****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I bought a couple of these to use as charge controllers at entrance gates. It's a relatively light-duty application with small solar panels, and they seem to be performing as intended in this application. However, both of the units I purchased had the output leads backwards. The positive clip was attached to the negative lead, and the negative clip was attached to the positive lead. Fortunately, the controller has reverse-polarity detection, and the error was immediately apparent. It wasn't a big deal, I suppose, since I had planned to remove the clips and attach ring terminals anyway. But I wonder what other sketchy workmanship lurks inside these units, waiting to cause a failure down the road.I needed a solution, and these controllers filled the bill, but I don't think I would purchase them again. Also, I consider the $18 price I paid to be too much.The product works as advertised, but a few improvements would be helpful.The first problem is that the connection to the solar panel is a female coax. An adapter is included to allow a bare wire attachment, but that defeats the waterproof claims of the unit, and makes the connection more cumbersome.My solar panel has the flat SAE connector, so I spent another 10 bucks for a coax male to SAE adapter. However, when testing the controller I discovered that the adapter reverses the polarity, so I had to modify the adapter.Note: my initial testing of the controller was done indoors with the panel directly under a fluorescent lamp.I connected the controller to the battery, and a single green LED lit up, indicating a proper battery connection. So far so good.Next, I used the bare wire adapter to connect to the solar panel, taking care to observe the correct polarity. However, only the single green LED was lit. The unit did not detect the solar panel.Using a voltmeter, I verified that the solar panel was putting out 9-15 volts (depending on the light hitting it) to its SAE connector. After much trial and error, I finally got all the green LEDs to light by holding the panel to within a few inches of the bulbs.The documentation states that the green LEDs will flash when a solar panel connection is detected. It would be helpful if the documentation provided the minimum output voltage for the connection to be detected. The documentation should also provide the polarity requirements for the solar panel coax connection. While positive and negative is marked on the bare wire adapter, I'm guessing the many who purchase this product won't use the adapter.Also, an SAE connection with the correct polarity should be included with the package, even if doing so raises the price a bit. The bare wire adapter is largely useless in a waterproof installation.I originally rated the controller three stars for inadequate documentation and for failing to include an adapter to accommodate a very common solar panel connection. However, I'm changing my rating to four stars, since the product listing very clearly identifies all the items included with the controller.I hooked this up to a solar panel and fully charged battery to test it and it functioned correctly (according to the instructions).It shows 4 nlinking greens to indicate it's charging, then shows one solid green to indicate the battery is fully charged. It also has a couple of connection checks that worked as well.As someone else reviewed on Amazon.com...the connection method on the input side (to the solar panel) is terrible. The adapter has two screws to attach wires, but the way it works is that the screws push down a flat metal contact that pushes the wire out as it clamps down by nature of the design. Kind of defeats the purpose of a waterproof controller when you have an adapter that creates multiple non weather resistant connections. It's not really waterproof anyway...the seals where the input and output wires enter the controller are not waterproof... pretty water resistant, but i'd make sure it's not directly exposed to water/rain.I'm considering cutting the DC jack off the input end to custom connect an SAE connector but am not sure I want to deal with figuring out which wire is positive. And there is not much lead available to mess with.I'll be looking for a DC jack male to SAE connector if I can find one...Disappointed in the adapter provided. The DC jack connection end is a bad choice (I get that it's made to be compatible with the Instapark solar panel connectors). The screw down bare wire connection points are just not strong enough nor safe enough nor capable of waterproofing.For some reason the price of this more than doubled a few days after I bought mine.I used this controller along with a Instapark® Mercury27 Portable & Foldable 27 Watts Solar Battery Charger in a small aluminum fishing boat this summer. The panel supplied power to charge my boat battery which in turn provided power for the boat automatic bilge pump. The setup worked perfectly. I had some concern that the 'cigarette lighter adapter' connection between the solar panel and the controller might cause issues with corrosion / water infiltration - but there were no issues. I had first thought I would fold up the solar panels when operating the boat - but found I could just leave them in place as the solar panels sat flat on a shelf in the boat - and did not budge an inch even in very strong winds or when I would drive the boat. The charge controller showed me at a glance what the battery status was ...4 solid lights meant it was fully charged, flashing lights meant it was being charged and 1 solid light meant it was not getting a charge ... (like at night). I am very happy with the purchase.Just ordered this item on Wednesday night 9 pm and to my surprise it was already in the mail Friday morning. Hooked it up to my 30 watt Instapark solar panel and it start charging right away. I like that it is tiny. I use my solar panel as a portable unit so I can put it where I can get the best sun exposure. The quick release connectors makes it very easy to set the system up once I am at the campground.I would give it 5 stars for easy use, but because I don,t know how long this unit will last I give it 4 for now.It is also cheaper than at Amazon.com or Instapark and no tax.worksworks perfectly
