Suggestion 12000XP and Generator Switching

I don’t think it’s a AC to DC problem for the inverter. After installation I was hooked up to the grid for a couple weeks. The inverter had no problem charging the batteries and switching back and forth. No brownout everything switched in milliseconds. Just my two cents 

Posted by: @pawnee

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I don’t think it’s a AC to DC problem for the inverter. After installation I was hooked up to the grid for a couple weeks. The inverter had no problem charging the batteries and switching back and forth. No brownout everything switched in milliseconds. Just my two cents 

I'm working with SS support thru email also and have provided him/ her (the techs name is Dakota so could be either) with a link to this thread. So I'm going to restate the issue, let me know if this is what y'all are observing also. 

1. I have a 10KW generator and have gen charging set to 60 amps, I have 2 inverters so that 120 amps and Gen Boost set to on. 

2. Begin set point for gen charging is reached the inverter switches the loads to gen and begins charging the battery at once. This causes a brownout because the gen cannot accommodate going from 0-100% like that. This will be the same for any gen, they don't like going from idle to full load, it takes time to stabilize. 

3. Once stabile, powering the loads and charging the battery everything is fine. Gen boost works the way it should adjusting the load between charging and loads. 

4. Finish charging set point is reached the inverter stops charging, opens the dry contacts, then waits for voltage drop before switching to EPS causing the blackout condition. The inverter waiting for the voltage to drop is evident by watching the voltage drop on a meter and watching your lights dim as the gen winds down. 

I have observed switching from EPS to Gen is seamless if there isn't a full load being placed on the gen at the same time. I also observed a seamless switch from Gen to EPS when the BMS forbid charging while the gen was running, when the switch was made under this condition it was seamless. This tells me it is possible but the firmware sequence needs to be adjusted. 

@wardo5757 Item #2 is also an excellent reason to include programmable Gen warmup and cooldown cycles.

An interesting thing about this is that I believe the 18K has a gen cool down capability so the 18K appears to be able to switch from AC supply to DC supply without an issue, yet we still see 18K's experiencing the brown/black outs.

@wardo5757 @joel-brodeur @pawnee 

We are currently looking into this issue.

Do you all have Generator Boost Enabled?

@joel-brodeur completely agree, a brief warm-up 15 seconds would be great along with a 1.5-2 minute cool-down. 

The 18K having a cool-down period and still experiencing blackout is interesting. To me, that suggest the inverter is cutting the input before switching and waiting for the UPS to detect voltage drop before switching to EPS? 

@Eric I did. Dakota asked me to turn it off, I did and this made the gen start easier but had no affect with the gen finish.

@eric I do not have Gen boost enabled.

What I was trying to say is that while the inverter is being powered by the generator the inverter is converting AC/Gen to DC/battery charging and then when charging is complete it has to immediately switch to inverting DC/Bat to AC/loads. Or does it have both an inverter and converter?

@ron 

I would say both. Mine completes charge and switches to the batteries. You don’t notice anything. Then it switches back to Gen and after a period of time kills the gen while it’s powering everything. Then has to try and get to the batteries. That’s when the brownout happens. If it just switched to the batteries then did a cooldown and shut off there wouldn’t be a problem. 

Posted by: @joel-brodeur

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@wardo5757 Item #2 is also an excellent reason to include programmable Gen warmup and cooldown cycles.

An interesting thing about this is that I believe the 18K has a gen cool down capability so the 18K appears to be able to switch from AC supply to DC supply without an issue, yet we still see 18K's experiencing the brown/black outs.

 

Eric ask me about my settings on that but I’ve never seen it. Is that only on the monitoring site? My is not on there.

@joel-brodeur Have you tried enabling Generator Boost?

@wardo5757 Understood! 

I'm trying to gather as much information as possible. Thank you for being patient and for understanding!

@eric I have never had Gen Boost enabled.

As a follow up, it is now going to get difficult for me to perform further tests for a while.  We have started getting sun again and my solar will typically keep me charged for the 7 to 8 months without generator.  If we can come up with something and can run an occasional test but it will involve shutting down my solar and waiting a few days for the batteries to get low enough to be able to cycle the gen (minimally a day or 2).  

JB

@eric any update Eric?  Are y’all able to recreate our issue in the lab?