Issue Summary: Customer reports solar micro SubStation is not charging.
Work Flow:
Check power incoming from solar panel at battery board SOLAR IN terminals.
If no voltage, verify connections.
If applicable, RMA solar panel.
If power can be measured from the solar panel, but reduced efficiency is trying to be proven or disproven, controller event log must be collected and data day-over-day analyzed.
Note: Understanding expected voltage and current from the solar panel can be tricky. Do yourself a favor and check the weather for the unit location. This document will need to be updated to refer to AppManager / BaseManager to analyze data but that feature doesn’t exist yet.
Verify ON/OFF switch on the battery board is in the ON position.
Verify Status LED on battery board is green. A red LED tells us that the charge circuit is shutdown due to high temperature. Yellow LED indicates a board fault and battery board must be replaced. Micro SubStation will continue to operate assuming sufficient power from the solar panel, batteries will not charge.
Check DC voltage across all batteries.
Check DC voltage across each battery one at a time.
How to validate battery RMA is needed (Measured across one battery at a time):
Voltage is very low, <1 VDC. This indicates that the battery is below it’s protective low voltage shutoff.
If power is coming into the batteries from the panel and voltage is ~6 VDC. This indicates a battery is not accepting charge.
If replacing batteries, advise customer that all batteries should be replaced, not just the bad battery. Voltage must be uniform (Approximately) across all batteries for proper operation.