Ric Murphy
1st April 2008, 14:40
Good Day All,
Not sure how many of you folks are using Outback components in your RE systems but I thought I’d share some personal feedback with you on one of their new products. Last fall they released their FLEXnet DC battery monitor. I was able to get my hands on one a few weeks ago and so far am very happy with it. Outback gear has always had a significant accuracy problem in its data reporting. For the life of me I can’t understand how this problem can exist on such a fine product line but it does. The other problem I have with my system was the inability to log wind data from my turbine. The FLEXnet has solved both of these issues. The FLEXnet allows connection and monitoring of up to 3 shunts anywhere within the system. In my case I have one between the battery and the inverter, a second between the charge controller and the battery and the 3rd between the turbine rectifier and the battery. The unit is connected thru a hub network to the Outback MATE controller the same way all the other Outback components are. By scrolling thru the MATE screens the user can view the shunt data in real time, accumulated data for the day or historical data going back as far as the last 128 days. The MATE also has a rolling screen option. When activated the MATE will scroll thru a number of pertinent screens displaying each for about 10 seconds. I have been collecting system data for the last year using a program called Wattplot (not that the data was accurate). This software was developed specifically for the Outback gear by a guy here in Ontario. Although the software is awesome, it is only as good as the data being rec’d from the MATE controller. Now with the improved accuracy provided by the FLEXnet and shunts it really is a sweet combo. Below are some samples of data collected over the last 2 weeks generated by the FLEXnet as displayed by Wattplot.
The first picture is of the main screen that I leave up all the time. Across the top is the Snapshot Bar showing current status of the inverter (FX-1), the Flexnet shunts 1-3 (DC-3) and the MX60 solar charge controller (MX-4). Shown below that is a penplot for the 3 shunts. Data is rec’d once per second from the Mate and plotted in real time. The data can be compressed 60:1 which is how I usually set it. Wattplot generates a penplot for each device connected to the MATE. Hovering the mouse over any point along the penplot displays the actual data and time. Now that I have the FLEXnet I usually only have to view its penplot. Each night at midnight Wattplot takes that day’s data for each device and dumps it into a spreadsheet (one spreadsheet per device). At the end of each month Wattplot will close out that month’s spreadsheets and start new ones. The spreadsheets make it very easy to chart or graph production data. The spreadsheet below was generated from the FLEXnet data with some revisions. The highlited columns were imported from the Inverter and MX60 spreadsheets. A few other columns were deleted. Although both these products are designed for Outback gear, I think it would be possible to use them with many other products. In addition to Wattplot and the FLEXnet, you would also need an Outback MATE ($295) and hub ($195). Not necessarily the most cost effective option but it will do a good job of data monitoring and logging. So after 3 years I’m finally able to get an accurate picture of my systems performance. I’m looking forward to collecting data over the next year in order to evaluate my specific site for wind and solar.
Ric
448
449
450
Not sure how many of you folks are using Outback components in your RE systems but I thought I’d share some personal feedback with you on one of their new products. Last fall they released their FLEXnet DC battery monitor. I was able to get my hands on one a few weeks ago and so far am very happy with it. Outback gear has always had a significant accuracy problem in its data reporting. For the life of me I can’t understand how this problem can exist on such a fine product line but it does. The other problem I have with my system was the inability to log wind data from my turbine. The FLEXnet has solved both of these issues. The FLEXnet allows connection and monitoring of up to 3 shunts anywhere within the system. In my case I have one between the battery and the inverter, a second between the charge controller and the battery and the 3rd between the turbine rectifier and the battery. The unit is connected thru a hub network to the Outback MATE controller the same way all the other Outback components are. By scrolling thru the MATE screens the user can view the shunt data in real time, accumulated data for the day or historical data going back as far as the last 128 days. The MATE also has a rolling screen option. When activated the MATE will scroll thru a number of pertinent screens displaying each for about 10 seconds. I have been collecting system data for the last year using a program called Wattplot (not that the data was accurate). This software was developed specifically for the Outback gear by a guy here in Ontario. Although the software is awesome, it is only as good as the data being rec’d from the MATE controller. Now with the improved accuracy provided by the FLEXnet and shunts it really is a sweet combo. Below are some samples of data collected over the last 2 weeks generated by the FLEXnet as displayed by Wattplot.
The first picture is of the main screen that I leave up all the time. Across the top is the Snapshot Bar showing current status of the inverter (FX-1), the Flexnet shunts 1-3 (DC-3) and the MX60 solar charge controller (MX-4). Shown below that is a penplot for the 3 shunts. Data is rec’d once per second from the Mate and plotted in real time. The data can be compressed 60:1 which is how I usually set it. Wattplot generates a penplot for each device connected to the MATE. Hovering the mouse over any point along the penplot displays the actual data and time. Now that I have the FLEXnet I usually only have to view its penplot. Each night at midnight Wattplot takes that day’s data for each device and dumps it into a spreadsheet (one spreadsheet per device). At the end of each month Wattplot will close out that month’s spreadsheets and start new ones. The spreadsheets make it very easy to chart or graph production data. The spreadsheet below was generated from the FLEXnet data with some revisions. The highlited columns were imported from the Inverter and MX60 spreadsheets. A few other columns were deleted. Although both these products are designed for Outback gear, I think it would be possible to use them with many other products. In addition to Wattplot and the FLEXnet, you would also need an Outback MATE ($295) and hub ($195). Not necessarily the most cost effective option but it will do a good job of data monitoring and logging. So after 3 years I’m finally able to get an accurate picture of my systems performance. I’m looking forward to collecting data over the next year in order to evaluate my specific site for wind and solar.
Ric
448
449
450