I dont know how many of you are into solar panels but i ran across this , http://www.diysolarforu.com/  suposed to be the most efficient controller out there and built by a ham so radio friendly . Has anyone out there tried them?

That's a pretty good price for an MPPT.

Gonna have to look into that one.

Needs a case, though. 3D print? Could be an option.

Thanks for the heads up.

I bought a 11 of these from Rob late last year after seeing his booth at a local ham fest. I plan to use them for my BOL cabin, plan to buy three more and anther 3 panels. He was really easy to deal with and worked with me on the price, which was good as he isn't price competitive compared to a commercial standalone charge controller. That said, using individual panels and controllers offers redundancy in case of failure and improved output when your array is partially blocked by shadows. Also nice to see the performance data of each individual panel and controller to tell you if there is a problem and future additions of panels and controllers doesn't cause scaling problems.

I am putting together as close to a turnkey, no maintenance solar setup as I can in case something happens to me so that YL won't have to do anything but turn on a light switch. Rob uses lithium batteries and is reporting 100% rated capacity after three years of use at his cabin. I have had the advantage of watching a buddy power his off grid place with solar and seeing a few things I want to do and don't want to do, these controllers solve a lot of problems for me.

It took about a week for him to assemble and ship them, and his support was very good over the phone.

Sometimes posting here is worse than QRP in an electrical storm.

Thanks for the info. A portable solar kit is on my radar, and I'll be needing one of these.

That's a great deal.

Bud or a number of others make hobby boxes that could be put in. I'd use a metal one to help further suppress EMI.

http://www.digikey.com/products/en/boxes-enclosures-racks/boxes/594

I talked to him at the Livonia ham fest today, they are working on a few new things, one of which is a portable kit with Li-Ion batteries. There is a Buck-boost charger in the works as well but I don't know the details.

The 235w charger is available in a 24v version as well but I didn't go that route because of the balancing problems that go with lithium batteries.