<div dir="ltr">Now that I am getting some data from the island with the old system keeping power up for 6 plus hours....(.started with 2 hours and now with full sun 6 hours. I see on Event History that the FM100 is continually bulk charging then Not charging every minute No actual power produced but sometimes the bulk charging will continue for several minutes and the FM100 status shows bulk charging at 45 to 50 watts regardless of what the array voltage is., then goes back to silent. Has anybody seen this before? Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny so I should see more power if the problem is in fact snow or ice on the array. We had a lot of rain so I had assumed that any snow would have washed off but then here on the mountain we got some sleet and then 2"of snow that I had to scrape off my array. All the solar farms around here have cleared of snow so I can't believe that snow cover is the problem. <div><br></div><div>Yesterday I took the FM100 with the arc fault problem that I had put aside to deal with later, removed the arc fault circuit board and then installed it in my system in place of my FM100. It works just fine. I just installed two FM100's and Radian in a new mountaintop off-grid system and another going in this week on a grid tie backup system. Both are pole mount racks for the solar. I probably should pull the circuit boards out of both of those as they are unattended second homes with months of no use but they are usually accessible after the snowstorms.</div><div><br></div><div>John </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>..</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Dec 11, 2024 at 2:17 PM Kirk Herander 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="auto">I had one stuck in silent a couple years ago. Was plain as day after some measurements that PV positive to ground showed the open circuit PV voltage. It had failed internally. A new charge controller fixed it.<br clear="all"><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:16px;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial"><a name="m_-4185206589460783253_m_1368658331955109057_SignatureSanitizer__MailAutoSig" style="font-family:Arial"><b style="font-family:Arial">Kirk Herander / </b></a><b style="font-family:Arial"><a href="mailto:kirkh@vermont.solar" title="Send an email to kirkh@vermont.solar; Send an email to kirkh@vermont.solar" style="font-family:Arial;color:blue" target="_blank">kirkh@vermont.solar</a></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:16px;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial"><b style="font-family:Arial">Owner|Principal, VT Solar, LLC</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:16px;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial"><b style="font-family:Arial"><i style="font-family:Arial">Celebrating our 33<sup style="font-family:Arial">st</sup> Anniversary 1991-2024!!</i></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:16px;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">dba Vermont Solar Engineering</span><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:16px;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">802.559.1225</span></p></div></div></div></div><div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Dec 11, 2024 at 2:13 PM Luke Christy 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>This is a timely thread. Thanks to all for your input.<div><br><div><div>I also have a site with a problematic FM100. The system has 2x FM100s and every morning one of them has required a manual power cycle by the client to get it to start producing. I can get no data remotely through Optics that indicates what’s going on other than that the device just stays in silent mode after it shuts down at the end of the production day. I went down some rabbit holes related to installing a fixed resistor on the BTS sensor circuit to set the measured battery temp at 25º C vs leaving the sensor unconnected with the lithium battery bank. There were some threads on the NAWS forum that indicated ghost temp values from unconnected BTS sensors might a source of the problem. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of the AFCI card as possible cause also. Thankfully I have some spare new FM100s on hand. Looks like a trip out there to swap the device and pull some AFCI cards. </div><div><br></div><div>I continue to be dismayed at the situation with Outback. I can’t really see them coming back to the market in an incarnation that we will recognize. - despite the various reports to the contrary. I hope I’m wrong. </div><div>At least (for now) they are still supporting the Optics platform.<br id="m_-4185206589460783253m_1368658331955109057m_4255727349820808356lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage"><div>
<div dir="auto" style="letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div dir="auto" style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px"><div><br></div><div>Luke Christy<br>Renewable energy consultant<br><br>NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional™: <br><br>Solar Gain Services, LLC<br>PO Box 531<br>Monte Vista, CO 81144</div><div>719.588.3044<br><a href="mailto:sgsrenewables@gmail.com" target="_blank">sgsrenewables@gmail.com</a></div></div></div>
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<div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Dec 10, 2024, at 8:50 PM, John Blittersdorf via RE-wrenches <<a href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org" target="_blank">re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</a>> wrote:</div><br><div><div dir="ltr">HI Wrenches,<div> I have an off grid site on an Island on auto pilot for the winter with no access. The FM 100</div><div>has remained in Silent mode even when the Array Voltage is around 150 Volts and battery at 46V</div><div>I did get a response from Outback Tech support but they couldn't figure out what happened.</div><div>I suspect that there is a ground or arc fault error which locks it up til manually recycled. The problem is that there is no indication found on Optics that there is a ground fault. </div><div>We would be totally in the dark except the original small solar array with an Apollo CC with</div><div>about a kilowatt of solar has been dribbling in enough power to keep above low battery cutoff</div><div>for a few hours each day. The system was up when I was on the tech support call but has since quit for the day. Has anyone seen this before? </div><div><br></div><div>John Blittersdorf</div><div><br></div></div>
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