₦airaland Forum

Monlo:
One of the Founding fathers,@GeorgeD1,we await your update please.Thanks for being an inspiration.Keep the fire burning.Enjoy

@Monlo,
Thanks for the compliments. For the pictures, pls be a little patient.
I will upload them soon. I've been busy with work

dsunmade:
Quick question. Can a Sukam inverter withstand the high equalization voltage of a charge controller ?

actually the answer is yes. i have a sukam 3.5kva fusion series and
no problem at all with equalization voltages from my tristar cc. others
may have a different model but mine is not exactly a recent brand so
it's hard to see how more recent versions should have this problem.

earthrealm:
thnks for the extensive explanations, guess the batts are undercharged.
the setup is in the villa, miles away from me/anybody who can perform the extensive tests wch can give a truer picture.
guess i wud hv to reduce the load on the system to maybe give the batta fighting chance in this cloudy weather.
its totally offgrid, no phcn.
4 x 12v 220ah mecury fla batt, 1.5kva 24v luminous inverter, 60amp epsolar CC


loads
190w fridge [130w energy name plate, but wattmeter says 190w...lol] runs for 8hrs daily
30w sec flood light runs for 11hrs daily.
about 8 x 18w bulbs......used at night say 6pm to 10pm
70w tv and 70w fan used intermittently, say 8hrs combined total daily [worst case scenario]

1500w panel..max harvest i hv ever recorded is 7.3kwh.
in this rainy season..average btw 3kwh n 4kwh

ahaha...i think i hv seen the problem.. with this bad weather, and the fridge +sec light beeing on timer switch...the batt is being drained below acceptable levels, its a rudimentary system n no tech savvy person around to monitor or effect intelligent load shedding.
need to reduce the fridge run time to 5hrs or4 hrs daily to allow the batts hv some charge, until the weather improves

earthrealm,
you may want to consider replacing those batteries with maintenance free agm or gel batteries going forward. for your setup and especially for remote locations it's always a better option.

zeestone99:
Mr JUO man of the year, God bless you brother, keep up the good work.

As for the controller war, are we saying the classic beats the Tristar,cos according to oga George's review Tristar lost the fight. Can we rank controllers according to brand. Of course we ll need more reviews, over to the house pls.

Who ll giv us review on the schineider controller.

zeestone,
contrary to your speculation, the cc war is far from over. remember that i've just had the midnite classic
for about a month and i'm still putting it through its paces. monitoring is still in progress while i continue
tweaking and re-configuring its settings. the tristar on the other hand is what i've had for over 7yrs.
in another month or two, i will update the house on my findings. who knows? perhaps in this space of time,
a game changing happenstance might occur that could spin all that review on its head!

warboy3:
@GeorgeD1 i see u,i greet u sir. Any solution is welcome.

warboy3,
Unfortunately I don't do ccam or Alphabox. Right from early days and up till now,
my moto has always been clean FTA. No illegalities, no breaking of signal.

Viva FTA!

yawwilson:
Hello GeorgeD1, why hibernate? we need your input no matter how little it is. Years past you and the others made this forum very very lively, hope you're doing good?
So long bro!!!!!

@yawwilson,
No hibernation bro. I and others are still very much active FTA enthusiasts outside
of NL. As founding members, we realize that the only constant thing in life is change
so we decided to leave the forum in the hands of the young ones, trusting that they will
keep the fire burning. And, so far, inspite of a few deviations to dark matters via cccam,
cline and the like, I see the thread has thrived and the overall goal of disseminating much
needed satellite info is being achieved.

Viva FTA! Break the myth!!

IHacked:
Greetings to all members especially the old guys George D ,odilibe ,Badaru,Andex70,Gadutor ,Kungu,and all .....how are you all? Is bean a very long time

Brother, how are you doing? Indeed it's been quite a while

amlad66:
I great you all followers of this educative threat, kudos to satellite Gurus of this forum! Indeed, in the absence of George D, Badaru, Adex, Odilibe and others for long time; Chinedu, life707, and others are very busy in keeping us up to date, thank you very much.

By the way, gurus i have problem with my C Band strong LNB, whenever i attache it with diseq cable the receiver get off. I changed wire cable and rotated diseq but same problem, so, please what might be the exact problem?

@amlad66,
We are still here my brother. Just watching from a distance.
Very soon I will update the house on my 4m pan and 3-in-1 orbitron
dish. Stay tuned!

bigrovar:
Thanks for this review. It adds to the heap of knowledge on here. I have always suspected the midnight classic is indeed the lion king of offgrid charge controllers due to its legendary status among offgriders. I remember reading somewhere that they and Outback are a branch from the same tree and their founders it was who pioneered the concept of MPPT solar controllers.

About JUO. He is the most understated Underestimated unassuming seller in this part. I remembered one time one of my controllers went lemon and even though it was under warranty and a replacement was on the way from the manufacturers, the time lapse meant I would be without solar insurance policy for close to 3 weeks. This happened on a saturday, I called JUO explained to him my situation and informed him of my need to have a new controller the next day in Abuja... The fact that I had the controller in my hands is not the exceptional part, it is that JUO sent the controller even though I explained to him my tight financial state and the fact that he might not be paid until much latter. BY sunday evening I was taking delivery of the charge controller and crisis was averted.

Just recently procured 4 Front Access AGM batteries from from him for a neighbour, The price he offered those batteries was so mouth watering, I give him 20K back for the boys. My neigbour called me last night to thank me for the batteries. Said they are working better than what he expected.

hello bigrovar,
indeed, a gold fish has no hiding place and juo has proven to be the man with the golden touch.

but while we're here heaping praises on one of our own, it may not be out of place to give some advice
(and sound a note warning) to the numerous shylock traders teeming around in the internet space. they pop
in here and browse through our thread and pluck in much needed knowledge which they use to update
their overpriced solar wares.
first of all, the advice: please wake up to reality and reduce your prices! the same price adjustment mechanism
you used to hike your prices when dollar rose steadily from 220 to 550 naira should be used to re-adjust those prices
downwards now that dollar rate has fallen to below 370 naira.
now the warning: if you choose to stick your heads in the sand and feign ignorance of current realities, savvy
peeps like us will keep going the juo route! we know where you source your wares and we know how much you
make off each imported item you sell. we only chose to patronize you in the past because your prices were reasonable
and we couldn't be bothered if you made a little income from your sales, afterall, you're not a charity organisation.
but when your profits and mark-up starts getting in the region of hundreds of thousands of naira for an item that
we know can be gotten for much less, then you will keep losing our business! pure and simple!!

DMerciful:
Thanks GeorgeD1, our grand Patron and inspirer when it comes to solar and new technologies.

It was a decent review however i have always preferred midnite classic and even common itracer to morninstar due to its lack of aesthetics....i love beautifully made things and this is a criteria for choosing for me funny enuf esp as many of these controllers performances are close to 99% efficiency.

dmerciful,
i'm glad you found the review useful. remember however that i've only had the midnite for less than a month.
so consider this as a work in progress. i'm still experimenting with quite a number of settings and observing its
performance. who knows? three months, six months or even one year down the line i might decide to do another
review and a lot of things might have changed by then.

kiekie1:
Welcome on board .. Nice you finally got the midnite order tru James ! My only dislike about midnite classic is the thermostatic fans which kicks in almost every time (2 underneath & 1 on top) & must be serviced when they get weak to avoid internal temp rise . Secondly it comes with real small 16mm ports for solar - battery cables , if you were using 25mm cables above on morningstar, you will find it a bit difficult to fix on midnite . . overall , its a nice mppt ! I also await users of the magnum mppt to attest -give a review on its ruggedness

hello kiekie,
thanks. i also do worry about those midnite solar fans and in comparison the tristar seems quiet but i guess that's the
price for its higher current carrying capabilities compared to the tristar.

babaegun:
@GeorgeD1

Thanks for this wonderful review of the Midnight Classic 150. Quite insightful. From the pictures to the analysis, everything was just fantastic.

From the comparison, I was so sure the Midnight Classic will carry the day and you just confirmed it.

One thing you fail to mention though which I saw from the picture, the Midnight Classic can also work with Hydro & Wind power aside Solar. I think this is a plus too. I doubt if the Morning star have that capability. That triple feature is missing in most charge controllers. Most ship with the Solar capability ONLY.

What about the Android/ios/windows apps suggested by dapsyra,, the Internet ready features. The Midnight Classic is really wonderful because in other Charge Controllers, you will have to pay more to access those features.



JUO is really the man! Any day, any time. His Customer / After sales support is simply super. Don't know if the guy did ITIL self .

Once Again, GeorgeD1, Thanks a million.

babaegun,
you're welcome. thanks for pointing out the wind/hydro capabilities of the midnite although the tristar mppt-60 also incorporates
those features with the right dip switch settings. if i had mentioned it, both controllers would have drawn that round.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Finally, the much promised review from somone here in Nigeria. A man of experience who thoroughly knows his onions.

So it appears the Midnite Classic won over the MorningStar overall - though I find the setup complexity issue relative having setup quite a few MorningStar CCs - I don't even think about it these days - there is something comfortingly solid & reliable about flipping dip switches.

I wanted to point out that the MorningStar is not limited to 2300watts - more like 3200watts output power as the below capture from my LiveView shows.

[img]https://4.bp..com/-BQvgsfBjyvc/WaFO4mUUqfI/AAAAAAAAAak/Lzt0ImVM2-IDQo0JJauvHgZROwUAeqDIQCLcBGAs/s1600/CC.jpg[/img]

So the jury is out on whether the Legacy P&O mode will clearly beat the MorningStar - hopefully you get a chance to try that and report to the house.

So I guess the next review would be the Magnum PT100 vs other CCs - hopefully someone would do the honors

NiyiOmoIyunade,
indeed the morningstar can do up to 3200w at 48v. please forgive my error. the point i was trying to make is the
overall higher capacity of the midnite @83a 48v as against tristar's 60a at same 48v.
and yes, those dip switches really give a comforting feeling knowing fully well that no software glitch can suddenly
change whatever settings you have made.

dapsyra:
Nice comprehensive review. Welcome to the family. Thank for sharing.
The Classic 150 can go as high as 4672W at nominal 48V. Mine is running very well on a 4500W array with peak instantaneous harvest of 4460W
The Classic 150 carries a 5years manufacturer warranty. Feedback from customers on their users' forum show that Midnite Solar honours this warranty promptly without trying to shift blames.

That app is the best Android App available to monitor the Classic CC

For windows environment, I recommend this app by Midnite Solar

http://www.midnitesolar.com/firmware.php?firmwareProduct_ID=2

You can also use this app to configure and fine tune the CC in a very easy to use graphical environment

@GeorgeD1, change the MPPT Mode from "Solar" to "Legacy P&O" and watch the Classic dust the Tristar in performance, early wake-up and late shutdown. The solar mode is optimised for clear skies while the Legacy P&O mode is optimised for cloudy skies. It is cloudy all year round in Nigeria especially around the coastal areas because of our tropical climate.

Head for https://mymidnite2.com, register and then configure your Classic 150 to upload logging data to your account. This will give you beautiful graphical presentation of all vital data from your CC.

hello dapsyra,
thanks. i'm still experimenting with the midnite solar. i will try changing to the "legacy P&O" mode and see if it
finally overtakes the tristar in terms of daily harvest.

Barezzi:
Seconded!

I'm sold.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.farrelltonsolar.classic&hl=en

Have you tried the app in the link above?

hello barrezi,
thanks for the link. i will certainly try out the app and let the house know what i think

now, for my vote of thanks:

juo is the man of the moment!

it has really been a very tortuous journey for me. i set out looking for the best and most economical way to replace my
tristar mppt-60 which obviously was undersized for my solar array and i searched in a number of places, contacted
quite a few sources both here and outside the forum and ended up disappointed. i noticed that most sellers still carry prices
of items calculated at an exchange rate of 450 to 550 naira to the dollar. over seven months after dollar has reduced to 365
naira and below, these peeps choose to bury their heads in the sand and pretend not to be aware of the current realities.
in comes juo the life saver! here was i chatting with this unassuming seller on this thread via watsapp and narrating
my ordeal to him and the next thing i knew he was already making arrangements to get me a midnite solar classic 150 at an
incredibly mouth-watering price. initially i thought it was all a joke until i got that much anticipated call from him telling me
that my cc was ready for collection. at the end of the day when i compared what i paid to the amount that a popular online
store is selling their midnite, i just shake my head in disbelief.

not only has juo proven to be a reliable guy to deal with, he has always been consistently delivering quality products at
unbelievably low prices and this successful deal adds another feather to his cap.

all,
so finally here comes the head-to-head comparison between midnite solar classic 150 cc
and the tristar mppt-60.

1) build
the tristar comes solid as a rock made of an upper cast aluminum and a lower steel body. so also the
midnite. it looks rugged enough and its appearance exudes quality. a mere glance gives one the
impression of high quality.
-both charge controllers take this round equally.

2) installation
both charge controllers are easy to install with both shipping with a battery temperature probe as standard.
clearly marked positive and negative battery and solar pv terminals reduces possibility of error.
- this round is also a draw.

3) setup
setting up the tristar is a little tricky as you'd have to fiddle with the notorious 'dip switches'. from system
voltage settings to battery type selection and equalization, you will do well to read your manual over and over
to make sure you don't flick the wrong switch else you might just kiss your precious controller goodbye.
the midnite classic on the other hand is a beauty to set up. the built-in wizard helps guide you through the set up
process and you could be done in minutes without even opening one page of manual to read. it is that easy.
-the midnite solar wins this round without contest

4) programming, fine-tuning, etc
coming closely on the heels of setup is programming and fine tuning the charge controller.
the midnite solar has quite an impressive list of user adjustable settings that you could carry out directly from the
mngp (display unit). you could also use the wizbang jr add-on to achieve this. and this helps to make the unit very
flexible and user friendly.
the tristar on the other hand is not that easy to program. i've mentioned the dip switches already. to adjust the few
settings available you will need to install the optional 'msview' software.
-again the midnite classic wins this round.

5) connectivity, internet, etc
both charge controllers connect to the internet when properly configured but it seems the midnite classic has a more
seamless architecture. configuring the modbus for the tristar has always been a pain in the ass for me.
- midnite classic wins this round

6) performance, solar harvest, ability to optimize yield even in cloudy weather
i rotated both charge controllers from north facing panels to south facing panels over the course of two weeks and
monitored their performance with the different arrays. i discovered the tristar always being first to wake up from night
mode or 'rest' early in the morning and being the last to go to sleep in the evenings. also conversion wise (dc to dc)
the tristar seems to shine. however what the midnite classic lacks in terms of its inability to wake up on time, it tries to
make up for it by its superb solar algorithm - although it finds itself always trying to play catch-up for the rest of
the day.
for most days, production from both charge controllers were almost equally matched with only a little variation.
- this round is a draw with the advantage tilting more towards the tristar.

7) durability, reliability, etc
like i said in my earlier post, it's still early days yet with the midnite classic cc so i may not be in a good position to tell
how durable or reliable it may turn out to be. however, i can vouch for the tristar as a solid and reliable unit able to
withstand almost anything thrown at it. unless you deliberately set out to damage it, this cc is guaranteed to serve you
for many years to come.
- this round is inconclusive

8 ) scalability, ease of expansion, etc
perhaps the biggest selling point and over-aching advantage the midnite has over the tristar is its ability to produce
between 80 to 96 amps of charging current with a maximum solar array size of up to 4,300w at 48v. that means as a
user there is more room for expansion. you can start with a few panels and continue building up your system on an
incremental basis by adding panels after panels without worrying about changing/upgrading the charge controller.
the tristar on the other hand maxes out at 60 amps which translates to 2,300w at 48v. anything above this and the
current limit alarm set in.
- midnite classic is the winner for this round

9) conclusion
as can be seen, each charge controller has its own strong points and not so strong points. also, they seem to match evenly
in quite a few areas. at the end of the day, its much like comparing ronaldo and messi - both are kings in their own rights -
or comparing apple and android. while one is a closed system and difficult to manipulate, the other is flexible and easily
configurable - but they both excel in what they do.

now for the review (and i'll try to make it as short as possible):

out of the box, the midnite solar classic 150 feels solid and well built. it's very much unlike
the numerous cheapo charge controllers flooding the market these days.
installation was a breeze partly falling back on past experience and partly referring to the manual
that came with the cc.
programming the controller was a piece of cake using the built-in wizard that comes with the mngp
(classic display panel).
performance wise the midnite classic didn't disappoint. from day one it didn't waste time before
displaying the stuff it was made of. through the clouds and sunshine, it kept pulling in every bit of
juice it could get.
as for durability and reliability, it remains to be seen how long the controller will keep on putting
up this type of stellar performance without issues. time will tell.

next i will be comparing the midnite solar classic and the tristar. this is where things begin to get
more interesting.

the midnite solar and the tristar side by side:

first strike: powering up the midnite for duty

mounting the cc:

preparing to install:

out of the box, here comes the knight in shinning armor!

all,
as promised last night, i will attempt to do a review of my new midnite solar classic 150 cc.
but first things first. here are the installation pictures.

all,
i spent the past two weeks testing out my new midnite solar classic 150 cc and now
i'm ready to give the lowdown. while i was at it, i also put the midnite head to head
with the morningstar. a few surprises and not a few mehs as you would expect.
watch out for my review.

MooreJozo:
Bro I sell wedding n engagement rings majorly, I only add up few gadgets to sell while importing my stuff , U got issue??

if an intention to patronize can be interpreted as an "issue" then i guess the answer is yes

life707:
In Jos where I stay, even when there is no rain, there will be no sunshine for up to 3days, so for most of us that live off grid, we use two systems with an automatic change over running a 14/10hr shifts.

The rationale is to rest one set and get better charging while the other set manages d little daylight to power the house.
We observed that no matter how many kwatts of PV u have, as long as d system runs for 24hrs, during this period, the battery drains faster because the depth of charge is not sufficient to make the batteries float.

Thus necessitating two system up.

The PV I bought from you were to augment my second system.

With ur 7kw system, a split into 4.5kw and 2.5kw will be helpful.
U will be surprise what the 2.5kw system can do at night when it has all the time to charge all day with little sunlight and settle before coming on to take over from the 4.5kw system that charges and work at the same time during the day.

Just thought to share my experience.

there was a time i gave serious thought to such a setup but later decided against it for
various reasons. my experience these past few weeks may force me to give it a re-think.

Oshomo12:
Ilorin is a good place for solar even around this period. Anybody complaining should come to Akure and see worse! I am thinking of small wind turbine for this period (around 400W). The ones I ve seen so far on aliexpress, the feedback not good (imagine 400w not producing even 100w).

oshomo,
wind turbines would be an attractive proposition down here in the south-south
especially for the period between july-august. if i can lay hands on an efficient and
reliable one with a cut-in speed suitable for the prevailing wind characteristics, what
a boon that would be.

bigrovar:
won't be as efficient as diversifying to something like wind. over sizing should have it's limits especially considering the really tough months are July-August. if you overtly oversize your PV beyond your load, your system would be under utilised for the most part of the year

hello bigrovar,
you're very much on point. the july-august rain belt is proving to be an especially hard one to swallow most especially
with the weather pattern this year. some days even with my over 7kw solar array i'm barely able to generate 5kwhr
total production. i'm only now beginning to realize that i actually need more panels to tide me through the dark days.
but again, like you said, oversizing has its limits.
i was talking to someone early this afternoon and i said putting out more panels on a dark cloudy day with zero sun is
akin to lining up empty plastic buckets to fetch rain water. even if you have 1000 buckets lined up, if there is no drop of
rain you realize nothing at the end of the day. same thing goes with solar. a million panels stretched out on your roof
with zero sunshine will yield zero kilowatt-hours!

DMerciful:
Hi my People,

I missed this forum.....been quite busy...work nor let me see road

Kudos Guys

dmerciful,
welcome back. hope you bring something for us?

Nkdave:
Good day Sir George, and all the trustworthy pioneers of this futuristic thread. I've been following for a while now, and I must say I'm impressed, although I had started using AE some while before I found this thread, I intend to go and grow forward with help from here.

Sorry, enough rambling, two questions please.

1. I have just a 1.2kva Mercury modified sine wave Inverter, + one 170ah trailer battery (due to monetary constraints at the time, and being experiential too), this gives me back up for between 4 to 7hrs depending on hours of charge it gets from Nepa, and ofcos my usage.
Now I want advice on wattage of solar panel I should add to the existing setup, that would provide better additional back up as recently we only see NEPA for a total of 6hrs in a day, sometimes even less.

nkdave,
welcome on board. even though its not really advisable using trailer batteries
for inverters, since you say its a temporary solution, no problem.
to incorporate solar power for your setup, here is what you need:

170ah multiplied by 1.2 (to account for system losses) will give you: 204ah
this gives a total power output of 2448w (assuming you are draining down to
a dod of 80 to 100 percent - which may not be practical.
for a 5 hour average daily insolation, you can get by with a solar panel array
of between 400w to 600w depending on cloud cover.

as for your brother, you need to get back to us with actual nameplate power
ratings for all the equipment mentioned in your list if you want proper system
sizing advice and cost.

prof,
sorry for the loss. like dunka, i will advice you go for a steel tower this time.
if you insist on erecting another concrete tower and you really want to do a
good job, you will discover that the cost would be almost the same as setting
up a steel structure when you quantify the iron rods and cement involved.