xantrex c12 setup

rdickson · May 2011

I've inherited the maintenance of several solar path light systems in my community, all using a trace/xantrex c12 controller. Some of them are a number of years old at this point
we use these as lighting controllers and they have generally worked great for some years now turning the lights on/off.

We're replacing our old CFL fixtures with LED fixtures and have appropriately downsized the battery. On the one system that I've replaced the battery (with a concorde AGM sunextender), the lights won't go off at all.
I don't know if this was a problem before I replaced the battery 'cause the old batteries were kaput.

Does this mean the c12 has gone bad? I've got the manual and set the bulk and float as recommended, but I really don't have a clue where to set the LVR and LVD. I just can't seem to find that info anywhere.

any help offered would be appreciated.

thanks

mike95490 · May 2011

Re: xantrex c12 setup

The C12 has a dusk-dawn lighting option if I recall, but I don't know if it uses the LVD to manage it also. You may have to download the manual and see what is happening. If using the dusk-dawn, if the PV is bad, it won't be able to sense sunrise, and the light will stay on.

n3qik · May 2011

Re: xantrex c12 setup

Here is a link to the manual:

http://www2.schneider-electric.com/sites/corporate/en/products-services/renewable-energies/products-offer/range-presentation.page?c_filepath=/templatedata/Offer_Presentation/3_Range_Datasheet/data/en/shared/renewable_energies/xantrex_charge_controllers.xml&p_function_id=5099&p_family_id=5279&p_range_id=7656&f=F13%3ARenewable%20Energies~!NNM1:Solar+Backup+and+Off-Grid+Systems~!NNM2:Backup+and+Off-Grid+Systems~!NNM3:Xantrex+Charge+Controllers

rdickson · May 2011

Re: xantrex c12 setup

I hadn't considered a bad PV panel. It's still charging the battery so I thought it was ok. I've been using a setting that turns off the lights after a few hours anyway, not dusk-dawn.

the manual says that in nite-lite mode that when the pv voltage drops below 3.5 volts for 60 seconds it turns on the lights, and when the voltage exceeds 3.5 for 60 seconds it turns them on. The LVD comes into play to protect the battery.

does this really sound like a bad PV panel?

mike95490 · June 2011

Re: xantrex c12 setup

rdickson wrote: »

....

does this really sound like a bad PV panel?

At some point, you have to take a meter to it, or move parts around from one system to another.

xantrex c12 setup

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