Re: [RE-wrenches] Fortress Envy E-stop

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

I have filled out two different online Technical Support tickets with Fortress 
in the last two weeks. Most of the time I get a response within 3 hours, and 
follow up responses are normally even faster. However, one recently was in 
regard to a very specific integration issue with an SMA inverter, so they had 
to get it to the right person and do a little digging… so that took a few days. 
The good news is that they did indeed give me an answer instead of dismissing 
it as most companies seem to do these days, and they fixed their SMA 
integration guide immediately.

Your mileage may vary.

Thanks,
Kienan


Green-Go Solar Wholesale Distribution LLC

Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)

maxfieldso...@hotmail.com

(801) 631-5584(Cell)

www.distribution.solar

On Jul 25, 2024, at 1:26 PM, Kirk Herander via RE-wrenches 
 wrote:



Not sure what tell you about your Envy True 12 if its missing the terminal 
blocktheir tech support now takes hours or days to respond,(six months ago 
it was immediate) and they almost mandate filing a service request online to 
get a case ticket# before they'll talk to you.





On Thu, Jul 25, 2024 at 2:23 PM Mac Lewis via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
No wonder I'm confused, this inverter is missing the terminal block that the 
manual references.

Does anyone have a good, direct number for Fortress tech support that will pick 
up. I'm getting nothing...

Thanks!

On Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 7:39 AM Jay via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
Hi Lewis

Yes both the 12 and 18 have RSD
It’s a button on the left side.

Shuts off AC and PV

Jay

On Jul 25, 2024, at 7:30 AM, Mac Lewis via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:


Hello Wrenches,

Does anyone know if the 12kW Envy inverter has remote stop capability?  I need 
an external button to activate rapid shutdown and disable inverter output but 
I'm not seeing this functionality in the  manual.

Seems strange to me.

Thanks in advance!


--



Mac Lewis


"Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates

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--
Kirk Herander / kirkh@vermont.solar
Owner|Principal, VT Solar, LLC
Celebrating our 33st Anniversary 1991-2024!!
dba Vermont Solar Engineering
802.559.1225
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[RE-wrenches] Anyone heard of Tesup?

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

Hey all,

I know well the old adage - "If it sounds to good to be true, then it probably 
is." I also know that I have seen numerous windmill scams.

That said, I am doing some consulting for someone who wants to buy and install 
this Tesup windmill... Supposedly a 9 kW wind turbine for $999

https://tesup.com/us/products/tesup-horizontal-wind-turbines-for-homes

My customer claims all the normal things... This company has been around for a 
very long time (so they claim), they have millions of happy customers (so they 
claim), they are from Europe, not Asia (as though that would make them 
trustworthy)...

I know enough to be highly suspicious, and I won't be touching this unit myself 
either way, but I'm just curious if anyone knows anything directly about this 
specific one. I'll be advising this person not to get his hopes up if he does 
decide to try it out, and that I am suspicious, but if anyone has anything more 
specific, I'd love to hear about it so I can give better advice.

Thanks,
Kienan



Green-Go Solar Wholesale Distribution LLC
Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)
maxfieldso...@hotmail.com
(801) 631-5584(Cell)
www.distribution.solar
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Re: [RE-wrenches] AC Coupling

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

t 
talks to each other in a closed loop. Crude algorithms for throttling PV don't 
seem particularly confidence-inspiring. This is one argument for sticking with 
a single manufacturer system architecture (i.e. Enphase). While there are 
obvious downsides and limitations to that, the system should work safely and 
flawlessly in an AC Coupled scenario.

With respect to mixed systems with DC and AC Coupling, while I see the 
advantages, it really complicates the design and installation. It also greatly 
confuses the monitoring aspect for PV production. I think it depends on the 
scenario, but going one way or the other makes the most sense to me in most 
situations. With that said, there are exceptions. For example, I have a Sol-Ark 
15K client right now where all of the MPPT inputs are taken, and reconfiguring 
the DC coupled strings is not easily achieved. So, to add more PV, the obvious 
choice is to AC couple. But this system has a generator, so the AC Coupled PV 
needs to be on the AC load output, meaning it will not be monitored by the 
Sol-Ark. That's not ideal, but it's nice to have that flexibility.

Jason Szumlanski
Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956


On Sun, Oct 29, 2023 at 4:19 PM Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
William,

My whole email is in regards to the point you made when you said
"This is not how battery inverters were originally designed to operate.  These 
systems require careful consideration to avoid battery overcharging."

I both agree and disagree with these statements... depending on what you mean. 
I don't think it's super helpful to say that careful considerations are 
required without mentioning what those considerations are, and I'll get to 
those below.





When you say that the battery inverters "weren't originally designed for this" 
I'd agree to an extent.. The "original" battery based inverters 25 years ago 
were certainly not designed for AC coupling. They weren't "originally" designed 
for it. But that was then and this is now.





Now William is correct that the Gen input becomes an AC output, and you can't 
wire the gen into that "input" if you are using it as a PV input... that being 
said, Jay didn't think otherwise, he was just critiquing the wiring diagram in 
the original post to say that it wires up differently, so I'd say that you are 
both right on this one. That said, I don't think anyone says you have to wire 
it into the gen port, I think that even with the hybrid inverters, the way in 
William's original post is still a fully acceptable way to do it.



I am not a huge fan of AC coupling, however, I have done it a fair amount and I 
have a fair amount of experience with it off-grid with Lithium and with Lead 
Acid. Most of my experience is with Outback and Victron, but I have some 
experience with Schneider as well. These systems have been working really well 
for a good while, but that being said, Schneider had some real problems at 
first (major headache).


Now when it comes to hybrid inverters, I'm still not a huge fan... but I'm 
starting to try them out. I have not tested AC coupling with any of them yet. I 
was at a conference less than a year ago and one of the major brands was saying 
that there is no hybrid inverter that supports both AC coupled PV and a 
generator at the same time for a grid tied system. They said "you can't have it 
all." There may be an exception to that, I've never looked into it, but with 
the Victron and Outback (and probably Scheider... IDK) it's easy to have it 
all. I've done it and it works well in every mode. The frequency changes super 
fast and assuming you have a properly programmed rule 21 compliant Grid tied 
inverter, it responds very quickly, and in the systems I've monitored, the 
frequency never had to go above 62 Hz, which is good enough for most sensitive 
loads. The inverters are totally designed for this these days, but if you have 
highly sensitive loads, then it may not work well.



Considerations...
First of all, I will be assuming that you are using quality rule 21 grid-direct 
inverters and a good battery inverter that works as well as the Outback Radian 
or the Victron. The early Schneiders were too slow in changing their frequency, 
and special considerations had to be accounted for because of that, but I heard 
that was fixed a while ago. You had to reduce the charging voltages to account 
for the delayed throttling, but I can attest that even in the early days, 
Outback never had this problem, and Victron works smoothly as well.

The primary problem for AC coupling is in off-grid scenarios or prolonged power 
outages, and that's the black start issue (or dark start)

Re: [RE-wrenches] AC Coupling

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

William,

My whole email is in regards to the point you made when you said
"This is not how battery inverters were originally designed to operate.  These 
systems require careful consideration to avoid battery overcharging."

I both agree and disagree with these statements... depending on what you mean. 
I don't think it's super helpful to say that careful considerations are 
required without mentioning what those considerations are, and I'll get to 
those below.





When you say that the battery inverters "weren't originally designed for this" 
I'd agree to an extent.. The "original" battery based inverters 25 years ago 
were certainly not designed for AC coupling. They weren't "originally" designed 
for it. But that was then and this is now.





Now William is correct that the Gen input becomes an AC output, and you can't 
wire the gen into that "input" if you are using it as a PV input... that being 
said, Jay didn't think otherwise, he was just critiquing the wiring diagram in 
the original post to say that it wires up differently, so I'd say that you are 
both right on this one. That said, I don't think anyone says you have to wire 
it into the gen port, I think that even with the hybrid inverters, the way in 
William's original post is still a fully acceptable way to do it.



I am not a huge fan of AC coupling, however, I have done it a fair amount and I 
have a fair amount of experience with it off-grid with Lithium and with Lead 
Acid. Most of my experience is with Outback and Victron, but I have some 
experience with Schneider as well. These systems have been working really well 
for a good while, but that being said, Schneider had some real problems at 
first (major headache).


Now when it comes to hybrid inverters, I'm still not a huge fan... but I'm 
starting to try them out. I have not tested AC coupling with any of them yet. I 
was at a conference less than a year ago and one of the major brands was saying 
that there is no hybrid inverter that supports both AC coupled PV and a 
generator at the same time for a grid tied system. They said "you can't have it 
all." There may be an exception to that, I've never looked into it, but with 
the Victron and Outback (and probably Scheider... IDK) it's easy to have it 
all. I've done it and it works well in every mode. The frequency changes super 
fast and assuming you have a properly programmed rule 21 compliant Grid tied 
inverter, it responds very quickly, and in the systems I've monitored, the 
frequency never had to go above 62 Hz, which is good enough for most sensitive 
loads. The inverters are totally designed for this these days, but if you have 
highly sensitive loads, then it may not work well.



Considerations...
First of all, I will be assuming that you are using quality rule 21 grid-direct 
inverters and a good battery inverter that works as well as the Outback Radian 
or the Victron. The early Schneiders were too slow in changing their frequency, 
and special considerations had to be accounted for because of that, but I heard 
that was fixed a while ago. You had to reduce the charging voltages to account 
for the delayed throttling, but I can attest that even in the early days, 
Outback never had this problem, and Victron works smoothly as well.

The primary problem for AC coupling is in off-grid scenarios or prolonged power 
outages, and that's the black start issue (or dark start). Simply put, if your 
battery gets low and the battery inverter turns off, then your PV can't charge 
the battery. This problem is lessened when you connect the PV Grid Direct 
inverters to a dedicated output on the inverter so that the loads shut down 
while the battery is still a few percent above the inverter shutdown level. 
That is a nice advantage of the Victron inverters. I don't know if the Hybrid 
inverters do this or not. In any case, even with this little safety net, the 
inverter can still discharge the battery to the point where the inverter turns 
off and you have a problem. My solution is that you should have at least a 
little bit of the PV DC coupled so that when the sun comes out, the voltage 
will rise and the inverter will turn on. This is also recommended in Victron's 
AC Coupling manual.

The second consideration is the minimum inverter size... Your battery based 
inverter needs to be capable of handling and controlling the full PV power. 
Victron recommends that the maximum PV power (DC or AC, whichever is lower) 
does not exceed 100% of the rating of the inverter (no more than 10kW of power 
from the PV on a 10kW inverter). Outback recommends no more than 6 kW of 
Grid-Tied inverter per 8 kW of Radian (so that's 75% of the battery inverter's 
power). In some circumstances, this could demand upsizing the battery inverter, 
which is another great reason to DC couple half of the PV and AC couple the 
other half... because then you could effectively have more PV with less battery 
based inverter, depending on your loads.

As was ment

Re: [RE-wrenches] Sunny Island AC-Coupled system integration with Fortress E-Vault

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

William,

The charge controllers could operate in open loop, while the SMA did close the 
loop. Open loop works really well for charge controllers.

I question if the closed loop communication was really working correctly if the 
SI is reporting 50% SOC when the batteries are reporting 95%… The SI should be 
getting its % info from the batteries…

My thoughts are that the inverter needs to start frequency shifting at a lower 
voltage. If the closed loop communication isn’t working correctly, you could 
try setting a lower absorb and float voltage…

I’ve had bad luck using open loop Lithium with SMA…

If you were to consider switching out the inverters, consider putting in 
Fortress Envy inverters.

-Kienan


Green-Go Solar Wholesale Distribution LLC

kienan@dist.solar

maxfieldso...@hotmail.com

(801) 631-5584(Cell)

www.distribution.solar

On Oct 24, 2023, at 9:20 AM, Chris Sparadeo via RE-wrenches 
 wrote:


Hi William,

That’s an interesting idea to have close loop comms with two separate 
manufacturers at the same time. In theory I think this could work,  but 
unfortunately, I don’t think SMA and Schneider share the same protocol # for 
the eVault. I believe SMA uses protocol #2 and Schneider uses #5.

Kindly,

Chris

On Tue, Oct 24, 2023 at 10:40 AM MDElectricSolar via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
I would tear all the sunny boys and sunny islands out and install two 15 kW 
Sol-Arks,  problem solved. DC coupled. I've done this several times now for 
existing clients (mostly connected to the grid) but it is so much cleaner and 
more compact and effective.

Michael D Nelson
MD Electric & Solar, Inc.
707-684-0064 mobile
707-884-1862 office
www.mdelectricsolar.com
www.facebook.com/mdelectricandsolar


On Oct 24, 2023, at 7:31 AM, William Miller via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:


Friends:

This situation is as yet unresolved.  It is complicated enough I created a web 
page
 to describe the scenario so I did not have to explain it over and over.  I 
submitted this to Fortress tech support.  They said they had likely not tested 
the Fortress compatibility with SI in an AC-Coupled system.

While Fortress technicians and/or engineers ponder the situation I am 
brainstorming solutions.  One idea is to convert to a DC coupled system.  DC 
Charge controllers will have intrinsically better voltage control.  The charge 
controller most likely suitable is the Schneider 600 volt 100 amp unit.  I 
would need two of them.  It is compatible with the existing string wiring.  In 
researching it many questions came up about that product’s suitability.  There 
is an integration guide for a Schneider system and Fortress but this would be a 
mixed system of Schneider and SMA.  Would I be able to apply closed loop 
communication to both systems?  Could the charge controllers work in open loop? 
 Has anyone tried anything like this?

I will keep you apprised.

William Miller

Miller Solar
17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422
805-438-5600
www.millersolar.com
CA Lic. 773985


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Re: [RE-wrenches] Nuance ground racking

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

Jason,

I've had good luck with DeWalt's carbide 4 blade bits like this one - 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B4RHF2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are other brands that are probably just as good, but I'd look for carbide 
and I'd look for the 4 cutter design.

Thanks,
Kienan

Green-Go Solar Wholesale Distribution
kienan@dist.solar
(801) 631-5584

From: Jason Szumlanski 
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2023 4:10 AM
To: RE-wrenches 
Cc: Kienan Maxfield 
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Nuance ground racking

On that subject, what bits are people using to drill holes through 
block/concrete (for 1" - 2" conduit)? We have been using some dry diamond 
coring bits we buy online, but they don't seem to last. We have had them break 
off at the weld. Wet coring seems overkill for the relatively few holes we need 
to make.

Jason Szumlanski
Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956


On Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 10:49 PM Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
I own the Dewalt 2 inch 60V rotary hammer you linked and it is totally awesome. 
You’ll be blown away by it. It’s totally worth it.

You might want to make sure to just use the huge 12ah batteries that it comes 
with… might be a lot of power demand fire smaller 60V batteries… but I 
regularly use mine with the smaller batteries and I’ve never had a problem.

I mostly use it for drilling 2 inch holes in 8” concrete walls for bringing 
conduit into basements and crawl spaces. It goes through amazingly easily. 
Everyone who has tried mine has been totally blown away… probably about 8 
professionals and contractors.

Thanks,
Kienan


Green-Go Solar Wholesale Distribution LLC

kienan@dist.solar

(801) 631-5584(Cell)

www.distribution.solar

On Oct 9, 2023, at 8:33 AM, Dave Tedeyan via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:


Hi all,

I am going to try out the Nuance OSPREY PowerRack as a ground mount option that 
does not require an excavator. I am wondering two things about it:

1. Does anyone have experience with this, and do you like it?

2. What drill do you use for the drive rod?
It seems like the Milwaukee 2" SDS max drill is the standard - 
https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/5342-21
I am wondering if it is possible to use a cordless drill though. DeWalt makes 
both a cordless and corded version that claim to have the same impact energy as 
each other, although both are less than the Milwaukee Drill. Milwaukee has 19.9 
ft-lbs of energy and the DeWalt ones have 19.4 Joules, which is 14.3 ft-lbs of 
energy.
Cordless Kit - 
https://www.dewalt.com/product/dch773y2/60v-max-2-brushless-cordless-sds-max-combination-rotary-hammer-kit
Corded Kit - https://www.dewalt.com/product/d25773k/2-sds-max-rotary-hammer

The cordless drill is tempting because I already have a bunch of DeWalt 
equipment, and it would be nice to avoid needing a generator or some very long 
extension cords.

Thanks!
-Dave

--
[Logo]<https://www.sungineersolar.com/>
Dave Tedeyan, P.E.
Owner | Sungineer Solar
p: he | him | his
a: 1653 Slaterville Rd. | Ithaca, NY 14850
w: www.sungineersolar.com<http://www.sungineersolar.com/>
c: (607) 270-0370
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Re: [RE-wrenches] Pytes Batteries

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

From what I’ve seen in the discussions here, some people think they’re well 
made, but when you do need technical support for any reason, good luck… maybe 
people have gotten some support, but if my memory serves me correctly, the 
general feeling I got reading the posts was that there was no support.

Thanks,
Kienan


Green-Go Solar Wholesale Distribution LLC

kienan@dist.solar

(801) 631-5584(Cell)

www.distribution.solar

On Oct 11, 2023, at 6:41 PM, MDElectricSolar via RE-wrenches 
 wrote:

 I have installed two Sol-Ark and Pytes off grid systems so far, have a couple 
more coming up. So far so good no issues they seem to be a well-built product.

Michael D Nelson
MD Electric & Solar, Inc.
707-684-0064 mobile
707-884-1862 office
www.mdelectricsolar.com
www.facebook.com/mdelectricandsolar


On Oct 11, 2023, at 5:33 PM, Howie Michaelson via RE-wrenches 
 wrote:


Does anyone have any experience with using Pytes LiFePO4 batteries? They appear 
to be a solid option, but have little to no direct knowledge of them.
TIA,
Howie Michaelson
Sun Catcher

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Re: [RE-wrenches] Nuance ground racking

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

I own the Dewalt 2 inch 60V rotary hammer you linked and it is totally awesome. 
You’ll be blown away by it. It’s totally worth it.

You might want to make sure to just use the huge 12ah batteries that it comes 
with… might be a lot of power demand fire smaller 60V batteries… but I 
regularly use mine with the smaller batteries and I’ve never had a problem.

I mostly use it for drilling 2 inch holes in 8” concrete walls for bringing 
conduit into basements and crawl spaces. It goes through amazingly easily. 
Everyone who has tried mine has been totally blown away… probably about 8 
professionals and contractors.

Thanks,
Kienan


Green-Go Solar Wholesale Distribution LLC

kienan@dist.solar

(801) 631-5584(Cell)

www.distribution.solar

On Oct 9, 2023, at 8:33 AM, Dave Tedeyan via RE-wrenches 
 wrote:


Hi all,

I am going to try out the Nuance OSPREY PowerRack as a ground mount option that 
does not require an excavator. I am wondering two things about it:

1. Does anyone have experience with this, and do you like it?

2. What drill do you use for the drive rod?
It seems like the Milwaukee 2" SDS max drill is the standard - 
https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/5342-21
I am wondering if it is possible to use a cordless drill though. DeWalt makes 
both a cordless and corded version that claim to have the same impact energy as 
each other, although both are less than the Milwaukee Drill. Milwaukee has 19.9 
ft-lbs of energy and the DeWalt ones have 19.4 Joules, which is 14.3 ft-lbs of 
energy.
Cordless Kit - 
https://www.dewalt.com/product/dch773y2/60v-max-2-brushless-cordless-sds-max-combination-rotary-hammer-kit
Corded Kit - https://www.dewalt.com/product/d25773k/2-sds-max-rotary-hammer

The cordless drill is tempting because I already have a bunch of DeWalt 
equipment, and it would be nice to avoid needing a generator or some very long 
extension cords.

Thanks!
-Dave

--
[Logo]
Dave Tedeyan, P.E.
Owner | Sungineer Solar
p: he | him | his
a: 1653 Slaterville Rd. | Ithaca, NY 14850
w: www.sungineersolar.com
c: (607) 270-0370
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Re: [RE-wrenches] Generator question

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

The Victron idea for controlling gen start is an interesting one for sure.

The idea Mac proposed as far as triggering gen start based on DC current is 
easy to do, but as he mentioned it's flawed because the PV input would 
effectively reduce the DC current that the shunt sees.

The alternative is slightly more complicated, but with a Victron Cerbo-s GX and 
an AC meter (such as the EM530), you could totally do this based on AC Load 
amperage. You'd need a RS485-USB cable to connect the two devices together, and 
you'd probably have to do the programming in Node-Red (all stuff I'd be happy 
to help with and walk you through).

You'd still have the other general Solark limitations (no warm-up or 
cool-down)...
Then again, you could potentially control a second contactor with the Cerbo-S 
in order to provide warm-up and cool-down... and then again on the other hand, 
if you're firing up the generator because the inverter can't support the 
demand, then maybe you need it to take the load over before it has a 
substantial warmup time...

Cheers,

Kienan Maxfield
Technical sales, Technical Support

Green-Go Solar Distribution
kienan@dist.solar
(801) 631-5584 (Cell)
www.distribution.solar

From: RE-wrenches  on behalf of Mac 
Lewis via RE-wrenches 
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2023 5:58 AM
To: offgridso...@sti.net ; RE-wrenches 

Cc: Mac Lewis 
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Generator question

Hello Chris,

I think you will find that the generator interaction with the Sol-Ark is very 
basic and you won't have much flexibility to do this.

As far as ancillary equipment to do a load start, one idea that comes to mind 
is a Victron shunt, Cerbo and GX device.  I'm brainstorming a little bit here 
but if you add the shunt into the battery negative cabling, the Cerbo can be 
sent the battery current measurement.  The Cerbo could then be programmed to 
start based on battery current.  This is a little different than standard AC 
load start but it may cover what you need.  Unfortunately, if the inverter is 
getting overloaded while its sunny, battery current alone can't catch the solar 
current that is being sent directly to the loads and shutdowns will still occur.

Before you do this, I would suggest contacting Kienan Maxfield of Green-go 
Solar Distribution (he's on this list) and knows Victron equipment really well. 
 He can probably tell you if I'm off in the weeds...

Let us know what you find out.

On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 11:25 AM Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
I would trigger genset on Soc. Is that what you are doing?



Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar
"we go where powerlines don't"
   https://offgridsolar1.com/ 

e-mail  offgridso...@sti.net
text 209 813 0060


On 2023-09-25 9:20 am, Chris Daum via RE-wrenches wrote:

 Hi folks:



We have a situation where the Sol-Ark 12kW Inverter isn’t able to adequately 
manage the loads and perform auto-gen start other than low battery level.   And 
despite thorough understanding of the customer’s initial loads, after he’s 
bought the system, he’s continued to add more and more loads – a severe case of 
load creep.



He’s got a 38KW generator and we’re looking for the components to make the 
generator load responsive instead of just kicking on when the battery voltage 
is low.  Are there any ideas on switching equipment that can do this and work 
with the Sol-Ark?  We’re waiting for a reply from Sol-Ark, but thought you 
folks may have some ideas.



The original design was for a larger solar system and inverter, but the 
customer balked at the cost and said he’d reduce his loads accordingly.  
Unfortunately, that has not happened!   Now we’re trying to bend the laws of 
physics and have his 38KW  generator make up the difference. We need to come up 
with a means of accommodating the compromised design and now are faced with 
additional loads -- along with a significantly reduced solar array.   Is there 
a way to make this (2 wire start) generator more load responsive?



Thanks for any and all advice!



 Chris Daum

 Oasis Montana Inc.

 406-777-4309 or 4321

 www.oasismontana.com







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Re: [RE-wrenches] Sunny Island/Fortress E-vault

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

William,

I'm sorry, I was assuming that people posting here simply hadn't found these 
integration instructions. If you have tried these and they didn't work, then I 
stand corrected. I have no personal experience paring this with SMA... I have 
some really bad experience trying to pair other LiFePO4 batteries with SMA open 
loop... I basically try to avoid The SMA Sunny Island products any more, but 
that's not always an option...

I'm curious if you know which tech support agent told you they've been having 
problems... I was actually giving someone a price to use Fortress with an 
existing SMA and if they want to go forward, I might contact my friends at 
Fortress and see if they would want to work with my client's system as a pilot 
to try to iron out the kinks...

Thanks,



Kienan Maxfield
Technical sales, Technical Support

Green-Go Solar Wholesale Distribution
kienan@dist.solar<https://kienan@dist.solar/>
(801) 631-5584 (Cell)
www.distribution.solar<https://www.distribution.solar/>

From: RE-wrenches  on behalf of 
William Miller via RE-wrenches 
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2023 1:39 PM
To: RE-wrenches 
Cc: William Miller 
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Sunny Island/Fortress E-vault

Kieran:

I have read the documentation. Fortress tech support said there have been 
problems and recommended open loop.

Do you know what parameters are passed with closed loop?

William Miller
Miller Solar.com
805-438-5600
www.millersolar.com<http://www.millersolar.com>


On Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 12:18 PM Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
That's actually incorrect, Fortress totally does support closed-loop with the 
SMA Sunny Island inverters. Here is their integration guide. This has all of 
the instructions and coms wiring, etc. - 
https://learn.fortresspower.com/external/manual/sma/article/introduction-useful-links?p=dc8b9a9c1b3f410556835193e66f2257c662403dfb3da4056e618e954e8381d2

Thanks,

Kienan Maxfield
Technical sales, Technical Support

Green-Go Solar Distribution
kienan@dist.solar<https://kienan@dist.solar/>
(801) 631-5584 (Cell)
www.distribution.solar<https://www.distribution.solar/>




From: RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org>>
 on behalf of Kirk Herander via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>>
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2023 8:33 AM
To: RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>>
Cc: Kirk Herander 
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Sunny Island/Fortress E-vault

Jerry,

Who is the maker of the Blue Planet/Outback SOC box interface you mention?

On Sat, Sep 16, 2023 at 9:30 AM Jerry Shafer via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
Mac, wrenches
SMA and fortress can only open loop and with a fixed temp sender its fine. Now 
on the blue planet and open loop with outback, you need a SOC box that they can 
make for you, it will interface with the blue planet and command the genny.
Fun times

On Sat, Sep 16, 2023, 6:04 AM Mac Lewis 
mailto:maclew...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi William,

Are you doing open loop or closed loop communication?  I'm not sure if Fortress 
can do a closed loop with SMA or not.

We struggled to get the open loop to work well with some Blue Ion batteries, 
not from a charging sense but from a sense of getting the auto gen start to 
trigger correctly.  Basically, the SOC algorithm was always way off.  For a 
while we were using an external voltage trigger and we could get the generator 
to start OK before BMS shutdown.  We have since added a Namaka box and are 
using the "Ext BMS" setting for battery type in the Sunny Island and it has 
been working very well.

I think the difficulty arises because the Sunny Island is so State-of-Charge 
centric and you can't manipulate the SOC algorithm without that Ext-BMS setting 
(and solid communication).  One weakness of the ext BMS setting is that it 
won't fall back on Voltage settings if battery communication goes down, but 
this is a weakness throughout closed loop communication for many manufacturers.

Let us know if there is a Fortress to SMA communication solution.





On Fri, Sep 15, 2023 at 11:11 PM Jerry Shafer via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
William, Wrenches
Yes I do and it does require some basic electronics to make it work correctly, 
you will need to remove the ttemp sender and make a resistor pack to simulate 
the 77 degree reading otherwise it will not charge properly, for the first one 
I used a breadboard to set the temp for what I wanted to see then build a more 
solid state shrink wrap resistor. Doing this will prevent undercharge by the 
SMA and your customer will be happy to see the full state of charge at the 
batteries.
OldSchool fun times



On Thu, Sep 14, 2023

Re: [RE-wrenches] Sunny Island/Fortress E-vault

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

That's actually incorrect, Fortress totally does support closed-loop with the 
SMA Sunny Island inverters. Here is their integration guide. This has all of 
the instructions and coms wiring, etc. - 
https://learn.fortresspower.com/external/manual/sma/article/introduction-useful-links?p=dc8b9a9c1b3f410556835193e66f2257c662403dfb3da4056e618e954e8381d2

Thanks,

Kienan Maxfield
Technical sales, Technical Support

Green-Go Solar Distribution
kienan@dist.solar
(801) 631-5584 (Cell)
www.distribution.solar




From: RE-wrenches  on behalf of Kirk 
Herander via RE-wrenches 
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2023 8:33 AM
To: RE-wrenches 
Cc: Kirk Herander 
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Sunny Island/Fortress E-vault

Jerry,

Who is the maker of the Blue Planet/Outback SOC box interface you mention?

On Sat, Sep 16, 2023 at 9:30 AM Jerry Shafer via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
Mac, wrenches
SMA and fortress can only open loop and with a fixed temp sender its fine. Now 
on the blue planet and open loop with outback, you need a SOC box that they can 
make for you, it will interface with the blue planet and command the genny.
Fun times

On Sat, Sep 16, 2023, 6:04 AM Mac Lewis 
mailto:maclew...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi William,

Are you doing open loop or closed loop communication?  I'm not sure if Fortress 
can do a closed loop with SMA or not.

We struggled to get the open loop to work well with some Blue Ion batteries, 
not from a charging sense but from a sense of getting the auto gen start to 
trigger correctly.  Basically, the SOC algorithm was always way off.  For a 
while we were using an external voltage trigger and we could get the generator 
to start OK before BMS shutdown.  We have since added a Namaka box and are 
using the "Ext BMS" setting for battery type in the Sunny Island and it has 
been working very well.

I think the difficulty arises because the Sunny Island is so State-of-Charge 
centric and you can't manipulate the SOC algorithm without that Ext-BMS setting 
(and solid communication).  One weakness of the ext BMS setting is that it 
won't fall back on Voltage settings if battery communication goes down, but 
this is a weakness throughout closed loop communication for many manufacturers.

Let us know if there is a Fortress to SMA communication solution.





On Fri, Sep 15, 2023 at 11:11 PM Jerry Shafer via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
William, Wrenches
Yes I do and it does require some basic electronics to make it work correctly, 
you will need to remove the ttemp sender and make a resistor pack to simulate 
the 77 degree reading otherwise it will not charge properly, for the first one 
I used a breadboard to set the temp for what I wanted to see then build a more 
solid state shrink wrap resistor. Doing this will prevent undercharge by the 
SMA and your customer will be happy to see the full state of charge at the 
batteries.
OldSchool fun times



On Thu, Sep 14, 2023 at 2:12 PM William Miller via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:

Friends:



I am commissioning an E-vault battery array to an existing SMA Sunny Island 
System.  Does anyone have any experience with this they could share?



Thanks.



William



Miller Solar

17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422

805-438-5600

www.millersolar.com

CA Lic. 773985





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--



Mac Lewis


"Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates

___

Re: [RE-wrenches] Inverter On/Off Switch use Outback FX

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

I was just about to suggest the same thing Mac suggested. Any 120 V relay would 
work. Just wire it in parallel with the auxiliary relay that is shutting the 
inverter off. When the AC input is energized, the relay closes, and your 
inverter turns on. I like using a relay that has a base. I trust the Eaton ice 
cube ones, but they’re kind of expensive. Here’s a cheaper one…

https://www.platt.com/p/0648927/abb/general-purpose-relay-11-blade-3pdt-120v-ac/abb1svr405612r2000

Base - 
https://www.platt.com/p/0736026/abb/socket-11-blade-cr-m/abb1svr405651r2000


These are the ones I stock on my work truck -  
https://www.platt.com/p/0147434/eaton/relay-120vac-coil-dpdt-10a-8-pin-plug-in-style/786685930169/cutd3rf2a

Base - 
https://www.platt.com/p/0384871/eaton/socket-octal-8-pin-screw-clamp-terminals/782114159767/cutd3pa2

I like these ones for a few reasons. One, they seem to be quality. Two, you can 
get them in a wide variety of coil voltages, including DC voltages. Three, I 
like the little control tab where you can manually turn the relay on if you 
ever have a reason to do that.

Thanks,
Kienan



Green-Go Solar Distribution LLC

Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)

maxfieldso...@hotmail.com

(801) 631-5584(Cell)

www.distribution.solar

On Jul 21, 2023, at 6:29 AM, Jay via RE-wrenches 
 wrote:


I’ve never used one before.

Can you recommend one?

On Jul 21, 2023, at 5:12 AM, Mac Lewis via RE-wrenches 
 wrote:


To avoid power relay, how about adding a voltage sensing coil on the AC input 
and have an NC contactor that opens on voltage in series with the inverter 
shutdown circuit.  This should interrupt the inverter shutdown any time the 
generator is on.

On Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 6:00 PM Ray Walters via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:

I've done the AC relay idea as well, on Schneider that didn't have the easy off 
switching like the Outbacks.  The problems are:
1) Much bigger relay, much higher current on the control side as well.  It 
required a relay for the relay.
2) If there's a malfunction, you are messing with the main feeders for the home.
3) The inverters are still on with their no load draw, a pair of VFX inverters, 
would be 45 to 50 watts, so you could still shut the batteries down.

I think in your case without AGS, the trick might be to add a bypass control 
switch parallel to the relay, so they can manually turn the inverters back on.

Ray

On 7/20/2023 5:15 PM, Jay wrote:
Hi Ray

This house won’t have an AGS, manual start only.

And your comments exactly, having to wait until the next day when hopefully 
there is enough sun to charge the battery is iffy.

Or they could do the inverter bypass switch.

Again I’m back to why is it a worse idea to install a relay on the AC?

Thx

Jay

As to the sol ark which I never thought about it being in a sense an AC coupled 
system. IE if the inverter is off it won’t charge.
I guess you’ll have to install an external  battery charger?




On Jul 20, 2023, at 5:08 PM, Ray Walters via RE-wrenches 
 
wrote:



The aux off is only if the generator doesn't start.  You need to set the gen 
start voltage higher. Aux off is last ditch shut down, set for 44v for lead 
acid, or 47 to 49v, depending on the battery and inverter.   Hopefully DC 
coupled PV will raise the voltage enough to turn the inverters back on the next 
day.

This is my concern on Solark installs, I just noticed that the inverter won't 
pass through PV, if it hits its LVD set point.

On 7/20/2023 3:04 PM, jay via RE-wrenches wrote:
HI All,

I wanted to revisit this thread for one reason.

If you turn off the inverter at the remote on/off with the AUX relay, then 
starting the generator won’t have any impact as the inverter is off.
So someone will have to go and reset the AUX relay.

Vs

If you do a relay on the AC output, when you start the generator, it will start 
charging, raising the battery volts, causing the AUX relay to close AC output 
relay and you’ll have power in the house.

Am I missing something?

thanks

jay








Here is the last email I think:


Mac,



I think you've got an elegant solution to the problem. All you need is an 
inexpensive relay and to program the Aux output for loadshed. I believe 
shutting down the inverter with the remote on/off contacts is actually less 
stressful on the inverter than opening a relay or contactor on the load side.

Kent Osterberg
Blue Mountain Solar


On 7/11/2023 5:19 PM, Mac Lewis via RE-wrenches wrote:


Hello Wrenches,



I'm trying to solve an issue with an older Outback FX system.  It's a quad 
stack of Outback 3648 FX inverters and he has a couple of Fortress eVault and 
an unreliable generator. The LBCO setting can't go high enough to cut out 
before the eVaults cut out so he occasionally will have to direct charge the 
eVault to get things running again.I'd like to use a 12V Aux relay logic to 
tri

Re: [RE-wrenches] active vs apparent power readings with solar

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

I’m not sure if I fully get what’s was going on or where he was measuring… all 
of the readings are low (below 1 kW) if he was messing at the meter after the 
household load has combined with the PV output, then this could make sense. The 
household loads could be using some apparent power, but the inverters are only 
putting out real power, so the PV is offsetting all the real power but there’s 
still some apparent power left, so the overall power factor is ridiculously low.

On the other hand, if all the loads are turned off and he’s really only 
measuring the PV output, then something wrong and I’d think it’s more likely 
that the measurements are wrong because I don’t see any way that the PV could 
put out such a bad power factor.

Here’s a hypothetical of what I mean in the first paragraph… if load A had a PF 
of 0.8, and it’s consuming 3 kW, then it’s apparent power is 3.75 kVA. If the 
PV is producing 2.8 kW at a PF of 1, then it’s producing 2.8 kVA. The net 
reading would then be 0.2 kW real power and 0.95 kVA. That’s a PF of 0.21.
If the PV increases to 2.9 kW, then the real power is 0.1 and apparent power is 
0.85 which is a power factor of 0.11

Hopefully this helps…

Thanks,
Kienan


Green-Go Solar Distribution LLC

Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)

maxfieldso...@hotmail.com

(801) 631-5584(Cell)

www.distribution.solar

On Apr 29, 2023, at 11:03 AM, Darryl Thayer via RE-wrenches 
 wrote:


Hi all, if the micros are not producing power I would expect an extremely low 
power factor.  The power factor of all inverters is low not in use.  Make sure 
electrician is measuring during production.  My measurements are extra low for 
micro inverters.

On Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 4:11 PM August Goers via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
Hi Wrenches,

We have a residential site with grid tied solar where there is an electrician 
involved who has gotten into taking site readings and thinks there is a power 
factor problem. My gut on it is that there is some sort of measurement reading 
error, and that the power factor should be around 1.

The electrician is using a Fluke 3540FC power monitor and has provided a 
spreadsheet comparing active power to apparent power and calculating power 
factor. See below (you might have to open the image and zoom in to read it). 
This measurement was taken with a PV system running, presumably sending some 
power back to the grid.  Note that the phase B active power measurement is 
negative (PV exporting to grid) and that the apparent power is positive. This 
nets in a power factor that is crazy low of 0.05.

Does anyone have experience about whether a meter like this can properly 
measure these readings - maybe there is a setting error or it can't deal with 
negative readings?




Best,

August
Luminalt
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Re: [RE-wrenches] Underground fault finder

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

Dave,

The Thumper creates a high current, high voltage discharge. It uses a massive 
capacitor bank that you connect to the conductors on one side. When it works 
correctly, it'll cause a massive arc blast at the location of the fault. 
Assuming the fault is underground, it'll cause a big thumping sound. One 
technician walks as close to where he heard the thump as he can guess, then the 
other tech fires a second thump. The walking tech then readjusts his location 
and so on until it seems that he's right above where the thumping sound is 
coming from. Once that's determined to the best of your ability, you mark that 
spot and dig there. The wires will be all melted at that location. All the 
wires in that conduit will need to be spliced.

The thumper can be used for overhead lines too. You want to make sure that the 
fault isn't in an equipment room... the results might not be pleasant. You also 
want to make sure that all of the wires are isolated on both sides of the run.

I think that the TDR is a cooler tool (time domain reflectometer)... it'll give 
you an estimated distance (in terms of feet of wire) to the fault location. 
These two tools are actually best used together... use the TDR, and if it says 
the fault is 100 feet away, and you have a 200 foot run, then you'd know to 
position your tech as close as you can to the 100 foot mark, then use the 
thumper, and you can more quickly determine the exact location to dig. If the 
TDR says that the fault is at 200', and you only have a 200' run, then you know 
that it might be more risky to use the thumper, and you can go to the far side 
of the run and try to find the fault from that side.

I don't have the hands-on experience with either of these tools, but I've read 
a lot about them. The TDR should be able to detect most faults including a 
complete sheering of the line. It works by sending a pulse and reading the 
capacitive and inductive reflections. Whenever there is a splice, a short 
circuit, or an open circuit, it will send back a reflection and each different 
type of issue has a different type of reflection. The primary fault that it may 
not be able to see is a high resistance short circuit (like insulation 
breakdown or like a high Ω IRT), so it may not help find an intermittent ground 
fault.

Thanks,
Kienan




Green-Go Solar Distribution LLC

Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)

maxfieldso...@hotmail.com

(801) 631-5584(Cell)

distribution.solar


From: RE-wrenches  on behalf of 
Drake Chamberlin via RE-wrenches 
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2023 4:04 PM
To: RE-wrenches 
Cc: drake.chamber...@redwoodalliance.org 
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Underground fault finder


The thumper sounds like the one to use, but what does it destroy? Does it 
induce a much higher voltage on the line than regular line voltage? We are 
dealing with open circuit problems.

We can return to our original plan of digging up areas and checking for voltage 
on the lines with a voltage sensor.

Thanks,

Drake


Drake Chamberlin

Athens Electric LLC

Ohio Electrical Contractor’s License 44810

CO Master Electrician’s License 4526

NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional

---



On 2023-04-18 12:04, Brian Mehalic via RE-wrenches wrote:

Not sure about rental sources in your area, but there are two options:

1) An underground cable fault locator, aka a "thumper," which only works on 
direct buried cables. It is a destructive test (at the fault location), and 
should only be performed when there is a known fault in order to locate it. It 
requires "walking" the cable run with a sensing device to hear the "thump" 
generated by the high current/high voltage induced on the line.

2) A time domain reflectometer (TDR), which is sort of like radar in that low 
energy signals are reflected by changes in cable impedance; it is 
non-destructive, but also not as accurate in terms of the location (providing a 
cable length to the fault, rather than a "thump" at the actual fault location) 
and typically cannot see higher resistance (≈>200 MΩ) faults that the thumper 
can.

Brian Mehalic
NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installation Professional™ R031508-59
National Electrical Code® CMP-4 Member
(520) 204-6639

Solar Energy International
http://www.solarenergy.org


On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 8:27 AM Matt Sherald via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
Hi Drake,

I've rented a set-up from my electrical supply house.  I'd check to see if 
Scott Electric/Advantage Rental serves your part of Ohio.

If memory serves, it is two pieces of equipment that you need.  One to trace 
the line and a second to find the fault.

-Matt

On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 11:20 AM Drake Chamberlin via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
I understand that there is a tool that locates underground faults in
buried cables. No one in our area has one. There are high tech cable

Re: [RE-wrenches] HomeGrid Battery Experience

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

Howie,

I don't have experience with HomeGrid, but I have a well respected friend 
(Jason Lerner) who loves them.

I have had awesome experiences with Fortress, and I have been looking for a 
chance to try HomeGrid as well. I think the stack idea is really cool!!

I know that this is extremely nit-picky... The only thing I've seen so far that 
I don't like about HomeGrid is that they use 15 cells in series instead of the 
standard 16 cells. This just means that the voltages will be lower than what 
I'm used to, and amperage will be a little higher. It's not a big deal, 
everything will still work great, but I like the higher voltage of a 16 cell 
bank. I just have all the numbers memorized for a 16 cell battery bank, and 
while you should always double check the manufacturer's instructions, it's nice 
to know off the top of your head if the numbers are appoximately correct.

When Fortress released their new inverterter that's essentially the same as the 
Solark (comes from the same factory), Solark got mad and they pushed out a new 
non-voluntary firmware update that broke the Modbus communication with 
Fortress. People didn't even know that the Firmware had changed. All they knew 
is that suddenly, their system wasn't working and it was shutting down 
randomly. It worked one day, didn't work the next. Fortress made a new firmware 
to communicate with Solark via canbus instead, so everything is working great 
again now. I don't know if Solark is finished with their vendeta against 
Fortress, but if Solark figures out a way to cause trouble again, then anyone 
with a Fortress-Solark combo could experience a coms disruption again... I 
really don't believe this was an accident on Solark's part. So, I guess what 
I'm trying to say is that Solark isn't mad at HomeGrid right now, so that might 
be a better bet. I personally don't use Solark. I'm leary of a company who 
pushes out Firmware updates that break things.

One question, does HomeGrid officially support combining new batteries with old 
batteries? Fortress does not, they say in their documentation that you 
shouldn't mix different ages of batteries together. I could be wrong, but my 
understanding is that it should actually be fine, but the SOC will be different 
on the different ages of batteries... particularly when the batteries are 
between 30% and 80%. They'll be more tight with eachother near the top and the 
bottom of their ranges, but they'll drift in the middle. So I think it's fine 
to mix them like that, but I'm wondering if HomeGrid specifically says it's 
okay or if they specifically say not to do it?

Thanks,
Kienan


Green-Go Solar Distribution LLC

Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)

maxfieldso...@hotmail.com

(801) 631-5584(Cell)

distribution.solar


From: RE-wrenches  on behalf of 
Howie Michaelson via RE-wrenches 
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2023 3:03 PM
To: RE-wrenches 
Cc: Howie Michaelson 
Subject: [RE-wrenches] HomeGrid Battery Experience

Hi All,
I am looking to upgrade an offgrid client's battery bank from 2-volt Rolls 
KS17s to LiFePO4 batteries.  I'm basically looking at one Fortress eVault Max 
cabinet vs. a HomeGrid 4 stack option.  I have used the eVault Maxs before, and 
generally like them.  The 2 options are relatively equivalent cost and size.  
The advantage of the eVault is that I've used them with good success several 
times, and they have a better listed warranty (6,000 cycles vs. 4,000, slightly 
more favorable end of life capacity retention).  The reason I am considering 
the HomeGrid is because the promise of more incremental increases if that 
becomes a need (4.8 kWh blocks vs. 18.5 kWh) and the promised ease of adding up 
to another 4 blocks with apparently little or no effort compared to the need 
for a whole other large battery connection.  These will be matched up to an 
existing Sol-Ark 12k inverter. If anyone has any experience with the HomeGrid 
(positive or negative), or experience with both brands, I'd love to hear any 
feedback.  I hate installing equipment I haven't used before! 😕
Thanks,
Howie
Howie Michaelson
Sun Catcher
NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™
[https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1MQF8aTcFNnBR59ia5JAm1DsPHCxzNkPx&export=download]
Solar Electric Systems Sales & Service
802-272-0004
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Re: [RE-wrenches] replace part of rolls battery bank

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

Here’s my two cents,

If you do end up putting in two new batteries, and you leave everything wired 
the way it is, you’d better really watch the rest of the batteries that are in 
that string. The new batteries will have a lower internal resistance, so the 
two strings that are all old batteries will have a lower current. This means 
they charge much more slowly, and the one string that has the two new batteries 
in it will charge much more quickly. This increased current in the one string 
often results in overheating of the weakest  cells that are in the same string 
with the new cells. While charging, the old batteries that are in the same 
string as the new batteries will have a higher voltage because of this internal 
resistance.

The worst cells will get the hottest, then the heat will cause the internal 
resistance to increase, which will cause more heat. The batteries can seem good 
at first, but after a little while, this cycle can get dangerous. The last time 
that one of my clients tried this maneuver of replacing two “bad” L16s in the 
bank of otherwise “good” L16s, the plastic started melting and I believe it was 
close to a catastrophe.

Unless you’re running a laboratory experiment, I strongly recommend never 
mixing all the new batteries. Make sure you are fully aware of the hazards, do 
you know what to expect in terms of internal resistance is changing the 
charging characteristics.

Best of luck,
Kienan


Green-Go Solar Distribution LLC

Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)

maxfieldso...@hotmail.com

(801) 631-5584(Cell)

www.distribution.solar

On Apr 5, 2023, at 7:34 PM, frenergy via RE-wrenches 
 wrote:



Wrenches,

I feel compelled to chime in here.  Ten years ago, we installed 24, 
Rolls 2-KS-33P, 2 volt batteries for the shop.  Though they were in a 
climate-controlled environment and maybe went to 50% SOC a dozen times over 10 
years, usually ranged 75-100% SOC, we had the first failure just before 7 year 
warranty ended.  Unfortunately soon after there were two more failures we had 
to pay for, then most recently 2-3 more were very difficult to maintain good 
SGs and were sagging more in voltage when loaded. We tried several EQs and then 
deep discharges and hard and long re-charges to try and de-sulphate without 
luck.  So we recently replaced the pack.  We know how to care for FLA 
batteries, been doing so since the 80's.

I'm not faulting Rolls/Surrette, Steve Higgins tried to help, maybe 
I should take some responsibility but the reason I am sharing this bad 
experience (I was expecting 15++ years from this kind of battery) is at some 
point after installation I checked the date codes and found there were 5, count 
them FIVE different dates, one or two of which were more than a year old when 
purchased. Ouch.  Another expensive lesson learned.  Hopefully Rolls has a 
better handle now-a-days on their post manufacture supply chain.  Do you think 
the different distributors that sent their "back-in-the-corner" unclaimed 
2-KS-33p's to my distributor to make up my pack had their 2V chargers floating 
the batteries all that time? me neither.

Moral of the story: Check date codes on that big beautiful pack of 
lead you're ready to load onto the truck. I'm now making it clear to our 
distributor that I won't be loading batteries on my truck unless dates codes 
match, which they did on the replacement SimpliPHI's.

Bill

Feather River Solar Electric
Bill Battagin, Owner
4291 Nelson St.(shipping)
5575 Genesee Rd. (USPS, UPS)
Taylorsville, CA 95983
530.284.1925 Office/ 530.258.1641 Cell
CA Lic 874049
Solar powered since 1982

On 4/4/2023 4:42 PM, Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar via RE-wrenches wrote:
Hurts my head !  Agree that you will have more trips to this house after the 
next one. This is most likely not going to get you 2 more years. All of the 
wiring is good, clean, and tight?  Who really knows how long it could last? 
Probably fine thru summer and fall.

Much better with the next L16 size up and 24 (2V) cells. Lot's of capacity 
choices there from Rolls and others.

Almost Cheers time !



Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar
"we go where powerlines don't"
http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
e-mail  offgridso...@sti.net
text 209 813 0060


On 2023-04-04 4:21 pm, Ray Walters via RE-wrenches wrote:

So the 24 batteries are actually 72 individual cells that are trying to charge 
equally, with essentially no BMS.  Its not just max strings, but max # of 
cells, and that's double my maximum.

You mentioned they use it pretty hard, so that's the other big part of how long 
L16s will last.  If the customer is barely using the available capacity, I've 
seen batteries last closer to 10 years, but in this case, I think the remaining 
cells are close to finished. I'm into using batteries for as long as possible 
as well, but customer and installer suffering come i

Re: [RE-wrenches] Fortress Battery Heater

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

I've wanted to find a thermostat that could handle DC Voltage for a while now, 
but I haven't done the research. What I've wanted to do is to tap right off the 
PV input, through a thermostat, into a simple resistive heater. That way, it 
won't drain the battery to warm the array. If the resistive heater is designed 
for 120V AC, then it should work pretty well with 3 60 cell modules in series. 
I'd want to actually do the math with the Voc and Vmp and temperatures before 
suggesting an actual design, but shooting from the hip, If you have 5 or 6 
modules in series, then just wire 2 heating pads in series. If you have 10 to 
12 modules in series, just put 3 heating pads in series. You get the gist. I 
think the only difficult part to really figure out is the thermostat. I don't 
know if anyone makes a thermostat that would work with the DC voltage. 
Otherwise, you'd need a DC relay or contactor, but then you'd need a source for 
the control voltage...

Anyways, just some food for thought. If anyone has ideas about a high voltage 
DC thermostat, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks,
Kienan


Green-Go Solar Distribution LLC
Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)
maxfieldso...@hotmail.com
(801) 631-5584 (Cell)

From: RE-wrenches  on behalf of 
Chris Schaefer via RE-wrenches 
Sent: Thursday, February 9, 2023 11:01 AM
To: RE-wrenches 
Cc: Chris Schaefer 
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Fortress Battery Heater

Ray,

I'd suggest reaching out to the Fortress techie's as they just introduced a 
heater product for their enclosure products. While I don't believe they have a 
unit specif to the eVault but you should be able to make it work.

Christopher

On Wed, Feb 8, 2023 at 6:43 PM Jerry Shafer via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
Pet heater have worked for me, I air gap a sealed heater box under the battery, 
thermostat inside the top of the battery.  It's slow and low power but does the 
trick
Fun times

On Wed, Feb 8, 2023, 3:05 PM Ray Walters via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
Hi All;

I have a fresh Fortress Evault installation with a Solark inverter.  The
batteries are indoors in the center of the house, but the customer is
not there full time, so the battery is unfortunately going below
freezing.  What are the best options for setting up a heating system for
the E Vault?

Here are ideas that I have not tried, but am considering:
1) add a 240 v, 1000 w baseboard heater in the room near the battery
that is wired to only run off the generator.  Run the generator until
the heat comes up, and then hopefully after 30 minutes, the battery
would begin accepting a charge.

2) Add an 120 vac heating blanket under the evault that would be wired
to a thermostat, but also have a relay control from the PV system, so
that the heater would only operate when the sun was out, and the battery
was below 50F.   I don't quite know how to set this up with the Solark's
load controls.

I've considered some DC options, but they don't make much sense, since
the inverter has to be on to charge from PV anyway.

The long term plan is for the client to finish the insulation, and sheet
rock, and add a gas wall heater in there as needed.

Thanks,

Ray Walters
Remote Solar
in the Colorado mountain cold.

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--

Chris Schaefer’s
[http://www.solarandwindfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Solar-Wind-FX-Logo.png]
Tel/Fax 585-229-2083 or Cell 585-748-1870
5115 South Hill Road ~ Canandaigua New York 14424
www.solarandwindfx.com

Re: [RE-wrenches] Remote battery disconnects

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

Hello all,

I have been an off-grid specialist for 12 years now, and I have never seen or 
heard of a charge controller blowing itself up when it was disconnected from 
the battery while it was in steady state. What I mean is that if it's in bulk 
mode, or absorb mode, or float mode, and the battery disconnect is suddenly 
opened, nothing has ever happened. And this actually has happened a lot of 
times in my career. Most of my clients have a DIY attitude, so if they think 
something is wrong, they'll start flipping breakers off randomly until they 
have shut everything down in order to "reset" the system, and then they turn it 
all back on, and if the problem persists, they feel like they've tried 
something, so then they call. I've had helpers who just can't remember which 
breaker to shut off first. Since I've never seen or heard of an actual case 
where this happened, I don't worry about it to much.

I have seen something similar blow up an Outback FM80 once. The charge 
controller was 7 years old at the time. I was watching the whole time. The 
system was shut down when we arrived, then the PV breaker was turned on, then 
the battery breaker was turned on momentarily, then the battery breaker was 
shut back off. The charge controller went into the startup procedure, and it 
went to sweep the IV curve, and as it did, it was pumping all that power into 
it's capacitors and it had nowhere to go. I watched the voltage on the screen 
skyrocket and then it suddenly burned out with a small pop. The charge 
controller was stuck in the startup, and it wasn't able to stop producing 
current. If the battery breaker had been left on while it stabilized, then it 
was shut off, it would have been fine. So if you turn on the system, don't 
suddenly trip the disconnect until it has been on for a minute.

Also, inverters have capacitors that are much, much, much larger than the 
capacitors in the charge controller, so when a main battery disconnect is 
thrown and the charge controller is connected to an inverter

Now, I completely avoid cheap charge controllers (Amazon charge controllers, 
etc.). I don't touch them with a 10 foot pole. I have seen so many DIYers 
reject my advice, install a cheap one, and have it burn up within a couple of 
years or less. I wouldn't be surprised if suddenly disconnecting the battery 
would be a likely cause of failure in these cases.

Also, with any quality brand, if this somehow did happen, they'll still honor 
it under their warranty, and this will be a rare occurrence.

William said that SolArk can't handle having the breaker thrown while it's 
charging the battery, so there are definitely exceptions. I've never used 
SolArk, but with everything else I've heard about them, I'm really not too 
surprised. I'm not faulting SolArk, and I'm not a SolArk hater, I just know 
that their hands are somewhat bound by the real manufacturer who is in China. 
SolArk only has limited control of their product. But as boB from MidNite 
pointed out, it all equipment can and should be designed with this in mind. 
Fuses will blow, breakers will get tripped, and any quality manufacturer is 
going to take that into consideration. They can take the low road and simply 
plan on replacing some under warranty, or the can engineer the product to 
withstand it.

One last note about codes, there are some codes that I hate and try to avoid, 
but I also personally know 2 or 3 of the people on the code panels. There are 
some people on the code panels who are not kind to our industry, but there are 
a couple of people on those panels who really are our advocates. If someone is 
on the code panel, they are actually limited in how they can suggest new 
changes to the codes, they can only promote public inputs that are submitted by 
people like us, so even if it feels like a waist of time, it really is 
important that we all submit our ideas and thoughts through the official 
pathways so that our advocates who really want to promote our best interests 
have something they can leverage for us. To those here who do help with the 
codes and help to advocate for us, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Thanks,
Kienan


Green-Go Solar Distribution LLC
Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)
maxfieldso...@hotmail.com
(801) 631-5584(Cell)

From: RE-wrenches  on behalf of 
bob--- via RE-wrenches 
Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2023 8:06 PM
To: RE-wrenches 
Cc: b...@midnitesolar.com 
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Remote battery disconnects


 SPDs or (MOVs) on the PV input side of a charge controller are not wired to 
snub excessive PV voltage.

They are wired from PV+ to GND and the other from PV- to GND and only the two 
in series, at double the
MOV clamp voltage would have any effect on clamping the PV+/PV- voltage.
SPDs are wired to keep the charge controller's insulation system to below the 
Hi-Pot voltage the unit is
tested with.  i.e.  They are wired for common-mode and not differential.  

Re: [RE-wrenches] VillaGrid Lithium Titanium Batteries

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

Howie,

I have never heard about them, but I am interested. If you get any more 
information, I'd love to hear about it. Do they do 48V batteries? or an AC ESS?

Are there spec sheets available?

I've been able to find very little information about them.

Thanks,
Kienan

Green-Go Solar Distribution LLC
Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)
maxfieldso...@hotmail.com
(801) 631-5584 (Cell)

From: RE-wrenches  on behalf of 
Howie Michaelson via RE-wrenches 
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2023 7:00 PM
To: RE-wrenches 
Cc: Howie Michaelson 
Subject: [RE-wrenches] VillaGrid Lithium Titanium Batteries

Has anyone had any experience with the VillaGrid Lithium Titanium batteries?  
They are supposedly usable in below zero temperatures, which of course the LFP 
batteries are not.  They also apparently have a 20 year 10,000 cycle warranty 
(not that I really put much stock in being able to exercise a warranty even 15 
years out). They are doing their own distribution at this point, but the sales 
person wouldn't tell me pricing until I sat in on a more formal presentation, 
which tells me I'm not going to be overly thrilled with the price point.  They 
are very new on the market, but just thought I'd ask.
Thanks,
Howie
Howie Michaelson
Sun Catcher
NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™
[https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1MQF8aTcFNnBR59ia5JAm1DsPHCxzNkPx&export=download]
Solar Electric Systems Sales & Service
802-272-0004
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Re: [RE-wrenches] Low Frequency transformer off-grid inverter options

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

Mac,

Victron would work quite well as well. The biggest drawback is that they don't 
have a single unit for 120/240, but stacking two units works great and they 
have been really good for surge capacity in my opinion.

I admit that I am biased. I've been using Victron for 6 years, and 3 years ago. 
About 3 years ago, I switched away from Outback and Schneider and started 
primarily using Victron. When I did, my equipment failure rate plummeted. In my 
own experience, Victron has been significantly more reliable, so I've become a 
real Victron advocate. Obviously, the other brands do have some advantages. 
Outback's online platform (optics RE) is the best for making it easy to adjust 
settings remotely from any device like your phone. Contact me off-list if you 
are interested in Victron, and I'll give you a lot more info about Victron.

Thanks,
Kienan Maxfield


Green-Go Solar Distribution LLC
Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)
maxfieldso...@hotmail.com
(801) 631-5584 (Cell)

From: RE-wrenches  on behalf of Mac 
Lewis via RE-wrenches 
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2023 9:20 AM
To: RE-wrenches 
Cc: Mac Lewis 
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Low Frequency transformer off-grid inverter options

Fully appreciate everyone's input.

The Midnite Rosie sounds interesting for sure.  Midnite is a great company with 
great support.  Smart people answer the phone and that really counts for a lot.

How are you getting your hands on these?  I can't seem to find much info, no 
spec sheets etc.  None of my vendors have them and Midnite is estimating Apr 
2023 as the release date.



On Sat, Jan 14, 2023 at 8:34 AM William Bryce via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
I run the XW6848 in my shop. When running my CNC plasma table the XW will 
shutdown due to exceeding its output rating if it is a long cut on metal when 
the 4HP compressor kicks on.
I also have a Midnite Solar Rosey, both are connected to the same battery so 
it's an equal comparison. The Rosy inverter will surge right through and finish 
the job, the XW is not in  the same league when comparing surge capability.

 A bonus is that the Rosey is really quiet as it does not have that big heavy 
transformer making noise under heavy load. It is easy to install as it is not 
as heavy. So far it's a game changer in regards to inverter hardware that I 
have tested.

On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 9:54 PM Chris Sparadeo via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
I have a client with a large woodworking shop…cabinet table saw, large 20” 240V 
bench planer, chop saws, compressors and a vacuum system. A single Sol Ark 15K 
takes care of these loads flawlessly. It seems that that inductive load snag 
with the smaller models has been resolved with the 15K.

Best,

Chris

On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 7:34 PM Glenn Burt via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
According to a seminar I just attended, the new Midnite Solar Rosie will...

-Glenn
Sent from my 'smart'phone, so please excuse typos and spelling errors.

-- Original message--
From: Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar via RE-wrenches
Date: Fri, Jan 13, 2023 3:55 PM
To: RE-wrenches;
Cc: Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar;
Subject:Re: [RE-wrenches] Low Frequency transformer off-grid inverter options

There is not anything I know of that will out surge XW pro 6948. A great 
monitoring platform and much better support/installer training in the last 18 
months. Perfect for a shop with unknown peak surges.



Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar
"we go where powerlines don't"
http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
e-mail  offgridso...@sti.net
text 209 813 0060


On 2023-01-13 11:57 am, Jay via RE-wrenches wrote:


Hi Mac

The radian is low voltage transformer
Based. Has hella surge capacity

I would consider what web based monitoring system he wants and go with that 
platform.

Regardless of system I'd install soft start/vfd on the larger units. Just 
easier on everything.

The solark 12 doesn't seem to be good for larger loads and doesn't do out of 
balance well, and limited to 6kw per phase. The new 15 might be better, not 
sure. Numerous YouTube videos showing side by side vs XW and radian. Both run 
stuff over their rating which the SolA won't run even though its under its 
rating.

Good luck

Jay








On Jan 13, 2023, at 11:34 AM, Mac Lewis via RE-wrenches > 
wrote:

Hello Wrenches,

I have a new client that has ran a pretty decent wood shop for about 10 years 
on a Magnum 4448.  He's got some large loads, planers, saws, compressors 
vacuums etc.  They are really nice, heavy duty pieces of equipment.  Amazingly, 
the Magnum has been able to start these loads for the most part for 10 years, 
but he has reported that it has gotten worse lately (could be a load issue), 
brown outs, dimming etc

He wants to upgrade 

Re: [RE-wrenches] Fortress Battery Problems

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

Ray,

I'm curious if your Fortress system is doing better now. Fortress used to do 
their support using a platform that was open to the public. It allowed anyone 
who wanted to see what they had suggested to other people. I've seen them 
recommend a one-time charge of up to 56V to get everything in sync. When 
charging above the normal charge voltage, it's advisable to use a low current.

As far as the master/slave configureation... the batteries don't control how 
much they discharge/recharge. They shut themselves off for certain protective 
reasons, and they balance themselves when they're above a certain voltage, but 
other than that, they don't have any control. The master/slave is for 
communication and safety purposes only.

Thanks,
Kienan


Green-Go Solar Distribution LLC
Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)
maxfieldso...@hotmail.com
(801) 631-5584 (Cell)

From: RE-wrenches  on behalf of Ray 
Walters via RE-wrenches 
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2022 1:14 PM
To: re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org 
Cc: Ray Walters 
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Fortress Battery Problems


I finally heard back from Fortress, I'm going to try their suggestion of 
"equalizing" the batteries at 55.5 v, and adjust some settings.  I'll report 
back to the list on what I come up with.  This is an interesting application: 
quad stack of VFX inverters with Midnite CCs.   Using the aux out on the 
Classic to control a relay to turn on/off the inverters for LVD, since Outback 
programming (like Schneider) won't allow LVD settings above 48v.

Ray

On 11/16/2022 12:40 PM, Chris Sparadeo via RE-wrenches wrote:
Hi Ray,

I would suggest pushing the latest firmware update to both units.

https://www.fortresspower.com/firmware/

re: tech support…

I have had good luck speaking directly to Tom:

Thomas Honey
Fortress Power
Applications Engineering
(215) 613-4318 x4318
t...@fortresspower.com

I agree that Fortress’ Discord, online ticketing system and phone support are 
subpar. Call me old school, but an answered phone call when on-site is a must 
have feature of any manufacturer.

Hope this helps,

-Chris

On Wed, Nov 16, 2022 at 2:20 PM Howie Michaelson via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
Hi Ray,
I have been having a difficult time communicating with Fortress as well.  I 
filed a support ticket several times and only got a response a couple of days 
later asking another question that was easily answered, but then do not receive 
any reply to that without filing another support ticket, which again takes days 
for them to respond to.  Very unsatisfactory and frustrating after having 
invested in 7 eVault Max for a long time client. Don't have any suggestions for 
you.
Howie Michaelson
Sun Catcher
NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™
[https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1MQF8aTcFNnBR59ia5JAm1DsPHCxzNkPx&export=download]
Solar Electric Systems Sales & Service
802-272-0004


On Wed, Nov 16, 2022 at 2:02 PM Ray Walters via RE-wrenches 
mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>> 
wrote:
Greetings Fellow Wrenches;

Based on glowing reports from the RE list, I finally used Fortress for a
battery replacement for a long time customer. Overall, it seems to be a
better solution than others I've seen. However, we are having issues.
First the two batteries are supposed to be linked together in a master/
slave configuration, but they charge and discharge unevenly, and have
SOC often 20% different.   Batteries are connected to a common buss with
equal length 4/0 cables.

I've been truly disappointed with Fortress customer support. First, I've
called multiple times over the past two weeks, and never got through to
anyone.  Their online support system is quite flawed as well, and I had
a very difficult time even setting up a support ticket.  Now I can't
even log in to view the support ticket, and I've only received one email
back asking if I had properly paralleled the batteries.

Has anyone else had a hard time with Fortress support?  Does anyone have
a direct contact?  Customer is beyond pissed now, after almost 2 weeks
hearing nothing, and having spent tens of thousands.

Thanks;

Ray Walters
Remote Solar

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Re: [RE-wrenches] Fortress Battery Problems

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

Hey all, I really like Fortress and I’ve had amazingly good experiences with 
their support. I have had 3 different interactions with Fortress technical 
support. They’ve supported me very very well. They don’t have a good phone 
number for me to call, but I fill out an online ticket and then the appropriate 
support agent calls me. Sure, occasionally I’m in a place with no internet, but 
then, there’s probably no cell phone coverage either.

Overall, their technical support was the most helpful team I’ve ever 
experienced. Outback Power has some really awesome techs (like Lones Tuss) but 
when you have to deal with the low level techs (which is most of the time), 
it’s pretty bad. I haven’t had good experiences with Schneider tech support or 
MidNite tech support. I’ve dealt with many other companies, and I felt like 
Fortress had the best tech support I’ve had to deal with.

Cheers,
Kienan

Green-Go Solar Distribution LLC
Maxfield Solar LLC (installation and consulting company)
maxfieldso...@hotmail.com
(801) 631-5584 (Cell)



On Dec 12, 2022, at 9:10 AM, Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar via RE-wrenches 
 wrote:



Fortress has been great for me/and my clients and they have webinars all the 
time.Not sure why you guy's are not going to them?

Below is one this week.

-

Thank you for registering for "Holly Jolly Webinar 2022".

Join Fortress Power West Coast Sales Director, Alex Lepore, for a festive and 
informational Holly Jolly Webinar! This webinar will discuss the following 
topics:
- Battery overview
- Supply challenges and product availability
- Fortress Power in 2023 and beyond

Please send your questions, comments and feedback to: 
sa...@fortresspower.com




Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar
"we go where powerlines don't"
http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
e-mail  offgridso...@sti.net
text 209 813 0060


On 2022-12-11 10:20 pm, Roland - RES via RE-wrenches wrote:

Aloha Jeremy,

I would like to join this call.

We have numerous Fortress systems installed.

Sent from a IPhone, with touch screen keys on the fly. Please excuse shortcuts 
and typos.

Roland Shackelford
NABCEP CERTIFIED PV INSTALLER
President
Renewable Energy Services (RES), Inc.
Mobile:  808-938-9239
www.renewablenergy.com

On Dec 1, 2022, at 1:22 PM, Jeremy Coxon via RE-wrenches 
 wrote:

HI Wrenches,

A couple of weeks ago this thread came up - main topic was lack of tech support 
from Fortress.  A few days later I was contacted by Marc Zeitlin, Fortress's
Regional sales manager Midwest.  We haven't used Fortress yet, but I basically 
reiterated the concerns that were expressed on this thread and said that I'd be 
interested once they had their Tech support issues ironed out.  To my surprise 
Marc really took that feedback and ran with it all the way up to offering me 
and those of you that are interested a call with their CEO and anyone else we 
would like to talk to.  I offered to send this note to the list and invite you 
all to join the call.  I would think we'd want to keep the numbers manageable, 
but we can figure that out.

I don't have a horse in the race and have no association with Fortress, but I 
thought it might be a really good opportunity for those of you that have more 
experience with Fortress to get a direct line with their CEO and main tech 
folks so that we can hopefully improve things for all.  Marc has proposed 
Thursday January 5th at 10am.  Let me know directly at 
jco...@sunwindpowerinc.com if you're 
interested and I'll pass your name along so they can get this set up.

Best Regards,
Jeremy Coxon NABCEP # 091308-21
MWBE Certified

<2022 Logo Blue Tagline 2x no phone - small.jpg>
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There are two

Re: [RE-wrenches] Optics will not accept remote programming

[Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches]

I've seen something similar if there was a firmware mismatch... the mate3s had 
a newer firmware and the inverters had an older firmware. As was stated before, 
make sure that everything has the latest firmware.

Otherwise, I wouldn't know where to go after that.

Cheers,
Kienan


Maxfield Solar
maxfieldso...@hotmail.com
(801) 631-5584 (Cell)

From: RE-wrenches  on behalf of 
William Miller via RE-wrenches 
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2022 2:13 PM
To: RE-wrenches 
Cc: William Miller 
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Optics will not accept remote programming


Friends:



I installed a Radian AC coupled system a few months ago.  We are trying to dial 
it in to work with a Blue Planet battery system.



I cannot make any adjustments remotely through Optics.  Once in a while if I 
reset the gateway I can change one setting, but rarely does it succeed.  The 
little wheel turns for a couple of minutes and then I get a failure dialog box.



I was told to power cycle the Mate.  This did not solve the problem.



Has anyone else experienced this?



Thanks for any input.



William



Miller Solar

17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422

805-438-5600

www.millersolar.com

CA Lic. 773985




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