Victron Energy SmartSolar MPPT 100V 20 amp 48-Volt Solar Charge Controller (Bluetooth)

I recently installed two 100 watt Renogy solar panels on top of my RV trailer, along with a Renogy 30 amp PWM controller with a bluetooth dongle. The panels work fine, the Renogy SCC (Solar Charge Controller) not so fine. The bluetooth app is broken, crashes frequently, and is mostly a waste of money. While the Renogy SCC did its job, the performance on cloudy/shaded days was inadequate. With a PWM SCC, you must run your panels in parallel. You cannot fully charge a battery with 13 volts available (cloudy day in trees) from the PWM SCC, no matter what the amps is. With the panels in series, that 13 volts would now be 26 volts. So I ordered the Victron SmartSolar 75/15 MPPT controller with built in Bluetooth. With an MPPT controller, you have the option to run your panels in series or parallel. Running my panels in series doubles available voltage (up to around 40 volts, which the SCC converts excess voltage to the appropriate voltage (12 or 24 volts) and current (amps) to charge your batteries. This SCC handles this nicely. The unit was delivered in brand new condition. I was surprised how small it is. There are three LED indicator lights on the front. You cannot flush mount this device. I installed this inside a wall with a vent pipe, and ran my wires out the top of the RV via the vent exit. Where I mounted inside the wall, I used a tin lid against the wood. The instructions say to mount the unit on a non-combustible surface. I stacked two washers between the wall and tin, offering a better way to dissipate heat from the back of the device. If you look closely at the picture, you can see what I did. Then I made a facade cover with a small peep hole to quick view the LEDs. These LEDs are quite bright, some people tape over them. I would try a black felt tip marker to try and dim things first. There is no way to flush mount this unit. You cannot use wire bigger than 10 AWG. Some claim 10 AWG is too big, but that just isnt so. Just dont mangle the wire ends and theyll fit. But there is a better way, read below. What I do is to tin the wire ends. Strip off 1/2 inch of wire, give a slight twist to keep the strands tight. With a good soldering iron, solder the wire end, making sure the solder flows evenly. Not too much or youll end up with a fat end that wont fit in the lugs. You might practice this with a piece of wire, but once done correctly you have a superior connection. Then after inserting the end into the lug, tighten snuggly, then loosen, the re-tighten. Each time the lug will screw down a little tighter as the lug worms into the wire end. Ill do this at least 10-15 times, until the lug is snug and secure. Be careful to not over tighten and strip the lug. Use cable restraints. Once the battery is connected, hook up the PV array. I cover my solar panels with some plywood (or some cardboard) to turn down the open voltages while I connected those, which for two 100 watt panels in series is over 40 volts in bright sun and could shock you. I also installed a disconnect switch for the PV panels, next to that is the inverter remote switch. Your battery must be connected first, then connect the PV array. The one weak area of this device is the manual. It comes with a tiny booklet that is difficult to read. You can download the PDF version from Victrons website. Some of the info is sketchy and in not so plain English. For some info you need to install another app called Victron Toolkit. This offers explanations of the various blinking LED functions. The built in Bluetooth requires an app called Victron Connect(I have an Android Nokia smartphone) for reading power outputs, managing battery charging profiles, etc. The app was downloaded and installed without issue. With the app installed and paired to my phone, the app quickly upgraded the firmware for the SCC. Once this was done, the app works very well. I can walk about 40 feet away and can still stay connected, which is about normal for Bluetooth devices. Again, the app is well done and works well. The manual has some odd English to explain some of the functions. Ill try to explain in plain English as I see it. When you first hook up the SCC, the manual says 5+ volts from the PV panels over the Battery volts is needed to be operational (According to the manual). I would expect the unit to be operational when I bought it brand new out of the box. What this really means is this; When the controller sees 5 or more volts from the PV (solar panels) above the battery volts, it turns on the charger. When the PV volts drops to 1 volt or less then the battery volts, it turns off the charger. You can tell if the SCC is on and charging with a steady blue(or yellow or green, depending on SOC(State Of Charge)) LED, or off with a blinking blue LED every 2-3 seconds. When not charging, you can still use the Bluetooth. As the day progresses the LEDs will turn to yellow (absorption mode) to green (float mode) depending on clouds and trees, and of course electrical use. With my panels hooked up in series, mine starts up right about the crack of dawn and is charging in bulk mode with a steady blue LED. With the ability to turn off charging, I have notice right off my battery is still > 80% SOC (state of charge) when it restarts in the morning, even with the propane sensor on (my only parasitic load when parked). I like the Bluetooth app. It gives you complete control over battery settings and you can use just about any type of battery including lithium. The app also has a handy history function that is very useful. Some people complain about the range of communication with the Bluetooth. Mine functions like any Bluetooth, about 40 feet of range and that is that. Even with the SCC inside a tin covered RV and me outside, it works fine. I hope someone reads this before going with a PWM charger. For a few more bucks you can have a superior solar system. But for the somewhat lacking manual, I have no cons for this device. I have also ordered the Bluetooth battery temperature and voltage monitoring device for better charging. My batteries are outside the RV while the SCC is inside, this can skew charging parameters. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RTYGMBD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I use two Duracell 78 ah AGM Ultra group 24 batteries along with a 1200/2400 watt inverter, so far this is working out well. This device has load outputs. For the average RV person setting up a simple solar system, this can be ignored. Run your 12 volts supply from the battery as it was originally wired. UPDATE July 1st, 2021: I have recently added two more Renogy 100 watt compact solar panes to the other two, making a total of four. To get these to work on the Victron 75/15 Smartsolar charger, I created two groups of two panels in series, then connected the two groups in parallel. Any other way would be over the rated amps or volts (depending on how the panels are connected. This setup delivers to the battery 15 amps @ 13.6 volts (float), which is as high as it can go. Volts remain the same as the original setup with two panels in series, about 43 volts. I just get double the amps. If I want to get the maximum amps I need to buy the next size up, the MPPT 100/20 controller. As it is now with four 100 watt panels, the charge controller works very well. With 4 panels connected, it turns on quite a bit before sunrise. The extra panels are very helpful in shade or cloudy days(or both). And when the sun shines, the output is strong.

I use this connected to my VENUS Os on a Raspberry Pi. It was a little tricky to set up but it has been running great. With this setup I can access the MPPT controller from my phone anywhere now. I also connected by 2 JK BSM as well so it that can be read from the internet too. Much appreciate Victron making the project Open source. It is a high quality interface. As for the MPPT controller it runs 8 to 10 hrs a day at max output of 15A since I have 400W of panels connected and I rotate them during the day for optimum angle. The unit runs cool and I have had no issues.

Experimented with a few other charge controllers for our off grid RV. I think I am finally happy with this Victron 100/50 charge controller. My 400ah lifepo4 batteries were charged from 54% to 100% by noon on a sunny blue Arizona sky. My previous charge controllers usually got the batteries to 100% by 2-3 PM if I was lucky. Love the app!! I was able to enter my specific batteries parameters that were recommended by Powequeens manual. Also able to see the history of what my panels and charge controller did for the day/week/month/year. Im Happy!

I purchased a couple 100W Renogy panels for our travel trailer as dry camping opens up a lot of sites for us and I don’t like firing up the generator unless I have to. The panels are deployed on folding stands which is really the only way to get them in the sun in the wooded campgrounds we frequent. I used them the first weekend with the PWM controller that came with the kit. It blinked nicely at me, but even with a voltmeter added to our control panel inside the camper there wasnt really a way to see what was going on. I started looking at adding monitors with shunts, but things start getting rather involved for my particular setup. At home in the off-season the camper is covered and plugged into shore power to keep the batteries up. I realized a few things. First, I’m paying for electricity to charge the batteries when I have two solar panels in a box. Second, the on-board inverter/charger is OK for maintaining batteries, but really lacks the ability to keep them at a full charge as they hover around 13.4-13.6 volts regardless of battery condition and with no temperature compensation. Third, to charge the batteries requires the battery kill switch to be on, meaning I’m also powering gas and carbon monoxide detectors and who knows what other parasitic loads in the camper. Not a monetary issue but things without power on them can’t cause unforeseen issues. I had originally fallen prey to the argument that you’re better off buying another panel vs. paying for an MPPT controller. That works on paper but I realized that I’ll set out 2 panels, but I will never set out 3 or 4. That meant the Victron SmartSolar 75/15 would work nicely and the cost was within my threshold of pain. The need for a separate monitor was also negated. Installation was easy as I was just replacing the PWM controller. My setup is a couple of group 24 lead acid deep cycle batteries with around 160ah. Power is brought into the storage bay of my travel trailer with 4/0 wiring where it splits off to a 3000/6000 pure sine inverter. The Victron is wired into the 4/0 cables which are only about 18” away with 10 gauge cabling. The Zamp plug that came with the camper was replaced with a 10 gauge wire unit, and the 20’ of Renogy cable going to the panels is 10 gauge. The storage bay isn’t heated so it’s within a few degrees of the batteries which are on the tongue. After doing an update the unit automatically selected 12v and the default charge setting was for deep cycle gel batteries. I was initially a little worried that there wasn’t a specific setting for lead acid batteries but the parameters of this option are apparently fine from what I can gather. Equalization is off by default. After installation I zipped the camper cover back up all I have to do now is walk by and log in to see what’s going on, no need to unzip/unlock or interrupt my nap when we’re actually camping to check our state of charge. The attached screenshots were for the first few days. I’m only using one 100W panel as I felt this would be sufficient. The battery bank was at 90% charge the first day (see handy chart) and I was pleased to see that it got fully charged but concerned that my 100W panel was only putting out 35W in full sun. A 100W panel is going to max out somewhere around 70W in the northern hemisphere on the best day in the summer and this was in January, the lowest amount of available solar energy (insolation) of the year. The following days were even worse until I understood that Pmax isn’t your panel’s peak wattage, it’s the peak that the controller will draw from the panel as it manipulates current and voltage to get what it wants. You’re not going to see a Pmax that resembles the published output of your panels unless you have a big load on them (or drained batteries) and maybe not then. This is a layman’s explanation, but if it keeps you from thinking you have a bad panel or connection it’s worth the keystrokes. Of the following three January days the first was sunny, the next was cloudy and the next was rain. The Victron doesn’t care, it still pulled plenty of voltage out of the panel and quickly went into float. It’s like a honey badger. Perhaps more interesting will be what happens when a live load is applied (such as when we’re actually camping and using power). Toggling the electric tongue jack gets an immediate response from the controller as it ramps up to offset what you’re using, then it goes back to putting the battery back to the state of charge that it wants. Comparisons between PWM and MPPT controllers are made in somewhat of a vacuum, you can spend hours reading them. In the real world of RV use the MPPT probably offers more advantages than published. On cloudy and rainy days MPPT wins, but though it’s hard to quantify it also wins when you have partial sun exposure due to your location. I love wooded/private campsites. Most examples use a sunny day with no loads and the PWM can do what the MPPT does, it just takes longer. Let’s say I’m fully charged by noon and at 4pm I decide to take a shower (water pump, exhaust fan, lights). Which one will have a chance of recovering the batteries given the limited amount of remaining daylight? Exactly.

Two days in a row. At dusk and still showing 1.5 amps of charge. My PWM controller shows .2 amps.

The 75-15 units work great and stay cool under full load. They work as advertised. That said, the 15A output limit doesnt give you much at 12V (200W) or 24V (400W) (my battery system is 24V LFP), and I made the mistake of undersizing the charge controller against my solar which runs 500W+ in full sun. Hence why I was able to make the comment about them staying cool under full load :-). So I recommend buying the SmartSolar MPPT 100-20 instead of the 75-15. The price point is still very good and those 5 extra amps can make a difference. Plus the 75-15 is limited to 24V battery systems while the 100-20 gives you the flexibility to move to a more powerful 48V battery system in the future. I also have two 100-20s. When maxed out at 20A they generally clock in at 60C and dont go much higher, so not as cool as the 75-15s. But the 100-20s are far more capable, and can handle 12/24/48V without issue. A low speed fan is all it takes to keep them in a nice comfort zone while pushing 20A to the battery. Im running 70V VOC and 80V VOC (roughly) strings with no issues into these controllers, so the input amps and losses are very low. Thus the charge controllers are limited only by the output amps. The control and programming features are great. Ive used the load output directly and the virtual load output (basically a relay control output) as well. There are a few quirks with the direct load output, it cant handle surges at all really, even short ones. The battery profile is completely customizable and output amps can be limited. I actually used one of my 75-15 charge controllers as a high-efficiency level shifter going from a 24V battery to a small 12V battery at one point using the customization to limit the current. -- It would be nice if the load output could handle more current and capacitive inflow currents on start. I have used the load output on 24V systems at around 15A without issue driving resistive loads. But just like the Victron battery-protect stuff, these FET-switched load outputs cheap-out on components and just arent very capable despite the rating. It would be nice if Victron could improve on them but I wont subtract a star since it isnt really the primary function for the charge controller and the virtual-load output works quite well. In fact, one can use the actual load output to switch certain other FET power switches, (or relays, or contactors) very quickly since they are capable of decent gate currents verses VE TX port. So there is versatility here that I like.

good little controller. The terminals are very flimsy & cant get 8 awg or even 10awg wire in without stripping cable stains down! Connection problems they come loose or fall out. It wont charge of they are loose! They are to close together & might short out… make sure u use strain reliefs & zipties. After tgat i was able to get it to work…Manual to small to read & obtuse! No customer support ur on your own here!

This product is amazing. There is excellent software development that can be used both on your phone AND your tablet IN LANDSCAPE ORIENTATION. It comes with Bluetooth built in so that youre not having to decided between using an on device display thats the equivalent of a calculator from 1995 or extra Bluetooth dongles for incredibly limited app software development that is only usable on your phone. It has many different presets and the voltage ranges for those are all within reasonable levels compatible with a huge spread of brands. I recently had to replace my battery because my old charge controller was only compatible with its brand of lifepo4 batteries as the voltages were all set at 14.4 including the float voltage. I couldnt have the old controller destroying the new replacement battery, and I had seen the name victron mentioned in forums but I never really looked into it, but I was pushed into the situation so I did my research and was incredibly impressed with the features included, the accessible exterbal 25A fuze, and most importantly the intelligent app design that is also compatible with tablet operating systems to be used as an actual intelligent dedicated display. After installing this with 3x100w mono panels my new battery was able to go through all charge stages to float without error, unlike my other old controller that constantly had overvoltage errors on the old and new battery. Incredibly that company updated the their app to remove several features such as charge limit and imposed restrictions to certain settings, so the charger was literally unusable with the new replacement and I was pushed into getting something else. Im glad I was, the app support and common sense compatibility is amazing. The size is incredible too, its not big at all. Victron should be the first name people think of when they start setting up a solar system. There is just no debate now that Ive been able to experience both firsthand, and Im not interested at all in a different company thats willing to burn out the other brands batteries so that you purchase their own. I dont like that at all. Get Victron, dont argue with yourself about it. Youll have a working system much less likely in need of being replaced in two years like I was. You dont need to figure out the hard way like I did that Victron is top shelf reputable quality. Ill definitely be getting more Victron products in the future.

This is just to provide some comparison between these MPPTs when i am in search of one that suit my needs. The test being done in various conditions, multiple PV configuration and repeated at least 3 times to eliminate some quick and easy judgements. Honest observation during test found that each MPPT here has their own strength and weakness, but all seems are good quality one. None of these result determine anything about reliability and longevity of the MPPTs and no intention to favor one from the others as they are different from their price point and strength/weakness as mentioned above. And by no means this was the absolute result since product batch, setup/configuration and environment condition may differ from time, application and place perspective. Component of tests: - 4 x 300W Monocrystalline Solar PV - 280Ah LiFePo4 Batt 12V - 150A Smart BMS - AMPINVT MPPT 150/40 - EPEVER MPPT 150/40 - VICTRON SmartSolar 100/50 (*) Victron is the only MPPT has higher specs of amp (50A) while the other 2 are 40A, but AMPINVT and EPEVER has higher volt (150V) compare to Victron (100V) Key Performance Indicator: - Tracking time and amount of current (amp) generated in various conditions a) Series/Parallel, and combination of Series and Parallel of PV b) Combine multiple MPPTs (parallel) in same system c) Cloudy/Shading and Full Sun radiation performance Test Method: - To measure the current generated by each MPPT, i use the battery BMS across all the MPPTs so this will eliminate AMPINVT/EPEVER/VICTRON specific calculation and calibration on each of their device. - Using external amperemeter (BMS) will make the judgement square and fair between the 3 MPPTs and objective(not subjective as per vendor specific) Build wise 1) AMPINVT - If i could choose, i would like all the MPPT being build like AMPINVT. - It is very nice solid metal all-round, 2nd most heaviest and the connector style for batt and PV are full clamp type which is good one. - The only complain on this 150/40A series is the connector very small for 4AWG cable size (batt), it is impossible to fit in 4AWG cable in the batt connector. 2) EPEVER - The heaviest and biggest among the 3 MPPTs and the shape a bit awkward for me - Solid build and provide more heat-sink surface to dissipate heat - Among the 3, the connector type on EPEVER is the worst in my opinion, it was pinch style with screw so it doesnt have good amount of contact and holding power, however the connector size is HUGE!, 4AWG size is not a problem at all. 3) VICTRON - Being the smallest (less than half-size of EPEVER!) and the lightest of all - All metal case with heat-sink on the bottom - Connector style similar to AMPINVT and the size is also small, impossible to fit 4AWG cable size! Tracking Time - No doubt AMPINVT is the clear winner here for tracking time, it is very fast compare to VICTRON and EPEVER, VICTRON took almost double the time to reach maximum power point while EPEVER being the slowest of all. - However, this is very important and i almost didnt notice it first till i repeated the test , albeit AMPINVT tracking time is the fastest, the amp generated is not steady, it is fluctuate between 2A(min) - 6A(max) from the max current generated, it seems AMPINVT was very active re-scanning the maximum power point in looping mode and sweeping through the current between 4-7 seconds. - Due to unsteady current generated by AMPINVT, this may reduce the total amp-hour produced even though the tracking time is the fastest (quick/shortest). Cloudy Day - In 2S PV setup, all 3 produced very similar amperage. - In 2S2P PV setup, VICTRON has perform slightly better on cloudy day (by 0.3A - 0.6A) after multiple test reading, while AMPINVT being the last one. Shading Problem - In 2S PV setup, VICTRON and EPEVER produced slightly more amperage compare to AMPINVT. - In 2S2P PV setup, 2 out of 5 test reading shows EPEVER generated slightly more amperage compare to VICTRON (by 0.4A - 0.8A) Full Sun radiation - In 2S and 2S2P PV setup, i cant really tell since the max amperage for AMPINVT and EPEVER already reached (40A), while VICTRON has 50A max, thus VICTRON constantly produce more amperage by 6A-8A higher than the others. Conclusion - AMPINVT has very attractive price point, pretty compact but loud (fan noise) and the really downside is unsteady amp generated, however if system small enough (less than 600W) with 2S PV config only and very limited budget, i think AMPINVT is quite difficult to resist here, since the remaining 2 options is twice or thrice the price. - VICTRON is long known name in MPPT worlds, no doubt it could be the best and the test result telling not far from the tale, however this is the most expensive one in the similar class, if budget is not an issue and you want to build very compact (small) system then it is no brain to not pick up this one. - EPEVER, this MPPT perform similar as VICTRON in many ways and perhaps slightly better in shading scenario, can do over paneling up to 3x the power specs (3x520W=1560W) is huge advantage but due to size you need bigger space, but i guess the the best bang for the buck on this class.