Newbie reading alot but

are you looking for its manual?
www.renogy.com/template/files/Manuals/CTRL-ADV30-LCD.pdf

The battery type needs to be set, after that you can watch batt voltage and see if it follows what it is supposed to do.
What it is suppose to do?

If you look at the specs you will see voltage set pt for 'battery charging parameters', let's assume flooded.
Boost 14.6v (temperature corrected means in cold this is higher and in heat it is lower).
The sun rises, amps should increase and battery voltage should rise, if there is enough sun power batt voltage will rise to 14.6v and then stay there for 2 hrs (boost duration). During this time the amps will taper as the batt gets full and will not accept as much at this constant voltage.

After the boost duration time the new set pt call float of 13.2v is maintained at the battery. amps will be low unless you use battery power, if you use enough the batt voltage will drop and may cause the controller to go back to boost.

PV array voltage, should be equal to or slightly higher than batt V until the batt gets to 14.6v, at this time PV array voltage will rise.
In actuality the controller begins to connect and disconnect the panel from the batt to maintain the 14.6v @ the battery.
When connected the panel v = batt v but when disconnected the panel V = panel Voc (look on the back of the panel, its Voc =20+v).
The display will average this connected and disconnected v and as the current tapers the disconnected time will be larger and larger, this happens at a high freq and the meter is too slow so it displays an ave or these voltages. Of course the ever changing sun can cause the connect/disconnect times to change also and panel V can fluctuate.

When I see panel voltage of say 18v, I assume my batt has made it to boost and is holding that at the batt as the controller is connecting /disconnect the panel very fast. Later (before the 2 hrs is up) I might see 19 or 20v and know the current has tapered since the ave being displayed as PV array has increased (more disconnect time).

batt size/panel size/sun/discharge level ... will determine how fast the batt gets to 14.6v or if it can get that high on any given day.

IMO, FULL is when the batt gets to its 14.6v set pt and stays there as the amps taper to almost nil.
Float volatge just maintains this full charge stage.

Before the batt gets to 14.6v you can monitor amps, in full sun this should be near what the panel is rated for (look on the back for Isc or Imp). Of course this is for the sun perpendicular to the panel.

You can test a panel with a volt meter, measure its volts when not connect to the controller and move it around in the sun, this is called Voc (voltageopen circuit). Setting a meter up for amps (this is where I blow meter fuses!!!), you can short the panel via the meter and measure Isc or current short circuit, moving the panel around doing this shows how the current changes widely based on the sun's angle.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZf-sm3UXX0

looking at page 14 of the manual it says the display cycles through different screens.

PV array voltage, this should match batt voltage or be higher especial when batt voltage has max out.

Charging current (amps) this will be how many amps are going into the battery, a 100 watt panel is rated 5-6 amps, in the morning it will read low amps and as more sun it should read higher until the batt v maxs out. Then (if the sun is still good) the current will taper (controllers job) to maintain the max batt voltage ...


generated Energy KWH, power = energy = volts * amps. 13v * 5A = 65 watts, do that for one hr and ya get 65 wh (watt hrs) do that for 10 hrs and ya got 650 wh = 0.65 kWh. (k=1000).

Battery voltage - the battery voltage

Battery SoC % - garbage!!!!

Temperature - temperature.

If you could keep the sun shining strong, the amps would be at max say 5A for 100 watt panel, the amps would stay at max until the batt V maxs out, then the controller does it job to limit power to the battery.

Voc is open circuit voltage, the panel's disconnected voltage is near this (it is ever changing due to sun, temp, sun angle, ...)

Look at the bottom of this, bottom right, IV curve.
www.renogy.com/template/files/Specifications/100-Watt-12-Volt-Monocrystalline-Solar-Panel-Specifications.pdf

This shows the panels potential with good light (specs). Also note the power curve that maxs out (100w) @ ~18 volts
There is no power at left end when the circuit is CLOSED but amps are high Isc, current short circuit.
There is no power at right end when the circuit is OPEN but the volts are high Voc. Voltage open circuit.

When the controller connects the panel to battery, the panel operates at the batt voltage and as the batt gets energy its voltage rises and the panel continues to walk the IV curve to the right.

When the sun level is different, the shape of the curves are the same but the values are less, temperature of the panel also shifts/changes it potential.

Look at the iv/power curve and note at say 14v, what is the amps and power, I read ~5.7A and 80 watts, 5.7a x 14v = 79.8 watts!
So ya see that the panel will likely never make 100 watts, it makes that at 18v but panels are like that cuz in the heat that 18v changes and we need that extra for voltage drop in the wire from the panel to the controller. Panels do get HOT and make more power on COLD clear days. Its magic.

This IV curve shows how different amount of light and temp mess with the curve, its for a 120w or so panel.
1000 watt/ square meter (1kw/m^2) is a blue sky day with the panel pointed at the high sun!

try this irradiance calculator, scroll down and input country, state, city, facing directly south

www.solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-irradiance.html

Notice how much 'sun' a flat/horizontal panel 'collects' per day on any given month.

Click on the different tilts and see how that changes the amount of 'sun' 'collected' for different months.

These numbers can be used to plan/estimate how much energy a panel produces.

Multilple a panel's rated Imp by the numbers in the calculator to determine how much ya might get on average.

Back to a 100 watt panel with an Imp of 5.5A x 4.32 (March flat panel in Dallas TX) = 23 ah.

Now amp hr is energy term used in batteries, like a marine deep cycle may have a ah capacity of 80 or 100.
We can use any voltage to define ah, try 13v, 1ah x 13v = 13 watt hr, an 100ah battery = 1300 wh or 1.3kwh.
12v may be a better voltage to use but I generally don't discharge below 12.2v or 50% so let's try 12.4v
1 ah @ 12.4v is 12.4 watt hrs.

If we turn on a light of ~15 watts we can call it a 1 amp light (maybe a little more but batt v is not constant) 15w/13v = 1.15A

So we operate the light for 10 hrs and suggest we used 10 ahs. To recharge fully we need more than 10ah but if our panel makes 5A and solar irradiance on average in DEC is 2.48 (kWh/m^2/day) then we can expect to recharge our battery via 5A X 2.48 = 12.25 ah.

Some DEC days we will get more and others will be less but we have some batt capacity to let us burn the light and use 10ah/day for a few days. In the summer we will have plenty of sun to recharge daily in most conditions.

One thing we can do is tilt the panel in DEC to collect more sun. Or change the tilt daily, weekly, month, every few months ...
We could track the sun constantly.
Heaven forbid we turn the light off or limit its use to save a battery!!!!!

www.solarpaneltilt.com/

Morning, what do you think about these options?
Either helpful enough that I should put on.
I will be using a volt meter to monitor battery.

Remote Temperature Sensor Terminal
Remote Battery Voltage Sensor Terminal

Web site cool. I see 5.49 hours sun here this month, NH thanks