Honouring warranties is a very tricky business. I guess it depends on under which conditions you bought the product in the first place. I would prefer Outback Power had send and authorized technician to troubleshot your inverter rather than send you a part for DIY repair/replacement. On the other hand we could had missed this very enjoyable video and your wonderful riding skills. ;-) Now I'm very worried about the radon levels under my own feet. Thanks Martin.
Nice to see your solar back up and running Martin, with us being in the mid summer now it would be quite a loss not to have the system working Niec job and I look forward to hearing about their diagnosis of what ewnt wrong
is there any way for us to take a look at the envoy metrics that you've been collecting for some time? I wasn't sure if there was a public dashboard or anything
Thanks for sharing this video. Fascinating though it was, it also served as a very sobering reminder where electricity can be very scary and should absolutely never, ever be trifled with by the inexperienced.
This was interesting, and it makes sense to have some sort of understanding of this type of equipment if it is in your house, but I would not try to service this myself.
Came looking for the power down steps in sequence. I’m connecting another solar input, No grid. When do I turn my batteries off? Mine have a switch on each battery. I’m thinking PV IN, AC out Dc in Then batteries. Help!
I enjoyed this, thanks. One thing that caught my notice was the red, white and black wires that suffered a little abrasion are supported by a cable support that is stuck to the chassis, to prevent fan ingest. This is a bad idea, temperature fluctuations and time might negate this safety feature. Bolt and nut fixings would be a better option in my mind. What do you think Martin?
thefamilyman Its to vent the radon gasses that is leaking from the ground/soil, the radon gas is radioactive and known to cause cancer, so you don't want it to build up inside your house.
michaelnjensen "no acrid smells" wow! I would be more worried about the leaking radon in the basement .. Wait a minute...! Time to collect it. Free goodies for a micro nuclear plant...
A little FYI Martin. That FPE (Federal Pacific Electric) panel on the left lost it's UL rating way back in the 1980's. The breakers don't always trip under a short circuit condition. The company went out of buisness shortly after. Google FPE or stab-lock and you will find a lot of info on them. I have made my living as of late replacing these panel's. Insurance company's here in south Florida are refusing coverage to home owners until they get them replaced. I have been enjoying your videos for a while. Thanks!
Always, always, disconnnect the DC at the battery when servicing DC disconnnects. Theres kiloamps of current available on those (usually) unfused battery cables.
yeah, it seems like reasonable service - many vendors will not send out boards or subassemblies for an end-user to swap in like this. I've had an Outback GVFX-3524 running for 13 years now with no problems, and no needed maintenance other than replacing its fan filter. When my MX-60 charge controller was having efficiency issues specific to my system design about 11 years ago, they upgraded it for free to a newer model (new Flexmax-60 boards in the old case). Under new ownership now, so I don't know if they're still so accommodating. Some Outback gear formerly made in the US is now made in India.
Please don't use this lying sticks to check mains voltage! This is dangerous because it can trick you and is batterie operated. Check out for example the "Benning Duspol" which will work without batterie (uses batterie to check other things in the circuit), not voltage. As industrie electrican it's forbidden to use this sticks! Please throw it away and buy something proper like a Benning Duspol, which is used widely. Or youse one of your good multimeters form fluke!
He did go over the three-step process in the 1st video to make sure that the tester was functional, then he tested the circuit and then he retested the tester for functionality. however I do think he should have used one of his expensive multimeters to verify that both DC and AC was removed as a 2nd verification ( that would have also had the benefit of verifying that the capacitors were discharged ). I have one of those cheap proximity testers too, and also long enough to know it's weakness ( mainly it's press contacts switch ) however it also has a tendency to pick up residual crosstalk, Which makes me want to verify with a multimeter if i need to touch something.
Well done Martin. A reminder to double check that everything is off before working on anything. Make it a habit! Thanks for another excellent video.
Chingus696 Thanks for the post.
Glad the replacement unit resolved the issue. Look forward to hearing about what the failure mode was from the company. 73 - Dino KL0S
Dino Papas Thanks for the post Dino.
Great video Martin, I loved when you straddled the inverter. It was a hoot! Take care, look for more updates.
Eric Haney ;-) Thanks for the post Eric.
Honouring warranties is a very tricky business. I guess it depends on under which conditions you bought the product in the first place. I would prefer Outback Power had send and authorized technician to troubleshot your inverter rather than send you a part for DIY repair/replacement. On the other hand we could had missed this very enjoyable video and your wonderful riding skills. ;-) Now I'm very worried about the radon levels under my own feet. Thanks Martin.
Nice to see your solar back up and running Martin, with us being in the mid summer now it would be quite a loss not to have the system working
Niec job and I look forward to hearing about their diagnosis of what ewnt wrong
is there any way for us to take a look at the envoy metrics that you've been collecting for some time? I wasn't sure if there was a public dashboard or anything
Good job, Martin. The least they could have done was send you a brand new unit and make sure it didn't get damaged. I'm surprised that it worked.
Robert Calk Jr. Thanks Robert.
Thanks for sharing this video.
Fascinating though it was, it also served as a very sobering reminder where electricity can be very scary and should absolutely never, ever be trifled with by the inexperienced.
This was interesting, and it makes sense to have some sort of understanding of this type of equipment if it is in your house, but I would not try to service this myself.
I am just curious, how many labor hours did this whole process take? Taking out the old and putting up the new inverter.
Hey,
I would like to buy multimeter and don't know which one is good for me.
I need it for home and my car
the tapping noise at 16:16 and whistling :)
Came looking for the power down steps in sequence.
I’m connecting another solar input,
No grid.
When do I turn my batteries off? Mine have a switch on each battery.
I’m thinking PV IN,
AC out
Dc in
Then batteries.
Help!
I enjoyed this, thanks. One thing that caught my notice was the red, white and black wires that suffered a little abrasion are supported by a cable support that is stuck to the chassis, to prevent fan ingest. This is a bad idea, temperature fluctuations and time might negate this safety feature. Bolt and nut fixings would be a better option in my mind. What do you think Martin?
What's the radioactive pvc piping above the unit??
thefamilyman Its to vent the radon gasses that is leaking from the ground/soil, the radon gas is radioactive and known to cause cancer, so you don't want it to build up inside your house.
michaelnjensen "no acrid smells" wow! I would be more worried about the leaking radon in the basement .. Wait a minute...! Time to collect it. Free goodies for a micro nuclear plant...
I'm not sure to reply with 'oh that's interesting' or 'oh that's kinda scary'
thefamilyman Radon is an interesting topic which I will cover in the near future.
What is the part number and supplier for this module. Great video!
A little FYI Martin. That FPE (Federal Pacific Electric) panel on the left lost it's UL rating way back in the 1980's. The breakers don't always trip under a short circuit condition. The company went out of buisness shortly after. Google FPE or stab-lock and you will find a lot of info on them. I have made my living as of late replacing these panel's. Insurance company's here in south Florida are refusing coverage to home owners until they get them replaced. I have been enjoying your videos for a while. Thanks!
I am looking forward to finding out what happened.
I would be seriously tempted to open up the failed unit to see what had happened.
mark314158 Yeah, I really hate to replace something if I can fix it especially when it's next to free to repair. Cheers :)
why not 2 of the inverter,s so you have one as back up
Yeehaw Cowboy: Riding the Wild-Inverter!
Very nice video :)
Always, always, disconnnect the DC at the battery when servicing DC disconnnects. Theres kiloamps of current available on those (usually) unfused battery cables.
Outback off my list!
Why is it off your list? They supported the unit for him.
yeah, it seems like reasonable service - many vendors will not send out boards or subassemblies for an end-user to swap in like this. I've had an Outback GVFX-3524 running for 13 years now with no problems, and no needed maintenance other than replacing its fan filter. When my MX-60 charge controller was having efficiency issues specific to my system design about 11 years ago, they upgraded it for free to a newer model (new Flexmax-60 boards in the old case). Under new ownership now, so I don't know if they're still so accommodating. Some Outback gear formerly made in the US is now made in India.
Please don't use this lying sticks to check mains voltage! This is dangerous because it can trick you and is batterie operated.
Check out for example the "Benning Duspol" which will work without batterie (uses batterie to check other things in the circuit), not voltage. As industrie electrican it's forbidden to use this sticks! Please throw it away and buy something proper like a Benning Duspol, which is used widely. Or youse one of your good multimeters form fluke!
He did go over the three-step process in the 1st video to make sure that the tester was functional, then he tested the circuit and then he retested the tester for functionality. however I do think he should have used one of his expensive multimeters to verify that both DC and AC was removed as a 2nd verification ( that would have also had the benefit of verifying that the capacitors were discharged ).
I have one of those cheap proximity testers too, and also long enough to know it's weakness ( mainly it's press contacts switch ) however it also has a tendency to pick up residual crosstalk, Which makes me want to verify with a multimeter if i need to touch something.