Hey Dave, I had a very similar experience (with the Apollo) with almost an identical array (190's on 3 Pole Tops). After the Apollo smoked 5 times I finally stopped hitting my head against the wall and switched to the FM80 about 1.5 years ago. The FM80 has worked well since until today, when it went into a strange mode (as reported by the client). In full noon sun, it was registering that it was in "Bulk" but had an array voltage of 80+ volts and a current of 60 watts. Given history at this site (faulty FNDC which I just upgraded to the new firmware last month and the series of Apollo failures) I'm hoping that it had to do with the owner leaving it in a history logging screen last night which confused the system. I believe I've seen some odd behavior when the Mate is left in some metering or programing screens. As soon as I had the owner scroll through some screens, the FM80 appeared to be operating properly again. I'll let you know if this system continues to act poorly.
I don't know of any circumstances where the FM80 stayed in absorb too long (this is a good size battery bank - 48 volt KS-33's 1766 amphrs, and a higher demand house), but I will watch out for this. I have heard from Outback and others that they've had FM80's lockup when coupled with a Xantrex SW system, but no noise about this happening on a complete OB system. Howie -- Howie Michaelson NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™ Sun Catcher, LLC Renewable Energy Systems Sales and Service VT Solar & Wind Incentive Program Partner http://www.SunCatcherVT.com (cell) 802-272-0004 (home) 802-439-6096 On Mon, April 27, 2009 9:06 pm, David Palumbo wrote: > We have an off grid system experiencing charge controller issues. 3.24kW > PV > array (18) Evergreen ES-180's in (6) strings of (3) modules in series. > Approximately 77 VDC Vmp, 60 Amps typically highest charging amps into a > 33.6kWh (rated storage) 48 volt battery bank. Charge controller originally > was an Apollo T-80 that never worked correctly (lots of various issues, we > ended up trying three different Apollo's before the homeowner wanted us to > try another controller). We went with a tried and true Out Back MX60 as > the > 80 Amp Flex was not available yet. We knew the MX 60 was outside it's > recommended PV array capabilities but we needed to get the client's PV > system charging the battery bank ASAP. We planned on upgrading to the > FM-80 > when available. > > > > The MX-60 worked flawlessly for several months until it failed to control > absorption charging. It would allow the batteries to charge at bulk > voltage > (58.8) for hours with out switching to float (54). Absorption time was set > to two hours. Resetting and reprogramming did not resolve this situation > and > the batteries were being overcharged when a couple of sunny days were > strung together. > > > > We swapped in a new FM-80 controller on April 2nd and it worked perfectly > until today. It was a sunny day and the FM-80 was in absorption mode by > noon > time. The homeowner noticed at 2:30pm that the FM was not in float as it > should have been. It was a typical sunny day with no big loads on. The > homeowner reported that the FM-80 was repeatedly going through a 6 minute > cycle. Snooze for 5 minutes, wakeup 5 seconds, tracking 10 sec, bulk 30 > sec, > absorb charge 20 sec, and back to snooze where it began another identical > cycle. The batteries were 100% charged by 2:000pm, the battery voltage was > at 53.5VDC (two OB VFX3648's ON powering lights and drawing 5 amps DC) > when > the FM-80 was not in bulk, or absorb charge. When in bulk charge the PV > amps > (35A mid afternoon, warm day) were connected to the battery bank the > battery > voltage climbed back up to 58 volts quickly. The "tech" we called at Out > Back was not very helpful, "never heard of this situation" and tried to > blame it on poor battery connections, he could not understand why the > battery voltage would be 53.5V with a 5 Amp load and then 58 volts 30 > seconds later when 35 amps were charging into the batteries on a 100% > charged battery bank. > > > > Anyone else had an issue like this? Any advice? > > > > Thanks, > > Dave > > > > David Palumbo, President > > Independent Power LLC > > 462 Solar Way Drive > > Hyde Park, VT 05655 > > NABCEP Certified > > www.independentpowerllc.com > > > > _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
