 Charge controller Finally got it See how big this thing is Have to get this into my little white boat Preferably in a spot where I can see the readout Yeah, I definitely want it in a spot where I can see the readout somewhere where it's not gonna get wet Look at that. Good looking stuff right there Rover 20 amp MPPT charge controller by Renegy Looks good. I've had some of their stuff before and I've always been happy with it. So Hopefully this will be good too. I have had recently an experience where I bought a charge controller and it was It did not function on its own You needed like accessories to go with it to get it to function, which is just oh God, so I'm pretty sure this is a self-contained thing. It'll do all the stuff Wow I think that's a temperature sensor And some mounting hardware stuff. All right, let me see if I can figure out where to put this Well, it looks like the temperature sensor has got a pretty long wire So I should be able to put the controller anywhere and it'll reach. All right. Let's go out to the boat I'm sweating like a pig right now because I was I was digging all morning Trying to you know get some digging done Boats right over here The battery is up here in this front compartment. It's a really nice battery too. It's a 24 volt 100 amp hour Made by made by sock. That's okay. They're supposed to be really high quality So it's good to get this thing charging Okay, I sit right there. I kind of want to put this Like up in the ceiling ish somewhere up here I think that'd be a good spot Follow camera. Okay, I like it right there a little bit in my way Okay, if it's sitting right there, I can still see pretty well Well, I could just put it like right here. I don't want it to get in the way of Pedals I guess I could just make a piece that holds it up there. I wouldn't be that hard It would definitely get plenty of wind. I would just be worried about it getting splashed Okay, I think I put it right up here A bit of an angle. Yeah It looks like it's got mounting holes on the heat sink So I'm gonna presume I can drill holes anywhere along this Mount it and When I was just outside I figure if I put two holes right here and here Put a piece of metal going across. I'll be able to attach it To those pipes out there. It'll make sense. All right. I admit it. I am guessing a little bit here Looks pretty good nice and sturdy And I've got to connect the battery slots To the battery and I've got some 10 gauge wire here And the question is do I run it across the ceiling and down or down and across The problem with going across here is people are gonna hit it with the arms unless I put it under I don't know. I think I better run it across the ceiling So it's out of the way of people and then I'll just come down one of these And then sneak right in there. All right two wires coming out of there Going up to the ceiling. Ignore all this crap. Most of that's going to go away Come across and into the thing And excellent 26.3 volts sounds about it. The little instruction manual tells me that I have to connect the batteries before the solar panels So that means I had to connect the motor wires to the battery at the same time Because to put the motor wires off I'd have to unscrew everything and Attach the motor wires which would disconnect the batteries Which means if I already have the solar panels connected then I have to disconnect the batteries from the motor I have to disconnect the solar panel. And anyway, I just connected Two big fat wires too and those will go to the motor And I don't know what they're just not doing anything right now Next I have to connect two of these solar panels to that charge controller And it doesn't really matter which ones. I think I want to connect the rear ones Because they're more likely to be in the sun when I'm parked at a dock like if I come into a dock At the front if there's any kind of covered roof or anything these solar panels might get covered More likely these will still be in the sun. So Yeah, they'll be able to charge the batteries while I'm parked Hopefully Okay, so I have to connect two solar panels in series to this charge controller. So that means out of the four wires That should be sticking out down here Yeah, they're just hanging out good. Um, I connect two to each other and then The other two go to the charge controller So the two to each other is I have to connect the positive of one solar panel to a negative of another solar panel Okay, I got my wires. I got a safety diode in there Wires coming through here. I got them connected to the ceiling A bunch of spots and down into the charge controller right there. Okay. Now I should be sitting. Whoo It's got a little sun up here. That means the solar panels are getting sun And then some little blinky things here that I think say electricity is going into the batteries beautiful Now I need to set this to lithium batteries. Make sure it's doing the right thing All right, I followed the little instructions here This thing has four different buttons. It's super easy to program So down in the bottom right corner. It says li for lithium It's tiny, but I can see it All right, we're on 24 volts. Yes, correct the bottom left there And it looks like energy's going in. Okay. I think everything is good I've even got some fancy lights blinking up here. Not not blinking lit up. Ooh nice stuff Oh and from my chair here in the boat I can totally see the numbers Beautiful very easy to see it doesn't block my vision too much You can still see around and under all right. This blocks my vision more than anything It doesn't hit up there All right, I think everything is good Oh That means I can I can connect the motor stuff now What am I gonna do? I have some funny ideas about a speed controller. Oh my gosh, the boat's almost ready to go Oh, I'm so excited. I'm just gonna watch the batteries charge for a little bit My wires coming off the motor there are two gauge Which is way bigger than they need to be. Well, I'm here not way bigger But four gauge would have been fine. I just don't have any so I should have some very efficient energy transference from the batteries to the motor, so That's good You know what? I think I'm gonna figure out the motor thing tomorrow I'm gonna have everything's charging in there right now. It's looking great For the motor speed control I'm doing something a little bit crazy. I bought some 10 gauge nichrome wire And we're gonna make a speed control out of it. I think I think that's what I'm gonna do I guess I'll figure out