Outback Power MATE3s System Display and ControllerWrite a review

Not sure why people leave such angry reviews when it is obvious they don't follow instructions. You MUST update the firmware before you do ANYTHING. Load the latest firmware onto a SD card from the Outback website. Put the SD card in the MATE3S, follow the instructions to update the firmware and BOOM, all your connection problems are solved.

My MATE3S works fantastic. I love the OPTICS RE App that shows me what is happening with the system 'live'. I

Great control over the old Mate. A must have for contractors with off grid systems not easily accessible to monitor whats going on and make setting changes remotely.

I have 23 systems that I monitor with Optics and have found that most of the issues with connection are poor wifi connections. If they can be hard wired to a router, there are no issues. I have some that use wifi extenders and many work fine but ultimately when they fail, it is the wifi extender at fault. Optics RE is a godsend for keeping tabs on system performance. Many of my customers are off grid second homes and some often go all winter with no human contact. There have been some firmware bugs but it is easy to upgrade to the latest revision.

I am away from my off-grid cabin for extended periods of time and depend on the Mate3 Ethernet/Internet connection to monitor the health of my system while offsite. The Mate3 has been plagued with Ethernet connection issues since Optics Re was introduced three years ago. Recently, OutBack Support told me the new Mate3-S would fix the Ethernet Connection problem. I purchased the new Mate3-S from altE, at my expense, and tested it for over a Month. It "did not" fix the Ethernet Connection problem for me. The new Mate3-S Optics RE "Port" will not connect! The Mate3-S Port soft key shows the Optics RE Port to be in a permanent state of "Connecting" and never advances to the state of "Connected". I reported this problem to the Alpha Technologies Software VP, David LeBow, on September 28, 2017. After submitting two follow up requests for an update, I have yet to receive a response from Mr. LeBow. I have since reported the Mate3-S Ethernet/Optics RE Port Connection issue to the Alpha Technologies CEO, Fred Kaiser - still "no response"! Alpha Technologies is responsible for the Optics RE Software while OutBack Technologies is responsible for the Mate3 and Mate3-S Software. I would suggest that anyone considering purchasing the new Mate3-S to first spend a couple "hours" reading the "five pages" of the OutBack User Forum Topic "Mate 3 Cannot Recover from Ethernet Outage" at the link below:

http://outbackpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=8194&p=52835&sid=1c87fb5cbb14a7df8300baefce654c07#p52835

Bill Gordon
Owner of two OutBack RE systems

We have had two Mate3 fail totally on firmware updates. There is no workaround unless you scour various listservs. Even then the workaround hasn't worked. The final stick in the eye is that Outback will not take any responsibility and offers, what has become recently, extremely bad Technical Support.

They expect me to replace them at my or my customer's cost. They won't even look at them.

Just don't waste your money. This product is riddled with bugs ranging from internet connectivity issues to inaccurate data reporting.

When I contacted their tech support they simply refused to offer any level of support (even though all the components other than the batteries are outback)

The optics RE integration just has glaring reporting inaccuracies.

Just say no to outback!