Solar charge controller for 6v in series

[Motopsycho]

I have a bullet 290bhs and running 2 gc2 interstate batteries in series. I was talking to Renogy support and they were saying they don't have charge controllers for this setup to contact battery manufacturer.

I have the following panel without controller.
Renogy Solar Suitcase 200w


And this is the controller I was looking to order before they said it won't work.

Was there some sort of communication disconnect or will these controllers really not change my setup? I would have thought even the voyager controller would charge the batteries, but wanted to upgrade to the mppt.

[chuckster57]

Welcome to the forum

I don’t see why it wouldn’t. We have 2 customers with the rover (30A) controller. One has a pair of LiPo and the other a pair of GC2 batteries and both work just fine.

[Motopsycho]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

Welcome to the forum

I don’t see why it wouldn’t. We have 2 customers with the rover (30A) controller. One has a pair of LiPo and the other a pair of GC2 batteries and both work just fine.

Thank you, a lot of great info in the forum that I have been reading through over the last 10 month of ownership after upgrading from a '21 Roo 183.

I did not think there would be an issue, but electrical is not my thing. I find getting answers from Renogy pretty difficult at the best of times, so maybe just a communication misunderstanding.

[JRTJH]

The Rover 20 Amp controller owner's manual, on page 28, has a "battery profile chart" that includes the charging profiles for Gel, Sealed (AGM), Flooded and LI/LFP type batteries. https://ca.renogy.com/content/manual...040-Manual.pdf

I don't see any reason why the controller won't work with GC2 "golf cart batteries" since they are nothing more than Deep Cycle Flooded Lead Acid (FLA) batteries.

[flybouy]

Electrically speaking there's no difference between two 6 vdc wired in series and a 12 vdc wet cell battery. The batteries are individual flooded lead acid "cells that store energy. These cells are electrically connected inside the case, 3 cells for a 6v or 6 cells for a 12v battery. Two 6v batteries in series is just a 12v battery with 1 external connection between cells.

[Canonman]

I'm in agreement with Marshall. Two 6 volt batteries in series looks like one 12 volt battery to the controller. This is exactly the set up we use, except our solar suitcase is Zamp.
I'd recommend a 30 amp MPPT controller. I have a PWM controller only because it's older. It works just fine for us and looking at the Renogy web page the PWM is a lot less expensive

[jasin1]

sounds like how it was worded when you spoke to Renogy…they just heard “6 volt battery”…you don’t have a 6 volt system …it’s just one large 12 volt cell made up of two 6 volt batteries…..some people take things literally…it’s just like your converter in the rv…it just sees one big 12 volt battery but if you asked someone would it work on a 6 volt battery they would say no unless you fully explained it