On 10/29/2015 5:02 PM, Jay wrote:
boB,
Is the OCP still being used and does it work in both directions?
JAY
Peltz power
Hi Jay. Yes, the OCP you refer to is still there. This particular OCP
though is a hardware
fast OCP intended to protect the controller against large load surges on
the battery
side of the controller... This usually happens when battery cables are
long and
the inverter(s) are connected electrically close to the controller,
thereby drawing
huge amounts of current from the Classic than from the battery when the
inverter
is turned on, charging its input capacitors or something with huge AC loads.
A good wiring practice these days is to, if convenient at least, wire
the controller's
battery terminals close or right at the battery terminals. Then, when
an inverter
is either turned on and giving a momentary short circuit to the battery
lines, that
current will come from the battery rather than the controller's electronics.
Larger cables won't necessarily fix the problem due to battery cable
inductance.
The 150s and 200s rarely need the OCP circuitry. The 250 is the one the
OCP was
really designed for but we put it into all of the controllers.
There is also over current protection going the other way but is not a
microsecond
timed protection. Plain old fast or slow ramping up surges like we're
talking about is easy to
control, normally.
Breaker tripping like this is extremely rare, IF it is from this kind of
current spikes due to
generator startup. I would suggest to be safe and bring another
controller up just in case.
Might be a bad controller but I just don't know without logging or
observing it happening
with a scope and a current probe. I've seen some very strange things
happen.
boB
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 29, 2015, at 4:19 PM, "b...@midnitesolar.com" <b...@midnitesolar.com>
wrote:
Larry, because these MPPT CC's are bi-directional (for efficiencies' sake),
they can convert a large current
at the battery side to a smaller current at the PV side if not adjusted right.
Normally this is just taken
care of and reduced to a bare minimum by the controller watching the voltages
and currents carefully.
It is technically possible though for things to not work exactly correctly. I
am not saying that this is
for sure happening, but it is possible. The ramping up in battery voltage
from the chargers should
be plenty slow enough for this not to be a problem but I am wildly speculating
that this could happen
and cannot rule it out. There may of course be something else completely
different happening here
though.
If CBI breakers are being used, these are known to be extremely fast at
tripping when overloaded.
Also, what, if any SPDs are connected to the system ?
boB
On 10/29/2015 2:45 PM, Starlight Solar Power Systems wrote:
After the Magnum Inverter/charger samples incoming AC power, they have a slight
delay before starting the charger. Then, they ramp up current slowly.
Even so, how will any current from any other source pass through the breaker
unless the Classic is presenting a load? I suppose something else could be
wired through the breaker but I’m guessing Daniel would have looked at that.
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