[RE-wrenches] Outback EQ not holding voltage

Tue Apr 28 15:32:58 EDT 2020

Hi All
On OutBack inverters the EQ process is not temp comped.
The eq timer will not count down until the voltage set point is achieved.
You comment on the issue being somewhat intermittent is interesting.
Could there be a loose cable, bad crimp or corroded connection somewhere in the system?
Sorry but nothing jumps out at me.
Someone mentioned specific gravity.
Are the SG readings widely separated?

From: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org> On Behalf Of Dave Tedeyan
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2020 8:17 AM
To: offgridsolar at sti.net; RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Outback EQ not holding voltage

Brian,
I had tried lowering the EQ voltage by 0.4V. The batteries still get up to the EQ voltage, but then fluctuate right at or 0.1V below.

Dave,
The EQ countdown timer does not count down when the battery voltage is below the EQ setpoint (even if by 0.1V). And since the timer never gets to 0, the system just stays in EQ.

Also, we have found that the issue is somewhat intermittent. At one point Outback had me reset the CC and FNDC back to factory settings and reprogram them. It seemed that it helped, but then a month or two later it showed the same issue. So this does not happen with every EQ cycle, it just happens for most of them.

I also received another suggestion that the battery bank has a couple bad cells which will lead to higher temps and so with the temperature compensation the bank is just not getting to a high enough voltage.

Cheers,
Dave

Dave Tedeyan, PE
Senior Engineer | Taitem Engineering, PC
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On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 11:08 AM Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar <offgridsolar at sti.net<mailto:offgridsolar at sti.net>> wrote:

Does not sound right to me. Usually both Outback and Schneider protect against uncontrolled EQ time and end EQ.

I think I would remove the network after the battery is full and test one controller at a time. Might have been damaged by lightning or gen glitching. Since you say it does this from the inverter charger on genset (only no fm80's) is even weirder. Eliminate the network.

Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar

"we go where powerlines don't"

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On Tue, 28 Apr 2020 07:00:21 -0700, Brian Mehalic <brian at solarenergy.org<mailto:brian at solarenergy.org>> wrote:
Sorry you had already answered the first two questions :) What about the others?
Brian

On Apr 28, 2020, at 6:50 AM, Dave Tedeyan <dtedeyan at taitem.com<mailto:dtedeyan at taitem.com>> wrote:
Hi All,

I've got an outback system (Radian 8048A, 2 FM80, 16 Trojan L16RE-B) where when the customer equalizes, the batteries hover right around the EQ voltage, but will often dip to 0.1v less. Because of this, the EQ timer does not count down properly, and so left to its own devices the system would equalize for way longer than it should, potentially forever. This will happen when doing an EQ from the solar on a bright sunny day, or the generator, or both. The customer can manually keep track of the time and manually stop the EQ after 3 hours, but that is not ideal. Has anyone dealt with this before and have any suggestions on how they fixed it?

This system is 3-4 years old, and the issue only started in the past year or so.

Cheers,
Dave

Dave Tedeyan, PE
Senior Engineer | Taitem Engineering, PC
[cid:image001.gif at 01D61D59.20569B90]
110 South Albany Street | Ithaca, NY 14850
o. 607.277.1118 x121  f. 607.277.2119
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Certified B-Corporation since 2013
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