[RE-wrenches] Outback Chargers

[Steve Higgins]

Hey guys,

The FX's have always been rough to generator waveforms, back some 9-10 years ago there was a case in Alaska that identified that they (FX's) don't play well with capacitive coupled regulators.  We brought in several generators and the guys in engineering worked on a fix but never found one other than a $500.00 dollar tank circuit filter that most of the time didn't work.

At that point anything with a capacitive coupled regulator would have to be backed way off, and would cause a really nasty flicker of the Lights/loads when the inverter was charging the battery bank.

Electronically regulated regulators work better, but the way the inverter measures ac input amperage can also be way off.  I've seen the metering display 7 amps when indeed the actual current pull was closer to 10-11 amps.   This is most often the cause of the mystery breaker tripping.

One of the things I always did that worked pretty well was.

Turn the charge rates down to zero.
Start the Genset, wait till connection.
Edge the charge rates up 1 amp at a time to see how much the genset can handle.

I've usually found that at about 60-70% of the rated current is where the sweet spot is.

Another issue that I've seen come up affect multiple stacks of inverters regardless of their manufacture.  Most inverter/chargers in this market are Voltage Controlled chargers.  This means that current follows voltage, if voltage is low then current is high... once voltage get to say Absorb voltage the combination of the inverter seeing the absorb voltage and the battery no longer is accepting max current the amount of current flowing drastically drops.   This tends to drive customers/installers crazy on how to maximize the amount of current flowing into the battery.  Remember, once you get past the Bulk Charging stage you cannot force current into a battery, it's only going to accept what it can.

A secondary issue to this is when you have multiple chargers connected to the same battery bank. Very often if you have a quad stack of Outback's you will see on or two inverters charging while the rest of the inverters are sleeping, this is normal as nobody's products to my knowledge share charging information that will equally divide charging current between the sources.

Just something else to chew on.... Altitude will also affect how well the generator operates, as the higher you go the thinner the air the less efficiently the fuel burns.


Steve Higgins
Technical Services Manager
P: 800.681.9914
M: 206.790.5840
F: 902.597.8447
Surrette Battery Company

http://www.rollsbattery.com

Steve Higgins
Technical Services Manager
M: +1.206.790.5840
F: +1.902.597.8447
Surrette Battery Company
Exclusive manufacturer of

________________________________________
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] on behalf of Doug Wells [dwells at thesolarspecialists.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:03 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Outback Chargers

Kevin,

I am curious about what you are seeing on the Outbacks as well.
Have dozens of these out in the field.  They have been pretty reliable for me.
The biggest issue that I have had with them is when the inverters are transferring from generator charging back to inversion.
If you leave this at the factory default, 1 s, you will see light flicker, and sensitive electronics will go into error.
This transfer rate can be adjusted down and has cured most of the power quality issues with the battery charging.
A different issue than harmonics under load, but it might help.

Doug Wells
The Solar Specialists
Morrisville, VT 05661
(p) 802-223-7014
(c) 802-498-5856
www.thesolarspecialists.com



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