Hey guys,

Do any of you know where I can find an Outback support technician? Need to upgrade the firmware on my FlexMax 60.

Edited August 10, 20206 yr by tetrasection

As far as I know that is a send in job.

13 hours ago, phil.g00 said:

As far as I know that is a send in job.

Do you know what company?

AFAIK you have to send the units back to Outback. There is an Outback forum on the web, probably the best place to ask.

I have Outback's myself (FM 60's and 80's), but they do what I need them to do so I haven't touched them.

20 minutes ago, phil.g00 said:

AFAIK you have to send the units back to Outback. There is an Outback forum on the web, probably the best place to ask.

I have Outback's myself (FM 60's and 80's), but they do what I need them to do so I haven't touched them.

I'm getting very high voltages, up to 62.7V if I check the maxvolt in the history. Seems to happen on very sunny days when I apply a load which drops the voltage enough to force it back into bulk mode, then when I remove the load it jumps all the way to 62V (just for a few seconds) before dropping down to absorb voltage again. Do you ever experience this voltage overshoot?

I scrapped one unit that was given to me, because it didn't respect the voltage settings and over-volted the battery bank. I am not talking momentarily, I am saying it charged at the wrong voltage constantly. Momentary voltage spikes on LA batteries in the order of what 6 or 7V wouldn't bother me, although I can say I've seen them, but I haven't really looked.

I don't think Outbacks are suited to Lithiums really.

Coincidentally, I was just discussing DC voltage spikes on another thread, and how they can be a result of inertia in the feedback loops in response to step changes in load say. The MPPT may also be paralleled with other equipment, just because it is presenting the measurement doesn't mean it's the culprit either.

But by momentary that's what I mean, not multiple minutes.

Perhaps, list your settings here, there maybe something that jumps out. - BTW do you have temp. compensation?

39 minutes ago, phil.g00 said:

I scrapped one unit that was given to me, because it didn't respect the voltage settings and over-volted the battery bank. I am not talking momentarily, I am saying it charged at the wrong voltage constantly. Momentary voltage spikes on LA batteries in the order of what 6 or 7V wouldn't bother me, although I can say I've seen them, but I haven't really looked.

I don't think Outbacks are suited to Lithiums really.

Coincidentally, I was just discussing DC voltage spikes on another thread, and how they can be a result of inertia in the feedback loops in response to step changes in load say. The MPPT may also be paralleled with other equipment, just because it is presenting the measurement doesn't mean it's the culprit either.

But by momentary that's what I mean, not multiple minutes.

Perhaps, list your settings here, there maybe something that jumps out. - BTW do you have temp. compensation?

Yeah I have temperature compensation. Got 8x 200AH gel batteries (only a few weeks old) and the max I get from my panels is just under 2000W. Besides freaking me out and making me worried about my batteries getting cooked, another side effect of this voltage surge is that it triggers my inverter's over-voltage protection which cuts the power, then after a few seconds when the voltage stabilizes again it turns back on. Very irritating and potentially harmful to my appliances.

My absorb is set to 56.8V and float to 54.8V.

Mppt Mode is set to Auto Track, Mpp Range Limit is Min 1/2 Max 90%, Absorb Time is 6 hours, Absorb End Amps is 7A (Battery Manufacturer recommends 4A but I added more to compensate for constant loads), Rebulk voltage is 48.8V, Vbatt Calibration is 0V, RTS Compensation I limited to 57.2V and 52.8V, Auto ReStart is on MODE 0 (disabled).

They look alright to me, equalize is off right?

 

2 hours ago, phil.g00 said:

They look alright to me, equalize is off right?

 

Yup. What is your max daily voltage when you check your history?

My system is atypical, I actually use voltages quite a bit differently than most as I have an offgrid system and a grid tie system on the same bank along with ac coupling.

My Outback charging is set slightly higher than I need to charge the batteries, and my Victron will not  let the voltages rise, this forces power to be exported and my MPPT's work all day long into the battery and loads. The Victron's export function keeps the voltage down at proper charging levels.

I don't see high voltages, at least not because of the outbacks. Before I had the present arrangement though, (barring the faulty Outback I spoke about), they all behaved though. I see high voltages during load -shedding until the other Victron system shuts down the PV inverters, but that's not the outbacks' fault.

 

1 hour ago, phil.g00 said:

My system is atypical, I actually use voltages quite a bit differently than most as I have an offgrid system and a grid tie system on the same bank along with ac coupling.

My Outback charging is set slightly higher than I need to charge the batteries, and my Victron will not  let the voltages rise, this forces power to be exported and my MPPT's work all day long into the battery and loads. The Victron's export function keeps the voltage down at proper charging levels.

I don't see high voltages, at least not because of the outbacks. Before I had the present arrangement though, (barring the faulty Outback I spoke about), they all behaved though. I see high voltages during load -shedding until the other Victron system shuts down the PV inverters, but that's not the outbacks' fault.

 

Sounds complicated! Anyways, thanks for trying to help! I have opened a support ticket with the Outback people in the US. Hopefully they have a guy here in SA, else I'll have to buy a new charge controller...

Edited August 11, 20206 yr by tetrasection

Our office has a unused outback inverter in the server room and wired in to the DB we would like to get it up and running with batteries. Are there any technicians here who work on them in the Sandton area? Thanks