[RE-wrenches] PV/Charge Controller Troubleshoot Help

Tue Apr 23 11:19:35 PDT 2024

If the fan fails would there be an error message?  As always, I looked this
up before posting.  The manual is not clear on the matter.

William

Miller Solar
17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422
805-438-5600
www.millersolar.com
CA Lic. 773985

-----Original Message-----
From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On
Behalf Of MDElectricSolar via RE-wrenches
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2024 6:58 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Cc: MDElectricSolar
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] PV/Charge Controller Troubleshoot Help

It may be the fan. I had an FM 80 where the fan went bad that caused very
limited solar production throughout the day.

Michael D Nelson
MD Electric & Solar, Inc.
707-684-0064 mobile
707-884-1862 office
www.mdelectricsolar.com
www.facebook.com/mdelectricandsolar

> On Apr 23, 2024, at 6:54 AM, jay via RE-wrenches
> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
> HI Jim,
>
> The CC is sure suspect.
> You didn’t mention what the battery voltage is.
> Those CC have a hard PV watt input limit.
>
> You can try and set it back to factory default and then reprogram,
> sometimes that works.
>
> I don’t use the FM-60, but always the FM-80 because of the fan
> replacement.  the 80 takes 3 minutes, the 60 takes 2 hours.
>
> jay
>
>> On Apr 23, 2024, at 6:00 AM, Jim Gowdy via RE-wrenches
>> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>
>> I'm troubleshooting the solar aspect of a small offgrid 120v outback
>> system and need some opinions.  The customer was complaining that the
>> generator was running too much so I went out to their property and
>> investigated.  The solar array consists of 16 total panels (4 strings of
>> 4).  At the combiner box, I took the voltage and amperage reading of each
>> string and found the following......BREAKER 1 (85VDC/8.87A) BREAKER 2
>> (84.5VDC/8.9A) BREAKER 3 (.03VDC/0A) BREAKER 4(85VDC/8.89A).  Breaker 3
>> string was not producing and so I did a fix and then read
>> (87.1VDC/8.43A).  After reviewing the online monitor since that fix from
>> a few days prior I'm realizing that the first day after had 4.5KWH
>> production, second day had 0.7KWH production, and yesterday had 0.3KWH
>> production.....sun has been out without clouds.  The 60A Outback charge
>> controller shows there is PV voltage, but noticed it was in "silent mode"
>> a good amount of time.  Charge controller is old, but all the other
>> equipment was updated about a year and a half ago.  I was wondering if
>> there is a way to diagnose if the charge controller is bad without just
>> replacing it and what does it mean when it's in "silent mode".  Another
>> side note is that their generator threw an AGS fault code on the MATE3
>> controller and found that the generator has problems so I ended up
>> turning from "auto" to "off"
>> --
>> Jim with Gowdy Electric
>> Cambria, Ca 93428
>> business  805 927 2630
>> cell  805 975 5279
>> _______________________________________________
>> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>>
>> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org
>>
>> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>>
>> Change listserver email address & settings:
>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>>
>> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the
>> other:
>> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>>
>> List rules & etiquette:
>> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>>
>> Check out or update participant bios:
>> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Change listserver email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the
> other:
> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out or update participant bios:
> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>
_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Redwood Alliance

Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org

List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org

Change listserver email address & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the
other:
https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List rules & etiquette:
http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm

Check out or update participant bios:
http://www.members.re-wrenches.org