XW only works during the daytime

Cpfarr
Cpfarr Registered Users Posts: 19 ✭✭
I just installed a Xantrex 6048 and two xw 60 charge controllers fed by 30 Sun 205 watt panels. The charge controllers are charging 24 Rolls S-530 batteries which make up a 48 volt battery bank with a 1200ah capacity. There is no mains supply (were free from the man)! The system turned on without a hitch when we first flipped the switch but as soon as night fell I got an under voltage warning and the system shuts down with the only draw being from a single 15 watt CFL and the draw of the inverter. When this happened I checked the batteries with my hydrometer and the batteries were reading a consistent 1225-1250. The following day I ran an equalization on the batteries which only took 35 minutes before the inverter went back into a float charge. I can run the whole house during the day with no problem but as soon as the sun sets we all have to go to bed! Any thoughts on what might be going on?
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Comments

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    What is the DC voltage at the inverter DC input terminals when you are getting the alarm? Both what the Inverter says the voltage is and as reported by an accurate volt meter.

    Is the voltage at the inverter input the same as the Battery +/- main bus?

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • mike95490
    mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Where did you obtain the batteries from, and are you adjusting the hydro temp comp when you take your SG readings?


    Do the charge controllers give a reading of the battery voltage at night ??
    Powerfab top of pole PV mount | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
    || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
    || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

    solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
    gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister ,

  • Cpfarr
    Cpfarr Registered Users Posts: 19 ✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Thanks for the quick replies guys!

    Bill;
    I contacted Xantrex and they told me to set the under voltage limit to 41 volts which I did to see if that would correct the problem. 41 volts is when the system shuts down due to the under voltage which I confirmed with the voltmeter. I'm new to this but I have done a lot of reading before I did anything (which probably makes me pretty dangerous) but isn't 41 volts awfully bad for the health of the batteries?

    The battery main bus is reading 41 and goes up to 41.6 after sitting idle for a bit. The batter main bus reads the exact same as the DC inputs on the inverter.

    Mike;
    I purchased the batteries new from Battery Systems. My hydrometer is not temp compensated so I probably don't have the most accurate reading. Is there a formula for adjusting for the temp?

    Please reasure me the system should be capable of much more than this!

    Thanks again for the quick replies, Chad!
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    First, according to the voltage, your batteries are pretty much flat. Apparently both the Inverter and Volt Meter agree on that fact. You really don't want the resting voltage below ~46.3 volts (20% state of charge) as you run the risk of permanently damaging some of the sells (cells that go to zero volts and actually become reversed charged by the rest of the cells).

    The Hydrometer reading should give you a resting voltage of ~49.7 volts which should be ~80% charged (sg=1.225).

    So, you need to get the battery bank charged to >~75% state of charge (>49.6 resting voltage). You want to do this quickly--Batteries sulphate (hard crystals form) and will reduce the battery capacity the longer they spend below ~75% state of charge.

    How will you be recharging the bank? Generator, grid power, solar, etc... What amount of current will your system be supplying to the battery bank?

    As you get the batteries recharged (reach ~58 volts under charge and hold for a few hours--ideally until the cells reach 100% charge / specific gravity (whatever is the reading for your cells).

    While this is going on, take a volt meter and move around each cell/battery in your bank and measure the voltage at each point... You are looking for differences... Under load, you are looking for the low cell/battery (i.e., is there one failed cell/battery and the rest are good?).

    Under charging, you are looking for cells/batteries that don't act like the rest... Low voltage, possibly a shorted cell (or otherwise dead cell). High voltage, possibly an open or fully charged cell (for some reason).

    I guess you have three parallel strings of batteries (8x 6 volt 530 AH in series, x3 strings in parallel for 24 batteries). Ideally, you want around 5-13% rate of charge (starting rules of thumb):
    • 3x530 AH * 0.05 = 79.5 amps minimum
    • 3x530 AH * 0.13 = 206.7 amps maximum
    Can you do the above?

    After you get the bank on charge--you can read a few threads about batteries. And a couple battery FAQ's:

    NAWS Battery FAQ
    www.batteryfaq.org

    Also, do you have a DC Clamp Current Meter (this is a cheap one that will do the job--just a rebranded version of this one)? It will make monitoring your battery bank much easier--You want to measure the current in each parallel battery string and ensure that they are properly sharing charging/discharging currents. It makes finding open/shorted cells much easier (as well as bad electrical connections).

    Something is going wrong here... Is your Hydrometer Accurate/good quality (measure your car's battery sg)? Tapping to remove bubbles from float? Batteries really cold? Are you measuring all cells or just a pilot cell (i.e., the cell you measure is OK, but there is one or more cells that are very low SG)?

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • stephendv
    stephendv Solar Expert Posts: 1,571 ✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    I would hazard a guess that the absorb charge settings aren't right, so the batteries aren't spending enough time in absorb mode and are switching over to float too quickly. An EQ that only lasts for 35 minutes when the resting voltage is that low doesn't make sense.
    Not sure how the XW controls absorb, but if you can, you could try programming a fixed 3-4 hour absorb to be sure the batts are getting a good charge.
    Check that the battery type is set to FLA and check the absorb voltage.
  • Dave Angelini
    Dave Angelini Solar Expert Posts: 6,730 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Quite a bit of good advice here! These guys are good!

    Yes the 35 minute EQ is way off if you have cc's in their defaults. It tells me you have a battery problem with one or more of your three strings. Where are you located? I missed that ?

    I think the batteries should be set to disconnect at 44V and it should never happen. But that is me...

    You need a 240VAC generator as soon as possible to troubleshoot as winter is not you friend this early in your offgrid career.

    If your cc's are networked, what is the total KWH you are producing? What is the input voltage from the array. Alternaltively you can go to the home screen of each cc and add up the KWH to get this answer?

    Do not be concerned with temp comp on your hydrometer at this stage. Later yes but for troubleshooting it is not important as long as whatever you have is repeatable. Do three readings a cell and they should be close. look for the bad one or ones..

    Verify 2 hour absorb @ 58.4V and 62V EQ for now.

    Good Luck
    "we go where power lines don't" Sierra Nevada mountain area
       htps://offgridsolar1.com/
    E-mail offgridsolar@sti.net

  • Dave Angelini
    Dave Angelini Solar Expert Posts: 6,730 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Also keep in mind that the Eq and the charge algorithms depend on you maintaining input voltage to charge. The only real way to do this in winter is to watch your loads or measure SG.
    "we go where power lines don't" Sierra Nevada mountain area
       htps://offgridsolar1.com/
    E-mail offgridsolar@sti.net

  • Cpfarr
    Cpfarr Registered Users Posts: 19 ✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Bill,
    I started working on your list of questions as soon as I got home from work today. I have a 30kw genset which still needs to be installed so for now Im only getting power from the sun. Bad news is its pouring rain here in sunny San Luis Obispo, Ca. Needless to say I'm not able to charge today.

    I started by checking the voltage of each battery which resulted in the following;
    1 battery @ 5 volt
    3 batteries @ 4 volts
    20 batteries @ 6.1 volts

    Each string was checked and I came up with;
    47.6 volts
    45.5 volts
    50.6 volts

    Total system being 42.4 volts with no load applied.

    We had a very brief reprieve from the rain lasting approximately 30 minutes. The MPPT-60's both fired back up and started charging the bank. After 30 minutes the bank was reading 47.9 volts which is when the rain became very intense again and the cc's shut back down. During this time and after there was no load applied to the system as I wanted all the power going to the batteries. A short time later the system was back down to 42.2 volts and is continuing to drop as I type.

    Dave;
    Thanks for throwing your suggestions in! I had the cc's in default with the basic battery bank info put in. I just set the bank up as a custom battery type with the charge rates and times you suggested. We'll see what happens as soon as we get some sun!

    I'm confused about your question about the kwh the cc's are producing. When I look at the system meters the kwh's seem to change a lot as the sun changes. Let me know what it is I need to look at so i can get the info your after.

    Bill I still have to get the clamp meter. Your the third person to tell me I need one so I guess I need one!

    I talked with Rolls last week and they said to keep the absorb time set at two hours which I confirmed in their online literature to make sure I hadn't talked to a ding-dong tech. If someone has thoughts that differ from this let me know.

    I'll keep you updated as the sun comes out and we can start charging again! Thanks again for all the imput, Chad!
  • halfcrazy
    halfcrazy Solar Expert Posts: 720 ✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime
    Cpfarr wrote: »
    Bill,


    I started by checking the voltage of each battery which resulted in the following;
    1 battery @ 5 volt
    3 batteries @ 4 volts
    20 batteries @ 6.1 volts

    Each string was checked and I came up with;
    47.6 volts
    45.5 volts
    50.6 volts

    Total system being 42.4 volts with no load applied.

    Something is way wrong here you have 24 6 volt batteries and a 48 volt system. there is no way to have 3 strings of batteries. We need pictures here. When you took these measurements where all the battery cables unhooked? There is no way to have 2 strings read different voltages with the cables hooked up.

    The other part that really bothers me is the string voltages being so high compared to the system voltage i still stand by something being really wrong

    No matter how far out of whack the XW cc's settings are in default they would be close enough to give you a fair bit of charging and you stated it would only run a single 15 watt cfl for a short period. I am going to suggest it is time to enlist a pro here.
  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime
    halfcrazy wrote: »
    Something is way wrong here you have 24 6 volt batteries and a 48 volt system. there is no way to have 3 strings of batteries. We need pictures here. When you took these measurements where all the battery cables unhooked? There is no way to have 2 strings read different voltages with the cables hooked up.

    Eight 6 volts = 48 Volts.
    Times 3 strings = 24 Batteries total.

    If any one string showed consistent low Voltages that string would be suspect. But four batteries with low Voltage sounds like four defective batteries. Check 'em and charge 'em and see if they hold.

    Note: I don't know why you need 28 kW hours of power. Perhaps cut the bank down to two strings using the 16 best SG batteries. This will improve your charge rate from about 7% rate to about 10% - much better for these batteries.
  • halfcrazy
    halfcrazy Solar Expert Posts: 720 ✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime
    Eight 6 volts = 48 Volts.
    Times 3 strings = 24 Batteries total.

    If any one string showed consistent low Voltages that string would be suspect. But four batteries with low Voltage sounds like four defective batteries. Check 'em and charge 'em and see if they hold.

    Yep guess I am to tired to do math tonight. I still want to know if they unhooked them to get those readings and if so why does it drop to 42 instantly with no load?
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    You have 4 dead batteries at the moment. You want to get those charged right away. Mark them and keep track of them. They may never be right.

    The others certainly need charging as soon as you get a chance.

    It is going to take 5-10 reasonably sunny days with no loads for just solar power to recharge your bank (doing this from my phone, so my estimate may be off a bit).

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • Dave Angelini
    Dave Angelini Solar Expert Posts: 6,730 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Bill you are so cool. Sending by phone... Up here every mountain or hill keeps my bars down. Maybe it is time for the bar....

    Chad, look at the history screen on each cc, or, on the SCP xwcc home screens and add up the KWH. I bet you are producing very little in this rainy weather. It will help Bill to estimate... BTW what is you array input V when the sun peaks thru?

    Seriously get the generator going or go get a 120 vac generator and charge with a sears or what ever charger the bad batteries. You are breaking some rules here but will be OK if you get on it! Weather looks very unsettled so make plans. 40 inches of rain so far this season.

    Buenas Suerte
    "we go where power lines don't" Sierra Nevada mountain area
       htps://offgridsolar1.com/
    E-mail offgridsolar@sti.net

  • Cpfarr
    Cpfarr Registered Users Posts: 19 ✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Dave I'm in the same boat down here. Hills = no cell. Take a look at www.wilsonelectronics.com. I just bought one of their car amps and I went from no service to full bars! Costs about $250!

    Ok back to the topic at hand. It rained all night but is lightening up a bit for the past two hours. Were getting a bit of reflection off the high cloud cover but no direct light. The cc's have been online for 1hr 43min and my control panel's fuel gauge is reading full at 55.4 volts and has put both cc's into float, WITH NO DIRECT SUN AND CLOUD COVER!!! I checked the voltage of all the batteries and they are all reading 6.1 to 6.2 with the exception of one that dropped to 2.1 volts. This is one of the batteries that had been reading at 4 volts last night.

    This has seemed to be the root of my problems. The system goes into float very quickly and won't put a decent charge out.

    Since the cc's were in float I forced an equalize to try and get some juice into my low battery. When I start the equalize each cc starts a one hr timer for the charge. Is this normal or should I be making it a longer time? If so does anyone know how to extend it. I can't find where I can do that.

    I'll update after the equalize finishes with the battery status! Chad
  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Equalizing should only be done for an hour at a time. Check SG afterwards, run another EQ cycle, et cetera. Stop when there's no further improvement in SG.

    But your Absorb time should be either the same as the "count up" to Absorb Voltage (varying length of Bulk cycle) or until charge current drops below 1-3% of battery Amp hours (less load allowance).
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Something is wrong with the wiring and/or programming on the charge controllers...

    Measure the voltage at the charge controllers and at the battery bank--It should be within a few 1/10ths of a volt of each other (what is the gauge and length of the wiring from the charge controllers to the battery bank?).

    And what is the charging voltage and absorb timer settings? Should be somewhere around 58-59 volts and 2-3 hours of absorb timing.

    How much current are your controllers outputting to the battery bank (each/both)?

    Do you have a Remote Battery Temperature Sensor? The voltage reading from the XW charge controllers (if I recall correctly) is temperature corrected to 77F (i.e., if the batteries are very cold, the XW will read lower voltage; if the batteries are very hot, the meter will read higher than battery voltage).

    As the bank is charging, see if there is one or more cells/batteries that is reading high voltage in your string... If you have an open/high resistance battery, it will stop that string from recharging.

    Also, check the voltage drop across each wire and connection point... If you read anything more than a few millivolts (1/10th or volts), you have a you may have a bad connection.

    Also, check all the cells with a hydrometer and write down the value of the SG for each cell.

    Something is not going right with your charging.

    -Bill

    By the way, equalization should only be done (is meaningful) after the battery has been properly charged and most of the cells have stopped increasing SG during charge (and are bubbling pretty well).

    Equalization is typically performed when the cells' SG is ~0.030 or more difference from each other.

    EQ pumps extra voltage/charging current through all cells, over charging the "full cells" so that the extra current can recharge the "weak cells.

    EQ should be stopped after all cells stop rising in SG (check every 30-60 minutes). EQ is very hard on a battery bank and should only be done when needed (what you are doing is probably not equalization). Normally EQ is done every 1-3 months.

    By the way, how long has your bank been in service? Have you needed to add water yet (typically, need to refill ~2 months if batteries are being properly charged).

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • Cpfarr
    Cpfarr Registered Users Posts: 19 ✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    I understand I should only be forcing the equalize every couple months but that is the only way I can seem to get any current going to the bank right now.

    The batteries are brand new. Or at least they were sold as new and appear to be based on their appearance. I have never had to add water to any of them. The water level is approximately 1/4" below the fill tube.

    The eq just finished and put out a total of .94 kwh

    I just checked each battery and they are all reading at 6.2 volts except for the one that is coming in at 0.0 volts now. I think I'm going to drop one string out of the equation till I can get that one replaced. The sg for this battery is 1.225. How can the voltmeter read 0.0 and the sg be 1.225 at the same time?

    109.1 & 108.4 is the voltage coming off the arrays to the cc's right now there is still quite a vit of cloud cover with no direct sunlight making it down to the panels.

    I have about 16" of #6 awg going from each cc to the terminal blocks then it jumps to 4/0 to go to the batteries which is a 10' run.

    The charge voltages are set as follows;
    Eqlz - 62.0 volts
    Bulk - 57.6 volts
    Absorb - 58.4 volts
    Float - 54.0 volts
    Absorb time is set at 120 minutes per Rolls and Dave's recommendation. I did set it to run for 240 minutes this morning before the sun came out to see if that would change anything but it did not so it's back to 120 min now.

    Interesting that during the eq none of the batteries bubbled at all?

    I really appreciate all your guy's impute! There's not much I can't do by myself so it's driving me crazy I can't figure this out! We'll get there!!! Thanks, Chad
  • Dave Angelini
    Dave Angelini Solar Expert Posts: 6,730 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Chad,
    Answer Bill's questions and there is always more....
    Try and sum up what is happening, sort of start fresh and you will get the best advice. The problem with the kitchen is there can be too many cooks...You should write everything down and repost the cooks questions and answers.

    Also, look on your system settings menu and scroll to the warnings and faults pages. Do you have them?

    On your -60 CC advance settings or the default settings make sure you are set to 3 stage and also set your battery capacity down to near zero. This will force the CC to go for the full absorb time. You still have not said what the solar in was at in voltage. If this is too low it is a possible problem. And answer what voltage the battery is going to in bulk and absorb. Oh, yea, the CC has to be programmed for the bulk setting voltage and the absorb.

    Have you tried restoring the defaults? The default settings are fine for your batteries. If you do not have a temp sensor you will only get to 57V but I assume with 2 cc's you have one roger?

    Force another Bulk and answer what your production/havest is.

    Last, the cell phone thing up here and above me to 10,000 feet is always a challenge no matter who is the carrier. Verizon and golden state cellular do some funny things with their towers. God help you if you have someone else!
    "we go where power lines don't" Sierra Nevada mountain area
       htps://offgridsolar1.com/
    E-mail offgridsolar@sti.net

  • Dave Angelini
    Dave Angelini Solar Expert Posts: 6,730 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Chad,

    just saw your last. yes get the bad string out. There are many ways a battery can fail and still read decent SG.

    Set your bulk the same as the absorb. Force a bulk and also at the same time enable EQ. good Luck!
    "we go where power lines don't" Sierra Nevada mountain area
       htps://offgridsolar1.com/
    E-mail offgridsolar@sti.net

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: XW only works during the daytime
    Cpfarr wrote: »
    I just checked each battery and they are all reading at 6.2 volts except for the one that is coming in at 0.0 volts now. I think I'm going to drop one string out of the equation till I can get that one replaced. The sg for this battery is 1.225. How can the voltmeter read 0.0 and the sg be 1.225 at the same time?
    Was going to joke that the meter is set to AC range--but you are probably not laughing right now.

    If you pull a string out of service, take the 4x "not right" batteries out of the connected strings and replace them with "good batteries" you have pulled with the one "bad string" (if you need to).

    Do you have a 6/12 volt charger you can try on any of the "bad batteries"? See if you can get any current flowing through them and see what the SG does eventually become (haul the batteries to a place with grid power?).
    I have about 16" of #6 awg going from each cc to the terminal blocks then it jumps to 4/0 to go to the batteries which is a 10' run.

    According to a generic voltage drop calculator, you are looking at ~0.11 volt drop on the 16" cables and ~0.14 volt drop on the 10' cables (assuming 60 and 120 amps).
    The charge voltages are set as follows;
    Eqlz - 62.0 volts
    Bulk - 57.6 volts
    Absorb - 58.4 volts
    Float - 54.0 volts
    Absorb time is set at 120 minutes per Rolls and Dave's recommendation. I did set it to run for 240 minutes this morning before the sun came out to see if that would change anything but it did not so it's back to 120 min now.

    Set the bulk to 58.4 volts for now.
    Interesting that during the eq none of the batteries bubbled at all?
    Batteries are less than ~80-90% full right now.

    With the solar pushing max current (at least for today):
    • What is the current flow into the battery bank?
    • What does your volt meter read at the Charge Controller terminals and at the battery bank
    • What do the two charge controllers read as output voltage?
    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • Blackcherry04
    Blackcherry04 Solar Expert Posts: 2,490 ✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime
    I have about 16" of #6 awg going from each cc to the terminal blocks then it jumps to 4/0 to go to the batteries which is a 10' run.
    Can you ever get into a situation with two controllers hooked to a common Terminal block where they would fight with each other ??

    I once had a Heart inverter/charger with a 50 amp output, I hooked a 15 amp charger to a common terminals and it would shut the 50 Amp down before the charge was complete.
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    I always like to recommend that people use a heavy and short cable from the charge controllers directly to the battery bank and not to share a single cable from several controllers over a long run to the battery bank.

    It is possible that controllers can confuse each other with "noise" on the shared cable run.

    This is more or less a guess on my side. There have been reliable reports here of inverters causing confused MPPT charge controllers. And the pulses from desulfators too (Bluesky and Outback are the two families I remember the reports about). The electrical noise appears to cause the controllers to not output as much power to the battery bank as they could (confuse MPPT tracking?). These problems may be rare--but it is hard to know (if your controller's output was down 20-30%, would you know?).

    Is this case... I have no idea--but at this point the problem is severe enough that I don't think shared 4/0 wiring is the primary problem here-but 10-12 feet from the charge controller and sharing a 4/0 cable to the battery bank is something I would recommend avoiding if possible.

    One possible check would be to shut down one of the shared charge controllers and see if the output current of the second controller goes up (or controller voltage readings change).

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • Blackcherry04
    Blackcherry04 Solar Expert Posts: 2,490 ✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    I was just throwing that as a thought. In my case I moved that 15 amp charger to the other end of the bank and had no issue. Anyway, just a thought.

    I am so impressed on how you guys trouble shoot thhings on here.
  • Dave Angelini
    Dave Angelini Solar Expert Posts: 6,730 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    If Chad has the xw load center or a midnight then both cc's would go to a common busbar in the load center. But, we are talking inches and not feet.
    The big no no with the xw system is trying to share a ground. There must be four wires. 2 in and 2 out. Plus the network, ground, and one only GFI

    Bill are you giving us an all clear weather wise? Much rather hear your opinion than the digital voice from NOAA~
    "we go where power lines don't" Sierra Nevada mountain area
       htps://offgridsolar1.com/
    E-mail offgridsolar@sti.net

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    It is still a steady rain here at the moment... Use the NWS radar site for the last hour or so of rain cloud movement:

    http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/pacsouthwest_loop.php

    It has just been pivoting on top of us all morning/afternoon.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • Dave Angelini
    Dave Angelini Solar Expert Posts: 6,730 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Bill, our hi speed is down now and Sacramento HDTV seems to think we don't exist.

    On another note of failures like this and this kind of troubleshooting I was watching Midway last night. There is agreat line that Hal Holbrook does to Henry Fonda. "how much are you getting of this? Holbrook replies about 10%. Fonda says, why, your just guessing! Holbrook replies, "we like to call it analysis"

    No trolling I promis!

    --Dave
    "we go where power lines don't" Sierra Nevada mountain area
       htps://offgridsolar1.com/
    E-mail offgridsolar@sti.net

  • Cpfarr
    Cpfarr Registered Users Posts: 19 ✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Can't catch a break it seems. I was taking the string with the bad battery out and when I fired the system back up I got an f69 shutdown with the control panel failing to turn on at all. According to the manual it's a network failure which I was unable to reset. The book says to send the inverter back for service but I cannot confirm as xantrex is closed for the weekend. I'm starting to think the whole problem is something internal and has nothing to do with the settings.

    I forgot to tell you guys I did the install myself. After I realized I had a problem I tried to get a local tech to come make sure I had everything set up right. Nobody would come look at it. Finally through a friend of a friend I got hooked up with one of the REC Solar guys who came out and confirmed the system was set up correctly. He could not figure out the problem either!

    I'll update after talking to Xantrex on Monday.

    Thanks again for all the help, you guys really know your stuff! Chad
  • Blackcherry04
    Blackcherry04 Solar Expert Posts: 2,490 ✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime
    Cpfarr wrote: »
    Can't catch a break it seems. I was taking the string with the bad battery out and when I fired the system back up I got an f69 shutdown with the control panel failing to turn on at all. According to the manual it's a network failure which I was unable to reset. The book says to send the inverter back for service but I cannot confirm as xantrex is closed for the weekend. I'm starting to think the whole problem is something internal and has nothing to do with the settings.

    I forgot to tell you guys I did the install myself. After I realized I had a problem I tried to get a local tech to come make sure I had everything set up right. Nobody would come look at it. Finally through a friend of a friend I got hooked up with one of the REC Solar guys who came out and confirmed the system was set up correctly. He could not figure out the problem either!

    I'll update after talking to Xantrex on Monday.

    Thanks again for all the help, you guys really know your stuff! Chad
    No expert here, But I'd disconnect the + DC line and let it set for 10-15 min and then try to reconnect. I'v seen this before with a ragged connect. When you connect the power DC to inverter that large you'll get a spark, but it should be very positive connect, meaning hold the wire with one hand and put the ring terminal on the stud in one motion, then hold it tight as you put the washer and nut on. Do not let it arc and make and break contact. Not saying that is the issue, but it can be.
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: XW only works during the daytime

    Here is one thread about F.69 error.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • Blackcherry04
    Blackcherry04 Solar Expert Posts: 2,490 ✭✭✭
    Re: XW only works during the daytime
    BB. wrote: »
    Here is one thread about F.69 error.

    -Bill
    The reason I posted what I did about the connect is that the SW 2-3000 w/Xanbus and SCP can have that same issue if the boot up is interrupted from a bad connect of the DC power. I have always done it correctly, but many from the Trace days didn't. Xantrex Service is the worst, they do not want to support field service anymore, except on a case by case basis.

    I assumed that it had to be disconnected / reconnected when he was working on the battery bank.