I have access to 2 SmartSolar 100/20 controllers. Previously I was using a cheapish 30A PWM controller with load output terminals. I have that running to a small 6-fuse box and then to loads, mostly LED lights and 3 of 12v “cig” sockets which I mostly use with USB chargers. I have no inverter and no loads coming directly from the batteries.
I sometimes use a third party charger for my macbook air with the following specs: Input DC 11-15v Max 10A; Output 10v 4.25A, continuous.
On average I don’t tend to use more than about 6-10a at any given time simultaneously as the laptop is my highest power load.
I’ve never had any trouble using this with my PWM controller supplying powe do the loads via the fusebox. When I tested the first SmartSolar 100/20 with all other things being the same in the system, plugging in the macbook charger (even without the mac connected) would cause all loads to cut out, but the controller would switch the load output back on within 10 seconds and from then on everyting would work as expected, unless I unplugged/plugged the macbook charger again in which case loads would trip off and on again, but never had any other issues.
That first SmartSolar is now installed in a nother vehicle where it exhibits the same behaviour.
I now have a second SmartSolar 100/20 installed in the sytem described above, and plugging in the laptop charger trips the loads off as before, but they don’t seem to come on again until I unplug the charger.
Any ideas on what’s causing this and what best to do to overcome it? I’d rather keep all my DC loads coming from the controller’s load terminals for now in order to provide low voltage protection for the batteries and also to monitor power usage via the Victron Connect app. The laptop charger being 10A max shouldn’t be overloading the system... I considered there could be some kind of fault in the charger but it’s strange that one 100/20 swtiches loads back on after a few seconds and the other does not...
