[spdas]

Aloha, Ok I am charging off my Outback charge controller from my solar panels. (off the grid and not tied to the Electric company. (the Yaris has 14x12v=168v and Zilla, Warp 9"). I started by using "jumper cable" type clamps to charge 5x12v at a time. I have 14 batteries and will add another Optima battery to make 15. I will have 3 banks of 5 batteries. I know it is a pain, but it is a start. Soooo, is there any 3 position switch for switching between banks to do away with the jumper cable clamps? I found a lot of A, B Marine battery switches, and even A,B +AB, but not A,B,C three position switches.
You know of any??

 

[spdas]

Aloha, Ok I am charging off my Outback charge controller from my solar panels. (off the grid and not tied to the Electric company. (the Yaris has 14x12v=168v and Zilla, Warp 9"). I started by using "jumper cable" type clamps to charge 5x12v at a time. I have 14 batteries and will add another Optima battery to make 15. I will have 3 banks of 5 batteries. I know it is a pain, but it is a start. Soooo, is there any 3 position switch for switching between banks to do away with the jumper cable clamps? I found a lot of A, B Marine battery switches, and even A,B +AB, but not A,B,C three position switches.
You know of any??

I had a lot of discouragement from other forums about charging directly from my solar cells and Outback charge controller, but all I can say now is that I am really pleased with how it charged my pack today. There was a lot of passing clouds so I did not get optimum charge rates, but it still charged up in 6 hours for all 14 12v optimas. The Outback charge controller is very customizable in settings so I found optimum settings for absorbing and float in percentage and time and cutoff parameters. Only trouble is that it can only charge 5x12v at a time so I have to in three sections. If I was in full sun I would have charged from 50% state of charge to 95% in about an hour and a half per section. Xantrax or Morningstar are supposed to be coming out with a high voltage unit that will step up voltage from your input voltage from your solar cells.