Ahh I see. MPPT also varies output for max power instead of just converting it.
Correct. They usually also have a much greater working range - Input and Output.
Just curious, in an MPPT controller, can the load be wired to the battery terminals or does it have to be wired to the load terminals on the controller if we are not using it to charge a battery? In the specifications for the TrakMax40 that I linked it says it handles 40A of charging current and 15A of load control. Hmm, 15A is not enough.
This is slightly tricky to answer. An MPPT is PRIMARILY designed as a Battery charger, and has pretty tight specs on the chemistry is is suitable for, and the "expected" voltage
it has to deal with. With all battery chargers though, there is a major problem they need to TRY to address. That is - HOW does it work out how much of the energy is for
the battery itself, and how much is for the load (which can vary greatly). eg Assume no load and the battery is nearly full at 1A. Suddenly the load comes on at 10A,
but the charger has no idea if the battery suddenly went flat or some % of charge / load happened. You have to try and figure that out with code.
They're saying the MPPT can charge at 40A and still cope with a 15A load as well, so a total somewhere around 55A max.
There are tricks you can use - ie feed the load current back into the MPPT algorithm, etc etc.
In your case, there is NO battery, so the algorithm may not be able to cope. Fortunately, any good MPPT has extensive monitoring and programming capabilities !!
I would download the user / service manual of a make / model you want to consider and see what configuration options it has. That will tell you if you can run it ok
without a battery. Here also, is where you should be able to FIX an output voltage ie get rid of the auto-sense stuff.