question about connecting regular classic 200 to classic 150-SL

[kauaisolarman]

Hello all

i have a question about combining a classic 150-SL (solar only) to a regular classic 200.

can i connect them the regular "follow me" mode?  can i set the 150-SL as the master?  any best ways to do this?

i plan on running wind on the Classic 200 in the future but for now it will have PV connected to it.

do i just parallel both to a battery bus terminal for connecting both to the same battery bank?

thanks again in advance for any help

[dgd]

yes, yes, no and yes but have a separate breaker for each Classic. You may have to tweak the battery voltage reading to get both showing the same voltage. Use a decent voltmeter to establish what the true battV is.
dgd

[boB]

No problem connecting both Classics to the same battery bank.  That's how it works.

Follow-Me works fine as long as the battery negatives are common to each other.

Also, only connect ONE (10) follow me cable for two classics right now...

The Classic that is reading the master Classic can be the slave for battery temp sense.
i.e., the Classic that has the LONG lasting blue LED flashing would be the master.

That should work great !

boB

[kauaisolarman]

thanks for the input.

will the master be able to set the charge limits to the battery for both controllers at once.

for example if i want to limit the charging amps to the battery bank to 50 amps maximum and both controllers have more than 50 amps to give, will the master limit both controllers evenly and use 25A from each controller to provide the 50A max?

thanks again for the help

[Mike W]

Hi Bob - I plan on doing a similar thing using two C150s. One for solar and one for wind. Are you saying I should not use 2 cables to connect both the classics in a follow me ring?

Mike

[kauaisolarman]

yes what about 1 classic 150-SL with a KID?

would follow me work with the classic and KID charge controllers with the Classic 150-SL being the master?  would that require the same cable setup for the 2 classics together?

thanks again for all the help

[dgd]

AFAIK there is no follow-me implemented between Classics and Kids. The Kids just do not have the serial ports for this.
To achieve this I had to use an rPi that was rs232/modbus connected to a ClassicSL and serial port wired to KID. The problem is the Kid does not yet appear to have a rich enough command/configuration instruction set to enable any form of meaningful follow-me.
I have often thought about just writing a new firmware for the Kid with a more user friendly comms/web interface and forget that LCD display.
dgd

[dgd]

Hi Bob - I plan on doing a similar thing using two C150s. One for solar and one for wind. Are you saying I should not use 2 cables to connect both the classisetupcs in a follow me ring?

The loopback serial cable is not required but the follow-me logic will then only work in one direction, from first to last Classic.
This is ok if you want one Classic to always follow another as in a master Slave setup.
dgd

[CDN-VT]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCwBvCvvEDg

.5 hr on follow me .

Classic Follow-ME Webinar

[kauaisolarman]

thanks for the info.

just watched the webinar good info there.

they did not mention amperage limits during follow me mode.

if i  have 2 controllers in follow me and i set the max charge limits on the master controller will it limit power from both controllers to stay within the max charge limits?

i am running aquion batteries and i have 2 different solar arrays on 2 seperate controllers and need to set the charge limits as the solar panels will produce way more power than the aquion can handle.  thus the need to set charge limits and have overcharge.

the 2 different arrays are faced in different directions so i don't want to set the charge limits on both controllers too low because if 1 array isn't producing enough power i want the other array to be able to provide its full power to make up for the difference.

just want to know if thats possible

Thanks

[CDN-VT]

I can't see how have 2 different solar arrays on 2 separate controllers & the 2 different arrays are faced in different directions will work well in Follow me ,

[kauaisolarman]

I can't see how have 2 different solar arrays on 2 separate controllers & the 2 different arrays are faced in different directions will work well in Follow me ,

1st array is Sanyo solar panels (pointed east mounted on the east sloping roof side) gets the 1st half of the days sun and produces best power during this time

2nd array is Suniva solar panels (pointed west mounted on the west sloping roof side) gets the 2nd half of the days sunlight and produces its best power during that time

at 11 am array 1 produces its max power while array 2 is at an off angle from the sun and is not being as productive as it could be.

if everything was on 1 controller my understanding is that when the west facing array is not at its full potential it will degrade the power from the east facing array and vice versa.

also i have 2 different sets of solar panels going to 1 battery bank

[Halfcrazy]

Hi Bob - I plan on doing a similar thing using two C150s. One for solar and one for wind. Are you saying I should not use 2 cables to connect both the classisetupcs in a follow me ring?

The loopback serial cable is not required but the follow-me logic will then only work in one direction, from first to last Classic.
This is ok if you want one Classic to always follow another as in a master Slave setup.
dgd

Yeah I would use both cables, Setting it up to use one is tricky at best.

[Mike W]

Using two follow me cables was my plen however I was curious when Bob said "Also, only connect ONE (10) follow me cable for two classics right now...". It sounded as though there might be a software issue in the current release?

[Resthome]

Using two follow me cables was my plen however I was curious when Bob said "Also, only connect ONE (10) follow me cable for two classics right now...". It sounded as though there might be a software issue in the current release?

I believe boB thinks there is a problem with the Equalize function when using Follow-me.