Alternative Power sources - Solarex SRX-12 info?

Author

Solarex SRX-12 info?

M&S

2005-07-25, 3:21 pm

Hello all,
A friend gave me a small panel which has the above charge controller on
it. He said when it was taken down they thought there was something
wrong with it but he wasnt sure what. Came off a remote gas metering
station of some sort.
The panel seems to be fine but I am unsure how to wire the controller
as it was disconnected when I got it. It has three wires coming out of
it, two red, and one gray. The red wires have small collars on them that
are marked "+a" and "+b". I had assumed the gray would go to the
negative terminal on the panel, the "+a" to the positive, and then the
"+b" out to the batteries?
I did try this and got power out however there are two LED's on the
SRX, a green and a yellow. The label says green means charged and yellow
means charging. When I hooked it up the green was blinking very fast and
the yellow was also blinking very fast but dimmer and a tad slower than
the green.
I am assuming it was either wired wrong or the controller is bad but
they pulled the whole panel rather than just swapping out the
controller. Any input is appreciated. I searched the solarex/bp site and
google for a wiring diagram but came up empty.

Thanks,
Mark

William P. N. Smith

2005-07-25, 5:21 pm

M&S <no@no.com> wrote:
> The panel seems to be fine but I am unsure how to wire the controller
>as it was disconnected when I got it. It has three wires coming out of
>it, two red, and one gray. The red wires have small collars on them that
>are marked "+a" and "+b". I had assumed the gray would go to the
>negative terminal on the panel, the "+a" to the positive, and then the
>"+b" out to the batteries?

That sounds like the controller on my SRX-20 panel, +A(rray),
+B(attery), and common (ground).

> I did try this and got power out however there are two LED's on the
>SRX, a green and a yellow. The label says green means charged and yellow
>means charging. When I hooked it up the green was blinking very fast and
>the yellow was also blinking very fast but dimmer and a tad slower than
>the green.

Did you have it hooked up to a battery when these lights were
flashing? This is the output I'd expect if it were connected but not
hooked up to a battery... Mine didn't have the lights, so I can't
tell you for sure what they should have done.

Depending on your battery, you might even use such a low-powered panel
with no controller at all.

Tim Keating

2005-07-25, 5:21 pm

On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 17:18:11 GMT, M&S <no@no.com> wrote:

>Hello all,
> A friend gave me a small panel which has the above charge controller on
>it. He said when it was taken down they thought there was something
>wrong with it but he wasnt sure what. Came off a remote gas metering
>station of some sort.

Try googling for "solarex SRX-12"

M&S

2005-07-26, 7:21 pm

William wrote:
> M&S <no@no.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> That sounds like the controller on my SRX-20 panel, +A(rray),
> +B(attery), and common (ground).
>
>
>
>
> Did you have it hooked up to a battery when these lights were
> flashing? This is the output I'd expect if it were connected but not
> hooked up to a battery... Mine didn't have the lights, so I can't
> tell you for sure what they should have done.
>
> Depending on your battery, you might even use such a low-powered panel
> with no controller at all.
>

William,
Thanks for the info. I did have the regulator connected to the
batteries when I tried the above. As you say, I have this panel sitting
on 8 6v 50ah exide batteries wired for 12v. Not knowing if I had the
controller wired correctly I simply wired direct as you said. The panel
is so small it will take a long time for it to charge these batteries
that have been sitting for a while (freebees I got from the local power
utility guy who lives nearby).
The link Tim posted brought up a product manual for the SRX (I googled
a bunch of combos but seemed to miss that simple one) that somewhat
explains the LED's. I will re-wire it with the SRX and see what happens
over a couple days. Thanks again for the info.

Mark

M&S

2005-07-26, 8:21 pm

Tim Keating wrote:

> On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 17:18:11 GMT, M&S <no@no.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Try googling for "solarex SRX-12"

Thanks Tim,
I try all sorts of combinations but thats so simple I am ashamed. I
will try re-wiring the controller and see what happens over a couple
days. It seems the flashing may or not be normal.

Mark

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