Hi, Detectives~ At a client's off-grid home I observed two side-by-side Trace C-40 PV controllers, circa 1998, which were "stuck" in equalize mode. Day after day they did the red/green blink and they would not throttle back the incoming solar energy. This was with the jumper set for automatic EQ (should have been once per 30 days). I changed the jumpers to Manual EQ and normal behavior ensued: green blink with proper throttle back.
Clues: The battery is huge compared to the solar recharge current. The battery is also old and may have high self-discharge. Internal shorts in one or more battery cells are also possible. Because of these factors, the battery voltage was not reaching a high value even though the controllers were running wide open. I thought that when the sun set, any auto EQ behavior on the C-40 would cease, but that didn't happen in this case. A product failure seems non-likely unless they both happened to break in the same way. Is there some other condition which the C-40 must see in order to be satisfied that it's OK to end the EQ? Thanks in advance for helping me solve this mystery, Mick Abraham, Proprietor www.abrahamsolar.com Voice: 970-731-4675
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