<div dir="ltr">I had two controllers on the same project stuck in silent mode as well back in the 2019 era. Unfortunately they required replacement along with 5 more in that time frame. For awhile I was scared to power them down once they were working. Lots of free service calls for a while there. Shipping was not always reimbursed either during a time when advanced replacements were not available. Something worth checking is that the internal jumpers are still in the correct positions as this can also signal a fixable Silent mode indication. Many problematic arc fault cards as well that led to me disabling them on every install. Luckily the last 8 installed have not had any issues so apparently they've identified their weaknesses.<div><br></div><div>If Outback doesn't start producing new inventory soon the remaining stock is going to become quite valuable to those sites seeking a drop in replacement. I've designed my equipment layouts over the last few years to accommodate Hawke's Bays, this departure from Outback was a bit more surprising than expected but expected nonetheless. <br><div><br></div><div>Good luck, Nick</div><div><br></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Dec 11, 2024 at 6:17 AM John Blittersdorf via RE-wrenches <<a href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org">re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">HI Mac I have been thinking about that since the first failure. Have you actually done that. I still have that controller sitting on my "to be repaired shelf. I.m going to try pulling the board on this one and see what happens, A new board did not fix it.<div><br></div><div>John</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Dec 11, 2024 at 7:30 AM Mac Lewis via RE-wrenches <<a href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org" target="_blank">re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Hi John,<div><br></div><div>For a remote site like this, where I assume reliability is very important, I would disable and pull out the arc fault board. They just aren't reliable and don't have the smarts to auto reset or remotely reset.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Dec 10, 2024 at 9:03 PM Ray Walters via RE-wrenches <<a href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org" target="_blank">re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">I haven't had an FM 100 go bad yet, but I've seen other models and <br>
brands of controllers stay stuck in Silent mode, or Sleep mode, when <br>
they failed. To avoid multiple trips to remote sites, I just swap it <br>
out with another, and then deal with getting the faulty controller <br>
repaired on my own time. Magnum used to provide a fresh unit, and as <br>
long as I sent the old one back within 30 days, there was no charge.<br>
<br>
Ray Walters<br>
Remote Solar<br>
<br>
On 12/10/2024 8:50 PM, John Blittersdorf via RE-wrenches wrote:<br>
> HI Wrenches,<br>
> I have an off grid site on an Island on auto pilot for the winter <br>
> with no access. The FM 100<br>
> has remained in Silent mode even when the Array Voltage is around 150 <br>
> Volts and battery at 46V<br>
> I did get a response from Outback Tech support but they couldn't <br>
> figure out what happened.<br>
> I suspect that there is a ground or arc fault error which locks it up <br>
> til manually recycled. The problem is that there is no indication <br>
> found on Optics that there is a ground fault.<br>
> We would be totally in the dark except the original small solar array <br>
> with an Apollo CC with<br>
> about a kilowatt of solar has been dribbling in enough power to keep <br>
> above low battery cutoff<br>
> for a few hours each day. The system was up when I was on the tech <br>
> support call but has since quit for the day. Has anyone seen this before?<br>
><br>
> John Blittersdorf<br>
><br>
><br>
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</blockquote></div><div><br clear="all"></div><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div><br></div><div><font color="#305A78" face="'times new roman', serif"><br></font></div><div><br></div>Mac Lewis<br><br><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";font-size:medium;color:rgb(255,153,0)"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3"><p align="left"><font color="#000000" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:small"><span style="font-family:arial;font-weight:normal;color:rgb(48,90,120)"><font face="'times new roman', serif">"Yo solo sé que no sé nada." </font><span style="font-weight:700;color:rgb(104,104,104)"><font face="'times new roman', serif">-Sócrates</font></span></span></span></font></p></font></b></span></div>
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