Flaw in eBay MPPT Charge Controller and How to Mitigate it!

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As of this post, I have experienced 3 different charge controllers. 3 from eBay and 1 from Amazon. The blue MPPT charge controllers from eBay are actually very well worth the money. In fact as of writing this post my harbor freight solar panels have relied on the blue MPPT charge controllers from eBay for almost 2 years.

The charge controllers do everything I need and maintain the battery charge state. Despite mentioning in 7 applications for harbor freight solar panels, that you could charge your cellular phone directly off the charge controller, it should be known that they are not the typical rapid charge used for cell phone charging.

The built in USB ports offer a very slow cellular charge time. I would not be fully reliant on the built-in USB ports to charge a cellular phone unless it is an absolute last option such as an SHTF grid down event. In my case, a Motorola Moto 5G took several hours to charge.

Alternative to Built in USB ports

While the built in USB ports on the cheap eBay MPPT charge controllers do work for charging slowly, I would recommend plugging in a female cigarette lighter onto the load side of the charge controller, then get a high amp rapid charger USB adapter cable. This would get the right voltage/amperage into the phone to charge at rapid speed as opposed to snail paced off the low current from the built in USB ports.

The low current of the built in USB ports do not make the charge controller a "bad" charge controller, especially for the price. The load side of the charge controller supplies 12v + the amperage of the rated charge controller.

Despite offering slow charging abilities these USB ports do work for a host of other things that would derive it's power from a USB port.