Xantrex C35 controller

System

What I have is a Xantrex C35 controller that i'm not sure is working right. I installed this about 9 months ago and it seemed to work fine.
What brought me to wonder if it was working is the LED on the front panel shows no activity just stays off. My battery is fully charged and my Trimetic meter confirms this.The LED used to flash slow for bulk setting and stay solid for float stage,but now it is off. I put a multimeter on the PV panel terminal of the it reads between 16-18 volts, when I put it on the battery terminal of the controller it reads 2-5 volts,When I put it on the battery terminal it reads 13.+. I am thinking of getting a battery that needs charging and hooking it up to see if it changes anything but I thought it would be a good idea to get some input or suggestions first. Any experience with this would be helpful.
Jeff

Here is some additional info. that was asked for: The battery (1) is fully charged and is a 100 ah. All connections are clean and tight. All adjustments on the "pots" are right,and all the jumpers are correct. I have 2 Kyocera 85 watt panels and I am not plugged into shore power. Panels are wired to a combiner buss on the roof with 10Ga. wire ( short runs ) and from the combiner to the controller with 6Ga.. The system worked great on my last trip.
As Bigfootford stated the controller would have a disconnect as you wouldn't want to over charge the battery so the lower voltage on the PV side may be normal. But the LED that "monitors" the unit is off and I believe it should be a solid green with a full battery. I am starting to think that the controller may be ok and that the LED is bad but trying to get more info. from Xantrex or Trace or who ever is making these has been very difficult, the Xantrex web site doesn't even list them and you get nothing on a search you have to click on Schneider electric link?to find anything.

arkieoscar

Re: Xantrex C35 controller

You can try replacing the LED. I just plugs in to the circuit board. You can pull it out and take it to radio shack or similar and get another to test with. It should be solid green when the battery is charged and it's in float. I couldn't figure out what you were saying about a switch.

vcallaway

Re: Xantrex C35 controller

My C12 stays solid green on a charged battery.

You might press & hold the equalize button and see if it starts flashing red/green. If only red then the green side might be burned out.

rick

Re: Xantrex C35 controller

Tamnative wrote: »

What I have is a Xantrex C35 controller that i'm not sure is working right. I installed this about 9 months ago and it seemed to work fine.
What brought me to wonder if it was working is the LED on the front panel shows no activity just stays off. My battery is fully charged and my Trimetic meter confirms this.The LED used to flash slow for bulk setting and stay solid for float stage,but now it is off. I put a multimeter on the PV panel terminal of the it reads between 16-18 volts, when I put it on the battery terminal of the controller it reads 2-5 volts,When I put it on the battery terminal it reads 13.+. I am thinking of getting a battery that needs charging and hooking it up to see if it changes anything but I thought it would be a good idea to get some input or suggestions first. Any experience with this would be helpful.
Jeff

Here is some additional info. that was asked for: The battery (1) is fully charged and is a 100 ah. All connections are clean and tight. All adjustments on the "pots" are right,and all the jumpers are correct. I have 2 Kyocera 85 watt panels and I am not plugged into shore power. Panels are wired to a combiner buss on the roof with 10Ga. wire ( short runs ) and from the combiner to the controller with 6Ga.. The system worked great on my last trip.
As Bigfootford stated the controller would have a disconnect as you wouldn't want to over charge the battery so the lower voltage on the PV side may be normal. But the LED that "monitors" the unit is off and I believe it should be a solid green with a full battery. I am starting to think that the controller may be ok and that the LED is bad but trying to get more info. from Xantrex or Trace or who ever is making these has been very difficult, the Xantrex web site doesn't even list them and you get nothing on a search you have to click on Schneider electric link?to find anything.

Here's a link to the owner's manual for the Xantrex C-series charge controllers:

Owner's Manual

If your battery is getting a charge, but the green light is not on, the green led is probably burned out. You won't measure the proper voltage on the output of the charge controller if the battery is not connected. A charge controller must detect the presence of a battery before its output can be properly measured. You should put a load on your battery to be sure it isn't already fully charged. Once it's drained, then check the voltage of the battery (while connected to the C-35) and you should read something around 13.5 volts to 14.5 volts, depending upon what stage of charging it's in. If you aren't reading a voltage above 13 volts, the charge controller may have gone bad. If you have a fuse between the C-35 and the battery, be sure it hasn't blown. A blown fuse will prevent the battery from charging.

System2

Re: Xantrex C35 controller

rick wrote: »

Here's a link to the owner's manual for the Xantrex C-series charge controllers:

Owner's Manual

If your battery is getting a charge, but the green light is not on, the green led is probably burned out. You won't measure the proper voltage on the output of the charge controller if the battery is not connected. A charge controller must detect the presence of a battery before its output can be properly measured. You should put a load on your battery to be sure it isn't already fully charged. Once it's drained, then check the voltage of the battery (while connected to the C-35) and you should read something around 13.5 volts to 14.5 volts, depending upon what stage of charging it's in. If you aren't reading a voltage above 13 volts, the charge controller may have gone bad. If you have a fuse between the C-35 and the battery, be sure it hasn't blown. A blown fuse will prevent the battery from charging.

The battery is connected and has a 95-99% charge so it is as I suspected and that is why I'm getting a low reading on the battery lug. I think you are right that the LED is burned out it is just that the unit is so new that had me concerned. I turned on just about everything I could this afternoon to try and bring down the battery but with all the LED lighting and other mods to conserve all I could get was about 10-11 AH and after about 3/4 of an hour there was no sun . http://forum.solar-electric.com/images/icons/icon8.gif No blown fuse. I should have said that I have checked and double checked everything before I decided to post this. And as you said it may just be a blown LED but I will be taking a trip to Yosemite next month and I want to make sure for obvious reasons http://forum.solar-electric.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

vcallaway wrote: »

My C12 stays solid green on a charged battery.

You might press & hold the equalize button and see if it starts flashing red/green. If only red then the green side might be burned out.

If I press that button much more I'm going to wear it out http://forum.solar-electric.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

arkieoscar wrote: »

You can try replacing the LED. I just plugs in to the circuit board. You can pull it out and take it to radio shack or similar and get another to test with. It should be solid green when the battery is charged and it's in float. I couldn't figure out what you were saying about a switch.

The LED can show red and green, is that a special LED? Were did I say switch?


I should have mentioned that this system is installed on a Truck camper.