[RE-wrenches] Outback in general

Sun Jul 21 07:36:34 PDT 2024

Jay,
I have not tried it with anything but the Midnite BMS, so no personal
experience.  Midnite says it is compatible with others, and I will take
William's word that it is compatible with Pylon protocol.
Howie

On Sun, Jul 21, 2024, 10:32 AM William Bryce via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

> Hi Jay
>
> The AIO will work with any battery that uses the Pylon battery protocall.
> You can find some Youtube videos of it being used with the EG4 wall mount
> batteries.
>
> On Sun, Jul 21, 2024 at 9:29 AM jay via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
>> HI Howie,
>>
>> Does the AIO communicate with other brands of batteries?
>>
>> I concure about using batteries/inverters from same OEM, its my
>> preference.
>>
>> Jay
>>
>> On Jul 20, 2024, at 6:37 PM, Howie Michaelson via RE-wrenches <
>> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>
>> I have been testing a pre-production model of Midnite's AIO (All in One)
>> inverter/charge controller in my off-grid house (replaced a dual stacked
>> VFX3648, Midnite Classic200 and an AC coupled SunnyBoy), and while I
>> haven't put it through any serious tests yet, I am impressed with its
>> functions and spec's.  I also have a couple of 5kWh LiFePO4 batteries with
>> their BMS that I just added to the system (replacing a 1300 ah 2-volt
>> Lead-Acid battery bank), and the integration was seamless (really plug and
>> play, compared to an often more complicated pairing between other
>> all-in-ones I've been installing (Sol-Ark, Fortress). I've gotten a sneak
>> peak at their monitoring site which is still under intensive development,
>> and what I've seen looks pretty good. I was not a fan of the all-in-ones
>> when they started to flood the market (Sonnen, Pika/Generac, etc.)
>> especially ones with the batteries integrated.  But I have converted over
>> to them almost exclusively as they are much simpler for my clients to
>> understand - their programming and operation as well as their
>> communications are much better integrated and cleaner in my opinion. They
>> of course have had power issues and firmware headaches, which is why I am
>> sticking to inverters and batteries from the same manufacturer. I will keep
>> you all up to date on my experience with the production model of the
>> Midnite AIO as I install them and with the Midnite LiFePO4 batteries as
>> they become available.
>>
>> Howie Michaelson
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 20, 2024 at 7:26 PM Dan Fink via RE-wrenches <
>> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>
>>> James Showalter from Signature Solar and Eric Lundgren from Big Battery
>>> purchased Outback Solar. I have had terrible tech support experiences from
>>> both of those outfits, they tend to conveniently "forget" your engineering
>>> and NEC code compliance support requests when the answer is just simply
>>> "no, not yet UL listed" or "we don't know if that feature works or not."
>>> I'm not sure how these prolific suppliers of cheap crap products with
>>> terrible QC and NIB failure rates intend to compete, but my guess is that
>>> they have control of the big crap overseas product pipeline nozzle and
>>> intend to steer the huge stream of sewage in our direction. Sol-Ark just
>>> imports Deye products and retrofits them with their own upgrades and
>>> firmware. Magnum has vanished, much to my dismay as my own system is Magnum
>>> as are dozens of my customers.
>>>
>>> Us off-grid folks still have a couple guys named boB and Robin at
>>> Midnite that still manufacture, sell and support good products. Maybe
>>> Morningstar will up their game into larger inverters. Why are all these
>>> shady import companies based in Texas? Inquiring minds want to know! BTW, I
>>> hate all-in-ones, never had a single good experience, just endless firmware
>>> and comms updates and such simple issues resulting in multiple truck rolls.
>>>
>>> I miss Lones Tuss of Outback calling me back on a Friday evening at 7PM
>>> and remotely diagnosing my client's VFX / Mate 3S issues whilst doing his
>>> laundry at home, after I submitted a ticket earlier that day. The client
>>> seriously thought I was pulling a practical joke on him until I put Lones
>>> on speaker.
>>>
>>> Strange new world for us off-grid folks. I'll have to stick with the
>>> very few companies left that I trust. Yes, yes, Schneider, but their tech
>>> support is almost impenetrable.
>>>
>>> Our strange new off-grid world seems to be destined as crap from Alibaba
>>> and Amazon, and it all smells rather off to me, like the "fresh fish" at a
>>> run-down Safeway in eastern Kansas....
>>>
>>> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jul 20, 2024 at 3:22 PM Jay via RE-wrenches <
>>> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I just checked the OB forums page and there is nothing current.
>>>>
>>>> One thing I found says that the new president of OB is the CEO of Big
>>>> Battery. I don’t know that to be a fact.
>>>> Which is also somehow related to signature solar/ EG4.
>>>>
>>>> My guess is that if/when OB resurfaces it won’t have the same products.
>>>> It’ll just be an old name selling new products and they won’t be dealing
>>>> with old legacy products, warranty or MX or tech support.
>>>>
>>>> I could be way wrong.
>>>>
>>>> But anyone trying to keep a product line going wouldn’t just stop all
>>>> communication for a few months.
>>>>
>>>> Maybe someone who has been an OB distributor might know more about
>>>> what’s up?  I no longer have any of those contacts.
>>>>
>>>> New world, fellow wrenches.
>>>>
>>>> Jay
>>>>
>>>>
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