MORNINGSTAR CORPORATION
4.0 OPERATION
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4.0
BATTERY SOC LEDS
Three (3) battery “state-of-charge” (SOC) LEDs indicate
the level of charge on the battery. The SOC indication is
based only on battery voltage setpoints, which only provides
an approximation of the actual state-of-charge of the battery.
Table 3 lists the SOC LED indications.
SOC
LED
Indication
Battery Status
Load Status
Green
Fast Flashing
(2 Flash / sec)
Full Battery:
Equalize Charge
Load On
Green
Med. Flashing
(1 Flash / sec)
Full Battery:
Absorption Charge
Load On
Green
Slow Flashing
(1 Flash / 2 sec)
Full Battery:
Float Charge
Load On
Green
On solid
Battery Nearly Full
Load On
Yellow
On solid
Battery Half Full
Load On
Red
Flashing
(1 Flash / sec)
Battery Low
LVD Warning
(Load On)
Red
On solid
Battery Empty
LVD
(Load Off)
None
No LEDS On
Battery Missing
Load Off
Table 3. Battery SOC LED definitions
NOTE:
An error condition exists if multiple Battery SOC LEDs
are flashing. See Section 5.1 Error Indications for more
information.
4.2 Battery Charging Information
The SunSaver has a 4-stage battery charging algorithm
for rapid, efficient, and safe battery charging. Figure 9
shows the sequence of the stages.
NIGHT
NIGHT
BULK
CHARGE
ABSORPTION
FLOAT
EQUALIZE
VOL
TAGE
TIME
Figure 9. SunSaver charging algorithm.
Bulk Charge
In this stage, the battery voltage has not yet reached
absorption voltage and 100% of available solar power is
used to recharge the battery.
Absorption
When the battery has recharged to the Absorption voltage
setpoint, constant-voltage regulation is used to prevent
heating and excessive battery gassing.
Float
After the battery is fully charged the SunSaver reduces
the battery voltage to a float charge which is sometimes
called a
trickle charge.
Depending on battery history, the battery remains in the
