[RE-wrenches] In search of better generator start relay for Outback system

[Dan Fink]

Esteemed Wrenches - Finally successfully troubleshot an intermittent AGS
problem that has been nagging one of my remote-grid clients for 1.5 winters
now. Of course it's a 4-hour drive from my office.

During winter snowstorms (when they need the AGS the most of course) the
generator had only about 50:50 chance of starting. So I'd travel to the
site (sometimes just the client would do it and I'd guide him by phone),
pull up the Gen menu on the Mate 3S, hit ON and it wouldn't start. No
bueno. Walk up to the generator (propane with Honda engine) and verify it's
on Auto. Start it with the main switch to ON, starts right up, so not a gen
battery problem. Run it for an hour or so, stop it with the switch on the
gen, put it back to Auto, and everything works perfectly from Mate 3S AGS
for 1-2 days, including remote start from OpticsRE. Then the problem
(sometimes) comes up again when nobody is there.

I just happened to hit the site at exactly the right time last week right
as a big snowstorm was moving in, and was finally able to figure it out
with really good raingear and a multimeter: The Outback Flexware remote gen
start relay OBR-16-DIN was icing up internally, I had added it in the gen
compartment when we upgraded the client from an old Trace SW  to an Outback
(SW had a big AGS relay, Outback sent a 12VDC signal to trigger the
external relay we added).

DIAG - new Outback OBR-16-DIN relay would get frosty internally when high
humidity snowstorms would move in, that's why it sometimes didn't work from
the Mate 3S or OpticsRE. Run the gen for an hour, the internal gen
compartment warms up, the frost melts off of the relay, then all the AGS
from Mate 3S and OpticsRE works fine.

Have any of all y'all run into this problem, and is there a more reliable
relay to use that won't ice up? not outside exposed to weather, but inside
the outside gen enclosure. I have zero space available in the VFX  MNDC
enclosure in the house to put in the Flexware AGS relay, it would need a
separate enclosure.

The easiest solution I can see is just find a relay to fit into the gen
compartment that does the same as the Outback version, but doesn't ice up.

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

Dan Fink
Owner, Buckville Energy Consulting LLC
IREC Certified Instructor for PV and Small Wind Installation
NABCEP Certified PV System Inspector
NABCEP PV Associate
d <dan.fink at greendustrialtraining.com>anbob88 at gmail.com
970-672-4342
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