[RE-wrenches] Instruction manual / User interface rant

Jason Szumlanski Jason at fafcosolar.com
Tue Oct 18 04:58:27 PDT 2011


I second your rant. The charge control setting has been an issue for me,
too. It's especially hard to diagnose remotely when there is solar
charging the batteries and the voltage is coming up. You may make the
false assumption that the generator is charging the batteries. The MATE
3 is a bit nicer, because you can see charging kW at a glance, but even
that is not foolproof. 

 

I wouldn't care about the manual so much if the interface was easy to
understand. Did you read the manual for your iPhone? Of course not...
not necessary...

 

Jason Szumlanski

Fafco Solar

 

 

From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of William
Miller
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2011 7:49 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Instruction manual / User interface rant

 

Friends:

I just returned home from a long drive to troubleshoot a problem with an
Outback FX system.  I found that the customer, in the process of using a
remote Mate to start the generator, had inadvertently turned the global
charge control setting to "off".  This causes a problem that is very
serious but hard to detect:  The generator will run but it will not
charge the batteries.  No one can know how long ago this was done, but
in the meantime the customers batteries were chronically undercharged.

Just a month ago I found another Outback system where the customer (or
someone from another "solar" company) had selected the "drop" setting
from the "use" menu.  Similar results to the previous case, but in this
situation the customer had to use the bypass breakers to get power to
the house while the batteries did not charge.

To my mind, this is one of the big problems with all manufacturers of
technical equipment:  Poor user interface.  Who, in their right mind,
would put controls to disable critical functions in the same menu tree
as the control to do a common place, frequently used function such as
starting a generator remotely?  And the screens are all almost
identical.  This is extremely poor design.

On a similar subject, all off-grid inverter manuals are written very
poorly.  For example, why put the installation instructions in the front
of the manual?  You install a system once, but you operate it every day.
The installation instructions should be in the back and the operating
instructions in the front (or better yet, in separate books).  Why are
we trying to use the same manual for the installer as for the user?  A
majority of users need a 4 page manual that includes:  1. how to turn
the system on and off, 2. how to read and interpret a few critical meter
functions, 3. how (and why) to equalize batteries and 4. what to do when
your power goes out.  That's it.  For the few users that want to know
more, they can wade through the installation / technical manual.

We provide our own checklists to all of our customers to perform the
limited functions described above.  For a sample, see:
file:///D:/William/Web/Dreamweaver/Miller%20Solar/MillerSolar/Services/S
upport/_support.htmll
<file:///D:\William\Web\Dreamweaver\Miller%2520Solar\MillerSolar\Service
s\Support\_support.htmll> 

We provide these instruction sets to our install clients and sell them
to others, including other installers (off list, if you are interested).

I am volunteering to be on a peer review panel to critique users manuals
for off-grid inverter manufacturer's.  Maybe if a few of us grey beards
look over these manuals before they are printed, we can get them
straightened out.  Anyone else on board?

Rant off.

William Miller

PS:  Any manual not pre-punched for a three hole binder is not worth the
paper it is printed on.

Wm




William Miller 
Miller Solar
Voice :805-438-5600
email: william at millersolar.com
http://millersolar.com
<http://millersolar.com/> License No. C-10-773985

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