Scott,

First off, I'm a student pilot so I do not post on this forum much because I try to stay silent and learn from you all. That being said, I do have some knowledge with electronics. My initial assumption was that the diodes will act as an rectifier to prevent reverse polarity connections with the batteries. However, the solar cells could become a "load" at night and the situation you present did happen if there were not diodes there to prevent that. However, I have to believe the controller's internal circuits would prevent that from happening. So, I'll admit, my knowledge of the controller is limited. Anyone have some input on this?

Chris,