Last panels going up today.

[EastTexCowboy]

They can take ages to balance that way though. And sometimes never do balance fully.

I charged the first six individually and after months they still swing a lot. One or two in particular. they get close on the low end but never charge the same. I'm inclined to check these as Tim suggested then let the solar charge them. If they're way off I can always unhook them and charge separately. At least I think that will work.

 

[timselectric]

I charged the first six individually and after months they still swing a lot. One or two in particular. they get close on the low end but never charge the same. I'm inclined to check these as Tim suggested then let the solar charge them. If they're way off I can always unhook them and charge separately. At least I think that will work.

A couple hours of float charge is a wonderful thing.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

Signature Solar came through and the batteries and rack I ordered yesterday arrived this afternoon. The freight company - meh. They called and said their liftgate was broken and could I unload it. Yep. Then the driver wouldn't come down my drive with the 53' trailer, even though there's plenty room to turn around. So I had to go out to the road and unload my stuff and haul it back to the house. No big deal, I've done it lots of times, just aggravating.


That was about 2:40 this afternoon. I put the wheels on the rack and swapped ends with the negative bus bar, then unpacked and loaded all the batteries into it. I tested all of them and they were at 52.6v to 52.7v. Got done with all that about 6:00. My butt is dragging. Taking a break then maybe I'll go back and build the cables and hook all this stuff up.



I learned on the first set so this time I used the apollo lift right out of the chute to get them moved off the pallet and into the rack relatively easily. Except for that bottom one. Gotta armstrong that one in. I put it on a furniture dolly which helped a little.



All in all a fairly productive afternoon.

 

[timselectric]

Very productive day.

 

[Bluedog225]

Looking good. Is this the rack with the rivnut problems?

 

[Gavin Stone]

Looking good. Is this the rack with the rivnut problems?

Looks like the tin plated copper bars. So no issues with those that I’ve seen.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

Looking good. Is this the rack with the rivnut problems?

They are the tin coated copper as Gavin mentioned, but they do have the press in rivnuts. I'm gonna torque them to the specs James mentioned in his video and we'll see how they do. It's going to be a PITA to drill holes and try to get a nut on the back. I guess I could drill holes and tap threads but that's never gonna hold in copper.

 

[JJJJ]

That is the one very impressive upgrade! Very nicely done!

 

[1201]

Nice work. I have a similar R type metal roof and debating S-5 vs. SignatureSolar's mini rails. What rib bracket did you use, original or one of the others. Looks as if a Rib Bracket and PVkit are $14-15 each, did you find a better price or have the prices gone up? $8 for Signature's 13" mini rail and clamp, though I like the S-5 four screw attach.

I have r panel too and I think I'm doing mini rail as it offers more adjustability

 

[EastTexCowboy]

Hooked everything up this morning and it's kicking butt, so that's good. I can't get SA to recognize the six new batteries. If I disconnect the new batteries it sees the original six just fine. I've double checked the dip switches but will check again. The pinout on the jumper cables are all standard ethernet so I used an ethernet cable from battery 6 to battery 7. When I connect it SA switches back to only seeing one battery. Anyone have experience with something like this? I'm thinking it's the dip switches but I guess it could be something else.

 

[JJJJ]

I'm thinking it's the dip switches but I guess it could be something else.

I don't own this technology, but it makes me think of the old computer days. In those days, it was sometimes necessary to make the second drive a "slave" to the master. If both are presenting to the system with the same ID...

Just my 2 cents. I'm sure someone has this answer. This is mainstream technology for many.

 

[timselectric]

Hooked everything up this morning and it's kicking butt, so that's good. I can't get SA to recognize the six new batteries. If I disconnect the new batteries it sees the original six just fine. I've double checked the dip switches but will check again. The pinout on the jumper cables are all standard ethernet so I used an ethernet cable from battery 6 to battery 7. When I connect it SA switches back to only seeing one battery. Anyone have experience with something like this? I'm thinking it's the dip switches but I guess it could be something else.

Just triple check the dip switches.
Maybe switch them the other way and back. Just to confirm.

 

[timselectric]

Have you selected the new ones in SA?

 

[EastTexCowboy]

Have you selected the new ones in SA?

I checked the dip switches again. They are correct by everything I have for documentation. Since the first six work I think the documentation is right.

What are you referring to on selecting the new ones in SA? I looked for some place to configure new batteries but I didn't see anything.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

Finally figured it out. It was, of course, a dip switch. I took a break and just mulled it around then went back and tested by just adding one battery - #7. Found it no problem. So I added 8 and 9. Still good. Added 10 and it lost the connection again. I must have looked at the settings for #10 (which is actually #11 on the list since you have to start with #2) five times. I must be a little dyslectic because I kept reading it wrong. Finally clicked so I changed it and now all 12 show up. Now if I could just get the second string of panels on inverter #2 to show up I'd be good.



The second string on inverter 2 is producing - it's just not showing up in SA. Here's an example - the PV going to the battery is 6513 and to the load is 850 but it's showing the total PV as 5399. It should be around 7300w. More annoying than anything else but it throws my charts off, which pisses me off a little. I emailed Pierre on Friday so hopefully I'll hear back from him next week. If not I'll ask Ian, but I hate to bother him when it's probably going to have to go back to Pierre anyway. Unless there's something hinky in the inverter itself.

 

[timselectric]

The second string on inverter 2 is producing - it's just not showing up in SA. Here's an example - the PV going to the battery is 6513 and to the load is 850 but it's showing the total PV as 5399. It should be around 7300w. More annoying than anything else but it throws my charts off, which pisses me off a little. I emailed Pierre on Friday so hopefully I'll hear back from him next week. If not I'll ask Ian, but I hate to bother him when it's probably going to have to go back to Pierre anyway. Unless there's something hinky in the inverter itself.

Disconnect and re connect SA. On the settings page.
That usually fixes it for me.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

Disconnect and re connect SA. On the settings page.
That usually fixes it for me.

I've done that at least a dozen times. Also rebooted both inverters when I had everything down this morning. No help.

 

[timselectric]

I can't think of anything else to try.
But I'll think on it.

 

[timselectric]

I assume that SA is seeing inverter 2?

 

[EastTexCowboy]

I assume that SA is seeing inverter 2?

Yep. And it's accepting power from PV 2 - I can see the amperage on the PV cable coming in with clamp meter. And it's delivering the power because the totals for load plus battery are in line. Head scratcher.

This was from Thursday before I added the new batteries but it's the same today.