A Forum run by Enthusiasts of MidNite Solar

Charge Controllers and Clippers => The "Classic" charge controller => Topic started by: qrper on August 11, 2019, 11:57:01 AM

Title: One week with the classic 150
Post by: qrper on August 11, 2019, 11:57:01 AM
Time does fly when you're having fun.

I commissioned the Classic 150 on the 5th of August, and today is the 11th.

In all my years of working with photovoltaics and their systems, I have to admit that this Classic 150 is in a class all by itself. It's an amazing piece of electronic gear.

The style takes a bit of getting use to, but that's just me.

So far, with the new array up, a tad less than 7kWp, the controller has worked great.

in the last week, I've harvested 67.7 kWh and pushed 1218 amp/hrs into the battery bank. We've had week of sunny days, so every morning by 10 A the batteries are in absorb mode.

What little testing I've done, I haven't noticed any RFI on my ham radio receivers. I'll put my spectrum analyzer on a whip antenna and see what it finds. So far, so good.

The only nits to pick, to me, is the manual needs a good rework. It bounces around a bit and should be re-written in a more linear fashion.
Title: Re: One week with the classic 150
Post by: Resthome on August 12, 2019, 12:11:44 AM
Marine VHF channel 68 is pretty noisy around the Classic.
Title: Re: One week with the classic 150
Post by: boB on August 12, 2019, 01:08:38 AM

RFI varies somewhat but can usually be tamed if needed.

VHF is a weird place for EMI and I seem to find plenty of interference there from all sorts of things.

The Classic noise floor is less in VHF than HF frequencies but sometimes there can be birdies here and there.  I wonder, RH if there is something wrong with one or more of the internal snubbers of your Classic.  Have you tried more than one Classic ?

Thank you QRPer for the report !

What bands do you operate on with the QRP rig ?

boB   K7IQ
Title: Re: One week with the classic 150
Post by: Resthome on August 12, 2019, 04:41:38 PM
Quote from: boB on August 12, 2019, 01:08:38 AM

RFI varies somewhat but can usually be tamed if needed.

VHF is a weird place for EMI and I seem to find plenty of interference there from all sorts of things.

The Classic noise floor is less in VHF than HF frequencies but sometimes there can be birdies here and there.  I wonder, RH if there is something wrong with one or more of the internal snubbers of your Classic.  Have you tried more than one Classic ?


boB

Had a few different Classic all about the same. But that's with a 3 ft antenna about 10 ft away from the Classic. Once I move farther away it will stop.