escapism
Member
I've recently had to replace the boats pwm solar charge controller as it was only charging one of the two batteries and offering gibberish on its display. The
replacement is working well, but a line in the 'manual' gives pause for thought: "Not to be connected to any other charging source". Well I'm hoping that this means I shouldn't connect the mains charger to the input, but an alternative reading is that it shouldn't be in parallel with other charging sources.
We have/had three charging sources essentially connected permanently in parallel: pwm solar, Dolphin mains charger, Engine alternator. On installation there were problems with the solar and alternator activating the Dolphins fan. Sadly, the introduction of Schottky diodes solved that problem, but meant the charger could no longer sense the battery state. I've now put a double pole relay on the chargers output. However, I don't know how the Dolphin charger or alternator output might affect the solar charger.
So, my question is: should charging sources be isolated from each other?
replacement is working well, but a line in the 'manual' gives pause for thought: "Not to be connected to any other charging source". Well I'm hoping that this means I shouldn't connect the mains charger to the input, but an alternative reading is that it shouldn't be in parallel with other charging sources.
We have/had three charging sources essentially connected permanently in parallel: pwm solar, Dolphin mains charger, Engine alternator. On installation there were problems with the solar and alternator activating the Dolphins fan. Sadly, the introduction of Schottky diodes solved that problem, but meant the charger could no longer sense the battery state. I've now put a double pole relay on the chargers output. However, I don't know how the Dolphin charger or alternator output might affect the solar charger.
So, my question is: should charging sources be isolated from each other?