This is very much an experiment so be careful not to overcharge. So far it works fine and the battery is actually revived to a certain extent. I also leave the battery outdoor in case of outgassing. In my case, I salvaged some old 12V SLA batteries by refiling with Epsom water. For example, does it have a microcontroller to control the voltage? What about current limiting? Given all the unknowns, I wouldn't risk charging any expensive batteries. I assume that this is a PWM type but I don't really know.
There are many different kinds of controllers and they all work differently. The ultimate solution would be to look at the components inside the box and see what it's doing. Theoretically the charge controller should already have blocking diodes on the solar panel side, otherwise it will give all back the solar power at night. Since I don't know the charging circuit inside the box, the effect of this added blocking diode on the solar panel and battery charging is not clear. This device does discharge at night at about 30mA if you leave it on (the LED display uses power unless you turn the LED display off which is recommended). I don't know this for sure since I haven't open the device to see the design. I suspect that when the voltage from the solar panel is below the voltage of the battery, it may be discharging the battery. Recently, I got some spare time and started making diagnosis on this charge controller and I found that while it indeed charges during the day, it discharges as the sun goes down. Basically, the solar panel kit is only good for demonstrating the concept (I have to say that from outside, the charge controller looks nice and solid). To get a better charger, one would need to invest another $100. What's going on? As usual I searched for answers on the internet but most people simply complain that this particular charge controller is not efficient, or it can only be used as a power distribution device. In fact, the voltage would go down about 0.1 volt to become 12.4 volt. During the day, the front panel shows about 13-14 volts so I leave the charge controller on, but when I come back from work, I found that the battery wasn't charged at all. For example, my SLA battery originally had 12.5 Volt. Just like many found out, the charge controller doesn't appear to be working as we expected. I was foolish enough thinking that the light was all powered by solar for the very first night, and forgot the fact that the battery was fully charged already before I connected it to the solar panel. I thought that I was getting enough solar juice to charge my SLA batteries. It was exciting times when I set it up several months ago to see the front panel lit up. Like many of us who are interested in solar power, I bought a Harbor Freight 45 Watt Solar Panel kit for about $150 which came with three solar panels, and a charge controller.
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