MPPT 60 Live View and data log

Jose263 · January 2017

My system MPPT 60, Aims 60 amp inverter/charger, 6 agm 12v wired as 24v, 8 Kyocera solar panels
Installed by local company in Sept and they finally got the Aims internal transfer working correctly 4 days ago. 'I think'
I do not have meters on the system - only the controller blinking leds - So, I connected to the Tri-Star MPPT via ethernet and can monitor live view/data log on my PC. Looking for help understanding the data log display items- events, alarms, hour meter, etc.
example: what does hour meter display "92d4h" mean? Alarms 'RTS open' and 'control was reset' mean - anything to worry about? Is there a data sheet somewhere that explains the live view and data log items?
Thanks

BB. · January 2017

92 Days + 4 Hours ?

RTS Open should be Remote Temperature Sensor is not connected/used (if you do not have an RTS, then there should be no problem).

Hopefully somebody else can help you with the alarm/monitor questions.

-Bill

kamchuka · January 2017

http://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/tristar-mppt/
Chapter 5 in the manual should have most of your answers.

Jose263 · January 2017

BB. said:

92 Days + 4 Hours ?

RTS Open should be Remote Temperature Sensor is not connected/used (if you do not have an RTS, then there should be no problem).

Hopefully somebody else can help you with the alarm/monitor questions.

-Bill

BB Thanks - that makes sense - I'll go with that

kamchuka said:

http://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/tristar-mppt/
Chapter 5 in the manual should have most of your answers.

Thanks for the suggestion but Chapter 5 doesn't cover Live View or the data log.kamchuka said:

http://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/tristar-mppt/
Chapter 5 in the manual should have most of your answers.

kamchuka said:

http://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/tristar-mppt/
Chapter 5 in the manual should have most of your answers.

mike95490 · January 2017

The live view - most of all that is pretty self explanatory
The Data Log, everyting is spelled out, in windows, if you let the mouse pointer linger over the red Events digit, you get a pop-up explaining the event.
What they don't do well, is if there is an over current event (cloud edge lens effect) they have a generic Current Warning

Jose263 · January 2017

mike95490 said:

The live view - most of all that is pretty self explanatory
The Data Log, everyting is spelled out, in windows, if you let the mouse pointer linger over the red Events digit, you get a pop-up explaining the event.
What they don't do well, is if there is an over current event (cloud edge lens effect) they have a generic Current Warning

BB. said:

92 Days + 4 Hours ?

RTS Open should be Remote Temperature Sensor is not connected/used (if you do not have an RTS, then there should be no problem).

Hopefully somebody else can help you with the alarm/monitor questions.

-Bill

BB Thanks - that makes sense
kamchuka said:

http://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/tristar-mppt/
Chapter 5 in the manual should have most of your answers.

Thanks for the suggestion but Chapter 5 doesn't cover Live View or the data log.kamchuka said:

http://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/tristar-mppt/
Chapter 5 in the manual should have most of your answers.

kamchuka said:

http://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/tristar-mppt/
Chapter 5 in the manual should have most of your answers.

Raj174 · January 2017

This Youtube may help....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2XBguHAK_w

_OS_ · March 2017

I am also experiencing the "Control was reset" alarm from time to time. Lately it has happened three times in two weeks. I contacted Morningstar about this last year but they where unable to find any issues.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6024911/uploads/editor/zh/m0n57xflcd9g.jpg

mcgivor · March 2017

Looks like the controller was shut down or battery disconnected, also the battery max temperature, reset seems to to occur when 25°C appears, do you have some max temperature shut down programed? Seems like a large swing in temperatures, perhaps a loose RTS wire, or faulty sensor, some thoughts........

_OS_ · March 2017

mcgivor said:

Looks like the controller was shut down or battery disconnected, also the battery max temperature, reset seems to to occur when 25°C appears, do you have some max temperature shut down programed? Seems like a large swing in temperatures, perhaps a loose RTS wire, or faulty sensor, some thoughts........

Thanks.
It is winter here now and the batteries are in my tool shed at my cabin and they are cold. I have not been there in a while so it is not because of a battery disconnect. I will double check the RTS connections again the next time I am at my cabin.

mike95490 · March 2017

I too have had resets on my ts-mppt-60 and always get 25c battery temps with 6c actual. Have not figured out what's doing it about every 14 days Sometimes cloudy, sometimes sunny, sometimes when running genset no pattern yet, and I am running the latest 2017 FIRMWARE.

_OS_ · March 2017

I have contacted Morningstar Tech support again today about the "control was reset" problem. I also gave them a link to this discussion. There are two more people on a Norwegian discussion forum that experience the same issue.

EDIT: I got a reply from Morningstar Tech support now:

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. We are aware of this issue and engineering is currently looking into a solution. This solution will likely be a firmware update. I do not currently have a timetable for when the new firmware will be available.

_OS_ · April 2017

I got an update from Morningstar a couple of days ago:

Our engineers are still making adjustments and testing new code for this issue. Basically it is a timing issue in the instruction sets the microprocessor is handling. The problem shows up more frequently if you are using Email or Trap notifications, or also are connected to ethernet. Until the code can be adjusted, perhaps you can scale back on the communications your controller is performing and this will help reduce the occurrences. I will keep your contact information and will reach out to you when new code is available for this issue.

mike95490 · April 2017

They goofed up something in the last firmware, I've been running the same controller for a couple years, and when the FW was updated, now I get the errors. Guess they can figure it out.... i hope

Estragon · April 2017

I've written a bit of software, and have to say this sort of thing happens.

It can be really frustrating for both customers and the coders. Something happens, possibly hardware related, but only relatively rarely. You can't test every possible circumstance before putting a beta into production, you can only test for problems you can anticipate. Sometimes hardware is supposed to do something, but sometimes doesn't. Sometimes functions don't fail properly.

I suspect with helpful real-world feedback they'll get a handle on the issue.

_OS_ · May 2017

I got an update from Morningstar last week:

Just a s a quick update. Engineering has written code for this issue. We are testing internally at this time. As a reminder, not all controllers exhibit this symptom, it seems to be limited to controllers with heavy communications input/output.

mryimmers · May 2017

I've just been running my new TS MPPT 60 only for a few days and the log shows a max battery temp of 25C from couple days ago, impossibly high at this point. Don't remember if it said it was reset.

mike95490 · May 2017

the 25c temp happens when there is a reset on the TS-MPPT 60.

mryimmers · May 2017

OK, that was probably from the day I re-programmed it.
Also, Mike, in the logging on the remote display there is a screen with "Battery W max" I've not seen mention of it in the instructions or on the meter map, I have numbers like: today 245, Day -01 2815, Day-02 3202, what does that mean?

mcgivor · May 2017

Day 245, number of days in service
-01 2815 , previous days total Wh for that day
-02 3202, 2 days previous total Wh for that day

Would this be a reasonable total?

mryimmers · May 2017

I don't think so, as that would be 2.815 kwh, 3.202 kwh, that is already recorded elsewhere, and my system does not make near that amount of power

Estragon · May 2017

Maybe cumulative WH? So day2wh -day1wh = day2 production?

mryimmers · May 2017

I emailed Morningstar Tech Support today asking about the "Battery W max" in the data logging and a tech support guy called me 2 or 3 hours later. He said he looked into it and talked to someone in the engineering department about it and nobody knows what it is, he said his best, honest answer would be that it may be some "unfinished" programming that should not have been released.
He said that they were going to look further into it but to just disregard that information at this point. I appreciate an honest answer. That is 3 times that I have contacted Morningstar Tech Support with different questions and have every time gotten a reply in a very timely fashion, I am quite happy with that.

mryimmers · May 2017

what does hour meter display "92d4h" mean?

Looks to me like it is 92 days X 24 hours in a day + 4 hours = 2212 hours. If you have the TS-M-2 or TS-RM-2 meter, this number, or close to it, should be in there, under diagnostics. It's the total hours the CC has been running.

Jose263 · May 2017

mryimmers said:

what does hour meter display "92d4h" mean?
Looks to me like it is 92 days X 24 hours in a day + 4 hours = 2212 hours. If you have the TS-M-2 or TS-RM-2 meter, this number, or close to it, should be in there, under diagnostics. It's the total hours the CC has been running.

mike95490 said:

The live view - most of all that is pretty self explanatory
The Data Log, everyting is spelled out, in windows, if you let the mouse pointer linger over the red Events digit, you get a pop-up explaining the event.
What they don't do well, is if there is an over current event (cloud edge lens effect) they have a generic Current Warning

Mike05.... I now see how the data log displays the event description in pop ups. Also,I Googled cloud edge effect.
The aims 60 amp inverter has been auto switching between battery and grid for a full week as of today - the data log has recorded two overcurrent faults during that time and the system didn't shut down. However the data log has recorded zero Charging Duration minutes in all rows (equalize, float absorption) during this last week. But in live view.it shows the MPPT charging during sunlight.
The MPPT manual says over current faults are very rare. Is this overcurrent fault and charging minutes readfing something that I should worry about or investigate further?
Thanks to everyone

mryimmers · May 2017

When you set up your charge controller with MSview, in the Tristar MPPT Set up wizard, you have to check off those items you want to log (time in absorb, float and EQ) to record them and then it will record the time in each mode in minutes. By default it only records min and max battery voltage and daily "events", eq entered, float entered, faults and alarms.

If you like, check out a guy on youtube that goes by the name of Commsprepper he has several videos on setting the TS-MPPT 60 up, I found them very helpful.

MPPT 60 Live View and data log

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