Good Morning,
I wrote a couple weeks ago about a solar production issue for a small
residential offgrid system. The customer was saying her solar production
wasn't all that good and thought it should be charging their batteries
better. I had gone to the property and checked the array and everything
checked out so it was then looking into their Outback 60a charge controller
that kept cycling and going into silent mode. There was talk of figuring
out how to troubleshoot a charge controller and ended up a friend supplied
me with a temporary used charge controller of the same kind and swapped it
out. Since then, the solar production has dramatically increased and seems
to have fixed the problem. I just want to say thanks to everyone who
responded from Wrenches with good advice.
On Tue, Apr 23, 2024 at 1:14 PM Kirk Herander via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
> Same experience for me, Toast if reboot doesn't wake it up.
>
> On Tue, Apr 23, 2024 at 3:33 PM Howie Michaelson via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
>> I've had several MX and FM failures (at least 5) over the years, often
>> with the output at zero. I don't know what actually fails, but they just
>> stop producing. I must admit, I don't remember if in all cases I tried
>> resetting them to factory default, but my memory is when talking to Outback
>> support, after checking for appropriate input and output voltages, if there
>> aren't any other obvious issues, they've told me the units are toast.
>> Howie Michaelson
>> Sun Catcher
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Apr 23, 2024 at 2:45 PM Jay via RE-wrenches <
>> re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>
>>> No error message for CC fan
>>>
>>> The fan should cycle from battery power off start up.
>>>
>>> I e never seen a CC produce zero watts. Reduced yes
>>>
>>> While the fan might be broken I don’t think that explains the issue.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> > On Apr 23, 2024, at 11:36 AM, William Miller via RE-wrenches <
>>> re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > If the fan fails would there be an error message? As always, I
>>> looked this
>>> > up before posting. The manual is not clear on the matter.
>>> >
>>> > William
>>> >
>>> > Miller Solar
>>> > 17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422
>>> > 805-438-5600
>>> > www.millersolar.com
>>> > CA Lic. 773985
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > -----Original Message-----
>>> > From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org]
>>> On
>>> > Behalf Of MDElectricSolar via RE-wrenches
>>> > Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2024 6:58 AM
>>> > To: RE-wrenches
>>> > Cc: MDElectricSolar
>>> > Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] PV/Charge Controller Troubleshoot Help
>>> >
>>> > It may be the fan. I had an FM 80 where the fan went bad that caused
>>> very
>>> > limited solar production throughout the day.
>>> >
>>> > Michael D Nelson
>>> > MD Electric & Solar, Inc.
>>> > 707-684-0064 mobile
>>> > 707-884-1862 office
>>> > www.mdelectricsolar.com
>>> > www.facebook.com/mdelectricandsolar
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >> On Apr 23, 2024, at 6:54 AM, jay via RE-wrenches
>>> >> <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> HI Jim,
>>> >>
>>> >> The CC is sure suspect.
>>> >> You didn’t mention what the battery voltage is.
>>> >> Those CC have a hard PV watt input limit.
>>> >>
>>> >> You can try and set it back to factory default and then reprogram,
>>> >> sometimes that works.
>>> >>
>>> >> I don’t use the FM-60, but always the FM-80 because of the fan
>>> >> replacement. the 80 takes 3 minutes, the 60 takes 2 hours.
>>> >>
>>> >> jay
>>> >>
>>> >>> On Apr 23, 2024, at 6:00 AM, Jim Gowdy via RE-wrenches
>>> >>> <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I'm troubleshooting the solar aspect of a small offgrid 120v outback
>>> >>> system and need some opinions. The customer was complaining that the
>>> >>> generator was running too much so I went out to their property and
>>> >>> investigated. The solar array consists of 16 total panels (4
>>> strings of
>>> >>> 4). At the combiner box, I took the voltage and amperage reading of
>>> each
>>> >>> string and found the following......BREAKER 1 (85VDC/8.87A) BREAKER 2
>>> >>> (84.5VDC/8.9A) BREAKER 3 (.03VDC/0A) BREAKER 4(85VDC/8.89A).
>>> Breaker 3
>>> >>> string was not producing and so I did a fix and then read
>>> >>> (87.1VDC/8.43A). After reviewing the online monitor since that fix
>>> from
>>> >>> a few days prior I'm realizing that the first day after had 4.5KWH
>>> >>> production, second day had 0.7KWH production, and yesterday had
>>> 0.3KWH
>>> >>> production.....sun has been out without clouds. The 60A Outback
>>> charge
>>> >>> controller shows there is PV voltage, but noticed it was in "silent
>>> mode"
>>> >>> a good amount of time. Charge controller is old, but all the other
>>> >>> equipment was updated about a year and a half ago. I was wondering
>>> if
>>> >>> there is a way to diagnose if the charge controller is bad without
>>> just
>>> >>> replacing it and what does it mean when it's in "silent mode".
>>> Another
>>> >>> side note is that their generator threw an AGS fault code on the
>>> MATE3
>>> >>> controller and found that the generator has problems so I ended up
>>> >>> turning from "auto" to "off"
>>> >>> --
>>> >>> Jim with Gowdy Electric
>>> >>> Cambria, Ca 93428
>>> >>> business 805 927 2630
>>> >>> cell 805 975 5279
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>
> --
>
> *Kirk Herander / **kirkh@vermont.solar <kirkh@vermont.solar>*
>
> *Owner|Principal, VT Solar, LLC*
>
> *Celebrating our 33st Anniversary 1991-2024!!*
>
> dba Vermont Solar Engineering
>
> 802.559.1225
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--
Jim with Gowdy Electric
Cambria, Ca 93428
business 805 927 2630
cell 805 975 5279
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