MX-60 "American Idol"

System

My system has been up and running a year now, and I have read manuals and learned a little. One thing that I can't find in the manual (yet): My MX-60 "sings" sometimes. Sounds like a muted 3-5 second computerized Asian jingle. Not always the same "melody". Nothing seems to be wrong, batteries may be floating, or absorbing or whatever. Maybe it has to do with a "snooze" alarm? Maybe a "wake up"?

crewzer

Re: MX-60 "American Idol"

The "singing" is caused by a resonance in the controller's big inductors when the array voltage drops close to the battery voltage. It's not uncommon when the nominal array voltage is the same as the nominal battery voltage, i.e., 48 V / 48 V. I suspect you see this more in the summer than the winter.

The best way to deal with this is to wire your array for "60 V" (i.e., five "12 V" modules in series) for connection to your "48 V" battery system. You might want to consider turning off the controller's "extended play" mode. See here for more info: http://www.outbackpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1676&highlight=extended+play

HTH,
Jim / crewzer

System2

Re: MX-60 "American Idol"

Always such great help at this site!
It seems that the singing does'nt have any negative effects on the equipment from what I've gathered, so as the system is in a utility shed 100 feet from the house I guess I can let it sing - it won't bother me!
Thank you

mike95490

Re: MX-60 "American Idol"

shed 100 feet from the house I guess I can let it sing - it won't bother me!

Any problem with the mechanical vibration abrading the enamel insulation on the transformer windings ?

BB.

Re: MX-60 "American Idol"

It would always be better if you could reduce the ringing of the components... Nothing may happen, but you can have solder fractures, work hardening of the copper coils, hermetic seal failures of components, etc...

Will it fail sooner because of the "singing"--don't know.

-Bill

System2

Re: MX-60 "American Idol"

mike90045 wrote: »

Any problem with the mechanical vibration abrading the enamel insulation on the transformer windings ?

I have an Nvidia 6600GT graphics card that has power inductors that "sing" as well, always has since day one - still works great and shouldn't be a big issue but wear may be more of a problem on a transformer vs an inductor. Either way I wouldn't worry too much about it unless you can easily change it so that it doesn't sing.

crewzer

Re: MX-60 "American Idol"

I haven't heard of any problems or failures as a result of the "singing". I gather that turning off the "extended play" mode reduces if not eliminates the noise by "raising the floor" of the MX' sweeps and keeping the array voltage sufficiently above the battery voltage.

HTH,
Jim / crewzer

boB

Re: MX-60 "American Idol"

The singing won't hurt anything... It is coming from the inductors. One thing that has been done to quiet them down is to varnish the inductors. Another thing that has been done was to stuff something soft or paper-like between the outside windings and the inside of the core to dampen them.

So, how old is this unit ? Serial number ? Those inductors were originally supposed to be varnished from the inductor factory and eventually were, but that has been a few years now. Maybe they've stopped the practice ?

boB

System2

Re: MX-60 "American Idol"

The unit was installed a year ago. It was pretty much "factory fresh".
Since my solar ranch is 200 miles away, it'll be a week or two before I can look at the unit to see what the sn etc is.....