Commissioning Conext XW Pro

I'm trying to commission an off-grid system consisting of 2 Schneider Conext XW Pros with a power distribution panel and 2 60-150 Conext charge controllers. I've been having all sorts of problems but I think I've narrowed it down to one of the XWs. It will only try to start, then shutdown and restart in a cycle of about 15 seconds. Has anyone experienced this type of behavior?

I have the panels and charge controllers working to charge the batteries so we're good there. I just can't commission the thing because every time the XW shuts down, it restarts the Gateway.

I've unwired everything so I only have the battery supplying voltage (52-54 volts) to the misbehaving unit and a ground. The other XW seems to do what it's supposed to - turn on and go into Standby so you can commission it.

I'm thinking there is something wrong with the XW but need to prove it or figure something out. Schneider solar support is totally worthless - they responded by email a week ago (at 2 am) and told me I should wire it as in the installation manual - gee, I never thought of that. Of course they don't have a phone number or you might call and bother them. Obviously I'm frustrated at this point.

I do understand your frustration.

I only have my one XW-Pro and it did power up just fine on just battery connection. Is this a brand new unit or did it have some configuration done before it started doing this?

On my second day of having the XW export power to the grid, it actually popped the breaker going into the main panel at the moment the "Sell Block Start" time happened. When I found it a few hours later, I just reset the breaker, it "qualified" the AC input, but as soon as the relay clicked in, about 15 seconds, the breaker tripped again. The inverter output was not in use at the time, and was not running, but I manually enabled the inverter, and it did fire up on the batteries. And then when I closed the breaker, after the qualifying, it all worked again. I have not had that issue since.

If you use the wall power supply to run the gateway, and plug in the Xanbus, can you see the XW on the network?

Have you tried holding in both the "Power" and "Equalize" buttons? This does a force to standby. Does it ever show an error code like an F## on the led?

Any chance you know the password to get into the "Grid Codes" menu?

Thanks for the reply - these are pretty complicated, right?

I think I'm coming to the point with Schneider that they agree there is something wrong with one of the XW units. They are brand new units and I have been trying to commission them for over a month now but it's not working. The site is off-grid about 4 hours away so I can't just go out and try something when I want to. It takes forever to resolve warranty issues because there are always days between email responses.

The problem has always been that when I supply power from the batteries, one of the units tries to start - the fan starts and it appears to be trying to start but then immediately shuts off and starts the cycle again. The Gateway is hooked through the Xanbus system so it resets when this unit shuts down so I can't make any adjustments but I'm not it would matter. I measured the DC voltage inside the XW and it is getting power that doesn't cycle but it's still unhappy.

When I rewired the system so that only the good XW is attached, it behaved just fine. I had to reset the good unit to factory settings because it still thought there was another unit (F66 error) and once I did that it was fairly easy. I can see everything on the Gateway and put things in Standby and do whatever I want. As you know, all of these steps are easy to write about but they all involve many hours of thinking about it, figuring out how to do it, and then doing it. There's also the problem of going nuts after 6 or 8 hours and creating more problems than you solve - it's time to go home and try again another day!

I believe I have used the wall power on the Gateway (I've done so many things I forget) but the problem is that the misbehaving XW is only on for a second and then goes away. I will try the Power and Equalize thing but right now I'm focused on a replacement unit. I've come down to the conclusion that if I supply the XW unit with 48 volts (actually 54) it should fire up and be ready to be setup.

I have a SW unit at the site now and it's run for 3 years with no problems at all. I was thinking about getting rid of that system and moving everything to the dual XW system but now I might still run the small garage/living space with the SW and run the larger home that's being completed on the XW system.

I'll let you know how things go. I've heading to the site this weekend to get some photos of the nameplate (the one thing I forgot) and hopefully Schneider will quickly send me a replacement unit and it will all fire up like it's supposed to.

I just have a single XW6848, and it is a little tricky to start up. It seems to randomly go from Standby to the display with horizontal lines, as I press the power and equalize buttons. I do get it to work eventually.

I finally got Schneider to agree that there is something wrong with one of the XWs and I should get the replacement tomorrow. It wasn't easy - it took 2 months and I've probably sent 20 or 30 emails and had at least that many phone conversations with the distributor. I'm hoping that once I install it this weekend, it will just turn on and do what it's supposed to like the other one. Of course getting the old one off the wall and putting up the new one will be an adventure - it weighs about 150 lbs.

Glad to hear Schneider is finally sending you a new unit. My brother and I got mine up on the wall, but we really should have had a third person. It is a heavy beast with no good way to hold onto it and align it with the wall plate. The terminals sticking out of the bottom are also a bit of a pain. We almost tried putting it up with the conduit box on the bottom, but I was worried it might bend it when we stood it up. As it was, two of the plastic feet they ship it with broke as we tried to get it in position for the lift. If I have to put another one up, or take mine down, I am going to make a stand for it out of 2x4 lumber about 3 feet off the floor, and notches to clear the bottom connections. Lifting from there will be a lot easier than from the floor. And mine is also a bit higher up the wall since I had to put my load panel under it.

They are heavy suckers. I have the XW Pro as well. I had as similar issue when I was setting up my generator. I had the Low Battery Cut Out set too low (I thought it would kick on the generator.) Wife wasn't happy when she was left in the dark until I figured out what was going on.

As an update, I think I've got the XW system working well now. The only issue we had recently was that the Gateway stopped communicating with the cloud so we needed to get a replacement. I signed up as an installer with Schneider and received a different contact phone number and the difference is night and day. I can get help immediately and was able to get a replacement within 2 weeks, which is pretty good. I've been messing with the generator to make sure it goes on and off at the right time but it all seems to work well.

I was thinking of replacing the SW system we have for the original smaller living space/garage with the recently installed XWs but now I've decided to keep them both. The SW system has worked so well for 4 years that I want to keep it - I also probably wouldn't get that much for it.

Anyway, I'm very happy with things right now but that doesn't mean there won't be issues. But we'll figure them out and move on.

All of my functional complaints on the XW-Pro are because I am running all of my solar as AC coupled. The engineers at Schneider seem to think you MUST have some DC coupled solar to make it work. Your setup with the Conext charge controllers should work great.

It is a bit annoying that some of the setup values are not used as entered. The Schneider engineers decided to build in some offsets. It would be nice if they explained that better in the manual. After 4 months, I think I have it figured out here, but it still fails in fully AC coupled on grid without daily intervention. I think I am getting close with my PLC microcontroller to do the daily adjustments to keep my battery bank charging and time shifting power. It is a shame they can't fix it in the software. Well more likely, they see no incentive. They just tell me to add their charge controller and lose some microinverters.

I think the inverter manufacturers are missing the boat, especially in California where high rates makes solar and batteries have a better payback. I love my Outback Skybox but have similar frustrations with some details.

I did once have a reservation on a Tesla Powerwall but the DIYer in me just could not justify the extra expense. I am glad i found this forum.

Thanks for all the tips! I'm waiting on the equipment to arrive. First time installing an XW Pro.
Great idea to sign up w/ Schenider as an installer - I'm doing that.