The important thing to be aware of when using a Tristar on a wind (or a wind and solar) system is that you need to use Diversion Mode. This is covered in the manual but rather as an afterthought, so the details are not immediately clear. You need to connect resistors between the yellow ‘Load+’ terminal and battery negative (or Tristar negative). Here is how it is shown in the manual:
All of the charging sources are connected directly to the battery and so is the controller. charging current does not pass ‘through the controller’ on its way to the battery. Rather it is diverted to the dump load when the need arises. This causes much confusion but it works very well, and it’s the usual and the best way to control a wind/battery system. Here is another way to draw a typical setup:
The diagram show each circuit from the battery protected by its own fuse (or breaker) which must be suitable for the wiring of that circuit. Never use a single battery fuse that can be broken to leave the wind turbine directly connected to the inverter or controller without a battery, since this will result in the voltage going high and the electronics being damaged. The controller will not protect you if the battery is removed.
If you must have a fuse on the battery (or a battery switch) then make sure that the wind turbine is disconnected (and/or shorted out by its brake switch first.) In some cases this disconnection can be achieved by a double-pole fuseholder.
The diagram shows blocking diodes on the solar PV. This is normal practice if the solar is to be connected to the battery without its own dedicated controller. I would not say it is essential, but it’s recommended.
Choose the dump load(s) based on the maximum current you could get from the wind and solar combined. (The US code requires that you allow 150% of the maximum current. This allows for gusts of wind etc. But few people do this.) Load resistance increases by adding more loads in series. Current in each load depends on the voltage divided by the total resistance. More loads in parallel will use more current. You can learn more about choosing dump load resistors here.
Make sure that the Tristar can handle the full current that the loads draw from the battery at the maximum voltage (equalising voltage for example could be over 30 volts on a 24 volt system). If necessary you can use more than one Tristar controller in parallel. Each Tristar will need its own resistive diversion load that is appropriately sized. They can all be wired to the same battery bank.
(The US code requires that you have a second independent means of charge control. If the Tristar shuts down, or its load fail to work then your battery could ultimately explode. But few people do this. Tristars are very reliable and most people keep an eye on things.)
Before energising the Tristar you should configure its dip switches. This procedure is clearly described in Appendix 2 (at the back of the manual).
Switches 1 and 7 are always turned ON (UP).
Use 2 and 3 to configure the nominal battery voltage.
Use 4,5 and 6 to fine tune the desired charging voltage based on the battery type and usage. Switch 8 allows you to choose automatic or manual equalisation of the battery.
If the battery voltage is low (12V), or the battery is a long way from the controller, or thin wires are used, then its a good idea to run a separate pair of wires from the battery-sensing terminals to the battery terminals (with a small fuse) so as to accurately read the true battery voltage.
If the system is high budget, or subject to swings in temperature, or if there is any danger of a battery overheating (small battery), then buy and fit the optional temperature sensor. I normally fit one. It will adjust the charging to make sure the battery gets enough in cold weather and will protect it against damage if it gets hot.
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Hi, I am going to connect two Tristar controllers in parallel to the battery. The first is TS-MPPT-60 for solar panels and the second one is TS-60 with dump load for windmill. My question is in cooperation of both controllers. I want to be sure they will track each other. For example the sun is shining and no wind. The sun controller will charge the battery to the absorption or even float mode and then windy weather will come. What behaviour of wind controller will be? Will he continue charging in absorption/float mode or the voltage will increase? And if he will start charging in absorption/float mode how he will take over the time when charging in this particular mode should be finished. Thank you.
I was looking at a similar design to Bogdan, we already have the MPPT with solar and were advised to get a non MPPT for the new wind turbine, but having read all the online documents the Tristar as Hugh points out is a load controller not a controller in the same way as the MPPT, where the power pass’s through the unit and is recorded and absorption is resumed after dark ect.
I have decided to go the “cheep” way and buy the RD1 relay driver board for the MPPT, I can set the unit to dump via a homemade mosfet relay or a simple relay type contactor, when the setpoint voltage gets to a certain point, a second setpoint could then brake the turbine in extreme weather, we could even monitor wind or turbine speed and automate through the relay board.
Anyone see any drawbacks in this?
Next, even though not documented the MPPT60 supports wind turbine input, ver 1.3 onwards, on the setup gui you get a list of power points to manually input for your turbine, you wire the turbine in to the controller so get logs of power ect. No documentation but I assume you need to use the relay board for dump loading, or so I assume?
Hi Steve,
I am not sure that the RD will work out much cheaper than the TS by the time you add relays etc but it does offer more possibilities including switching load on the AC side of the inverter, and braking the turbine.
Thanks for the news that the MPPT version can do wind turbine power curves, that is interesting. However you will need to make sure that the input voltage limit is not exceeded by the turbine. You may need a voltage clamp circuit for this purpose.
hi Bogdan,
It’s OK to connect multiple controllers in parallel, or in this case to use one for solar and one in diversion load for wind. So long as each controller has the right size PV array or the right size of dump load it will not be overloaded.
Your question is about coordination of the charging voltages. It’s true that there is no communication about this between Tristar controllers, so there will be some occasions when one is trying to do absorption charging, while another is trying to do float. In that situation the voltage may be one or the other, depending on the actual wind, sun etc. But when you think about it, it doesn’t matter, so long as all charge controllers have suitable programming.
Hi Peter,
I come back to you with another issue which is related to this article. I am thinking about over-voltage protection to protect batteries, chargers and inverter against high voltage which can be induced in wires in case of lightning. I use wind turbine Futurenergy 1 kW and Tristar’s charge controller. Please let me know your thoughts on that. What solution could be adopted here? Thank you.
hi,
thanks for your post. i have a tristar, it was working fine with a hydro turbine till a few days ago, now each time i plug it, it draws all the power from the battery till it’s empty. the dip switch are set as following: 1 on, 2 3 4 5 6 off, 7 on, 8 off.
do you have any idea why?
thanks
zopa
hi Zopa,
Seems like the FETs that switch the current are blown. You will see a fault signal in the lights on the front. R/G – Y sequencing.
Most likely to disconnected the battery and the voltage went too high and blew the FETs. Or maybe you shorted the output although it should survive that. If you don’t know what you did or you did nothing then try claiming a new one under the 5-year warranty. Morningstar are very good.
I hope this helps!
Hugh
Hi hugh,
thanks for the fast reply, there is no fault signal in the lights, it just light them normaly…
Any other ideas about why?
Thanks
zopa
OK looking closely at the dip switch settings I see that you have chosen auto battery voltage (2 and 3 OFF). I have a scenario for you. Maybe you are using a 24-volt battery and the controller has decided that you are using 12 volts? If that is what is happening then it will dump until the 24 volt battery drops to 13.8 volts.
The solution is the set dip switches 2 and 3 to suit your battery. For a 24 volt battery that means that 2 is ON.
Any good?
no, It’s a 12v battery, and i’ve tried manually changing it…
well it’s hard to say. Are you sure you have connected a load to it and not connected the hydro to it? The diversion load controller is connected to the battery and to a load. Not to the hydro.
you could try the tech support at Morningstar. They are good. I cannot understand the problem to be honest.
hi,
yes the hydro is connected to the battery, and the controller is connected to the battery and load.
I’ve contacted them, expecting an answer soon.
thanks à lot for your help.
zopa
nice informative blog hope to be re-visiting again
thanks a lot
Good day.
I need some advise with regards to the tristarTS45
How do I change the settings to a 24v?
I’m busy with a solar project. (24v system)
Would like to take my lights off the grid, total watts(300w)
My TV (270w), Laptop and some plugs.
I’m planning on buying two 270w solar panels Vmp:34v.
Control charger would be the TriStar 60ah.
2 X 12v 102Ah Deep Cycle Batteries or should I get the 105Ah?
With a PSW 3kw 24v Invertor.
Your Advise is highly appreciated.
Nominal battery voltages are set using switches 2 and 3.
For 24 volts, 2 in ON and 3 is OFF.
It’s all there in the manual.
Yes your system will work with about 100Ah of battery. I don’t think you need a 60A controller. The solar modules will probably put out about 8 amps each (total of 16A) so a tristar 45 is plenty big enough or you could use a 20 amp controller pretty safely instead. However a TS45 would allow for future expansion.
Have fun! Hugh
I really appreciate the speedily response.
Thank you for that information, I’ll keep intouch as the project progresses.
This is an awesome site.
Keep up the good work.
Nice work you have done here
sooo this is my prob
I have a 24volts system with 12 x 2 volts batteries at 805 Ah (new) lead acid , one Ts-60 to manage 10 panels of 100watt (pmax) at 5.8A (imp). The problem is when i tried to charging the batteries at 24volts (auto mode,1-8 off) i get G lit stable and the batteries are not full (26.8) , then i tried to charging 6 batteries only (12volts, auto mode,1-8 off) everything works fine G lit sequencing and the amp meter shows 13,4 A …. i tried to set the batteries voltage manual with switches 2 and 3 (for 24 volts, 2 in ON and 1,3,4,5,6,7,8 is OFF) and!!!! R-G-Y sequencing….. can you help me?
Hi Kostas,
You need to turn the unit off when changing the dip switch settings. If you change them while the power is on then you will get R-G-Y sequencing like that.
It’s a good idea to set the voltage manually using 2-ON and 3-OFF for 24 volts.
4,5,6 all off is a very low charging voltage. I’d set that a bit higher based on the manufacturers’ recommended charging voltage, but at least 28.4 volts.
I hope this helps.
Hugh
I want to by and setup a 4 solar array of 24 volt
It will be off the grid
Her is what I will get:
4 24 solar array
1 TriStar MPPT 60 amps
4 12 volt battery 100 amps /hours deep cycle
1 6000 Watt 24 Volt DC to 110 Volt AC Royal Power Inverter ( PI-6000-24V )
I will run all the lights and fridge and water pump
I have a question regarding the Tristar MPPt 60 amps:
Can I install a wind turbine of 700 watts later using the same Trista MPPt 60 or will I need to by a another one and if yes can I by just the Tristar PVM, it’s less expensive ?
Can a Tristar MPPT 60 amps be used for wind and solar at the same time ?
Thanks a lot
hi Louis,
I don’t think that you can use the Tristar MPPT for wind at this time. If you did then it would have to be a dedicated controller, and you could not feed both solar and wind into one controller, as the MPPT would not be the same for both. Yes you can use a simple tristar PWM for both. Solar PV is so cheap that it’s marginal whether you benefit from spending on MPPT. Maybe just buy another solar module?
Hugh
Can you use a Tristar 60 on a grid tie wind installation (48v) without batteries? We are using an Outback grid tie inverter (24v), which does not like to voltage spikes created by the turbines. It doesn’t like the erratic function of the ON/OFF dump controller either. Batteries and solar may be added later, as funds allow, but for now it is a grid tie only system, and it sounds like the Tristar could recoup wasted energy and smooth the input for the inverter.
Thank you.
You can use a tristar without batteries but you would void the warranty by doing so. Having said that, it would probably work quite well provided you use enough capacitance. to be honest I have not ever worked out the capacitance that would be needed. I suspect that the tristar works at a lower frequency than the LDR and so would need more capacitance to smooth the voltage ripple out.
The solar converters LDR unit is designed to work with capacitors in the absence of batteries, so it could be a better choice.
Or if the inverter is designed to work with a battery, why not use a battery. You could for example use two car batteries at low cost and see how that goes. Or find a decent secondhand deal. The batteries would not need to be cycled significantly so they would not need to be great performers.