Midnite Classic CC Watch

Windsun

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

The Midnite controllers are not available yet, but we wanted to get pricing up on the store.

When we get stock, we will likely run a newsletter special on them, but at this time we don't really know when to expect them to arrive.

westbranch

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

Prices for the 200V & 250V versions? Only see the 150 price in the store...

thanks

keyturbocars

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

Yes, I am also very interested in the pricing of the Classic 200 & 250 versions. I am considering trying one with my wind turbine, but I need to figure out overall cost considering the Classic and also the Clipper module. Robin said the Clipper will not be available for a while, but he said they would help people set up their own Clipper for use with wind turbines. I need figure this all out and decide if the cost is worth the benefits. - Edward

westbranch wrote: »

Prices for the 200V & 250V versions? Only see the 150 price in the store...

thanks

westbranch

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

got an answer from a direct email to NAWS.

hopefully they will have prices by the end of Nov...

ej:cool:

SkiDoo55

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

Found prices advertised on another site of;
Model 200 @ $645.00
Model 250 @ $680.00

I would expect NAWS Price to be approximately the same as they are very competative. I would wait for Host site to publish prices, should not be much of a wait. Gives you some ballpark numbers to work with.

DaveB

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

What is the resolution of the data acquisition the classic can output/record?

It also looks I have much greater voltage range options with the classic. With the MX-60 I am limited to 150V maximum PV input voltage but the classic 150 is 204V and the other classic versions 315V. Are there any efficiency graphs for say a 120V nominal PV array to a 48V battery bank?

boB

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

DaveB wrote: »

What is the resolution of the data acquisition the classic can output/record?

It also looks I have much greater voltage range options with the classic. With the MX-60 I am limited to 150V maximum PV input voltage but the classic 150 is 204V and the other classic versions 315V. Are there any efficiency graphs for say a 120V nominal PV array to a 48V battery bank?

Battery Voltage is +- 0.1 Volt accuracy and Vpv input is around +- 0.2 Volts.
Battery current measurement is also very good. I got tired of poor current readings (and certain person's constant bitching... Ahem...) so we spent a good amount of time making this one better. I am pretty happy how that turned out.

Don't have a high voltage efficiency graph for you yet but there will be one. I can tell you though that the efficiency is not quite as good as at lower voltage units or same unit at lower in/out voltages, but it is still in the mid 90% range or so for the 250V Classic.

boB

tallgirl

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

boB,

Do you see a 600 volt Classic? My thoughts about the Xantrex unit (other than they need to hire me to fix their broken communications bus ...) is that it's so people can retrofit straight grid-tied arrays to hybrid systems. And if that's the case, I see a real market for charge controllers in the 350 volt and up range.

boB

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

tallgirl wrote: »

boB,

Do you see a 600 volt Classic? My thoughts about the Xantrex unit (other than they need to hire me to fix their broken communications bus ...) is that it's so people can retrofit straight grid-tied arrays to hybrid systems. And if that's the case, I see a real market for charge controllers in the 350 volt and up range.

600V Classic ?? We've certainly talked about it. If Xan-Schneider's 600V
CC works well and is as inexpensive as it is rumored, then we won't have to
make one.

Agree on >350V range.

We'll concentrate on first things first.

Thanks Julie,
boB

DaveB

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

boB,
The same controller will work for hydro, wind, and PV, correct? I'd like to replace my original controller for my 48V AWP 3.6 and was holding out for the Classic (waiting what seems like years now ). I need to at least update the resistor dump load for the AWP in the immediate future since it is not temp compensated and can't dump enough with the PV and wind producing . Is the Clipper unit available now with the dump loads that I've seen in some pics? I'd rather get that and have that hooked up using the dump loads instead of buying a separate dump load if one is already included with the Clipper which I would need anyways when I get the classic.

halfcrazy

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

The same controller can be set to work for wind, hydro, solar etc by the end user it can only do one of them at a time. The Clipper is still a few months away at least but the Classic is in production now and should start shipping in limited quantity in a couple of weeks.

Feel free to email me with any MidNite related questions ryan at midnitesolar.com

keyturbocars

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

Here's the latest update from the Midnite Solar website regarding the Classic.

Nov 21, 2010 - The Classic has three powerful 100 pin microprocessors. All three processors are undergoing last minute code changes to make sure the Classic will perform as expected. Herb is messing with arc fault parameters, Andrew, Morgan and Rob are working on internet and PC interface software and boB is working on last minute menu stuff. It won’t be long until we shoot the engineers and start shipping product.

jwdukes

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

Thanks for the update keyturbo,
Last minute changes are a little concerning, but I'm trusting everyone's opinion that these guys are the best. I'm not surprised to see another "won't be long" update, though if the Classic isn't released by March, I've got to consider other very crappy solutions.
Thanks for all you're hard work Bob, Robin, & co.

tallgirl

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

halfcrazy wrote: »

The same controller can be set to work for wind, hydro, solar etc by the end user it can only do one of them at a time. The Clipper is still a few months away at least but the Classic is in production now and should start shipping in limited quantity in a couple of weeks.

Feel free to email me with any MidNite related questions ryan at midnitesolar.com

Can it be reconfigured, assuming the appropriate contactors were used, to switch between the different modes via the web interface?

Might sound weird, but this is actually a serious question!

halfcrazy

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

I would suspect that could be done. and the Classic could run the relay as well I suspect. We would need a better idea what was wanted but the unit and its web interface are very feature packed unlike anything out there yet.

tallgirl

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

halfcrazy wrote: »

I would suspect that could be done. and the Classic could run the relay as well I suspect. We would need a better idea what was wanted but the unit and its web interface are very feature packed unlike anything out there yet.

I doubt the Classic could control the logic that selected between sources since it would have to know what sources had what power available.

I'm sure the Classic has a great web interface, since that seems to be the trend in the industry. What I don't see in the industry -- other than what my company produces -- is products that can integrate multiple vendor products.

boB

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

tallgirl wrote: »

I doubt the Classic could control the logic that selected between sources since it would have to know what sources had what power available.

Not sure why that would matter ?? I think that could be accomplished by simply linking the AUX output with the MPPT MODE that is selected. Could be done using a macro of modbus commands.
Having said that though, I would think that a user would just have a separate CC for each source so both could be used at once. I think that switching sources would be like, less than 1% of users' requests so wouldn't be very popular but sure, it's do-able.

tallgirl wrote: »

I'm sure the Classic has a great web interface, since that seems to be the trend in the industry. What I don't see in the industry -- other than what my company produces -- is products that can integrate multiple vendor products.

Yep, and that's where you can do your stuff, Julie. It's not too hard I understand but which of your monitors have say, OutBack and another companie's monitoring in one ?? Or is that the Morningstar stuff that's coming up soon ?

boB

tallgirl

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

boB wrote: »

Not sure why that would matter ?? I think that could be accomplished by simply linking the AUX output with the MPPT MODE that is selected. Could be done using a macro of modbus commands.
Having said that though, I would think that a user would just have a separate CC for each source so both could be used at once. I think that switching sources would be like, less than 1% of users' requests so wouldn't be very popular but sure, it's do-able.

I think there are some neat applications, such as mixing solar with stored microhyrdro. Pump water by day, spin a turbine by night.

Yep, and that's where you can do your stuff, Julie. It's not too hard I understand but which of your monitors have say, OutBack and another companie's monitoring in one ?? Or is that the Morningstar stuff that's coming up soon ?

boB

The Modbus support that's due out 1Q11 will support dynamic loading of all supported Modbus-enabled devices. The code is running on a netbook right now and will be transferred onto a greenMonitor Lite sometime in December for testing, then product release probably in January. Devices like those from OutBack, as well as other non-Modbus products like Magnum inverters, will require their own separate serial ports or USB-to-Serial adapters

Here's the startup from the version that's being testing. There's a PentaMetric monitoring shunts for a MS SS-MPPT-15, a crappy Wagan MSW inverter, and a Veris Industries CT measuring the AC current from the Wagan (the CT is on the third shunt, which is disabled then "converted" to report AC current values), a Modbus with the SS-MPPT-15 on it, and an APRS World Wind Data Logger over a TCP/IP connection. Send me a Classic and you'd be able to see "Dynamically loading 'MidNite.Classic'" in there 8)

greenMonitor: Server 1.00.9
Copyright(c) 2007-2010, greenHouse Computers
This is licensed software.
PentaMetric: Loading device support.
PentaMetric: 'COM4:,disable3,base3=8.71,mult3=0.189'
Modbus: Polling bus 1 (Limit 16)
Modbus: Adding unit 1 to bus 1
Bus 1, Unit 1: SS-MPPT-15L (Morningstar Corp.)
Modbus: Unit 1: Dynamically loading 'Morningstar.MS_SSMPPT'
Started Unit 1
APRS: Scanning for supported devices.
APRS: Loading device 1
Vendor: Morningstar Corp.
Model: SS-MPPT-15L
Serial: 10220519

tallgirl

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

boB,

I'd really like to see "MidNite.Classic" in this output before I see the rest of Morningstar's products ...

greenMonitor: Server 1.00.9
Copyright(c) 2007-2010, greenHouse Computers
This is licensed software.
PentaMetric: Loading device support.
PentaMetric: 'COM4:,disable3,base3=8.71,mult3=0.189'
Modbus: Polling bus 1 (Limit 16)
Modbus: Adding unit 3 to bus 1
Bus 1, Unit 3: SureSine 300 (Morningstar Corp.)
Modbus: Unit 3: Dynamically loading 'Morningstar.MS_SureSine'
Started Unit 3
APRS: Scanning for supported devices.
APRS: Loading device 1
Vendor: Morningstar Corp.
Model: SureSine 300
Serial: 08250251

halfcrazy

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

With the Classics starting out the door we have rolled our forum out. http://www.midnitesolar.com/smf_forum/index.php

tallgirl

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

halfcrazy wrote: »

With the Classics starting out the door we have rolled our forum out. http://www.midnitesolar.com/smf_forum/index.php

The text verification picture thingy isn't working well and I'm not able to understand the F's, S's, and X's that seem to be all over the place.

keyturbocars

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

I also couldn't get the text verification thing to work. No image displayed, just a box with a red X and the text "Type the letters shown in the picture" next to that.

niel

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

i ran into that too, but you can get around it as there is a portion below that says listen to the letters. if you still don't hear it hit the direct link.

Dapdan

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

I got the same box as well. i was able to download the wav file but when I listen for the letters some of them sounded really garbled and I was not able to accurately fill out the box so I did not get to register.

Cheers...
Damani

halfcrazy

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

Ok I have passed this on to our web guru hopefully he will fix this today.

halfcrazy

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

Ok it looks like Rob has fixed the forum look forward to seeing you all there

boB

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

keyturbocars wrote: »

I also couldn't get the text verification thing to work. No image displayed, just a box with a red X and the text "Type the letters shown in the picture" next to that.

I hate those blasted things !!

I just re-make them until I see one that I can easily read.

boB

Windsun

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

We have not used the SMF forum software since about 2005, but in this software you can set the captcha images anywhere from unreadable to almost plain text - which is enough to stop 95% of the bots.

Vic

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

This is probably old news, but just checked Midnite's site, and it says the Classic is shipping in all four models -- limited production volumes. The manual is now available at the site, as well :

http://www.midnitesolar.com/

Hooray for them, and US ! Vic

keyturbocars

Re: Midnite Classic CC Watch

Thanks Vic for the heads up on the Classic Manual being online. I've been looking forward to reading through that.

Edward