[RE-wrenches] Drop mode: who needs it?

Fri Feb 5 14:33:43 PST 2016

Living off grid, I have found "drop" to be useful for time's (at night) when using small generator (6.5kw) to assist with the batteries but we want to run the microwave for a few minutes which can bog down the generator. Yes flipping the breaker will do the same thing. But breakers don't auto reset. Can also be useful for exercising batteries with GT system.

Wayne Irwin
P.E.S.

Sent from my mobile device

From: steve at surrette.com
To: re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2016 19:39:34 +0000
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Drop mode: who needs it?

William, 

I know there was a point that they changed processors, when they did that it made the power assembly, control assembly, and the ac assembly incompatible.   I agree with you that it would have been nice that they
 could have maintained this, but this change was quite some time ago, at least 7-8 years ago.   I know for a fact they did stock both sets for a while, way past the normal warranty requirements.

>From what I remember the processor change was due to availability, the old processor was no longer manufactured… So to fix this Outback was forced to upgrade the processer.

As for the drop mode, I’ve never has much of a use for it… But when mixing firmware revs normally using the most current version is best… this may be something that wasn’t tested as Outback has a lot of software
 mods.

Steve Higgins

Technical Services Manager

P: +1.902.597.4020

M: +1.206.790.5840

F: +1.902.597.8447

Surrette Battery Company

Exclusive manufacturer of

From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org]
On Behalf Of William Miller

Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2016 6:15 PM

To: RE-wrenches

Subject: [RE-wrenches] Drop mode: who needs it?

Friends:

I have a customer who was basically victimized by a shady installer (who is no longer in the business).  He was sold an undersized system with two
 VFX3648 inverters and later two FX2548 inverters.  One of the 2548s died and it was recommended I install all new boards.  I am a bit disappointed that there was no option to try and figure out which board was bad, I had to install all three.

I was told the logic board has newer firmware and had to be configured as the master.  I did so and we found that there was a glitch:  About 5 seconds
 before an auto-start the AC Use/Drop screen went to Drop mode.  The generator started but ran for no benefit.  We resolved this by reconfiguring the system so an older VFX inverter was master and resetting all units.

I have three questions:

1.     
Is there any known incompatibilities between versions of logic boards?

2.     
Is there a way to determine which board is defective and replace only that board?

3.     
What possible use could the drop mode have and why is it even included in the menu structure?  Can’t one just open a circuit breaker and achieve the same effect?

Any help is much appreciated, as always.

Sincerely,

William Miller

Lic 773985

millersolar.com

805-438-5600

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