| On earlier LiFePO4 batteries for both Radian and XW I built a precharge resistor circuit that goes across the 175A / 250A breaker. I used a momentary push button switch inline with a 10W 10 ohm resistor. And probably should have also used an inline fuse holder. Press the momentary switch for few seconds to give time for the capacitor bank to slowly fill up and then turn on the big breaker.
Then I learned to just turn on the charge controller(s) first. Assuming it’s daylight and I have plenty of sun.
I also carry a 58V 15A battery charger just in case it gets serious.
The usual procedure for a precharge circuit equipped battery is: With everything turned off, turn on the inverter breaker and then boot up the battery. As the battery boots up, it enables its precharge circuit then after a time, enables the full current relay connection.
All these procedures vary of course. I hope we get to some standard protocol here. Thank you,
Maverick
Maverick Brown
Off-Grid Solar Commander since 2006
Maverick Solar Enterprises, Inc.
• Solar Commander Remote Power
• SunFlow Systems Cathodic Protection
maver...@mavericksolar.com
512-460-9825
On Dec 11, 2024, at 6:51 PM, Jay via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
Thx Nick.
The limitations on specific BMS is quite interesting and disappointing
I couldn’t start a 1/2 a radian with 60kwh of older style eg4. But with just a bit of solar on it started it no issue.
So there is a real problem with the limitations on inrush.
Jay On Dec 11, 2024, at 12:07 PM, Nick Lucchese via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
Hello again Wrenches,
Some minor developments in this last week and figured I'd share my experiences so others will be prepared and not stuck in the same situation as myself. I was able to test this with a brand new out of the box Radian and another new Powerflo 16 and had the exact same outcome. A single Powerflo16 will not start a Radian. Does not matter if isolating only one of the 4 KW inverter power modules or not, it simply will not work. Midnite has been very responsive and sent me another firmware revision to test but unfortunately it did not get the results intended. However, a quick workaround that yields repeatable success for me is to have an Iota 54v 13 amp DLS converter on the bus and charging the battery before switching on the Radian breakers. This works every time and so far on both sites everything is fine once the inverter is operating. Interestingly, the Radian will boot up and operate with just the 13 amp Iota without the battery breaker even on. Till Midnite can come up with a new firmware version that does the job without an Iota I'm just leaving it on site and setting the Radian LVD at 50.8 which correlates to about 15% SOC.
I did receive a voltage vs approximate SOC chart directly from Midnite after asking about it and would seem like this would be something they intend to share but I'll let them jump in if that's what they want to do. A charger setting integration guide would be nice to have as well since the manual is still a bit light on that subject. Definitely seems like they may want to share the current status with all this since I doubt I'm the only one that's going to run into this scenario. Yes of course multiple batteries is likely the solution but in reality I'm not the only one with multiple Radian sites looking to transition from FLA to an affordable LiFePO from a trusted manufacturer like Midnite. As impressive as it is that they can offer this at nearly 20% of what a single Blue Ion was with nearly the same attributes and even more yet I still have customers that struggle to afford even one. Too much missed market potential for this not to work, I trust they will find a solution soon.
Have fun out there, Nick
Greetings Wrenches,
Wondering if any of you have successfully paired the new Powerflo16 with a GS8048-A yet? There is no reason it shouldn't work yet I've unsuccessfully been to a customer's site three times now without a fix. The Radian setup had been in use with an FLA Trojan pack for years till their demise due to the client unknowingly turned off the AC input source to keep them charged for his backup system lacking PV. Network is too far away therefore I didn't have Optics otherwise I would have caught it. Have not ruled out that there may have been another fault with the Radian before all this but the AC input seemed most logical and was known to be turned off by accident previously.
Upon closing the Powerflo battery breaker to inverter the Mate3s lights up momentarily while briefly receiving full voltage but then DC voltage sinks to around 2-18vdc then either trips the breaker on the Powerflo16 or lights up the fault indicator. Spoke with Midnite support and they recommended a workaround to the BMS pre-charge boot up process but that didn't resolve the issue either. I originally thought it must be a failed Spare215 power supply board but after swapping there was no effect. Next return trip I brought a Rosie with me and everything powered up just fine so I then figured it would be the Spare 204 board stack but had the same exact effect when I tried that swap today. My next step is returning to swap the Spare-205 power control modules but first I'm going to unbox another Powerflo16 at my shop and pair it with a brand new Radian that has not yet been cannibalized. I've installed 42 Radians and only had two with failed Spare-205 control modules but each time it was a similar outcome with them being the last thing I swapped to success.
I'm thinking it must be a failed Spare-205 but since the Powerflo has only been shipping for a couple months I just wanted to run this by the group to see how many have successfully paired these two components at this point. The Radian is still under warranty but that seems pretty meaningless at this point. One way or another this job is going to be a loss at this point but oddly still having fun working through a new head scratcher.
Thanks for any insight, Nick
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