Low-cost Volt Amp Meter

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Generic low-cost Solar Controller

This is the SEMPER generic blue PWM Solar Controller kw1210 10ampere, one of the cheapest solar controller you can get, it pretty much looks like other solar controller out there, except this has a flimsy button and plastic body/panel and there is no heat sink in the back unlike others, just a metal back plate that gets really hot during its peak voltage.

I just stick an old heat sink in the back and heat dissipates properly, I used to remove and keep heat sinks and fan of defective video card and motherboard before I dispose them for this purposes.

It's surprising its circuit is simple, it does not have much bells and whistle inside unlike the other solar controller I got. But don't make it fool you, this controller just works and is consistent. Its a good entry level controller, for those who wants to enter and play with solar power, better get these cheap controller, it's better to play actual real world data than just reading on those papers.

It also has a LCD(no backlight) control console which you can see the system/battery voltage and other like adjusting float charge voltage, discharge stop/start. You can also select lead acid battery type, such as sealed, gel and flooded. Obviously its not as efficient as more expensive controller like MPPT but this controller just works.

You can watch a video here how it behaves if you are interested.

DC Voltage Step Up/Down Regulator Module AT35

This is the low cost AT35 DC buck boost module, it can be used for any DC electrical applications, I used mine in my solar power systems, it can absorb 5v to 30volts of power then converts it to a stable voltage up to .5v to 30volts depending on the set value, by default it is in 12v but make sure to measure it with a volt meter or a multimeter before plugging in any of your devices, it may be set into a higher voltage settings and blew up your devices, its heat sink passive cooling can handle up to 3 amperes, it can go upto 4 amperes but external cooling may be required.

Green led will lit for standby, Blue led if there are devices plugged in into the output. I bought it as it is like no case but bare circuit board.

Solar Controller as a DC Uninterrupted Power Supply

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Solar Controller as a Battery Charger

CPY-2410 Solar Controller rev2

A few months ago I start playing around with solar power, I plan to install 2 IPcamera with a router in a remote part of our farm, I bought the cheap generic blue PWM solar controller, 50watts(18v) solar panel and 2 17ah lead acid batteries. But it's conking out in the night and found out that the solar panel is not enough to full tank the batteries to make it through the night, went to decide what to get, a cheaper route of a more efficient solar controller MPPT to get more juice on the solar panel or just add another solar panel so there will be plenty enough of power going into the batteries and the load(camera/router), so I went to buy a cheap MPPT solar controller, which is the popular one, the CPY-2410 by UEIUA, this is before I actually watched a 2nd popular review in the youtube about this product. It's suppose to be the cheapest yet working real MPPT solar controller you can get... not until after the 2nd revision(rev2) which supposedly they swapped the board from a different not so good model.

I used to like this controller, it has a robust plastic body and a heat sink in the back dissipates the heat properly, I also observed it consumes less power than my other blue PWM solar controller, as it only eats .04 battery volts per hour during the night with load(2camera+router) connected, compared to the blue PWM about .05 battery volts per hour with the same load. It also supposedly can maximize my 18v solar panel and convert it to amperes, both feeding the batteries and load.

Not until I noticed it peaking at 15.4v, it needs to be tested as it will be deployed unsupervised in a farm in the middle of nowhere.

I tested it for days and used a cheap volt amp meters, the cheap volt amp meter may be a little inaccurate with an error of +/-.2v but it will do the job knowing the flow of the system, its not worth to buy expensive ones just for this test, rather just use the money to buy a better controller.

Anyway you can watch a video from here how the controller behaves.

Even though it works fine for it's price, the controller seems to be unpredictable and inconsistent that maybe bad for unsupervised deployment as seen in the video. One day it peak a very high voltage of 15.4v the next day under voltage occurs that under charged the batteries. It just pumps in voltage then disconnects when it is reaching 15v, it just cycle like that so i doubt it's capable of float charging or equalization, not having a control console, there is no way to customize the voltage of the unit, nor identify if you are plugging a gel battery that is more sensitive to higher charging voltage.

That 15.4v could damage my 12v devices, though it may tolerate higher voltages, it could shorten their circuits life span faster especially it is running 24/7 non-stop.

I've added a DC voltage regulator at the load out connection so it will feed my devices a stable 12v even if the controller peaked by 15v but that additional regulator added the cost and power consumption a little bit, it also added a layer of circuit bureaucracy which may fail thus shutting down the camera and router rendering the project useless. To add that the controller is 3x the price of the cheaper blue PWM solar controller I used.

I am leaning on using this controller maybe to justify my purchase on it and seeing its internal like having a lot of capacitor and inductor makes it look more of a superior product, but after some testing I may skip it. I ended up using the blue PWM solar controller for my deployment project.

But not is all lost, I tried to use the CPY-2410 solar controller as a Battery Charger and a DC uninterrupted power supply for a router, you can check out my article regarding it.

Low Voltage Auto Cutt-off Modules

        

     




Just purchased a low cost YIBAI YX-20A from an online store, it auto cuts off/on electrical DC flow when it reaches a certain value set by the user. S1 is to set the cutt off voltage, S2 to set the start on voltage, by pressing S1 or S2 it will show the current value, long press until it blinks will edit the value, wait for the blinking to stop then it will be saved, it has a display so you can easily see the current voltage of the system. Set values is saved into memory so even if the device is removed, the set value is still saved on the device. It's up to you how you will use it, it can be used to cut off /on certain devices or appliance plugged into the battery or solar controller. S1 is to set the cutt off voltage, S2 to set the start on voltage, by pressing S1 or S2 it will show the current value, long press until it blinks will edit the value, wait for the blinking to stop then it will be saved, it has a display so you can easily see the current voltage of the system.

Set values is saved into memory so even if the device is removed, the set value is still saved on the device. It's up to you how you gonna use it, it can be used to cut off /on certain devices or appliance plugged into the battery or solar controller so it won't drain your battery when it gets too low, or will turn on some appliance on surplus energy only like example a cooling fan, or cut off some devices at certain voltage so there will be reserved battery juice for critical components at night time like security camera.

+ BTA - is for your power source connection. - OUT + is for your devices to be cut off/on

Recommended operating voltage is 12volts, maximum of 20amperes
You can check my actual video here to see how it works.

Note: this does not work if you use it on Relay 12v coil, it will malfunction.




Another module I bought is model YX-X0001, that's what is written on the board.




This is a little cheaper than the other one, obviously because it does not have any case or display, it does not have any push button to adjust value, just an analog small dial knob to activate its auto cut on/off feature based on voltage value, cut off/on is in default 10.5volts, by rotating clockwise it increases voltage cut off/on value and opposite decreases it, adjustable range is 9v to 15v. Maximum current is 10amperes unlike the first product can handle 20amperes

The cut off/on is responsive, but it fluctuates, it does not turn on or off smoothly unlike the first product, as seen in my video here, it has a scary screeching sound which is normal, its not good on sensitive device though, it looks as if its grounded and could damage sensitive devices you have plugged into it, so better choose what you will use with this product, I intend to use it to avoid my solar power system from over voltage and over heating (no thanks for having a cheap solar controller), by connecting a DC fan, once it reach 15volts, the fan will activate, not only it will eat excess voltage and prevent the system voltage from going up, it will also cool the system.