3A SOLAR PANEL VOLTAGE CONTROLLER

I have a 12V battery on my fishing boat for the trolling motor. I mounted 2 5W solar panels on the boat to keep the battery charged and used this little charge controller to moderate the whole thing. I monitored the charging current using a shunt resistor, and this little charge controller seemed to do a fine job of keeping the current into the battery at or near the maximum possible that the panels could produce. I think these charge controllers are a better impedance match between the panels and batteries than just connecting panels by themselves. Prevents overcharging too.

I used the charge controller with a 10W solar panel to charge up a 12V 2.3Ahr gel cell battery. My load draws about .4A at 12V.Great operation when charging and discharging. Output voltage varies from 12 to 14.4 volts as it controls the charge. If regulation of the output voltage is desired for operating a radio or other voltage sensitive equipment, put a 12V regulator IC on the output. I used a Low Dropout regulator. This controller comes with a spec sheet.