Cheap Solar Charge Controller cooling system with housing
Description
<h4>Reason behind this cooling system:</h4> Most cheap solar charge controller are built the same and all of them have the same problem, at first, they seem to function normally, but after a while they will destroy the battery and still show a normal Voltage. This happens because the controller uses PWM and dumps all the "unusable" energy. All that heat will destroy the MOSFETS inside after a short while because the controller doesn’t have a cooling system. Well, they have a thermal pad that is connected to the backside (a single aluminum plate that is coated in paint), but this isn't very effective. For a better explanation watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWaJSJdWE9I Of course, this active cooling solution is probably complete overkill for such a small controller, but even if it is cheap, I want to preserve it an keep my solar system safe. Better safe than sorry! (Originally this should have been just a better passive cooling solution with bigger heatsink, but after 1h with one 100W panel the heatsink that I screwed on got so hot that I couldn’t touch it anymore, so the fan was added). <h4>You need:</h4> 1 Fan 40x10mm (I used a Noctua to be extra quiet) 2 heatsinks (1x for 1 MOSFET and 1x for 4 MOSFETS) DO NOT use one heatsink for all Drains, not all of them should be connected! <h4>Assembling</h4> Unscrew the aluminum backplate and either cut a slot out to fit the MOSFETS through or print the backplate and screw it on. Now screw the heatsink onto the MOSFETS, but don't connect all together! You need to isolate them from each other. (Most often the ones that need to be isolated from the rest is one or two MOSFETS that control the solar panels. Please use a multimeter to determine which ones can be connected). Now you can connect the fan to the housing (don't forget to put the cable through the designated hole) and screw it all together. <h2>A fixture is work in progress.</h2>
Statistics
Likes
0
Downloads
0