'''. With enough help, it is hoped that future versions will support different battery voltages, off-grid and grid-tied systems, as well as other power sources such as wind turbines, micro-hydro turbines, etc.
A charge controller is an essential part of any alternative energy system. In its simplest form, a charge controllers job is to make sure the power source (such as a solar panel) 'plays nice' with the load (such as a battery). The simplest implementation of this is a single diode placed in between a solar panel and a battery. This ensures that the battery does not discharge into the solar panel at night. A more sophisticated implementation would be adding the ability for the charge controller to disconnect the solar panel when the batteries are fully charged - in order to prevent over-charging damage to the batteries. An advanced charge controller would implement features such as MPPT.
 
[[Category: Energy]]

Latest revision as of 18:48, 19 September 2011

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