Morningstar Prostar 30A PWM Solar Charge Controller 12V/24V - Reliable Battery Charger for Solar Panels with LCD Display | Ideal for RV, Marine, Off-Grid & Home Solar Systems

My 2008 model lasted about 11 years, which exceeded estimated 7-8 year lifespan. Same mounting holes as my 2008 model, but new holes were needed for the solar-panel leads. Requires PC to program for LFP (w/MSView), so Mac users are out of luck - I‘ll set mine to Battery Type 1 when my new batteries go on line, so absorption & float voltages are a bit low but at least won’t default to a 28-day equalization schedule (LFP No No).Decided to go w/LFP starter & house batteries AFTER my emergency purchase. Cannot recommend for Mac + LFP users, but for others it’s worth considering.I bought this unit as a back up for my other morningstar charge controller currently in use for a small solar array I use to power my workshop. I have been running this same unit on my array for about four years now and it works well, never gives me any problems. A plus about Morningstar gear is they send an extremely well written and complete manual which explains in detail the functions and capability of the charge controller.I have bought over 25 PS-30M units, and they all worked fine. For years. Until the Gen 3 (White unit, not grey and red unit) came out in Jan of 2018. I can't find the old ones for under $200 now. This unit pretty much does everything the old one does, except they try to push datalogging on you with ethernet capabilities. Next it will probably generate its own twitter feed. Only problem is that you have to buy a proprietary RJ-11 port and cable setup to connect it to anything. Cheapest I can find that for is $275. And this is just to update my firmware since the units I bought were all loaded with faulty v.4 firmware. To upgrade the firmware to v.6, I am required to buy this converter setup.In addition, my solar setups, using the old PS-30M have never failed in over 10 years. And I have them spread all over the desert. I have had one of these new ones installed for less than 3 days and 3 separate shut down issues have occurred. The first being the LVD. I had to change the parameters to stop my site from shutting down every night. The second, the HVD is not programmable without the proprietary cable. Third, I had to unplug half of my solar panels (Total = ~15A @ 12V) to bring it down to around 7A just so the HVD would not be triggered, and shut down my site. Why not keep the load and batteries below 15V automatically and dissipate the excess energy? Instead, it shuts down my research sites until dark, when there is no power being generated. What is the point of this? Do people only use energy at night?In conclusion: I miss the plug and play of the old PS-30m Gen 2. Switch it to flooded batteries, and the charge controller will last over a decade. I would wait on purchasing one of these until they fix all the firmware bugs or stop selling faulty units, change the port to a serial or USB port like everything else on the planet, or reduce the price on the cable. Until then, I stand by the one star rating.THIS IS A VERY WELL MADE AND SERVICABLE UNIT. I KNOW THERE ARE LESS COSTLY CONTROLERS BUT YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR AND IF THEY DON'T DO THE JOB YOU WELL SPEND MORE FOR YOUR BATTERY BANK THAN THIS CONTROLER COST! I AM USING THIS UNIT ON MY RV WITH SIX 100 WATT PANELS. BEFORE YOU START YOUR CHATS I KNOW THIS IS MORE THAN IT,S RATED, BUT I KNOW A BIT ABOUT SOLAR PANEL PERFORMANCE AND FOR MY APP. IT IS WORKING JUST FINE WELL WITHIN ITS LIMITS. IT IS KEEPING UP WITH 24/7 USE ON A 640 AMP HR. BATTERY BANK AND THAT IS GREAT FOR A SMALL SYSTEM LIKE THIS. I'VE SEEN AS HIGH AS 29.14 AMPS IN FULL SUN @ 14.9 VO AND I AM GETTING OVER 220 AMP HOURS @ DAY WITH IT. VERY PLEASED WITH THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS UNIT, AND I WOULD RECOMEND IT FOR SMALL SYSTEMS LIKE RV,S AND BOATS AND SUCH.This controller stopped working after about 90 days of usage. Too late to return, could not get a response for warranty support. Since this is used in an off grid application, I had to buy another out of pocket. Very dissapinted.This was a big upgrade for me. Several years ago I purchased an inexpensive charge controller for my single 100w panel. I'm so glad I finally purchased a quality controller like this one. I like the display that gives you specific measurements. I would purchase this unit again.NOTE: as of 5/13/2017 the image shown on this product is not the Morningstar Prostar PS-30M that I purchased on this same product page. Make sure you get the correct unit. Check the Morningstar website for pictures of what a Prostar controller should look like.It took about 2 weeks to arrive and that's why I rated 4 stars.Product was just what I wanted. Works well and seems to be a good construction.I purchased on of these devices for my camper when using my 400 watts of solar cells to charge my golf cart batteries and it works great. I used the same solar cells last year and only managed to get 11 amps peak current while this device will derive 18 amps all day while in good sun and peaked at what was measured as 22 amps.