Upgrading Solar Charge Controller on FWC

My entry into solar on my Four Wheel Camper (FWC) included a LiFeP04 only Charge controller from Bioenno for my 50 Ah Bioenno battery (photo above)

This charge controller worked fine gor me for my last 3 years of my FWC travels, but technology got me to change.

When I worked with my friend Bryce on his hybrid RAV4 vandwelling design he wanted solar for his 100 Ah Renogy battery.  He also chose a 50 Ah multi chemistry charge controller from Renogy.  The charge controller he selected was designed no only to pull in solar to charge his battery, but it also had an input from the engine to charge from that too.  In fact it would split charge from both, deferring to solar if available.  

I liked this concept as I had a power connection from my Tacoma engine to the FWC but to not overcharge the battery I manually had to manually switch between solar Vs engine charging.

What better solution to have, than to have this done all automatically!

So, I decided to get the 30 Ah version of the 50 amp charge controller that Bryce got.  The model number for mine is DCC30S.(shown above)

It required wire routing changes and luckily I had enough space to put the Renogy charge controller where the Bioenno one was.

I also put labels on all the wires to and from and upgraded the Bioenno AC to DC charger to 15 amps from 10 amps for when charging from shore power. (Partially shown in bottom left of picture above)

There are 4 lights in the Renogy charge controller above.  From right to left;

- Blue - LiFeP04 chemistry charge

- Green - Battery is attached

- Red - solar power (blinking when maintaining battery)

- Red - engine charging

This charge controller change to include both functions has made a big difference in my 2021 travels. It also will make a big difference with simplicity of charging going forward.

I use an isolator between the engine and the FWC charging to protect my truck battery.  This charge controller is the same one from prior years and only sends power to the FWC once the engine battery is fully charged and this takes about a minute.

In theory I don’t need the separate isolator from the engine as the Renogy charge controller does this and also maintains the engine batter from solar once the FWC LiFeP04 battery is satisfied.  I don’t need this function and I keep my original design.

I’m thrilled with this upgrade and the ability to ignore the charging system.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com