Research, Development & Testing

As mentioned earlier; we live, work and play out of our RVs. While we are on the road, we are not only testing out our own products but other, competing products as well. We thought we'd show you a few photos of our rolling research facilities on this page together with some of our test rigs.

This is a gasoline puller sitting on a WorkHorse chassis with two slideouts. It has a very popular floorplan and commonly used appliances. There are three of our AM100s and four Photowatt 90s on the roof wired as seperate arrays. They both lead down to the Test Board shown below. The AM100s are using our Rocker Foot Mount system with optional tilt bars. The PW90s are mounted with commonly used aluminum angle extrusions.		*Test RV #1*

*Test Board #1*		The Test Board to the left was designed so that we can switch between the two arrays on the roof and also between each of the seven different controllers shown. We can make side by side comparisons and draw conclusions based on our observations. We test for efficiency and accuracy as well as to study which combinations deliver the most charging amperage to the batteries given the same conditions. These tests helped us improve our line of products and to see what does or doesn't work.

The photos below are of a diesel pusher sitting on a Freightliner chassis with two slideouts. It has higher powered appliances and a two-way internet satellite on the roof. There are 1000 watts of solar panels on the roof divided into four different arrays.
*Solar Panels on the roof of Test RV #2*		*Test RV #2*
There are 200 watts of Kyocera panels in one array, 200 watts of ICP panels in another, 200 watts of AM100s in another, and a separate 400 watts of AM100s in the final array. All but the two ICP panels are held down with our Rocker Foot mounts. These panels were all left flat on the roof because not all folks are able to climb up on their roofs and install tilt bars when needed.

The Test Board shown below was designed to compare three different systems and record how many amp-hours per day was delivered to the batteries given the same operating conditions. The only variables were the panels and controllers.
*Test Board #2*		Each of the three 200 watt arrays are fed into each of the three different controllers shown to the left and their outputs are measured and recorded into each of the three Link 10 amp-hour meters shown. From there, the output power is fed into three separate battery banks each consisting of a pair of six volt AGM batteries (for a total of six golf cart batteries under the bed).
There is also one Trace TM-500 amp-hour meter that is measuring and displaying what is going on for the whole RV 12 volt electrical system. The remaining 400 watt array is fed to one of our NEW HPV-30D controllers (not shown) which charges both the original House Battery Bank and Chassis Battery Bank at the same time. With a flick of several heavy duty switches, all four battery banks are tied together and used to run the RV electrical systems at night. Because of this, they are all at an equal state of charge and voltage when separated into isolated banks in the morning before the sun comes up and the next day's test begins. The Link 10s are also zeroed each morning after recording the data into an Excel spreadsheet.
This test proved that the combination of two of our 44 cell AM100 solar panels and our HPV-22 Current Boosting MPPT charge controller was able to deliver more amp-hours per day than either of the other equivalent systems. One being 200 watts of ICP panels combined with their ICP Pro "On/Off" type of charge controller. The other being 200 watts of Kyocera panels combined with a Morningstar ProStar 30 "PWM" type of charge controller. It also proved that our HPV-30D Current Boosting MPPT Charge Controller performs as designed.



*Test Rig #3*		We also perform free standing tests as witnessed by the Test Rig shown to the left. We used this test rig to confirm set points, float transition timing, high voltage limit, temperature compensation effects, the accuracy of our external voltage sensing circuit, and other functions of our HPV-30D controller.

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