Led's won't light

[bigwooo]

I have a 4kw off grid solar power system located in a utility room of my garage that provides AC power for the garage, main house, and guest house.   On the main house I have a second, small 340 watt DC system that provides power solely for a DC whole house water purification system. 

I have SPD's on my main (4kw) solar power system and they all work as advertised, but I can't get the LED's to light up on the SPD connected to the array input side of an Outback MX60 charge controller for the 340 Watt system.

I thought it might be a ground issue, but I traced the ground all the way back to the main sub-panel in the utility room.  The ground is sound.

Both solar power systems (the 4kw system and the 340 watt system) are bonded to the same ground buss; i.e. the main house (where the 340 watt system is located) is treated as an outbuilding.  It has it's own ground rod, and the sub panel ground buss is bonded back to the ground buss in the main panel of the utility room (which also has a ground rod).  The 340 watt system ground runs from the panels to the DC Subpanel to the Charge controller, then it's tied into the ground buss of the AC sub panel of the main house.

Any suggestions as to why the LED's won't light?  It's not a bad SPD.  It functions fine if connected to the 4kw system. 

[mahendra]

Had that
problem ,was  a floating ground ,Check grounding connections

[Robin]

I will bet a nickel that you do not actually have the green wire grounded? Hmmmmm, I might loose on that bet.  I think the bat negative must also be grounded. We are about to release a few new SPD's. The 300V unit is being split into AC and DC versions. The present SPD300 only has one LED lit when on a DC system. The new one will light both LED's. The MOV's work in all cases though.

[TomW]

The new one will light both LED's. The MOV's work in all cases though.

That seems to confuse some folks when the negative side LED doesn't fire up.

Any plans for a low voltage SPD for things like phone lines, ethernet, sat feed lines, antenna feed lines, etc?

Tom

[zoneblue]

Yes sign me up too, phone wire is our biggest risk here.

[mahendra]

yes i definiteyly need for phone lines and all of the other stuff mentioned

[tcva357]

I was reading in the manual and understand that on the PV side the leds will not light up,is this correct?Or is it that I read it wrong?

Thank's

[TomW]

I was reading in the manual and understand that on the PV side the leds will not light up,is this correct?Or is it that I read it wrong?

Thank's

In my experience, one will and one will not. As I understand it the LED is line to negative so the one on the negative lead has no potential to itself so does not lite?

It is still protecting the circuit, however.

I could be wrong but that is my story and I am sticking with it.

Tom

[crunnells]

Yes sign me up too, phone wire is our biggest risk here.

I use a couple of these: http://www.l-com.com/surge-protector-telephone-dsl-t1-lightning-surge-protectors

We've got about 3500' of phone line running from the highway to our house, and *every* time we have a lightning storm we used to unplug the phone. If we weren't home, chances are we'd come home to a burnt out DSL modem or phone. Since installing the surge protectors, we've burned out two, but it's saved our equipment. I kinda wish they wouldn't burn out each time tho.

I was chiming in because the MNSPD on my brother-in-laws system never lit up either. It's all hooked up right, except that there's no ground rod attached to the main bus, and the lights don't come on either. I just figure it wouldn't work unless it's grounded.

[boB]

Crunnels, I was just going to say after reading your other recent post today that the LED may not
work quite right without the grounds and GFP hooked up.  But did the LED light up when you
got a shock ?  Might be enough current to light it up there but probably not enough to hurt
yourself.  Don't try it just to find out though  !

[crunnells]

Hah, I didn't think to look at the SPD when I was getting shocked! I think you're right tho; with me closing the circuit to ground it probably lit up. I'm not gonna go try again to find out tho ;-)

[CDN-VT]

I had a similar thing with the SPD LED . It was dim during the day on the 24v system , but the 12 volt system always had a bright blue glow. On reading this thread I used a DVM from battery  Neg to outside grounding bar , 42 volts was seen but using another DVM in amp /current  settings , less than 4Ma but the LED went bright . I know the 12 volt system has a bonding from the Bat Neg to External Ground .

As for a shock , (Boys  Me ) I needed to wet my fingers but only then did  I see the led just so ever brighten up , didn't feel a thing , but gray day & no sun as of yet.

Before I do a bonding link  Neg-GDN , tomorrow we are to see the sun , so I'll take a reading then & see if the potential  is greater.

VT

Edit Add , I did the bonding link  Neg-GDN and that sharpened up the brilliance of the Diode. when the panels were in the dark the SPD diode was faint without the bond.
HTH's  , now this resting is going overboard.
VT