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MPPT Battery Charge Controllers

[last updated: 2025-11-20]

Disclaimers
mosfets
battery charge monitors
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MPPT = Maximum Power Point Tracking:
This is an algorithm that is used to control a circuit that charges a battery from a solar array.

The deal is, PV's, (= photo-voltaic = solar panel arrays), when they are in the sun, put out some amount of volts and amps.
If there is no load on the PV, that is, current draw is zero, then the voltage will be maximum (= "open circuit voltage").
As soon as you start to draw some current from the panel, the voltage will drop,
In between those extremes, if you calculate the power that the panel is putting out, P_watts = I x E = amps x volts,
You will see that it is not linear. In fact, it has a peak power point,
that is, there will be a point, some particular current draw and resulting output voltage,
when the calculated power output of the panel will be at a relative maximum,
and moving from that point, by either increasing or decreasing current draw, will reduce calculated power output.

The MPPT algorithm then, is a method for monitoring the power output of a panel
and adjusting the current load level such that the power output (watts) stays a a maximum point for the given illumination.

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