A year ago I added a MN MPPT to a system with FM60. Pl advise best way to run them so functions are synch'd. Apologies if this has been dealt with already. David
You are running a classic and an outback fm60? As theres no easy way for them to talk to each other the best you can do is get the setpoints as close as you can. Actually it isnt really super critical, if the setpoints differ even a lot, it wont hurt either of them, just that one controller will tend to do more work.
If you want to fine tune the setpoints, this will take a little trial and error. Heres what i would do:
- check how accurate both controllers voltage readings are using a known accurate digital multimeter. Note the variance from true for each.
- on the classic you can set an offset for this in the tweaks/tech menus., not sure about the outback unit.
- then adjust both absorb and float setpoints to the same amount, give or take any offset you might need to align to the true readings on your DMM. You ought to be able to get this +/- 0.1V
- with regards absorb time, and ending amps, both controllers have quite different regimes and so you wont be able to sync these, but it doesnt matter. By the time the battery is near full its no longer accpepting much current and one of the controllers can just go lazy. The classic has the more advanced features (with WBjr, proper EA etc), so set the outback to a shorter absorb and call it good.
It may be that the Outback AXS box which replaces the Mate3 (and regular mate ?) can be able to
make the two talk together with the software we have.
http://midniteforum.com/index.php?topic=1750.0
If it doesn't communicate between the two products, it should in the future.
Sooner rather than later I would hope.
Unfortunately this software requires windows and a computer at the moment.
I'm not positive, but this could possibly be ported to a raspberry Pi or similar
embedded Linux board so that you would not have to tie up a PC in order for
them to all communicate.
Ryan would know more about this.