Do C-40 controllers go bad?

7 Posts
Feb 19, 2009 08:16 am
Do C-40 controllers go bad?

I have a c-40 charge controller on my system that I bought used from a man foreclosing his house.  I installed the system at my house, and got the bugs worked out, and it has worked correctly for about 2 weeks.  In the past few days, it has been showing the battery volts to be 12.something.  But the problem is, it is a 24 volt system.  The batteries are brand new L16hc.  I checked the voltage on the screw terminals inside the controller, and they are reading 24v.  The panels are still producing, but the controller is showing 0 amps are produced each day.  I have double checked everything that I know to do: turned it all off for a while; turned on the DR charger; pressed all the buttons; etc. and it stillreads the same.  (It is not stuck on any particular number, going from 12.7 to 12.4)
 
My question is: can the controller suddenly go bad after working correctly for a few weeks?  No one has messed with the equipment besides myself.  Any tips are appreciated, thanks.

wasting daylight, rhett
 
33 Posts
Feb 20, 2009 04:45 pm
Re: Do C-40 controllers go bad?

Sounds like the voltage sensors that it uses to run the charge controller have gone bad. Have you checked fuse on it?
Have you checked connections? Did it take a static charge hit on solar panels?
 
7 Posts
Feb 20, 2009 08:29 pm
Re: Do C-40 controllers go bad?

Are you saying that there is a fuse in the c-40?  I have not seen one.  All other fuses are o.k.

Connections seem o.k., I've checked them twice.

What is 'a static charge hit', and how can I tell if it may have occurred?

Thanks for your time.
 
33 Posts
Feb 22, 2009 04:58 am
Re: Do C-40 controllers go bad?

Are you saying that there is a fuse in the c-40?  I have not seen one.  All other fuses are o.k.

Connections seem o.k., I've checked them twice.

What is 'a static charge hit', and how can I tell if it may have occurred?

Thanks for your time.

Ya I don't think there is a fuse in it either. But it does appear that the circuitry that determines voltage is messed up. Either the resister it uses to read voltage is burned out or the microprocessor that is reading through it is messed up.

Static charges can build up in high wind and low humidity conditions. We've had alot of very high wind and low humidity weather patterns this winter. Humidity is a natural charge diffusing agent between air and solids. Lack of it leads to charge build ups in solids.
IF you can find someone handy with electronics to pop the thing open look for the first 100k or really high K resister on the cicruit to the battery leads and test it. If it's ok then the microprocessor on it got fried. If not replacing that might fix it. The thing is reading half voltage so it might have 2 100k resistors in series to read voltage. One might be burned out causing your half readings. But depending on what voltages it works with you could have a gang of series and parallel resistors on the input side. That same circuitry is probably not allowing the panels to work because the microprocessor thinks the array never reaches a voltage high enough to begin charging the batteries.
 
7 Posts
Feb 22, 2009 07:58 am
Re: Do C-40 controllers go bad (IT IS FIXED)

After staring at the face plate for a long time, (and taking my wife's suggestion), I tinkered with the button that resets the amphours.  Turns out, the green plastic push button was stuck behind the metal cover, not letting the button 'un-press'.  Once I got it to pop, the battery voltage showed correctly, and there was barely enough sunlight left for it to register one tenth of an amphour before the system shut down for the night.  I guess that I have been too excited every morning when I reset the button to see what It will make every day.  I bought a clip board to hang on the wall last night to keep a little log.  Like most things, I guess it works better the less that you touch it.

Thanks Mr. Winters for your input, luckily I did not need to follow your technical advice. 

Basking in the sun again,
rhett
 
220 Posts
Feb 22, 2009 01:10 pm
Re: Do C-40 controllers go bad?


 mr. fouraker,

  thanks for sharing your little adventure with that c- series controller. it's nice to hear of a happy ending to a problem. have to keep that one in mind when working with that controller...you can't be the only one this has happened to. and kudos on that logbook, a year from now you will have a full seasonal cycle for the records. the only trouble i see now is that your wife now has bragging rights to being the house solar system expert!! good luck on that sir!

 best regards, dave
 
33 Posts
Feb 23, 2009 10:18 am
Re: Do C-40 controllers go bad?

Glad you got it working. Press lightly. Smiley
 

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