Testimonials

We have been trying for over a year to find out exactly what products we needed to get solar power at our hunting cabin. We were very fortunate to get Rob’s name and contact info. Rob answered all of our questions, made great recommendations and explained, in detail, how to hook it all up. We went with 2 of the Apollo Charge Controllers from Rob and the other components that he recommended.

These Charge Controllers are Awesome and so is Rob. Everything went just as he explained and we are now fully powered and off the grid!! Thanks for everything Rob!!

Jeff Gebert
Brentwood, TN

I was looking for a small charge controller that was efficient and low noise and definitely got what I wanted.

I had purchased two 100W panels and wanted to squeeze every drop of power out of them to power the lights and tools in my new small work shed. After some self education I discovered 2 common types of charge controllers simple not so expensive PWM controllers and some much more expensive MPPT controllers. MPPT controllers do some wonderful magic with searching for the maximum power point that the panel can put out in respect to current and voltage. Then it uses DC-DC converter to bring the output to the ideal charge voltage for the batteries to again transfer the most power.
I was very fortunate to find out about DIY Solar for U on a discussion group from another customer, so I emailed Rob and asked a few questions detailing what I was doing. Within a few hours I got a detailed response that suggested some ideas and that the Apollo MPPT controller would work, so I ordered one to start my system with later expansion in mind. System was two 18V 100W panels and two 6V 430ah flooded lead acid batteries in series and a big inverter. At Robs suggestion I wired the panels in series for 36V output to minimize line loss. The controller which comes as a ready to go board that you need to mount in your own enclosure, performed well converting the 30-36V panel output (depending on light levels) to the required charge voltage. measuring the in and out currents and doing the math the losses were very low, The digital display would scroll through the current, volts in, volts out and what the maximum power point was, and total AH into the batteries for the day.

I had read that One of the down falls of MPPT controllers is that they can generate significant electrical noise. This would be a problem as the panels where pretty much directly below my antennas so now for the noise test. I put a few incandescent lights on to load the batteries. Turned off all the TVs and other electronics in the house, then turned on my HF stations and went through the bands. I did notice a very faint noise pattern on 160 – 40m only just above the noise level that I could barely hear but was evident on the band scope confirming it was the controller by disconnecting it from the panels. So now I thought lets go real world and turned the house back on (TVs and stuff) which produced much more noise than the controller and panels , which BTW was much closer to the antenna. Not bad I thought but I’m sure I could do better. Fired off another email to Rob to get another quick response and he simply suggested a few turns on some ferrite torroids on the wires to the panels. Noise gone!!

This is I guess what happens when a ham designs such things as they tend to have RFI and good product in mind.

In conclusion this controller is good, very good. I would strongly recommend it for remote and portable operations like Field Day or for solar power for repeaters or camps and cottages. But what is also impressive is the support from the company. I would put the product quality and customer support right up with another fantastic North American manufacture, Elecraft.

Cheers Dave Moes VE3SD
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Hi Rob,

Got it working without any issues, charging my 12V 35/85A AGM battery. I added an input and output LED meters for now, and I am planning to add additional circuity to switch one of the meters for current measurement.

I also checked for RF Noise around the 100 Khz range with my Flex 6300 with a Pixel Loop antenna. Barely saw the signal above the normal background noise.

Thanks for an excellent product,
Javier

At Last! A Low RFI Solar Charge Controller.

I have now installed two of these devices.... one for home and one in our Club's new Emergency communications trailer. Our first attempt at solar power for our Comm trailer was a disaster having installed an Amazon purchased Renogy system. It radiated strongly not only in the HF spectrum, but also up through VHF as well. ARES Communications were nearly useless with that system if we left the solar charging system on.

After days of searching the Web I stumbled across DIYSolarforU and contacted the owner.... an individual who himself had been so concerned witht RFI from Solar Charge Controllers that he designed his own system. I ordered one Apollo MPPT charge controller to evaluate and was flabberghasted by the drop in RFI..... it was practically undetectable unless we put our antenna a few feet from the controller. It was quickly installed in place of the errant Renogy charge controller and our new Comm Trailer has now become very useful.... anywhere in the spectrum. We are using it with 200W of Solar Panels.

The product supplied comes as a bare circuit board -- no housing, but at this price it was well worth it. We simply mounted it on the trailer wall and covered the unit with a home thermostat plastic guard to prevent any damage to the unit . The clear plastic housing allows easy view of the solar charge parameters which scroll slowly on the LCD on board display while allowing reasonable ventilation ... not that this unit gets very warm to any extent. Given the small size of the circuit board, one should easily find numerous housing possibilities for this unit if you need to protect the board.

The only thing I could fault on this product is the terminal connectors, built for #12 wire max and seemingly in my opinion a bit delicate for this application. After notifying DIYSolarforU about this concern I was quickly advised that newer and more substantive terminal blocks were found and would be in place for subsequent production run of this product. The proprietor of this company is extremely responsive to customers!

I am very pleased with the two units I have set up, and anticipate ordering more in the future. Ed

Arrived as predicted. Installed Wednesday night and watched it come alive Thursday morning. I *LIKE* the 14v / 19v between day/night, BTW.

Despite the rain and overcast, I got 8-10 watts which was enough to keep the various night lights on throughout the house. When the rain stopped, the power level came up enough to trickle charge the battery. P-P of 46 watts and 4.65 A/H. Not bad for such a totally overcast crappy day.

Today has been AWESOME! Battery terminal voltage is up at 14.3 V, 3.75 to 4 A, 54 W, 86 P-P, and 17 A/H. The battery has been fully replenished and all loads (LED lighting in the kitchen and livingroom) are being sustained. Sweet :)

"The world is once again turning on greesed rails" (Cannery Row).

Thanks again!!!

--- Jay Nugent WB8TKL
Ypsilanti, MI

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Testimonials

DIY Solar for U