Customer Reviews

TriStar TS-45 Charge Controller

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an outstanding charge controller. Installation was clearly laid out in the owners manual with factory default charge programs that cover most battery charge point voltages. The programs are easily set using small DIP switches. If you prefer to have a custom solar charging program (ie bulk chargeing voltage of 15.0 volts with a float of 13.4 volts) you can download Morningstar's PC software and manually input the charging points.

There are 3 different colored LED's on the front of the unit that let you know how your system is performing. The LEDS will tell you the status of your battery bank charge, the stage of charging process (bulk, PWM, Float and equalization), and whether or not the batteries are discharging. You will need to refer to the owners manual the first couple of times to decipher the lights, but easy once you know what you are looking for. Additionally, the LED lights will flash different colors to indicate different faults.

Lastly, if LEDs are too complicated or frustrating for the owner, Morningstar makes a LCD display that will tell you the same things the LED's will, just in a digital readout. I have not personally used it, but it is nice to know if I want a remote digital display hanging inside my cabin, I can do that instead of trudging through the rain to the garage to see how the system is performing.

This is the second charge controller I have used for my off grid cabin, and am extremely pleased. My previous charge controller (Xantrex C60) failed within a week and customer service was horrible. Xantrex was made in China, and the quality showed. The Morningstar is made in Taiwan and it is hands down built better and sturdier than the Xantrex.

I will update if the Morningstar has any problems in the future.

Very stout unit. has lots of information in the booklet. with a little knowledge about electricity and none about solar power, the installation booklet will guide you through all the steps.

I decided to increase my input wattage one panel at a time, and increased by 80 lousy watts and now my controller wont let the batteries charge past 12.75 volts and when I try to use it for my water pump, (which worked before) it shuts it down.The battery voltage goes from 12.75 immediately to 10. This is on a full sunny day. I am going to have to bypass the controller when i run the pump until I can figure out what to do.
The instructions are long and complicated. You have to adjust 6 tiny dipswitches and have to call tech support to get info to do that. And it uses a complicated series of flashing LED's to tell you various things and what to do. I haven't figured it out after a year of using this.

Supposed solar companies who seem to be new at this, and only seem to to be putting in kits for grid tie systems have no clue about batteries and can't or won't help. In spite of this technology being around for 40 years, there are fewer and fewer people able to help me out on troubleshooting. The old timers (in the their 70's and 80's) knew how to do this. Darn them for dying!