MX60 Tone Generator [RE-wrenches]

[Ray Walters]

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Hi;

Bob Gudgel called to tell me about the fix too. Seems he's very fond of 
his baby even though he's not with you'all anymore. That's the 
dedication that makes the solar biz a good biz to be in. Likewise I 
appreciate your dedication as well. Thanks for the reply.
I already instituted the secret modification "X", and we have a happy 
customer again. I'll check the serial # for you, but it was definitely 
purchased this year. As long as the noise is gone, and we see efficient 
MPPT in the winter at lower battery voltages, I don't see a need to 
change it out. Thanks though.
On a related note, I mentioned to Bob and I'll reiterate for all, that 
our industry could use  friendlier software interfaces.
 IMHO, the Best software would allow a tech with knowledge of solar to 
program the controller (or inverter) in minutes without referring to the 
manual. Only someone who didn't understand Absorption time, system 
operating voltage, etc. should have to consult the manual.
Merely adequate software in comparison, would have some learning curve, 
but at least the tech could refer to the manual briefly and get the job 
done.
Now I'm not naming names, but in general, inadequate software does not 
follow any common orginization, might change before you get the hang of 
it, and the supporting documents don't match the screens actually on the 
unit. An otherwise very knowledgable tech may experience  high anxiety 
levels and spend over an hour of precious field time trying to do what 
could be done with an analog controller in under a minute.
I've got a Palm handheld computer that was doing my bidding in minutes 
right out of the box, with a very intuitve interface and almost no 
supporting documentation needed. Rather than reinvent computing, why 
can't we use an interface that is proven people friendly, or at least 
borrow its features as Microsoft so infamously did with Windows? Imagine 
using a familiar operating system that integrated  controller, inverter, 
and metering.......
I'm sure its much more difficult than that, but couldn't a couple of 
software engineers from Palm OS or MAC  be lured away with the promise 
of a lower pay scale and the threat of global warming......

Thanks for all you've already done,

Ray


Christopher Freitas --- OutBack Power wrote:

>Ray - 
>
>This noise issue is caused by the windings of the inductors vibrating 
>slightly when the MPPT voltage of the PV array and the battery are very 
>close to each other - we have been glueing the windings onto the 
>inductors which nearly eliminated it from being a problem - is this one 
>perhaps an old stock unit?  I can arrange an exchange for the customer 
>if that would help.  
>
>This setting "trick" forces the operating voltage (MPPT) to stay a few  
>volts above the battery voltage level - which will result in a very 
>small amount of power reduction from the PV array - but only when the 
>battery is close to full state of charge or while equalizing - which  is 
>not really an issue as usually the battery will not accept the PV arrays 
>output while absorbing or EQ'ing anyways.  It will not impact the 
>performance of the PV array in the when the battery voltage is low or 
>during winter time as the MPPT voltage will be higher because of the 
>lower PV cell temperatures.  
>
>Most of the time the noise will occur only once in a while when we do a 
>wider sweep routine to ensure that we are truely on the correct MPPT 
>point - this trick then just restricts the range of the sweep and then 
>will not result in any power loss.  
> 
>Christopher
>
>
>  
>


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