Classic 250, 160V nominal Array voltage
While watering my thirsty batteries today, I was surprised to hear the twin turbines spin up on the Classic. I thought , ODD, the morningstar controller is in float and should be maintaining the batteries on it's own (Classic is set to float .2V lower than morningstar) so I flipped the PV breaker for the classic OFF (to kill the PV and shut the thing up while I'm watering batteries) . Couple minutes later, the fan shut up, and all was fine for 20 minutes or so, and it starts back up. Again. Checked the breakers, PV is off, 0 watts, my ears are not ringing, it's the fans - on again.
Ambient temp inside is 85F (IR thermometer) morningstar w/1020watts float 108F heat sink. Classic, 0W, fans on, upper chassis is 112F, inductors are 130 & 140F, FET's 106F (wifi is broke, could not get temps off the local app)
The 116V on the PV input, is internal leakage or something, the PV breaker was off, otherwise it's 160V with the PV on.
Firmware is about 1 year old .
i had that same problem. i think the midnite classic is reversing. putting voltage from the battery to the pv input. i solved that problem with a firmware update. classic rev 2079. this times out this reversing effect to 90 seconds. it does that when the voltage is about float and usage or battery does not pull down the voltage to float or lower. (also when a second charger is bringing up the voltage to float)
that reversing makes the midnite quite warm and turns on the fans. that how i found out in the first place.
firmware is
1849 classic
1839 network
apparently the backfeed is still not fixed. Those inductors were toasty. I should look at the other controller and see what it's pumping into the midnight. tomorrow
just do the firmware upgrade and you should be alright. that new windows 10 updater is super easy to use. just plug in and 3 minutes later all done.
Quote from: mike90045 on July 01, 2016, 06:43:16 PM
firmware is
1849 classic
1839 network
apparently the backfeed is still not fixed. Those inductors were toasty. I should look at the other controller and see what it's pumping into the midnight. tomorrow
Hi Mike,
Am certain that your 1849 FW predates the fix noted by australsolarier.
IIRC 1849 FW is at least two years "old".
Why not Update the FW?
Good Luck, Vic
brain fart here, sorry about the FW versions. Guess I have an old version.
But, I have done a Register backup and restore, and that works, so, I break out the win 98 laptop (never going to win 10 and leak all my personal data to MS) and do an update after the holidays.
After reading so many reports of bricking the controller and hangups, i've not wanted to do FW updates, but now it appears mandatory.
ON Microsoft boxes win7 and down , to turn off all updates as they are NOT required on any of my "work" machines .
Go :/ start type in MSCONFIG ,enter it , screen pops up , selective startup , services tab, uncheck windows updates and I do a few for security also. I run no anti virus on my firmware solar harddrive of 20gig .
On this box (not work box,surf box)/ harddrive its 160gig & XP has AVG / Malwarebytes Anti-Malware but updates turned off since ?? when XP came out ..
Oh & just say to MS , It's my box I paid for the license to use it MY WAY
Never a bug so far.
Picture is the hard drives i install to boot up on
VT
YMMV and use at your risk .
OK, got the FW update in, VMM done and imported my saved Register file .csv
Looks like it's working, and I'll see what happens this afternoon or tomorrow, when it goes to Float.
PS. What's the graphic panel key sequence to save the current day data to history, so it's not lost in a reboot?
(//)
Quote from: mike90045 on July 09, 2016, 12:55:18 PM
PS. What's the graphic panel key sequence to save the current day data to history, so it's not lost in a reboot?
(//)
You can force the Classic into a new day without having to set the clock to 23:58 and wait for midnight to roll around... To do this, go to the MNGPs LOGS menu and select DAILY. Then hold down the LEFT arrow key and tap the ENTER key for a moment. The screen should say something like "NEW DAY" and then New day ! kW-hours accumulates into the Lifetime kW-Hours, Bulk/Absorb starts anew, etc...
Thanks for explaining the New-Day method, Resthome...
As for 0.0 amps and staying in Float, that would probably be from the secondary charger
keeping the battery voltage up. Older versions of firmware did NOT turn the Classic to
Resting if another charging source was keeping the battery voltage up to the set-point.
The newer firmware does after a while. I'm sure that 2096 does but maybe an earlier
version does as well.
We are testing another firmware version now so might want to wait just a bit before updating.
boB
> We are testing another firmware version now so might want to wait just a bit before updating.
Good, because I spent the afternoon ( a warm day : 93F) testing this and the fan was running nearly continuously at 0 watts
I also appear to have 3 kinds of firmware:
2054 MNGP [ from Classic display menu ]
2096 Classic [ from Classic display menu & Local App ]
2097 Network [ from Local App ]
I ran some tests, by leaving the Classic connected, in Float at 0w, commanded to OFF and with the PV array disconnected. Only in OFF mode, did things cool down (the cover is open and I used IR gun thermometer on the upper and lower inductors) Even when ON and the PV array disconnected, the inductors seem to be heating up. Don't know where the power is going, but I'd like to see what the new SW version does.
The first photo shows an odd case - No array connected, the voltage slowly drifted down to 94V (from a 155V array) and 6 watts of power from some unknown source !
The 2nd photo shows the results of the "secret screen" which has rapidly changing numbers. I've seen up to 64 in the battery column but after several dozen photos, only captured 50
Hope this helps somehow.
Mike
Quote from: boB on July 14, 2016, 03:49:26 AM
Thanks for explaining the New-Day method, Resthome...
As for 0.0 amps and staying in Float, that would probably be from the secondary charger
keeping the battery voltage up. Older versions of firmware did NOT turn the Classic to
Resting if another charging source was keeping the battery voltage up to the set-point.
The newer firmware does after a while. .........
Wow, I'd think anytime the battery voltage is above the desired setpoint, the charger would go to an idle or standby mode, and not a current sucking mode. The inductors are running about 145F while the other charger is maintaining the batteries.
Hi Mike,
So, what FW Version was the Update?
Am getting ready to move up from the venerable 1849. I have no similar issues with another charge source right now ... am considering adding some PVs AC coupled to the SW+ 5548s, and that might cause an issue ... and so on.
Thanks, Vic
Quote from: Vic on July 15, 2016, 01:37:41 PM
Hi Mike, So, what FW Version was the Update?....
This is what I read:
2054 MNGP [ from Classic display menu ]
2096 Classic [ from Classic display menu & Local App ]
2097 Network [ from Local App ]
Thanks Mike, yea that is what you said before, thanks for reading this from the Classic's screen.
Had thought that the change for you folks with multiple different charge sources would take about 90 seconds maximum, before the Classic would Rest, when there was another charge source keeping the battery above Vflt.
The MN crew is obviously very busy doing Inverters, but nice to see boB and Ryan back here in the past few days.
Dunno, Good luck! Vic
Quote from: Vic on July 15, 2016, 02:53:03 PM
The MN crew is obviously very busy doing Inverters, but nice to see boB and Ryan back here in the past few days.
Dunno, Good luck! Vic
Ditto !!
The inductors can stay warm because of ripple current through them.
Did you wait a while for the temps to come down or did it stay at 145 ?
Two Classics is why the one stayed on. The newer code will stop the unproductive
Classic from staying on more than 10 or 15 minutes in this situation.
It doesn't hurt anything for that Classic to stay on but it is certainly more
desirable for it to go off.
You could also adjust the battery voltage reading in the tweaks menu so they share
but if one Classic is keeping the battery in Float without working very hard then
it's better for the second Classic to just go to resting.
boB
I have seen it now resting mid-day when the pumps are off. I have another brand of CC, so the sensed battery voltage is the only communication.
I see there is a new FW beta from Mario [ Firmware Rev 1820 Beta ] but I don't see any topics listed that would entice me to drag the laptop out and hook it up.
Anything behind the scenes that would help Vbatt > Vfloat resting mode ?
edit:
[ now I see the FW is for the KID, nevermind. MNKID_Firmware_1820.fup ]