Thunderstorm yesterday. Classic is beeping and indicating a ground fault. I have some array damage as well but have disconnected the grounds of the affected strings and shut off those breakers. Did a restart with no change. I removed the Ground fault 2 pin header from the board and did another restart as well with no change. Should I pull this thing and send it in for repair or does anyone have any other ideas? The ground fault breaker on the DC side did not trip during the event.
I have seen sky sparks scramble electronics and d no real damage so I like to power down and let sit a couple days before signing the death certificate. With a Classic you probably should disconnect (turn off breakers) to the batteries AND the panels to completely power it down.
If it took any kind of direct hit rather than just a spike of induced voltage from a nearby strike it likely is damaged.
No guarantee but I would try that before sending it in.
Calling Midnite Tech Support would be wise, also.
Tom
did you have any SPDs in use? they would tell you if a hit happened....
Since Tom started it , I also had a weird start once , I re-powered up the classic and all was fine , I do have many SPD's .
With all off power breakers , classic is black lights ALL off , I hooked a alligator jumper's between ground & power out and in , shorting all , I also pulled out the back up battery in the MNGP , left it overnight /4 hrs for me at that time.
I started it , , remove all dead outs alligator jumper's between power & gronds & insertered the MNGP back up cell, turned on main battery breaker , and held down both horizontal opposing arrows (as in reboot mode) VMM as some call it.
I had my classic back up without a red led all the time ??
Got me & here , but that cured it ..
Thats all I got , good luck & SPD's are our friend !!
VT
Quote from: CDN-VT on April 01, 2016, 10:32:04 PM
Since Tom started it , I also had a weird start once , I re-powered up the classic and all was fine , I do have many SPD's .
With all off power breakers , classic is black lights ALL off , I hooked a alligator jumper's between ground & power out and in , shorting all , I also pulled out the back up battery in the MNGP , left it overnight /4 hrs for me at that time.
I started it , , remove all dead outs alligator jumper's between power & gronds & insertered the MNGP back up cell, turned on main battery breaker , and held down both horizontal opposing arrows (as in reboot mode) VMM as some call it.
I had my classic back up without a red led all the time ??
Got me & here , but that cured it ..
Thats all I got , good luck & SPD's are our friend !!
VT
I did all of that except shorting the power and ground. We do that a lot with cars at my garage to get the computers un logic locked. I am going to do that right now. I will let you know if it works. One other symptom it displays is (address 255 un-used) It does this every 30 seconds or so.
Quote from: Westbranch on April 01, 2016, 12:42:11 PM
did you have any SPDs in use? they would tell you if a hit happened....
Unfortunately no I did not. It won't be going back into operation without them at least on the combiner and the e-panel.
OUCH !!!
Like Mr Tom said , Call Midnite & get it in for repair.
I run at least 2 SPD's per setup on a grid & one for sure on a three back woods emergency bunk & eat cabins , outside library is flash light , till this year .
VT
Already made the call. Waiting on a call back now. Hoping it is repairable.