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

[Chris Schaefer]

G'day Dan,

I've been using the Dorman 5 pin, 30A 12v relay, p/n 88069 for several
years. I've found them at Auto Zone or sometimes I just buy them online.

Good Luck,
Christopher

On Fri, Feb 9, 2024 at 12:28 PM Dan Fink via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

> 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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-- 

Chris Schaefer’s


*Tel 585-229-2083 or Cell 585-748-1870 *
*5115 S Hill Road ~ Canandaigua New York 14424**www.solarandwindfx.com
<http://www.solarandwindfx.com> ~ E-mail: chris at solarandwindfx.com
<chris at solarandwindfx.com>*


Thomas Jefferson, the author of our great Constitution, once said,
"democracy" will cease to exist when you take away from those who are
willing to work and give to those who would not."
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