Barcelona BETA Testing in Montana

[Weldman]

No answer? Seriously what is this forum for if the only ones that can answer don't answer with some sort of insight or something. Guess I better start calling when they open and try that way to make sense of this and if that doesn't work then move on from Midnite Solar and sell this off to someone else who wants to deal with it.

[Wizbandit]

I managed to graph the issue of flipping from ABSORB back to BULK dropping watts. I sent it off to engineering today.  I expect they will be investigating and working on it come Monday now that they can see it.  The reason I didn't catch it right away is my test system stays in BULK all day selling to the grid.  I will get on the team to get this fixed right away.  Sorry I missed it...

[Weldman]

I managed to graph the issue of flipping from ABSORB back to BULK dropping watts. I sent it off to engineering today.  I expect they will be investigating and working on it come Monday now that they can see it.  The reason I didn't catch it right away is my test system stays in BULK all day selling to the grid.  I will get on the team to get this fixed right away.  Sorry I missed it...

Would help to watch this unit I own and learn from it as unlike yours in a controlled environment, this one is being taken through the extremes. If this one can operate and keep going here, it will be operational anywhere in the US. We even get temperatures up to 115°F which matches Arizona.
Have no problem in feeding back data such as that MNS Combox you showed that showed the problem, small tools like that if I had my hands on helps. Help me help you guys and we can  keep ironing these problems out.

[boB]

Weldman,  could you verify that when the rosie would not turn on in the cold that the batteries did not shut off?

I would also get rid of that battery switch which is most likely a 12 volt switch. All that extra wires for the battery and not being run together as inductance which is not good for the system operation. It's kind of hard to see how you have things wired with your pictures.

[FNG]

Weldman,
The Barcelona is a bug for sure, We are working on it as we speak.

Rosie I am not sure we haven't been successful in recreating the cold temp shut off. I would like to swap this Rosie out for 2 reasons, 1- See if the new one fixes your issues, 2- See if we can make yours fail in the environmental chamber.

Can you email me your name, number and shipping info and I will issue an RMA today ryan@midnitesolar.com

[ralph day]

I wish the customer response was a prompt and thourough for my Honda!  Can't beat these guys with a stick!

[Weldman]

Weldman,  could you verify that when the rosie would not turn on in the cold that the batteries did not shut off?

I would also get rid of that battery switch which is most likely a 12 volt switch. All that extra wires for the battery and not being run together as inductance which is not good for the system operation. It's kind of hard to see how you have things wired with your pictures.

It is a 32V switch rated for 600A continuous. The battery switch has the Barcelona and the Rosie going to it both as if one would have a bus bar going to them. The negative battery wires all go to a bus bar. Other than that switch and the battery breakers on the Barcelona and the Rosie the other disconnect is the forklift battery plug outside and that isn't getting yanked apart.
Ran this combination since spring of 2023 and never had a problem till January 2024 update and the deep freeze.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/3000/HD-Series_Heavy_Duty_On-Off_Battery_Switch

[FNG]

Weldman,  could you verify that when the rosie would not turn on in the cold that the batteries did not shut off?

I would also get rid of that battery switch which is most likely a 12 volt switch. All that extra wires for the battery and not being run together as inductance which is not good for the system operation. It's kind of hard to see how you have things wired with your pictures.

It is a 32V switch rated for 1750A. The battery switch has the Barcelona and the Rosie going to it both as if one would have a bus bar going to them. The negative battery wires all go to a bus bar. Other than that switch and the battery breakers on the Barcelona and the Rosie the other disconnect is the forklift battery plug outside and that isn't getting yanked apart.
Ran this combination since spring of 2023 and never had a problem till January 2024 update and the deep freeze.

The switch, while maybe not rated for 48v, is not the cause of the issues presented.

[boB]

Weldman,  could you verify that when the rosie would not turn on in the cold that the batteries did not shut off?

I would also get rid of that battery switch which is most likely a 12 volt switch. All that extra wires for the battery and not being run together as inductance which is not good for the system operation. It's kind of hard to see how you have things wired with your pictures.

It is a 32V switch rated for 600A continuous. The battery switch has the Barcelona and the Rosie going to it both as if one would have a bus bar going to them. The negative battery wires all go to a bus bar. Other than that switch and the battery breakers on the Barcelona and the Rosie the other disconnect is the forklift battery plug outside and that isn't getting yanked apart.
Ran this combination since spring of 2023 and never had a problem till January 2024 update and the deep freeze.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/3000/HD-Series_Heavy_Duty_On-Off_Battery_Switch

Did you verify with a voltmeter that there was 48V at the Rosie bus when it would not turn on ?

[Weldman]

Weldman,  could you verify that when the rosie would not turn on in the cold that the batteries did not shut off?

I would also get rid of that battery switch which is most likely a 12 volt switch. All that extra wires for the battery and not being run together as inductance which is not good for the system operation. It's kind of hard to see how you have things wired with your pictures.

It is a 32V switch rated for 600A continuous. The battery switch has the Barcelona and the Rosie going to it both as if one would have a bus bar going to them. The negative battery wires all go to a bus bar. Other than that switch and the battery breakers on the Barcelona and the Rosie the other disconnect is the forklift battery plug outside and that isn't getting yanked apart.
Ran this combination since spring of 2023 and never had a problem till January 2024 update and the deep freeze.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/3000/HD-Series_Heavy_Duty_On-Off_Battery_Switch

Did you verify with a voltmeter that there was 48V at the Rosie bus when it would not turn on ?

Yes as I was prodding everything to see why the charge controller first went down and it's when I seen the 690 VDC on volt meter and shut everything down, went out and disconnected 2 solar panels. Went back in and turned everything on and Rosie refused till I heated it up with diesel heater as seen in the picture. Second time I did the latest update and refused to come back on till about 30 minutes to hour later with heater on it.

[boB]

Yes as I was prodding everything to see why the charge controller first went down and it's when I seen the 690 VDC on volt meter and shut everything down, went out and disconnected 2 solar panels. Went back in and turned everything on and Rosie refused till I heated it up with diesel heater as seen in the picture. Second time I did the latest update and refused to come back on till about 30 minutes to hour later with heater on it.
[/quote]


Weldman, when you checked and saw 690VDC on the input, how many voltage did you measure at the Rosie/Barcelona on the battery side ?

I am trying to get an idea if the battery had turned itself off.  I know you said "yes" and gave the 690V figure but I did not hear a battery voltage.   At 690 VDC on the PV input you are not going to be charging the batteries of course.

When you pointed your heater at the system, didn't the battery get warmer too ?

Sorry, I am just trying to get the whole story.   I hope we can duplicate this in Arlington with your Rosie.  I am amazed that the Barcelona capacitors did not vent.  Or maybe they did ?  Did you smell anything weird from the Barcelona ?

boB

[Weldman]

Yes as I was prodding everything to see why the charge controller first went down and it's when I seen the 690 VDC on volt meter and shut everything down, went out and disconnected 2 solar panels. Went back in and turned everything on and Rosie refused till I heated it up with diesel heater as seen in the picture. Second time I did the latest update and refused to come back on till about 30 minutes to hour later with heater on it.

Weldman, when you checked and saw 690VDC on the input, how many voltage did you measure at the Rosie/Barcelona on the battery side ?

I am trying to get an idea if the battery had turned itself off.  I know you said "yes" and gave the 690V figure but I did not hear a battery voltage.   At 690 VDC on the PV input you are not going to be charging the batteries of course.

When you pointed your heater at the system, didn't the battery get warmer too ?

Sorry, I am just trying to get the whole story.   I hope we can duplicate this in Arlington with your Rosie.  I am amazed that the Barcelona capacitors did not vent.  Or maybe they did ?  Did you smell anything weird from the Barcelona ?

boB

[/quote]
Went downstairs and seen it was in "Resting" mode at around 0800 hrs, looked at the voltage and it said 0 on the solar side when it was sunny outside, battery said around 50VDC on what I could partially read which is where it hoovers. Grabbed meter cause I thought maybe array went down for some odd reason such as pack rat. Put meter on it and it measured 690VDC on initial contact then settled down to 550VDC.
Couldn't see battery voltage for 100% so I put meter on it and it was around 50VDC, reached up shut the solar panels breaker down, shut the main breaker to battery on Barcelona then the Rosie and then shut the main battery switch off to both. No smell and I can smell very well as in we don't wash our clothes in any perfume detergents, no colognes, perfumes or deodorants here.
Went out and disconnected 2 panels on the end of the series, by not having both strings on the Barcelona is what I think saved the capacitors. Anyways, went back in and inspected everything looking for any magic smoke that might be escaping, checked all wiring then flipped the main battery switch on then flipped battery breaker on Barcelona and let it boot up.
Flipped solar panels on and let it register them and seen it started inverting around 580 VDC, checked with meter to make sure I was reading LCD right. Once that was operating I flipped battery breaker on Rosie, got blinking lights but not the fan coming on for test run and wasn't showing up on the Barcelona. Waited about 5 minutes to see if it would finally register, nope nothing. Turned Rosie back off and waited 30 minutes while I hooked up the other inverter which got us lights back on here. Went back and tried turning Rosie on, nope nothing, just two lights and not registering with Barcelona panel.
So I shut the unit off waited few minutes and opened the covers up, put the diesel heater on it as seen, put my hand in front to measure the right distance and let it warm up for 30 minutes. Battery is on the other side of the wall so no it didn't get warmed up at all. Turned Rosie on after 30 minutes and it's as if nothing happened. Like I keep saying it was -40°F with a -65°F wind chill that day.

Second time, I updated Rosie when it was around 12°F, it went off and didn't come back online till 30 minutes later or more as if diesel heater had no effect.
I've seen Rosie keep running when voltage has been down to 43.8VDC cause StarLink satellite dish decided to run the heater all night to keep snow off after three days of clouds.

I can upload a video with the Barcelona shut down and the covers off for inspection if you guys want?

[Wizbandit]

I wonder if his devices had the "buss ID" issue where both Rosie and Barcelona picked the same random buss ID to talk on the CANBUS, a known issue that was fixed with recent firmware.  This would explain Rosie not showing on the MNGP2.  Rosie's firmware update can take up to 7 minutes to complete and maybe longer if it hits a snag and does the "revert to factory FW" recovery. This would require the FW update to be done all over again.  Rosie will refuse to turn on if the SYSTEM NAME is missing which the same buss ID's would cause.

I would check Firmware versions and update to the latest on the BETA APP.  Check Buss ID's and firmware versions after...

[Weldman]

I wonder if his devices had the "buss ID" issue where both Rosie and Barcelona picked the same random buss ID to talk on the CANBUS, a known issue that was fixed with recent firmware.  This would explain Rosie not showing on the MNGP2.  Rosie's firmware update can take up to 7 minutes to complete and maybe longer if it hits a snag and does the "revert to factory FW" recovery. This would require the FW update to be done all over again.  Rosie will refuse to turn on if the SYSTEM NAME is missing which the same buss ID's would cause.

I would check Firmware versions and update to the latest on the BETA APP.  Check Buss ID's and firmware versions after...

And that is when at 12°F it did not come back on for 30 minutes or more was the last update. I did end up waiting a few days later when it hit 32°F to try again thinking the unit was freezing and it went through then.

[Weldman]

Forgive me if I haven't returned the other Rosie yet, I got about 60 eggs on incubation. Not a quick switch out that's easy to do before the eggs start cooling.