Red light flashing on control board Magnum 4024PAE, no faults indicated. New unit.

2002Alarus
2002Alarus Registered Users Posts: 5 ✭✭
I have a new magnum 4024pae. Works nice as an inverter, but when I hooked up my Generac 10KW 220 volt generator to run a test charge of the batteries, the generator ran 20 minutes and then it quit. The controller is burned out on the generator  I went back to the inverter, to check the wire connections (they were fine) and I could see a flashing red light on the control board above three red, yellow, and green LED lights. I show no fault at all, but a flashing red light seems to be something to worry about. I cannot find out what it indicates. The inverter works fine except it does take a couple of pushes of the button to get it to come on as opposed to just one. Is this normal. or do I have a defective unit? Thank you.

Comments

  • Photowhit
    Photowhit Solar Expert Posts: 6,002 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Have you run through the operations and trouble shooting from the manual?

    Link to manual available here;

    https://www.magnum-dimensions.com/product-inverter/4000w-24vdc-pure-sine-inverter-charger-ms-pae
    Home system 4000 watt (Evergreen) array standing, with 2 Midnite Classic Lites,  Midnite E-panel, Magnum MS4024, Prosine 1800(now backup) and Exeltech 1100(former backup...lol), 660 ah 24v Forklift battery(now 10 years old). Off grid for 20 years (if I include 8 months on a bicycle).
    - Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
  • 2002Alarus
    2002Alarus Registered Users Posts: 5 ✭✭
    Thank you, Photowit. I already have the user's manual. What I need is the service manual that talks about the internals of the inverter. I have been off-grid 14 years myself and I certainly enjoy it.
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Alarus,

    Keep your replies in this thread--Mixing the same subject in multiple threads usually causes confusion.
    -Bill
    ====================================================================================
    I don't know anything about the inverter... But I would double check your wiring and how many amps you are pulling from the genset.

    Wiring wise, In North America, we have have 120/240 VAC @ 60 Hz split phase power, with the Neutral Bonded to earth ground in a single location.

    In a normal home, this is usually done in the main breaker panel. Neutral is tied to earth/safety ground, then to a ground rod/cold water pipe/etc.

    In an off grid system--You want "single point" grounding between Neutral and Green Wire ground. But you may have several points where the neutral+ground bonds are made. In the main panel; in the AC inverter, and in the genset. It may be done in one location or even (from the factory) done in all three locations.

    Multipoint grounding can cause current flow for your loads to share the parallel Neutral (white) wire and the Green wire safety ground. Safety grounds are not supposed to carry any load currents, only fault currents.

    With gensets, is seems that some gensets have had voltage control boards fail from having shared green+white wire current flow (not positive, but a few debugging threads seem to indicated that failure mode). The solution is to figure out where you want that single point of ground (typically in the main AC panel) and "lift" the factory grounds in the AC inverter output and at the Genset safety/frame ground (smaller that ~3,500 Watt inverters+generators seem to more often come with unbonded N+G, and larger ones default with N+G bonding).

    Mutli-point grounding also could have issues with mixed AC/DC multipoint grounding too (battery bus voltage is lower than AC voltage, and carries 5-10x more current--- I.e., 120 VAC @ 10 amps = 12 VDC @ 100 amps = 1,200 Watts). Battery current in AC wiring/green wire grounding can over current the AC wiring/safety wiring.

    Also, many gensets (and some AC inverters) come with ground fault breakers (GFI)--Ground bonding on "both sides" of the GFI device will cause them to trip too.

    Another thing to look at--Check the AC current draw from the Genset L1 + L2 + Neutral wires... I would suggest that you do not pull >80% of generator rated current... When charging a battery bank, you can draw programmed current for hours as the bank charges from deep cycling. And residential wiring and generator designs can overheat/fail if drawing/carrying 100% of rated current for hours on end. Using 80% derating for wiring and non-commercial gensets keeps things "happier" (gensets don't overheat, wiring stays cooler, no false trips on breakers).

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • 2002Alarus
    2002Alarus Registered Users Posts: 5 ✭✭
    Thank you Bill.