BRAVO LEGEND 40 - 40 Amp PWM Solar Charge Controller

A 40-amp PWM controller for a 12V or 24V battery bank that sits somewhere dry — inside an RV, a van cabinet, a cabin wall, or a boat locker. It reads the battery voltage on connection and configures itself, so the common mistake of running a 24V bank on a 12V setting is largely designed out. At 40 amps it handles roughly 600 watts of panel on a 12V system or 1200 watts on 24V.

Why this controller

• Automatic 12V/24V detection on first connection, with a manual override if you would rather set it yourself.
• Charging profiles for sealed, GEL, flooded and lithium banks, selected from the front panel rather than by DIP switch.
• Three-stage charging — boost, float and equalisation. Note that equalisation runs on flooded lead-acid only; it is disabled for GEL and lithium, as it should be.
• Temperature compensation at -3.0 mV/°C per 2V cell, which also correctly excludes lithium.
• Five load-output modes: light control with a ten-minute delay, light control plus a 1–14 hour timer, manual, debug and always-on. That makes it usable as a dusk-to-dawn lighting controller, not just a battery charger.
• Protection covers overcharge, over-discharge, overload, short circuit and reverse polarity, plus TVS surge suppression.
• UL1741 certified, with the certificate published for download — worth noting, because several controllers in this same range are not.

What it will not do, plainly

• This is PWM, not MPPT. A PWM controller pulls the panel down to battery voltage rather than converting the surplus, so a panel with a Vmp well above your battery voltage loses that difference as unused headroom. If your panels are nominal 12V or 24V units, that penalty is small. If you are feeding it a 60- or 72-cell panel intended for grid-tie, an MPPT controller will return noticeably more energy and is the better buy.
• Maximum solar input is under 55V. That is a real ceiling, and open-circuit voltage climbs in cold weather, so size the string with a margin rather than to the number.
• The IP30 rating is indoor-only. Rich Solar's own page describes IP30 as "dust/splash resistant," which is not what the rating means — the second digit of IP30 is zero, so there is no water ingress protection at all. Mount it somewhere it will never be rained on or splashed. If the controller has to live outside or in a wet locker, buy a sealed unit instead.
• Bluetooth is described as optional. The specification sheet lists a Bluetooth module and an LCD, but the manufacturer's own copy calls Bluetooth "optional" without saying whether a dongle ships in the box. Confirm with us before ordering if remote monitoring is the reason you are buying it. The LCD itself is built into the unit.

BRAVO LEGEND 40 or BRAVO LEGEND 30

• The two are the same box. Identical case dimensions (6.46 × 4.07 × 1.85 in), identical 0.86 lb net weight, identical input ceiling, identical feature list.
• The only difference is capacity: 40A and 600W at 12V here, against 30A and 450W on the LEGEND 30.
• The step up costs about sixteen dollars and buys 150 watts of extra array headroom at 12V. If you are near 400W today and might add a panel later, take the 40. If your array is settled at 300W or less, the 30 does the same job.

Installation

• Wire battery first, then solar, then load — this is how the controller detects system voltage.
• Mount vertically on a solid surface with clear air above and below; the case is passively cooled.
• Keep the run from controller to battery short and correctly sized. Voltage drop on that leg is read by the controller as a low battery and will hold charging voltage higher than it should be.
• Fuse the battery leg close to the battery. The controller's internal protection does not replace an overcurrent device on the cable.

Warranty and safety

• Covered under Rich Solar's published limited warranty; terms are on the manufacturer's warranty page.
• Carries a California Proposition 65 warning for cancer risk and reproductive harm.