AC relay that works with XBM Xantrex Battery Monitor?

I am looking for an AC relay outlet that can turn on/off a Xantrex trueCharge2 TC4012 when the XBM says the SOC is below 50%. According to TC manual I can leave on Standby mode if I connect to the battery and the AC power is off. Once turn on, it will charge the battery.

What kind of AC relay am I looking for? I saw a Furman outlet miniport. I can't find a relay on/off type for AC. I am still new at this.:confused:

According to the XBM manual the terminals are listed below:
Terminals A1 and A2 are internally connected to the potential free (normally open) contact of the alarm relay. This contact can be used to control external equipment like a battery charger or a generator. The maximum switching voltage is 60 V and the maximum switching current is 1 amp.

Comments

  • n3qik
    n3qik Solar Expert Posts: 741 ✭✭
  • SolarT
    SolarT Solar Expert Posts: 49
    Re: AC relay that works with XBM Xantrex Battery Monitor?

    Ken,

    Thank you for the diagram. It is worth a thousand follow up questions. Now I see how the relay wires connect to base. So I need to supply 12V.

    If the XBM controller is potential free (normally open), does that mean that there is no switch contact unless the alarm is on. If alarm is on then then the contact is closed, correct?

    Can I make it behave otherwise, i.e., alarm on open contact? I was thinking if I used the MP15 listed below http://www.furmansound.com/pdf/manuals/MP-15_MP-15Q_MP-20_MP-20Q_manual.pdf

    Looking at the Furman miniport MP15, connect a
    maintained-action SPST switch to the REM and
    +12V terminals. Power will be available at the MP-
    15/20’s AC outlet when the switch is open, and will be
    removed when it is closed.
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: AC relay that works with XBM Xantrex Battery Monitor?

    Don't forget, when you pull 12 volts (or whatever) from a battery/power source, have a small fuse in there to protect your wiring and switch contacts.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • SolarT
    SolarT Solar Expert Posts: 49
    Re: AC relay that works with XBM Xantrex Battery Monitor?

    Thanks Bill, I have fuses all over the place. I understand that the fuses protects the wires from burning down.

    I think I need to consolidate the DC fuses/breakers to two banks. One for the over 30A and the rest 20A or lower. Any suggestion?
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: AC relay that works with XBM Xantrex Battery Monitor?

    You can run from very simple/inexpensive vendors like:

    http://primeproducts.com/electrical-c-43.html

    The Blue Sea brand (marine/boat) fuse holders are pretty nice--and you can get some with negative bus bars so you can run all your +/- wires together:

    http://bluesea.com/category/5/21/productline/126

    if you are doing 12 or 24 volt, you might look at the local car stereo shop... They can have some pretty nifty fuse blocks too.

    If you need to turn stuff on and off--then many times a real circuit breaker is a better deal than fuse+switch solution.

    Midnite Solar has some pretty nicely priced circuit breaker setups.

    I used to go to aircraft wreckers and get the old breaker panels--They were pretty nice and made for a clean install if you had a face panel and could run the wiring behind them. (different life)

    There is a ton of stuff out there--anything/type you are looking for?

    I am sure there are people here that can give you better answers about specific products.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • SolarT
    SolarT Solar Expert Posts: 49
    Re: AC relay that works with XBM Xantrex Battery Monitor?

    Too bad Boeing surplus store is closed. They went online. I can't walk around and pick and choose now. Their online listing is for large equipment the last I check. I bought 18awg high temp (no spark) wire spool from them cheap that I was going to use for my defunc CNC retrofit. I am using them for my sensors wiring.

    The Blue Sea's fuse box looks promising. At the rate I am going with automation and data acquistion I should go with breaker panel and rewiring the entire setup.

    I grew them a piece of equipment at a time so that I have time to to learn about each equipment.

    The TS-MPPT-60 is an awesome piece of data acquisition equipment. From the data and graphs, I know that the weather the past week is not great for PV AGM charging. I am trying to automated charging my AGMs either via PV during the day or grid at night maintaining at least 50% SOC. My goal is to get them up to at least 75%. Both Xantrex battery monitor and charger should be here in a few days.

    My current topic would be automated relays. I am trying to learn as much as possible. This site is full of information if I google search them correctly.

    Any information about relays would be great. I was reading up on the Morningstar relay driver as well and Ken's Siemen Logo. The difference is how many relays do you want to control? XBM is one; Morningstar relay driver is 4 and Siemen or AB is limited to how you want to spend + programming.
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: AC relay that works with XBM Xantrex Battery Monitor?

    For Google searching here (or other places) use the "Site:" tag.... For example:
    • fuse holders site:wind-sun.com
    Will limit searches to here.

    Note, I have seen a few broken links in Google to here--but if you use the "cached version"--everything works fine, including link following.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • n3qik
    n3qik Solar Expert Posts: 741 ✭✭
    Re: AC relay that works with XBM Xantrex Battery Monitor?
    SolarT wrote: »
    Can I make it behave otherwise, i.e., alarm on open contact? I was thinking if I used the MP15 listed below http://www.furmansound.com/pdf/manuals/MP-15_MP-15Q_MP-20_MP-20Q_manual.pdf

    Looking at the Furman miniport MP15, connect a
    maintained-action SPST switch to the REM and
    +12V terminals. Power will be available at the MP-
    15/20’s AC outlet when the switch is open, and will be
    removed when it is closed.

    That would make wiring up very easy, as you would just need to run a 2 conductor from A1 and A2 to the MP15.