CPY-2410 12V/24V 10A USB MPPT Solar Panel Battery Charge Controller
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value for money ... quality product... durable product... made up of good material...
I recently got my CPY-2410. The "no load current" is specified as "<10mA" but this is not true. When the battery is first plugged in and the solar panel is dark, no-load current is 74mA! After one day/night cycle the no-load current drops to 52mA. There are many parts of the internal circuit wasting power, including: 1) The XL4201 DC-DC switching buck converter draws almost 5mA all the time (even with no USB connector plugged in). 2) 5V for internal circuitry is supplied using a LM317T linear buck regulator. Linear is not efficient. 3) There is a XL6008E1 buck/boost converter chip running all the time, boosting battery voltage up to 16.5V for the MPPT circuitry. It draws 13mA and always stays warm to the touch. 4) There is a TLP250 photocoupler MOSFET gate driver. It is always active and also runs warm. 5) There is a single 510 ohm chip resistor that runs hot and dissipates 175mW at no load! 6) Then there are 3 to 5 LEDs on all the time, and each one likely draws 1-2 mA. So this charge controller is not suitable for small solar panels less than 75W because it is just not efficient. For those I would recommend a small & simple fixed-MPP controller like Banggood's "MPPT Solar Panel Controller 5A DC-DC Step Down CC/CV Charging Module" which is much more efficient. It draws 11mA no-load, which you can reduce to zero using a diode. You will need to add a cutoff circuit when using a load. 10A automotive relay-based cutoff boards are cheap and easy to find. The MPP tracking algorithm programmed into the CPY-2410 is not very good. It hunts around a lot and can get stuck. It doesn't like to move up as easily as it moves down. On a positive note the build quality inside is good, with all brand name electronic components. Except mine came with the paper backing still attached to heat shrink material for 5 of 7 heat-sinked components. You will want to open and check yours. Max