Amps changing

this may be normal due to PWM and a high battery state of charge, PWM turns the panel on and off at a high speed to limit the power to prevent overcharging the battery. During the on time, the panel outputs its power to the battery, during the off time, the panel is making ZERO power (Ioc, Voc). Normally a meter will read the average.

When a battery is discharged, the controller keeps the panel connected to the battery until such time as the batt gets to some set pt voltage (14.4v or whatever). Once at this voltage, the controller starts turning on/off to limit the power to the battery so it does not exceed 14.4v. The off time increases with time as the batt gets 100% charged, the AVERAGE current tapers during this time with more time OFF.

All your numbers are correct, your panels are doing what they are designed to do as well as your controller.  You didn't mention what type and AH your battery(s) are. If you are using a standard 12v battery it will have an AH rating of only 70 - 90 AHs. That pretty much means if you are using one 12w light bulb it will use 12AH to run out of those 70-90 AHs, multiply that by how many others items are being used. Given your 200w panels it will take about three days to charge the battery to 80% max (that is all your controller will do), and being how you can only use about 50% of your 80% full battery before recharging, it sounds like you are under batteried (new word).  I suggest getting a better battery, and then depending on what you are using the battery for (you need to do the math and figure out your system). And....give the battery time to recharge.  Now if you already have a "good battery high in amp-hours) then you need to, again, do the the math and figure out your usage.

I respectfully respect your view, but,

200 watts should return 50 ah or more into battery on a sunny day.

OK, but depends on controller type, and batteries and not to forget panels

80% is not all a controller can do, a controller limits overcharge.


Technically, you are right, it is not all a controller can do, but, it is what the manufacture has set a limit on, and you cannot change that, unless you are using a programmable Monitor and Controller and I only know of one that does that, check that, maybe two.

the viewstar controllers are programmable and come with renogy suit case. I use the default setting on my viewstar and my 7 ah sealed battery.

200 watts will deliver 50ah to batt that is big enough and discharged enough with almost any controller that renogy offers. It will not deliver that much to a 7 ah batt, its job is to limit overcharge so it charges to ~100% and then FLOATS the batt for most of the day.

Use of a hydrometer on a flooded batt determines FULL. A volt meter is a good tool to determine if the controller is doings is design job.

Charging an 100 ah battery @ 5A (100 watt, 5% of batt capacity) yields 90% SOC when the controller reaches its 14.?v set point, holding the batt @ 14.?v for a few hrs gets it even closer to 100%. That is what controllers do. If one uses 50ah a day then 100 watt is not enough to fully recharge daily. Popup campers MAY use 5-25 ah a day so 100 watt is good in sunny weather and will fully charged if left connected during no use.

Charging an 100 ah battery @ 15A (15% of capacity) yields 80% SOC when the controller reaches its 14.?v set point, holding the batt @ 14.?v for a few hrs gets it even closer to 100%.

Many AGM suggest holding 14.? till the current has dropped to 1A - they call that 100%

repeated charging to 80% shortens a batt's life, no batt maker recommends this.

RVers with a WFCO that limits charging to 13.6 may never see 100%. Luckily controllers are usually set to 14.4, - 14.8v for flooded batteries and then a couple hrs of absorption and float.