Hi guys

I would like to check the experience of other Axpert users. I have the MKS 5kVA unit running for a bit more than a month now and I see a lot of events logged. There's a huge amount of communication lost/restored messages (12 of them for today, now 13:30) but then there are also fan locked and output short circuited alarms. These seem to come in pairs, 5 each today. I also have 2 battery short alarms for today.

Is this something that other users are also seeing? I draw my data with WatchPower under the event log. My feeling is that it is not normal, I would like to get the experience from other users.

I have sent a screenshot of the alarms to the supplier who forwarded it to the distributor (Mecer/Mustek?) but I haven't received a reply from them.

Appreciate your feedback.

Cobus

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I've been running for about three months only one overload alarm to date 

Definitely not normal.

 

I have setup an application to dump data every 2 seconds to a file.

 

I've only been running for about 3 days now but so far the only flags I have is warning for power lost on utility and this was during testing.

I leave my PC on 5:30 am to 10pm and I get Line Fails as grid/gennie power go off and one or two communication lost/restore per day. Had two instances of fan locked and other alarms when the missus forgets that we are limited to 4000W.

What causes the fan locked error?

I have no idea, seems to happen randomly. Not even necessarily at high load. I have a laptop connected to it 24/7 so recording everything.

I got a reply from the supplier, they want me to send it to them to check out. Not do simple as then I have no power.

Funny thing is though that the inverter functions normally despite the alarms. Inverter never trips, everything seems to be fine except for the events. Wondering if I should take the chance and just run it to failure.

I got a reply from the supplier, they want me to send it to them to check out. Not do simple as then I have no power.

 

Sounds to me you are going to pull a Eskom trick on the wife and produce load-shedding blaming it all on Mr J Van Riebeeck. 

 

No option to plug back into Eskom?

Haha TTT, I think despite the risk my reliability of supply is still better than Eskom's.

 

Funny thing I noticed today, I checked the last 3 days and it seems to only happen while on grip power. Does that give any clues as to the cause?

 

C

Sorry, I see I just had a fan locked and output short circuited alarm while on solar only. So info above is not correct.

 

The fan locked and output short circuited alarms always occur in pairs, seconds apart. Battery short alarms are not linked to these two.

 

C

Maybe pull a load shed and have the unit replaced? 

I'm not sure what to make of the Axpert MPPT Solar charger. (The actual solar charger part not the complete unit).

 

Has it been working well for others. There are some of the Australian guys complaining about it.

 

But my guess would be the reason you see those two errors together:

 

The fan is powered by DC so a short would explain the fan locked error.

A short would cause the fan to stop rotating.

 

I'm wondering if the short is caused by the MPPT controller.

 

Does it happen with plenty of sun of low sun coverage, etc?

 

I would try a swap out before load shedding comes back in full swing...

 

Is it at all possible that your panels may cause a short condition?

Hi All,

 

I had the same issues until i changed the "Solar Balance" Setting to disabled. Not sure if this will work for everyone but it worked for me!

My guess is some false positives, I drive my unit really hard and have Zeo complaints other than a high overnight current drain under low loads, (some of this is Paowerfactor). I still wish I could get it to go into standby at around 50W or below. Otherwise, it's a very cost effective, versatile unit, just take some getting use-to.  Also, we tend to watch everything like a hawk when it's brand new, now it sits in the corner and as long as my beers are cold I'm happy  

  Also, we tend to watch everything like a hawk when it's brand new, now it sits in the corner and as long as my beers are cold I'm happy

 

Had to laugh Albo. Lack of creature comforts is a quick way to motivate a man  .

 

Happy with my unit. Today cooked lunch in the oven then set the oven up to bake bread and in the morning we did the washing and ironing and have about 2

Are you really running your oven off the inverter, maybe more than the smell of bread cooking ?

Oven only draws (2000W)

 

Are you really running your oven off the inverter, maybe more than the smell of bread cooking ?

Yep - Oven draws about 2000W.  Peak production today about 2.6kW with bit of cloud so there was a bit variation. Now 16h30 and SOC is 100% (on the Victron BM not the Axpert software). We first did a chicken casserole and roast vegetables and then turned up the thermostat and baked bread. Have 3kW of panels and do all our heavy duty usage during the day (ironing, washing and the dishwasher) . The rest of the house uses a negligible amount of power (LEDs Bosch fridge and AEG deep-freeze). We live in the Karoo every day is a solar day (.....well nearly).

.

 OK 2 kW is doable, I think my oven is 3Kw and with the Grill 4Kw   yeah, it's all about being creative and using every bit of spare energy and storing as much as possible.  I've built a Storage heater for the winter, works fairly well in sunny winter days.  I have another challenge, I want to build a Sunshine detector or a Cloud Detector, I don't want my pool pump coming on when its cloudy.  Basically, it wastes my batteries and the pool doesn

Just a thought. Why not use the SOC of the batteries, to switch the pump on/off.

 

If SOC is say 100%, pump will work.

If SOC is 98%, switch it off.

I have a couple of extra relay switches which are DC voltage activated (double shipment).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Voltage-control-relay-timer-delay-switch-overvoltage-under-voltage-protection-/171907321514?hash=item2806798eaa

R250

Good day all

I also need some advice regarding the Fan Locked warning on the Axpert 5KVA. All seemed to be working fine till this weekend. I replaced my batteries with new ones and after about half a day the Fan Locked warning [01] appeared and would not go away. At some stage utility charged the batteries and the fan came on and operated as it should, but I still have the [01] warning flashing.

Any idea how I might be able to "reset" the warning please?

My system at the moment: 1 x 5KVA Axpert, 3 x 305W Renesola solar panels and 4 x 200AHr Vision batteries.

I is not real errors. It is bad coding in Watchpower. Somtimes the inverter will send the wrong string at random. They do not cater for it. Now that I am using AICC I no longer get it. When I was developong AICC I also got it and then added the code to cater for it. You ask the inverter to send you the fault log and sometimes it sends you a values string and not the fault string. As luck would have it fan lock is at the position of the return string that has a 1 value. That is why it will give the error and then clear the error 1 second later when it gets a good string. 

Hi guys neex some assistance my fan continues to run in utility and from battery i have axpert 1kW is this the norm just got it today do t know anything about so just plugged running 2x110ahp batteries 

7 hours ago, Ashley said:

fan continues to run in utility and from battery i have axpert 1kW is this the norm

I don't know the small inverters at all, but the trend with the larger inverters is certainly to run the fans all the time. However, a lot of the time they are running at 30% PWM, which has them barely ticking over, and are quite quiet.

14 hours ago, Ashley said:

Hi guys neex some assistance my fan continues to run in utility and from battery i have axpert 1kW is this the norm just got it today do t know anything about so just plugged running 2x110ahp batteries 

I don't know the Axpert 1Kw but the fan keep running on other 1Kw and 2Kw units that I've worked with