Schneider XW Pro commission

[400bird]

Can you explain what happens when the XW shuts down? There should be an alarm/warning logged, if the inverter was unhappy with something.

 

[waterflea]

It doesn't really shutdown, it just reverts back to where it was before the amperage starts to climb. I'll try to explain the sequence of events.
Generator is running. (at this point in time all this is done manually) Input breakers to the AC2 Gen terminals are turned on. AC2 lights on inverters
start blinking. Inverters think for a few seconds. Amperage begins to climb on both inverters until they reach about 60-70A. Inverters revert back to AC2 lights blinking and the whole process starts over again. Schneider TS (who I don't have a lot of faith in) thinks the voltage from the generator is too high and the inverters time out.

 

[400bird]

Simplify first.
Try a single inverter and slowly ramp up the charge current.

Open up insight local and check to see why the inverter disqualified.

 

[waterflea]

When working with Schneider TS, he had me put the slave inverter in standby and just try the master. Nothing really happened. The generator was running but the inverter wouldn't ramp up and cutout like before. It just wouldn't accept the incoming charge from the generator at all, where as
before it would run up to 60-70 amps and drop back to normal operating mode.
During the night the system reached it's cutoff point of 50 volts and shut down completely. So this morning after jumping through hoops to get one of the six batteries to come off protection mode, they are all taking a charge from a remote battery charger run off my generator. Set at about
10 amps, I'm not sure how long it will take to get batteries charges up. Would it be safe and advisable to up that amperage?
I don't think I can get into InsightHome to check and tweak these settings until batteries are charged and system is running again.
Thanks for your time and patience.

 

[BentleyJ]

The 60 to 70Amps value is presumably from the Inverter display(s) and is charge amps going to the batteries. So are you saying BOTH inverters are trying to charge at 60+amps or is that each inverter indicates 30 to 35A and you are doubling it since there are 2 inverters?

60Amps at 56V = 3,360W

The Honda generator is rated at 5,500W max continuous output which translates to 98A at 56V.
With 2 inverters, each would only be able to support <48A of charge current in the best case scenario.

While Honda is considered a good product, it is not a Prime rated generator and really shouldn't be run at the max continuously.
Lastly, considering the price of the Honda generator, why is the voltage regulation so bad?

 

[400bird]

When working with Schneider TS, he had me put the slave inverter in standby and just try the master. Nothing really happened. The generator was running but the inverter wouldn't ramp up and cutout like before. It just wouldn't accept the incoming charge from the generator at all, where as
before it would run up to 60-70 amps and drop back to normal operating mode.

Odd, can you post all your settings?

During the night the system reached it's cutoff point of 50 volts and shut down completely.

Ouch, what a bummer. Sorry to hear that.

So this morning after jumping through hoops to get one of the six batteries to come off protection mode, they are all taking a charge from a remote battery charger run off my generator. Set at about
10 amps, I'm not sure how long it will take to get batteries charges up. Would it be safe and advisable to up that amperage?

I'm sure the batteries will be fine, the limiting factor is likely your charger.

I don't think I can get into InsightHome to check and tweak these settings until batteries are charged and system is running again.

You can power it from a wall wart or the XW in standby.

The 60 to 70Amps value is presumably from the Inverter display(s) and is charge amps going to the batteries. So are you saying BOTH inverters are trying to charge at 60+amps or is that each inverter indicates 30 to 35A and you are doubling it since there are 2 inverters?

60Amps at 56V = 3,360W

The Honda generator is rated at 5,500W max continuous output which translates to 98A at 56V.
With 2 inverters, each would only be able to support <48A of charge current in the best case scenario.

I wonder if the display lags behind actual charge current and while the highest displayed current was 60-70, maybe it got closer to 90 and the generator voltage started to sag. Then the inverter cut charging.

 

[waterflea]

What is the easiest way to post all the settings?

 

[400bird]

In your browser, open all the settings, print the entire page to a PDF

 

[waterflea]

learn something new everyday

 

[waterflea]

Sorry, this one has all the settings open

 

[400bird]

Can you remind me, do you have BMS communication between the Insight and battery?

Your high battery cut out is way too high, you should lower that to match your battery spec.

54 volts seems low for the bulk/absorb stuff, but that's it going the inverters/generator to drop qualifications.

Change the AC 2 breaker setting to 15-20 amps (as a test)
Do a reboot on the inverter (one of the selections near the top of the settings)
Then give the generator another try. You can try adjusting the generator breaker up in steps to see if you can find the point when the generator fails out of qualification.

I just remembered that while charging from the generator, all the AC loads are also supported by the generator, so that may have contributed to why it was overloaded and failed out the first time.
You can use the Generator Support settings to accommodate this, but the first set is to figure out how much continuous load the generator can do and keep the XW happy with AC quality, voltage, and frequency.

 

[waterflea]

I do have the Conext Battery Monitor system but the one they sent me would never connect with the InsightHome. They are sending me
a new one.
I think I posted these before but here are the Pytes battery specs that were sent to me.

 

[Gttnsun]

I agree your charge rate is most likely too high
The things that control generator charging is ac2 breaker size, and charge rate percentage, which is a charge rate of the breaker size,
There is also max bulk charge amps, and absorb max charge amps. I think the XW pro defaults to the lowest value of the charge rate or charge amps.
Charge rate percentage Is located in the battery settings for the xw pro.
Set Ac2 breaker to the size of your Honda generator(35 amps?)
Then set the charge rate to 20% and ramp up from there till you find the sweet spot.
Remember if you have heavy loads and are charging at the same time it can overload your generator, so setting the charge rate under max output of your generator leaves room for additional loads

 

[400bird]

Thanks for the reminder, I glanced back through the thread and didn't see it.

Raise your Bulk Termination Voltage setting to the spec sheet 56.2
Lower the High Battery Cutout to the spec sheet listed 56.5

Mtnsun has another good method (theirs is prob better) to get the system working.

 

[waterflea]

I tried lowering the specs for Bulk Termination and High Battery Cutout and when I hit apply they usually turn green when accepted. They turned red.

 

[400bird]

I tried lowering the specs for Bulk Termination and High Battery Cutout and when I hit apply they usually turn green when accepted. They turned red.

Try using the slider or a slightly different number.

But it doesn't appear related to your generator issue.

 

[Gttnsun]

In my experience when the fields turn red, it is because I entered a number that is not acceptable by mistake. Somewhere in the Manual it lists all the acceptable data ranges for each individual section.
Double check your numbers and if you are confident they are right then try again.
What where you changing the numbers to?

 

[waterflea]

Good advice 400bird, High Battery cutout was 65, tried to get to 56.6, lowest it will go is 58.
Bulk Termination Voltage is 54 and that is the highest it will go so 56.2 is not possible.
I'm about to give the generator a try with these new tweaks.

 

[waterflea]

So the good news is the inverters are staying on. The Master shows 27.5 amps and the Slave shows 27.9 amps. InsightHome shows
3.3kw coming from the generator.
Thoughts?

 

[400bird]

Good advice 400bird, High Battery cutout was 65, tried to get to 56.6, lowest it will go is 58.
Bulk Termination Voltage is 54 and that is the highest it will go so 56.2 is not possible.
I'm about to give the generator a try with these new tweaks.

I'm glad I suggested the sliders, I wasn't sure what the min/max in those was.

For the Bulk Termination Voltage, my XW is on 2.04 and that setting does not exist. I'm not sure what it did on that firmware version, but probably something similar to what I have available as "Bulk/Boost Voltage Set Point"
The range on this is 40-64 volts.

So the good news is the inverters are staying on. The Master shows 27.5 amps and the Slave shows 27.9 amps. InsightHome shows
3.3kw coming from the generator.
Thoughts?

Gold start! Keep playing until you get it working like you want.
Once you figure out how far you can push the inverter, I'd recommend trying generator support, to allow the XW to adjust charge current as loads change.