? what makes a inverter flash overload you can turn it off and it is good for a few minutes then it starts flashing again on shore power or generator power and it is a Trace model,could it be a bad battery in the bank
Overload on our inverter (and I think most others) means the inverter is being asked to invert a load greater than it's designed to.
On shore power it shouldn't be inverting at all, unless something is wrong with the switchover circuit that detects shore power. So I would verify that it does indeed think it has shore power.
Does this happen regardless of load?
Does it run inverted without issue?
A bad battery in the bank *might* trigger that if it can't keep up with the requested load, the voltage drops significantly. Ours does that when we invert a really heavy load that tanks the battery banks (and also causes the inverters to exceed its rated capacity).
Note: we have a victron and not a trace, but I believe the functionality is pretty similar.
Cliff, what model is it?
My SW4024 will error on overload if power goes off and I have too much turned on, like Aquahot electirc element and air conditioner at the same time.
If its happening on shore/genset power then it shouldn't be inverting - should just be pass through at that point. Need to know if it is actually switching or not. You could monitor the battery voltage to see if it is switching to pass through or staying on the inverter. The relays in the old Hearts would sometimes stick and they wouldn't switch from invert to pass through. The work around was a good slap with the flat of your hand on the side of the case. The actual fix is to find some old geek who is still willing to change the relays. The one on the boat gave me trouble in Alaska so I gave it a few whacks, took the cover off and cleaned the contacts on the relays and put it back together. So far its still working but I don't consider it fixed.
I have 2-4024SW stacked the way it is wired both need battery power and turned on for the shore power or the generator to work,it is a manual switch gear but 1 will flash the overload on shore power or the generator with nothing on inside the coach. What is up !!!! it works fine for maybe 5 or 10 minutes when I reset it.
They both feed the same circuits if one flashes shouldn't both flash if there is a overload or a short some where ?
Not necessarily. Stacked inverters are producing 240V, or rather, two 120V outputs out of phase. When in series, one inverter would feed one side of your breaker panel, and the other one would feed the other side.
So, if only one is giving an overload error, then the overload has to do with something that is on that unit's output.
First, are you sure everything is turned off? Have you turned off all the breakers in the breaker box?
If a compressor is going bad, it can cause on overload. Typically, if the compressor is shut off while it is running, it will require a reset time for it to lose pressure, before it can restart. That can be up to several minutes. I had this exact problem this spring. My refrig compressor evidently had a short in it and when I would shake the fridge just right, it would cause an overload on my inverter. I removed the fridge and replaced it. Sitting the garage it was fine, but if I jiggled it, it would trip the GFI.
Back to what Bob said. The inverter should be working only when there is no shore or generator power. If you disconnect both of those power sources and turn on a bunch of stuff, does it work right? If they are inverter/chargers and you have shore or gen power, it should go into charging mode. Maybe if that particular one is your charger it would single a problem if there was something wrong with the battery back. Do you have the manual for the unit?
Quote from: Lin on November 16, 2016, 05:40:17 PM
Back to what Bob said. The inverter should be working only when there is no shore or generator power.
That's not how SW4024s work.
Interesting. I was assuming that it worked like my Trace 2412. It has an internal transfer switch the turns the inverter on if there is no AC power and switches to pass-through and battery bank charging when there is AC power. What does the 4024 do differently?
Quote from: Lin on November 16, 2016, 05:59:24 PM
Interesting. I was assuming that it worked like my Trace 2412. It has an internal transfer switch the turns the inverter on if there is no AC power and switches to pass-through and battery bank charging when there is AC power. What does the 4024 do differently?
You forget about load sharing. If the load is greater than the incoming power, it will supplement from the battery bank.
I have heard some inverters have that ability to use shore along with reserve and this is a pretty nice option.
The mention of one or other selective charging ability seems a curious path.
Seems no matter the mechanical switch position the same issue, so doesnt this keep it the problem above and in panel test or possibly a main and further to inverters.
I was a bit curious if this was one panel system.
Floyd
That's an important question then. How big is the load he is trying to run?
Clifford,
I'm trying to think. I almost remember having that issue (on only one inverter).
Check out the voltage set limits (in the settings menu). If you are on shore power, sometimes it needs a little broader voltage upper and lower limit. Otherwise, it would sometimes flash when the batteries are too low.
One of them would flash when the batteries got too low and the generator was turned off. Then when it couldn't autostart, one of the inverters would start flashing, before the other would.
Otherwise, I am drawing a blank. Sorry.
John
Also, when it does it, go through the Errors menu and see what says "yes".
Quote from: Lin on November 16, 2016, 06:39:01 PM
That's an important question then. How big is the load he is trying to run?
There is no load !!!! everything is turned off and the breakers are off,thanks Craig I will check that tomorrow morning lol Don Smith jinked me he was having problems with his and now I have a problem
.... or just give it a good slap. At the very least it will make you feel better.
Luvr, with your prior (bad) experiences with batts, I would load test them , FWIW
Clifford also check what it is set too for incoming power. If it is set to 15 amp incoming power and the bus is plugged into 30 amps it may not let the power pass through and then would show overload...
Mine does that if I forget to reset when we come back to the ranch after being on the pole.
Dave5Cs
Quote from: luvrbus on November 16, 2016, 02:32:25 PM
I have 2-4024SW stacked the way it is wired both need battery power and turned on for the shore power or the generator to work,it is a manual switch gear but 1 will flash the overload on shore power or the generator with nothing on inside the coach. What is up !!!! it works fine for maybe 5 or 10 minutes when I reset it.
They both feed the same circuits if one flashes shouldn't both flash if there is a overload or a short some where ?
I'm trying to figure out how the two inverters are inter-connected.
On the victrons, for example, you can "combine" the power output of two inverters together, increasing overall capacity. But they have to be synched, internally (usually through some wire and private network/connection).
They definitely would have to synch the AC sine wave or some serious voltage issues could occur; especially since you mentioned they feed the same circuits.
If they feed both circuits, at the same time, then I would assume the hot and the neutral wires (output) from both inverters are connected to the same bus bar inside the coach? If so, then they have to be synched together.
It's possible that one of them is out of sync, or somehow lost contact with the other unit.
If, however, one runs one discrete bar and the other another bar, then one is either seeing too high a load and is trying to power-assist, or is maybe losing input voltage on the incoming 50 amp mains-input-feed.
I would assume, if it is hooked up in this way, then one leg of the 50 amp feed is input for one inverter, and the other leg is an input feed for the other inverter, and they share the same neutral.
Also not sure what switching circuitry you have to decide between shore power and gen input. But it's possible that that switch is having issues.
I'd start off by isolating the two units, one at a time.
I'd unplug the working unit's AC input and test voltage to neutral.
Then I'd try to run the inverter that's acting up. See if it continues to flake out when alone.
Then I'd unplug the bad inverter and test AC voltage to neutral.
Then I'd try swapping the AC inputs around and see if the problem moves with the wire or the unit.
Good luck, HTH,
George
Clifford check your cooling fan in the one flashing red. I had same thing going on and it turned out the fan, similar to a computer fan, was faulty. It allows fast build up of heat inside inverter which caused my overload light to go on. Factory told me to replace which I did, fixed.
I solved the problem when I installed the isolator and solenoid to charge house batteries from the engine alternator I left a cable off all is good now ???
Quote from: luvrbus on November 18, 2016, 04:52:10 AM
I solved the problem when I installed the isolator and solenoid to charge house batteries from the engine alternator I left a cable off all is good now ???
Been there, done that! Nearly burned my bus up when I moved my batteries. Forgot to reinstall the frame ground. It found a ground through a 14 ga wire to my heater.
Glad you found the problem.
I had the same issue with a pair of SW4024. The red overload light would come on from time to time on only one unit. It had nothing to do with loads on the inverter as the coach was in the garage with everything turned off other than the fridge. I had to reset the inverter each time to get it back online. Over time, the frequency of overload errors increased until one day it wouldn't reset. Replaced it with a new (old stock) unit and never had the problem again. No other changes were made when I swapped units, same batteries, same connections, etc.
The overload error had something to do with the charging side of the inverter. All of my errors would occur after a power outage. The SW4024 goes into charging mode everytime there is a drop in shore power. There is no way to "shut off" the charging cycle on a SW unit. The best you can do is reduce the charging amps to 1 amp (which I did) but the overload error would still come on.
In my case it took about 6 months from when it first started showing the overload to complete failure. Called several repair facilities that still worked on the SW series and was told that diagnostics and repair could go as high as $2,000. Not wanting to invest that much into an already 10 year old inverter, I replaced it with NOS.
I was going to ask if you had double checked the connections, and the inside of the plug connections, but I didn't want to ask a dumb question.
So glad you found it :)
Quote from: gumpy on November 16, 2016, 06:20:45 PM
You forget about load sharing. If the load is greater than the incoming power, it will supplement from the battery bank.
Unfortunately on the SW4024s it doesn't actually load share, it switches over completely to battery power if you try to draw more than the shore. I would be much happier if it actually split the load.
And someone else mentioned setting the inbound current too high (such as having it set to 30A and then hooking up to 15A) - not a problem as that setting is just a max at which it stops drawing current.
Quote from: daveola on November 19, 2016, 02:25:16 PM
Unfortunately on the SW4024s it doesn't actually load share, it switches over completely to battery power if you try to draw more than the shore. I would be much happier if it actually split the load.
SW4024 does load share. If the load is greater than the incoming limit, it's supplements with battery. It does not switch completely to battery.