5Z wrote:
wrote:

I assume you are talking about charging your glider battery from a
storage battery, which you charge with a solar panel during the day.


Yes. Basically, I want a setup that looks like:

a) Solar panel
b) Charge controller
c) Storage battery
d) charge controller
e) Glider battery

I currently have (a) & (b) rated at 12v. So in my case, I need a
solution for (d) that does 11v+ - 12v SLA charge.

For $100 I can get a fancy model charger with lots of extra options,
but it will do the job.

For a bit less than $100 I can get the car adapter/voltage booster and
a regular charge controller. Two boxes, but maybe a little more rugged
than the model charger.

What's not clear is that the output of the adapter is compatible with
the charge controller, since the adapter is likely to have output
characteristics much different than the solar panels the charge
controller is designed for.

Since I have 2 batteries in the glider that I
now alternate using/charging, this may be the best solution, as at a
later time, I can get a 2nd controller to keep both batteries topped at
all times. Since I use the batteries one at a time, I prefer to have
an independent charger on each instead of just charging them in
parallel.

If I were starting from scratch, I think I'd set up a 24v storage
system using 2 car batteries or large SLAs. Then use the 24v to drive
a 12v charge controller for the glider battery.

This seems like a good scheme. Can't you switch over to it for a small
extra cost? Maybe sell your present panel to another pilot, or some such?

--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA