[RE-wrenches] Outback FNDC relay

Mendocino Solar Service msolar at mcn.org
Thu Oct 15 10:17:33 PDT 2009


Hi Kent,

We're trying to work the bugs out of our first FNDC for a demanding  
customer. It came as part of a DC Power assembled power center. They  
had added a circuit of their own design that had an Auto-Off-Manual  
toggle switch and a relay that was connected to both the FNDC and the  
FX aux. It didn't work. Outback said to use either the FNDC relay or  
the FX aux with an external relay, which is what we did, and it's  
worked fine for several months, controlling the generator by SOC.  
However, lately the SOC reading seems to have gotten out of sync with  
reality, big surprise. The volt start settings are over-riding the  
SOC. The challenge is how to camp out at the customer's house for a  
week to make the observations and tweaks to get all the programming  
set up appropriately to the realities of the battery and array.

I would suggest removing generator control from the FNDC relay and let  
the Mate/AGS control an external relay. The FNDC seems to feed it's  
data to Mate so it can work off of SOC.

I agree with others that the FNDC screens are way too complicated for  
all but a tech-head customer. At least the Trimetric is simple enough  
you can get almost anyone to read amps and volts, and even, God  
forbid, days since charged.

Bruce Erickson
Mendocino Solar Service
PO Box 1252
Mendocino, CA 95460
707-937-1701



On Oct 15, 2009, at 9:35 AM, Kent Osterberg wrote:

> Wrenches,
>
> I see there are lots of negative feelings about the FNDC and about  
> how complicated the Mate is in general.  I haven't seen many direct
> responses to the question.  Have any of you used the relay in the  
> FNDC and had problems with it not turning the generator off?
>
>
>
> Kent Osterberg wrote:
>>
>> Has anyone besides me had problems using the relay in the Outback  
>> FNDC?  I've had three different customers report that their  
>> generators failed to turn off.
>>
>> -- 
>> Kent Osterberg
>> Blue Mountain Solar, Inc.
>> www.bluemountainsolar.com
>>
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