Morningstar MPPT 45 hits 20,000Ah

[MisterSandals]

This Morningstar Tristar MPPT 45 was insanely expensive (over $700) in 2010. But it has been a worker. 8 years with 330W of solar on my RV charging lead acid. The last 3 years, with 300W solar on garage, its been charging various lithium banks for the seed warmers, lighted grow house, quite a few utility batteries and my LiFePO4 test bench.
20,000Ah x 13.8V = 276,000Wh
$700 / 276kWh = $2.53 per kWh

Its produced quite a lot of power while boon docking and has been completely trouble free so worth the money to me.


Going strong...

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Am I missing something?

I'm seeing 20,005Ah.

20,005Ah @ 12V is 240,060Wh or 240kWh.

@ $700, that works out to $2.92/kWh. Kinda spendy.

Given the length of ownership and described activity, I'm not sure I believe it's only done 20,005Ah.

 

[MisterSandals]

Am I missing something?

I'm seeing 20,005Ah.

I realized my mistake over dinner and was hoping to clean this up before someone realized my mistakes!

Fixing...

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Sorry about that. Given the duration of ownership, I'm still dubious you've only gotten 25kAh. I think my 250/100 is a smidge over 2 years old, and my 3kW array has produced 6.2MWh on a daily consumption of 5-7kWh.

I'll be THRILLED if my MPPT lasts 12 years...

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Thanks for the report about another Morningstar product going the distance, and still performing.

 

[Nan_wpg]

How hard is it to program for lithium? (theres no lithium setting for the dip switches).
morningstar has a new cc bit no pricing or availability. Supposed to be,easy to program for lithium

 

[MisterSandals]

How hard is it to program for lithium? (theres no lithium setting for the dip switches).
morningstar has a new cc bit no pricing or availability. Supposed to be,easy to program for lithium

The MPPT 45 i had required a male (i think) DB9 to plug into it. So i took an ethernet cable and soldered it pin-wise to the DB9 plug i scavenged from what might have been an old video cable (it was 3 years ago so foggy on the details).
But with that, i was able to easily update the firmware using MSView (i think), and create a user defined profile too.

Like I mentioned elsewhere, the only oddity was that when it reaches full charge (13.88V as recommended by Morningstar) the remote shows "Fault" flashing and the SCC shows a flashing red light until voltage drops a bit.
But it works absolutely flawlessly.

 

[Ptom]

MorningStar has long considered the best.....been using their products for over 30 years.

 

[Nan_wpg]

MorningStar has long considered the best.....been using their products for over 30 years.

What do you use?

have you had a look at their new inverter and charge controller products?

 

[100 Proof]

I've had my MS MPPT-45 for about 10+ years now. For the first 9, it charged a 2S2P GC-2 bank. I've been charging a 12V 460AH LiFePo4 bank for the last 18 months. It has been flawless the entire time.

 

[DaveF]

12 years for my MS MPPT-45, 7 for my MPPT-60.
Now if I can just figure out how to read them from my Raspberry Pi running Venus OS...

 

[Nan_wpg]

I've had my MS MPPT-45 for about 10+ years now. For the first 9, it charged a 2S2P GC-2 bank. I've been charging a 12V 460AH LiFePo4 bank for the last 18 months. It has been flawless the entire time.

You had no issues programming for lifepo4?

im surprised Morningstar doesn’t get more love here.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

You had no issues programming for lifepo4?

im surprised Morningstar doesn’t get more love here.

They make Victron seem cheap.

 

[MisterSandals]

running Venus OS...

>It is designed to run on the Victron Energy Venus OS but can easily be modified to run on other systems.

GitHub - osaether/dbus-tsmppt: dbus-tsmppt - Interface between Morningstar Tristar MPPT charge controller and D-Bus on Victron Energy Venus OS

dbus-tsmppt - Interface between Morningstar Tristar MPPT charge controller and D-Bus on Victron Energy Venus OS - osaether/dbus-tsmppt

github.com

 

[MisterSandals]

im surprised Morningstar doesn’t get more love here.

Its kind of a drag needing to program it with a PC. Remote monitoring and bluetooth non-existent.

But once configured, you walk away and let it do its thing for years on end.

 

[v_green57]

This Morningstar Tristar MPPT 45 was insanely expensive (over $700) in 2010. But it has been a worker. 8 years with 330W of solar on my RV charging lead acid. The last 3 years, with 300W solar on garage, its been charging various lithium banks for the seed warmers, lighted grow house, quite a few utility batteries and my LiFePO4 test bench.
20,000Ah x 13.8V = 276,000Wh
$700 / 276kWh = $2.53 per kWh

Its produced quite a lot of power while boon docking and has been completely trouble free so worth the money to me.


Going strong...
View attachment 124402

I'll see your -45 and raise you my -60 (see attachments).

You must have not purchased the (more expensive) Web enabled version. I get that - in the "prehistoric" days of early 00's, when solar was still $10 per watt, we had to watch every penny...

 

[Nan_wpg]

They make Victron seem cheap.

100%.

 

[100 Proof]

You had no issues programming for lifepo4?

im surprised Morningstar doesn’t get more love here.

No issues other than having to hook up to it with a cable. Old school but reliable as can be.

 

[v_green57]

No issues other than having to hook up to it with a cable. Old school but reliable as can be.

And no steenking fan, like the only serious competition (Outback) had back then.

 

[time2roll]

My TriStar MPPT-60 is only 11 yo. Works same as new. Adapted to LFP without issue. The price includes tons of functionality that goes unused. This is really a commercial unit. For the price I skipped the display panel. Have not missed it.

I keep an old win95 netbook around for programming if needed.