[RE-wrenches] Midnite Magnum E-Panel Unofficial Service Bulletin

[Nick Soleil]

    It is smart to re-check the wiring in almost all 'factory wired' enclosures, 
no matter who they came from.  Definitely check that the connections are tight, 
too.  Especially for battery connections.

 Nick Soleil
Project Manager
Advanced Alternative Energy Solutions, LLC
PO Box 657
Petaluma, CA 94953
Cell:   707-321-2937
Office: 707-789-9537
Fax:    707-769-9037




________________________________
From: R Ray Walters <ray at solarray.com>
To: Allan at positiveenergysolar.com; RE-wrenches 
<re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Sat, July 24, 2010 10:46:12 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Midnite Magnum E-Panel Unofficial Service Bulletin

I usually recommend retorqueing all connectors once the panel is mounted. 
Whether its an E-panel or one we built at the shop, those washboard roads can 
loosen stuff that would never have had a problem
otherwise. I'm actually surprised we haven't had more problems like this, even 
with internal wiring on inverters, etc.
Hours of vibration can do bad things to equipment not designed for it.
Having said all that, I too have grown probably too complacent, and forget to 
check connections, especially if its hard to get to, and the sun is going 
down.....


R. Walters
ray at solarray.com
Solar Engineer


 

On Jul 24, 2010, at 1:27 PM, Allan Sindelar wrote:

Wrenches, 
>In the past month we have encountered some assembly errors on     preassembled 
>E-Panels using the Magnum MS4448PAE and MS4024AE     inverters. Robin Gudgel has 
>become aware of the problems and has     corrected them, but there may be other 
>Wrenches who have installed     or plan to install these E-Panels and may be 
>able to correct the     errors at installation. Robin has encouraged me to post 
>this here.
>
>On all three E-Panels the same two problems were found. The first is     that 
>the four signal wires (two twisted pairs) connected to the     Magnum ME-BMK 
>sending unit for the remote display were loose enough     to pull out. In one 
>case this prevented state-of-charge data from     being accessible on the 
>display. The solution is simply to tighten     the terminals, but as this is a 
>preassembled connection, checking     tightness could be overlooked. The second 
>is that the white 14 awg     DC - conductor from the preinstalled array GFDI is 
>terminated at the     white AC neutral bus. It should be connected to the DC - 
>bus on the     shunt. Moving this will require splicing in a few inches of #14     
>solid white THHN, as the existing conductor is too short, but has a     resistor 
>lead soldered to it, discouraging just replacing this wire     with a longer 
>piece.
>
>It's a funny thing - it's easy to overlook these errors because we     expect 
>the factory wiring to be correct. I missed these two errors,     and so did an 
>experienced installer from our Taos branch who crewed     with me on one of the 
>three installations. It took an inexperienced     but very skilled apprentice on 
>his first day of his first     installation to discover both problems and bring 
>them to my     attention. I have worked with Eden, the apprentice, on other     
>projects, so I trusted him to terminate correctly in the E-Panel.     Turns out 
>it was his fresh eyes that caught what we had overlooked     because we hadn't 
>expected it.
>Allan
>
>-- 
> 
>AllanSindelar
>Allan at positiveenergysolar.com
>NABCEP Certified Photovoltaic Installer
>EE98J Journeyman Electrician
>Positive Energy, Inc.
>3201 Calle Marie
>Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507
>505 424-1112
>www.positiveenergysolar.com
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