Stuck resting - even in bright sunlight at midday

[happybeing]

I first saw this a few days ago on an overcast day when I thought it should be generating some power. As it worked fine next day I put it down to eyes over-estimating the brightness, but...

Today I was getting 100-200W in broken cloud during the morning, but at about 11:20am noticed it was "resting" even when the sun was breaking through. I've done a few checks and the panels are capable of supplying power, but when connected to the Midnite unit the Vin gets held to 6.0v and no current/watts showing, so it stays resting. I've tried various to break it out of resting but it just stays stubbornly resting even though the sun is pretty constant full brightness ATM and I know (from seeing it chargning, plus the morning logs - it should be generating power). Time is currently 1pm BST which is 12:00 GMT so maximum elevation!

I installed this system almost exactly 12 months ago and it has worked reliably. Two days ago (a few days after the first "stuck resting" episode) I had the Vout breaker trip. After resetting it, it has been fine since. Charged quite a lot yesterday.

So it looks like once it falls into resting, it won't flip out no matter what until the next day. I have tried the "Tweaks force Bulk", and tried turning the Charge > Mode OFF and ON, and tried temporarily disconnecting both input and output sides of the controller. It always goes straight back to resting.

I have:
MidNite Classic 150
1370 4/8/2013 MNGP
1401 6/8/20123 CLASSIC
CLI0386

Can anyone suggest how to flip it out of resting when this happens, and a more permanent fix?

Thanks,

Mark

[Vic]

Hi Mark,  Welcome to the Forum.

First,  you need to update the Firmware to the latest version,  look here:
http://www.midnitesolar.com/firmware.php?firmwareProduct_ID=1

Some of the earlier versions of the Firmware had some Resting events.  And the firmware in your Classic is fairly out of date.

Try this,  and please let us know how you are doing.

Good Luck,   Vic

[Halfcrazy]

You say it has to be over 6 volts to charge? Something seems wrong here as it should be way over 6v.

Can you tell me the following:
Battery voltage nominal?
PV array voltage (VOC)?

Ryan

[zoneblue]

Yeah im also wondering if its a low Voc situation. The tripped output breaker is also odd, and unlikely to occur in normal situations. What size is the breaker, and how big is the array. Whats the system voltage?

I know its distressing to have a unit not charging. Sorry for the questions, while its not impossible your unit is misbehaving, we should check out the other possible causes first. 

[boB]

We will need to know what your battery voltage is...  Also, we need to know what the input voltage is when the Classic is Resting.

So far, from what I am hearing, it is not the firmware version.

Might be, but it may also be that your PV input voltage is not high enough.

Need those two (2) basic voltage values.

Thanks
boB

[happybeing]

Thanks all for your responses - I'm waiting for a bit of sunshine so I can look into the possibility of a problem with the array. I had already done that a couple of times but am still a bit of an amateur and think I need to look some more!

Will let you know how that goes and answer your questions then.

I'll be back!

Mark

[happybeing]

The problem was with the PV corrections - only a year old and sheltered under the panels, I think the cable mounted connectors I bought must be poor quality as some showed "fuzzing" corrsion, while the Y-connectors were all bright and shiny. A bit of contact cleaner and jiggling had an amazing effect.

I'm sorry for the false alarm. I had previously checked the connectors, but a mix of intermittent sunlight, lack of experience, and paranoia was leading me to worry it was the MidNite unit.

Thanks again for your help.

Mark

[happybeing]

Hi Mark,  Welcome to the Forum.

First,  you need to update the Firmware to the latest version,  look here:
http://www.midnitesolar.com/firmware.php?firmwareProduct_ID=1

Some of the earlier versions of the Firmware had some Resting events.  And the firmware in your Classic is fairly out of date.

Try this,  and please let us know how you are doing.

Good Luck,   Vic

Thanks Vic, is there a version list which shows all the enhancements, or do I have to look inside each update to find out what's changed?

Also, is there a way to invoke the wizard without doing a factory reset? I see from the update instructions a reset is possible, but was wondering if there's a way to input precise Lat/Long. without doing a full reset? There was something in my manual about invoking the wizard but I couldn't get it to work.

Thank you, Mark

[zoneblue]

Great you got it sorted. Moral of the story? Good components. Corosion is something to watch out for. Something like that. True MC4 connectors are or should be silver plated, and water tight as well. Anything else is going to be trouble i guess. For the combiner, you should have tin palted solar cable, terminated in tin plated bus bars and breakers. Thats usually a fairly stable combination. Its the dissimialr metals that cause all the grief. Sometimes nickel is used which is also fairly stable.

Firmware: if you download the latest firmware, install it on your computer, in the installation folder is a change log. You can access it without installing it on the classic. The wizard was removed several (many several) revisions ago, and the lat,long settings dont effect anything, yet.

[boB]

You can see what the changes have been by downloading and running the install program from our site.

Then, go to the c:\midnitesolar directory and read the Readmechanges.txt file to see the dates, versions
and basic changes that happened with each one.  You can then choose to install the drivers and
update the code or not.

boB