# solar panel battery charging



## ardgour (Mar 22, 2008)

Hi

I have tried to set up my solar panel Steca Solsun charger to charge both vehicle and leisure batteries.
I had the 'bright idea' of feeding each battery through a low forward voltage diode (0.2v for Leisure and 0.7v for vehicle) so the loss would be small but the batteries would be separate. The Leisure battery would get the charge most of the time.

(The reason to do this is the vehicle battery was going down slowly over 1-2 months in winter but the solar panel had enough current to keep both systems OK.

Before I did this the Leisure battery normally charged to 14v and stopped. 

With the two diodes each battery charges up and the two circuits remain nicely separate.

But now the controller just keeps on charging the batteries up to at least 15v -- and a bit more.

If anybody has any ideas why the controller does this or how I might stop it I would be grateful.
thanks

John (chris's OH)


----------



## clive1821 (Mar 27, 2010)

because of the diodes in the line the voltage is taken from the charge side of the diodes so thus the battery voltage would be higher to switch off the charge rate... i would use a twin solar charger and this would not happen in my view..


----------



## 747 (Oct 2, 2009)

Why not just run a 1.5 mm wire from the positive terminal of your leisure battery to the positive on the vehicle battery. Fit a 10 amp fuse in the line.

For more details look at www.motts.org website. Mr Mott is a fellow member and a mine of useful information.


----------



## Techno100 (May 8, 2010)

I connected mine to the common terminal of my battery selector switch so it charges whatever battery I select.


----------



## cater_racer (May 1, 2005)

Bridge the diode feeding the Leisure battery with 1K ohm resistor, then the charger will detect the risng voltage, and shut off ok.


----------

