Hello Dan and Wrenches The FNDC can monitor up to 3 shunts. For the FNDC to give correct data all current into and out of the batteries must go through a shunt. The standard shunt is 500 amp 50mv. If three shunts are used it may be a good idea to use one shunt for the two FM 60’s, the second shunt for the wind turbine and the third shunt for the Trace inverter. Each shunt is a two way device meaning it can account for the inverter’s charge and discharge. A common mistake is to wire the shunt backwards meaning if you have a source that is charging it should show positive current flow into the batteries. This is usually caused by reversing the sense leads on the shunt. Both the wind and solar should show as positive current flow into the batteries. For the Trace be certain the current flow is positive when charging and negative current flow when inverting. As far as viewing the FNDC information on optics if you hover your mouse over the battery icon it will show real time shunt information from all three shunts. The shunts can be labeled and their graphing information viewed by clicking on the battery icon on the lower left of the main page. Each of the FMs can be viewed and their graphing displayed by clicking on the charge controllers icon also on the lower left on the main page. Programming changes to the FNDC and the FM charge controllers can be made by selecting DEVICE MAP, selecting the specific device, making the required changes then clicking on APPLY. On the inverter when charging you will see the positive current flow into the batteries and negative current flow when inverting. As a side feature if you were to use the OutBack temp sensor on the FM on port 1 of the Hub. On the main page you can select 3 different information points. SOC, battery voltage and battery temperature (either Fahrenheit or Celsius). SOC is the default information point. When the FNDC is powered up it starts out at 100% SOC. So be certain to go through a complete charge after the system is installed this will get the batteries and the FNDC in sync. I hope this helps. Take Care Sirs
From: RE-wrenches [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dan Fink Sent: Friday, March 16, 2018 7:44 PM To: RE-wrenches <[email protected]> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Outback OpticsRE and FlexNet DC shunts monitoring question Esteemed Wrenches; We recently installed OpticsRE monitoring for an existing off-grid site in Southern Colorado. It is 24v battery bank, 2.2kW PV, 2 Outback Flexmax 60 controllers, nice old Trace SW inverter, and new wind turbine + controller to replace a failed Whisper 200 with worn out furl and yaw bushings. We installed a FlexMaxDC shunt monitor into the Outback Hub, with the old TriMetric shunt set as "inverter" and a new wind turbine shunt set as "wind" We removed the existing Bogart TriMetric and replaced it with the Mate 3s and , everything is working fine for remote monitoring. But because the Mate can't talk to the Trace inverter, it appears the PV input is subtracting from the inverter output on that shunt. Thinking that moving the PV input to the other side of the shunt will fix that, as the charge controllers are talking to OpticsRE just fine. Questions: When the gasoline generator starts from low SOC (from the Trace SW relay) will the FlexMaxDC Shunt A show a positive charging gain from the generator or does FlexmaxDC only show one way (load or charge)? I don't see any way of separating inverter load vs. generator gain. We will test this next month down there, but it's 5 hours away, we just want to be prepared. Is there any way to graph the FlexMaxDC shunts on the main online dashboard? They seem like a neglected child, only accessible by clicking multiple menus, and just downloading data to a spreadsheet. The idea was to show the client on a real-time graph how much the wind turbine is contributing versus PV. For that main dashboard, we realize that without an Outback inverter/charger, the graph will never show gasoline "generator" but if it showed inverter loads as a gain, that would be enough. Still getting our heads wrapped around OpticsRE, but the setup and commissioning was very easy, and it does work, after running a bunch of CAT5 hardwired; Concrete/Adobe structure filled with remesh blocked all efforts for wifi, The wifi router is located in the solar thermal room downstairs (the ReSol monitoring works great on the thermal) and barely a whiff of it upstairs at the electrical control room....OpticsRE seems to need a pretty robust internet connection. Any thoughts appreciated, this is our first OpticsRE install. Dan Fink Professor of Solar Energy Technology, Ecotech Institute IREC Certified Instructor™ for: ~ PV Installation Professional ~ Small Wind Installer Executive Director, Buckville Energy NABCEP Registered Continuing Education Providers™ 970.672.4342<tel:970.672.4342>
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