Solar output to Riden RD6024 for use as solar charge controller

[Kosh A. Magosh]

I was kicking around ideas to have a programmable buck boost charge controller so that I can charge various batteries and systems from one device and it’s occurred to me that my Riden RD6024 is already quite capable of meeting most of my charging needs.

I currently have 4x100W of solar that I configure as 2S2P in order to get 40V at 10A when performing optimally. This is a portable set up that I use for dip netting Copper River salmon in Chitina, AK, as well as hunting or other remote applications.

I have a Bluetti AC180 that can accept any voltage between 12V and 60V.  I have a 100Ah Litime “12V” lifepo battery that I use to feed the Bluetti at night. It will supply 100W when plugged into the same Bluetti input as the solar.

I would like to use the solar to charge the lifepo battery at 14.6V, but also use it to charge my 48V nominal/54.6V lithium ion e-bike batteries and possibly others.

I have used the Bluetti to power the Riden RD6024 in order to charge the lifepo battery, but I suspect I lose a fair amount of efficiency and felt that it made more sense to go directly from DC solar to some form of buck boost and then to the lithium batteries.

My long-winded query is this:

Is my loss from going from DC to AC and back to DC again negligible and nothing to worry about?

Can I put variable (i.e. solar) DC voltage input into the Riden power supply in order to charge different batteries?

Would a form of MPPT or buck boost converter be necessary? I have considered the MPT-7210A, which I assume could just be set to output the 70V that is normally provided by the AC transformer of the Riden, although something that was capable of directing closer to 1500W might be optimal for future expansion and to fully utilize the RD6024.

Would I need to be concerned about some level of low voltage cut off, or other  protection, to prevent damaging the solar panels?

What would be a safe way to configure the power supply, in order to have it possible to switch between AC and DC input?  I’m imagining a killswitch that switches between one source of DC power or the other.

My apologies if that is a lot to unpack. I saw a previous thread about differing the power supplies on the RD6024 about a year ago and was hoping to hear what people have learned.

I’ve always been impressed by the knowledge base on this forum!

Thanks!