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diy solar

Quality vs China MPPT?

"Not being able to program a device is a deal killer for me, That is a must. I have heard the same issue from other users of the “blue box Victron devices” that are made in China and India by Guangsfaun."
Isn't the fake Victron product?
diysolarforum.com

Fangpusun makes counterfeit Victron, Outback & others

Blatant copies of Victron, Outback & other well know names - https://www.fangpusun.com/
diysolarforum.com diysolarforum.com
 
That is the problem with Fangspusn, some years ago Outback outsourced the build of the Outback MPPT SCC to Fangspaun, once Fangspaun has finished the production run, Immediately they begin to produce the units with their own name on them undercutting Outback with Fangspusn clones, Now Victron has made the very same mistake, but even worse, these units were designed by Victron but they never built them. That was left to Fangspusn.

Have you ever had a problem with tech support from Victron or Fangspaun? What tech support? Maybe if you bought it from a reputable dealer.

From what I have seen I don't want them, Why? I have Midnight....
 
BMcL said:
I would have preferred if Midnite Solar made a Classic that would handle higher voltage so I could save on wiring.
But their philosophy is higher voltages create higher losses because of heat generated.
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The voltage issue could be debated till the end of time.
 
JimmyL said:
I'm sure they didn't debate and actually tested many scenarios.
JimmyL said:
I'm sure they didn't debate and actually tested many scenarios.
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The mathamatical equations to determine losses will fit on one page. A few hours to program a mathcad file and any scenario can be calculated in a short instant. These days it makes little sense to do much testing other than a few points to make sure your model is accurate. A very accurate model of semiconductor junction temperature is also possible even under dynamic conditions. That is a few days of work and about 5 pages of Mathcad :)
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Tecnodave said:
Midnight does test all products for quite a while before releasing it to the public
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Lot's of compliance testing to make sure the widget meets the spec - It's the only way to do it. I did industrial 3 phase inverters for a long time. We developed a stress test rig that beat the crap out of the inverters as a compliance test before they even got out of engineering. We normally did a 2 hour burn in at full load once in production. Pulled the power off the line through the inverter and right back on the line. As a young engineer I had my share of blown up units. After a while it was a rare event to blow up any transistors.
 
JimmyL said:
I'm sure they didn't debate and actually tested many scenarios.
Click to expand...
I was referring to the particular balance that can be found between distance and voltage. That could spur endless debates. It is more efficient to move higher voltage, but may be less efficient to convert that back to a workable battery voltage. Another question could be, what is the best battery voltage. There really isn't even a point to debate with this problem. A simple set of calculations could probably converge on the best overall system topology.
 
I think that I can say for sure that a brand new MPPT SCC is coming soon now from Midnight Solar. Named the Barcelona, it will be capable of higher voltage strings than the Classic 150 , 200 , & 250 products available right now.


Information is from top brass at Midnight Solar. The new products page at Midnight is under construction right now so I can not get exact information on the details right now, The B-17 inverter has been in development for over 5 years now and now is in field beta test stage right now.
 
This is a snap of a brand new (then) Midnight Kid controller running flat out in bulk mode equilizing a large format L-16 bank 426 a.h. This was one of the first pre-production prototype Kid controllers built. Im the first outside the company to field test the beta Kid. I was told not to baby them, I have a forever warranty as a beta tester, I spanked my Kid’s, both of them, They are still working fine many years on now...yeah, they got hot, that chemically blackened , cast aluminum case is an excellent radiator of heat, The OVR light on these can be excess heat, current, temp, etc. the light is on as I am pushing the 30 amp limit to the max. The temp was 145 F. or so. This was an all day test.....
 

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Tecnodave said:
This is a snap of a brand new (then) Midnight Kid controller running flat out in bulk mode equilizing a large format L-16 bank 426 a.h. This was one of the first pre-production prototype Kid controllers built. Im the first outside the company to field test the beta Kid. I was told not to baby them, I have a forever warranty as a beta tester, I spanked my Kid’s, both of them, They are still working fine many years on now...yeah, they got hot, that chemically blackened , cast aluminum case is an excellent radiator of heat, The OVR light on these can be excess heat, current, temp, etc. the light is on as I am pushing the 30 amp limit to the max. The temp was 145 F. or so. This was an all day test.....
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My solar equipment is in a 20 foot shipping container running North South. Its fine for part of the day but the afternoon sun beats down an entire side heating it up quite badly. It may only be 37 degrees outside but inside is much worse. The classic has been in there since 2012 with 3kw of panels on it. The same can be said for my SMA inverter.
 
I am also using shipping containers for shop space, Ive been using a reflective white coating on the containers to reduce heating. There are quite a few brands out there, the one that I use reflects 95% of the heat,

Brand Name......Metacryllic there were 3 grades of this product, It rollers on easily and really works well, 5 gallon pail was about $250-260 for the highest grade, dropped the temps inside 40-50 deg. F on a hot day well worth the cost and time
 
Tecnodave said:
I am also using shipping containers for shop space, Ive been using a reflective white coating on the containers to reduce heating. There are quite a few brands out there, the one that I use reflects 95% of the heat,

Brand Name......Metacryllic there were 3 grades of this product, It rollers on easily and really works well, 5 gallon pail was about $250-260 for the highest grade, dropped the temps inside 40-50 deg. F on a hot day well worth the cost and time
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Yes i was about to paint the west side and also use some left over insulation BUT we have just sold the house. Back to the city and grid for me :(
 
A.Justice said:
In my experience, cheap Chinese stuff generally works just fine.
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I think the 'KID' in the Midnight Kid solar CC comes from what most of us would have to mortgage to buy one of them!
Most Chinese stuff can do with a little tinkering to make them better. Something that a diy community may find even more appealing.
 
Hello,

I'm new to this forum and this is also the first time I've put up a system with solar panels.

I have an EAsun SMX II 5.6kW AIO ( SRNE HF4850S80-H rebranded ) connected to Solar Assistant (more info in my signature).
The behavior I will describe below is visible on the EAsun screen and also in Solar Assistant.

I have a string of 8 Jinko 415WC panels (STC values) :
  • Voc = 8 x 37.92 = 303.36V
  • Vmp = 8 x 31,32 = 250,48V
  • Imp = 13.25A
MPPT input voltage range 120~450 VDC.

As this is my first experience I wonder if the behavior of my MPPT tracker is normal ?

In low light the MPPT tracker scans the voltage from high to low (90V) continuously and stabilizes only when it receives 0.9A from the PV string.

During this scan the low power coming from the PV is not lost but the production is in sawtooth...

Is this normal behavior ?

Thanks for your feedback

04_PVCurrent - MPPT and low light.png
04_PVVolt - MPPT and low light.png
04_PVPow - MPPT and low light.png
04_BatPow - MPPT and low light.png
04_BatCurrent - MPPT and low light.png
04_BatVolt - MPPT and low light.png
 
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Am I reading your graphs correctly? Are you getting a max of 300 watts (roughly 1 amp) from your 3,300 watt array?
If so, something is wrong.
Are all the panels wired in series? Are they all facing the same direction at the same angle? Any shading?

You should start a new thread. Adding to the end of this unrelated thread isn't going to get much attention.
 
Yes it is correct but in low light conditions:
  • the panels are connected in series
  • they are all facing the same way to the east on a 15° roof (almost flat, so very bad for winter)
  • no shade but no sun either
  • in winter when it is sunny, it can be seen from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. max
They have been installed for 20 days and the maximum I have had is 600W

Do you still think it's abnormal?

I can start a new topic if you find it abnormal. Basically I just wanted to know if it was normal for my MPPT not to stabilize on a point with less than 0.9A coming from the PV.
 
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I think it's your panels, not necessarily the MPPT. Start a new thread, something is wrong.

I've got panels at a 20° tilt, facing due east.
They make at least 1/2 of nameplate in the winter.

Also, include your general location when you start a new post. Latitude (sun angle) will make a difference in production, especially when compared to your shallow panel angle.
 
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