NOTE: All wires other that the switch, battery banks and common ground are 12 awg. From the switch to the battery banks and to the common ground are all 4 awg. The issue I'm having is that without the accessory turned on anything connected to the ground is on. I would like to find a way to require the accessory devices to require the ground to go to the controller's accessory negative and not back through the battery banks. Understand that one of the items I'm adding has to much draw for the controller to handle (two audio amplifiers not yet installed) and they do require a common ground due to distance from controller and battery banks. Is the controller's battery negative and accessory negative supposed to be bi-directional? If so, how can I separate the grounds but keep them both common?
After thinking about this for some time and talking it over with several others, I have determined that the charge controller is for a positive ground system making it incompatible with the standard negative ground automotive systems in this country. There may be a solution for this using diodes but this would be prohibitively expensive. So I will be looking for a new charge controller soon.
Yes, the P30L is a positive ground but will work on both positive AND negative ground systems. The most important factor is to make sure all the positive (+) connections and all the negative (-) connections are wired accordingly.
Yeah, how do you wire it accordingly when it has the internal switch on the ground and not the positive side. Impractical.
The controller does not need to be grounded, it is considered low voltage. It appears as your are trying to charge two separate battery banks with one controller, which is not recommended
No, you missed the point of the marine grade switch and I'm attempting to attach the battery banks to the car alternator in which the technician I spoke to at Windy Nation told me that this would be no problem. As it has a positive ground system on the controller and all modern automobiles in most countries are negative ground this does represent an issue that is more expensive to solve than to replace the charge controller with a properly made product.
Exactly what is the purpose of the switch? The alternator and the solar will be connected in parallel to each other and the battery bank
If you look up that switch it is a marine grade uninterrupted power switch. This allows for safe use of two battery banks. As for the the car alternator (negative ground system) and solar charge controller (positive ground system). Running power from the car will require a common ground or twice the length in cable and at around $3.00 per foot at 25' that would cost around $150 without common ground and with common ground around $75. As for the charge controller a similar issue presents itself. As every peripheral would need both negative and positive to be ran to be able to monitor the power usage because it is not a negative ground system. Furthermore, switching on the ground side of a circuit can damage sensitive electronics like cellphones and tablets.
Your wiring is more in line with diagram 1, which can work but you are now adding the alternator, which would be more in line with diagram 2
Diagram 1 is closer yes and does include alternator however the alternator connection would be controlled by a solenoid. As a second switch (solenoid) would be present it makes diagram 2 actually closer with the exception of needing two high current out puts as I only need one and that is for an audio system that will pull off the switch COM port and have a common ground. But that is the high amp draw side whereas the positive ground low amp draw side is the part that is in conflict. What i need is a way to monitor the low amp draw side external from the charge controller with a common ground. My reasoning is that I use more low amp devices than high amp and feel it is necessary to regulate and monitor this side more than the high side.
