Sunshine and Bluegrass

[Tecnodave]

Hotrod

Schneider is a huge company and is hard to navigate. I have searched their website for documentation, sometimes for hours and have found engineering documents hidden in there that I was told do not exist by their support staff. It's worth the search effort. You won't find much in the huge trove in the main repository but you need to navigate down to the solar division as Schneider has not yet fully incorporated Xantrex into the company. I poked mr d.a. With a question? "Can I use three XW+ inverters in a three phase arrangement, my power is commercial 240 volt delta hi-leg three phase, 200 amp service" His answer...."Yes you can, the inverters need to be connected for 120 volts, it's in the manual"...........

[Hotrod]

I was never expecting anything for free. I commented about how I perceived his comments. I accused him of being condescending and argumentative. I never said anything about his expertise. I'm sure he is a fine resource. Judging by his posts he is an expert on this equipment as he does consulting for it. And I have no doubt that he is one of the best. But, like I said, I already made the accusations in a knee-jerk post. The tone of that relationship has already been set. I'll just move on

[Tecnodave]

Exactly what I do not like about Schneider , lack of documentation, maybe a B-17 will come by!

[Mike90250]

Is his name Dave Angelini?

Yes. Good, but does not give away specifics for free

[J.P.M.]

I ran into Mr. Angelini on the Northern Arizona Wind and Sun Solar Forum. I've read a lot of his posts. I left that forum to come here because I may have alluded to him being condescending and argumentative in tone. Not sure I would be high on his list of people to help. Oh well, sometimes we burn bridges unintentionally. Anyway, moving on.

Opinions vary. Not defending him. but I thought Dave was a pretty straight shooter with a good head, even if I don't agree with everything he writes. I also think he's a lot kinder than he needs to be sometimes, at least a lot kinder than you'll find here sometimes.

[Hotrod]

I ran into Mr. Angelini on the Northern Arizona Wind and Sun Solar Forum. I've read a lot of his posts. I left that forum to come here because I may have alluded to him being condescending and argumentative in tone. Not sure I would be high on his list of people to help. Oh well, sometimes we burn bridges unintentionally. Anyway, moving on.

[Hotrod]

The documentation I have:
Conext MPPT 80 600 Solar Charge Controller Installation Guide 975-0540-01-01 Rev E May 2015 and Owners Guide 975-0560-01-01 Rev F May 2015
Conext XW+ Inverter/Charger Installation Guide 975-0239-01-01 Rev L May 2015 and Owners Guide 975-0240-01-01 Rev G April 2016

They do not provide the level of detail I'm looking for.

[Hotrod]

Is his name Dave Angelini?

[Mike90250]

> The combox needs little documentation, it merely reflects commands produced by all the gear. Look in the appendix manuals for the controllers and inverters, each command is detailed there.

So, aside from knowing the gear needs all different addresses and proper terminations, not having stacked inverters, I'm out of ideas. What about the dealer - are they of any help ?

I've a friend in California that may be able to do a phone consult for a fee, you'd have to email him as much data about your system and settings as possible to save the clock ticking away $$.. Do you have any internet connection for the combox he could remote into ?

[Hotrod]

Thanks for the welcome!

Q: Does your combox show the 2 XW's at different addresses?
A: Yes. The master XW (1) is registered at modbus address 10, the slave is at modbus address 11.

Q: The 2 charge controllers?
A: The CCs are set as 1 & 2 and have modbus addresses 170 and 171 respectively

Q: Are the termination plugs in place at each end of the Xanbus?
A: Yes

"You may need help understanding the terminology if you are not an electrician , these are not all DYI gear." Good point. I guess I should have introduced myself instead of just my equipment.

I grew up working in the shallow oil fields of western Kentucky. I started working as a roughneck on service rigs about 13-14yo. That was over 30 years ago and I'm not sure how old I was but I remember the lessons. The #1 lesson I learned was money came from sweat. Work or starve. #2 was either you learned to do it yourself or you pay that precious money you earned to somebody else to do the job. So I learned to do everything. The quintessential jack of all trades. Your standard issue DIYer.
I still live on the 47 acres I grew up on. I just built a new house behind the old farmhouse I grew up in. The house is super efficient and I would love to tell anybody about it if interested, but this is a solar forum so I will abstain unless provoked. We are very remote. Closest neighbor is nearly half a mile as the crow flies. We also have a 5 acre lake on the back of the property and its piped to the yard for water to was cars and gardens or whatever.
I left the paradise in '99 to join the military for what I expected to be a short stint in the infantry just to get the angst out of me. I fell in love with the regimentation and the lack of decision making on my part. After growing up in a family business where "we" made all the decisions, it was actually liberating in a way to not have to decide, but simply execute directions. I was too old to compete with the younger guys. I was 29 when I joined and I got injured, several times. Eventually I found myself on a permenement profile. That's when I reclassed to Prime Power. United States Army Corp of Engineers only active duty unit directly under the control of USACE and not parceled out to any brigades. Our mission was commercial quality electrical service. Everything from generation down to plugging in the officers coffee pot. Our minimum deployment was 3.6MW. The school was 1 year long. 36 college credits, taught in a real classroom, by real professors, (unusual in the military world). All the core classes for a degree in electro-mechanical engineering. Taught in 16 weeks. Sink or swim. We lost a bunch of folks pretty quickly, but that was the point. Our mission was to be able to design, install, operate, and maintain grid quality power in combat operations 24/7. I spent 8 years with Corp doing that. I then spent another 3 years as a private contractor doing the same thing. And now I'm at home doing the same thing. I designed and installed a solar instead of diesel powered micro grid at my house. Now I'm operating and maintaining it. I can get pretty technical. I would love to have manuals and documentation that went into more detail about setting interactions and the reasons for it.

So there ya go. That's me. Hello again!

Jason

[Mike90250]

Does your combox show the 2 XW's at different addresses ? The 2 charge controllers ? Are the termination plugs in place at each end of the Xanbus ? If the 2 terminators are not placed properly the system will never function well.

The combox needs little documentation, it merely reflects commands produced by all the gear. Look in the appendix manuals for the controllers and inverters, each command is detailed there. You may need help understanding the terminology if you are not an electrician , these are not all DYI gear. Your equipment vendor should be able to help you too.

[SunEagle]

Hello Hotrod and welcome to Solar Panel Talk

Glad you joined. I am sure other members will be happy to help you with your questions.

[Hotrod]

Hey everybody! Proud owner of 2 Schneider Conext XW+ 6848s, 2 Conext MPPT 80 600 Solar Charge Controllers, a Conext System Control Panel (which i installed on the master 6848, the slave 6848 and the alone inline, and it has never worked), a Conext Combox, 40-335w Canadian Solar panels, and one 24-85-27 refurbished forklift battery. I finished installing all of it about a month ago. Learning a lot about FLA batteries. Learning a lot about Schneiders lack of documentation for the Combox interface. I can manipulate the Grid Support Voltage and that somehow dictates how much the system will put out. If I set the voltage to above 64v as recommended in the user manual, the system clips the panels to ~5kW. If I drop it to 49.5v it cranks out ~9kW. I have a lot to learn. I know this system will do what I want, I just have to figure out what it wants me to tell it. I look forward to learning from some of you. I've learned a lot already in the last few days just reading through the forum. Thanks to all who share.

Jason