Outback FM80 Off Grid Solar Disaster

#oubackfm80 #solarenergy #PowMr60
Electronics do not last forever! Especially when you need them the most!
cash app $wickershire

[@ChrissCreationFun]

Nice we are using the 30amp one love it.

[@TheWickerShireProject]

Just an incredible device! Price is super good compared to any other in its class. Plus all the bluetooth options! Can you ever imagine owning anything less?

[@jessebrook1688]

My folks had one of those Outback Power inverters. It was bulky and reliable, but after 10 years, I'm glad that they updated to a newer inverter and battery solution, though it was a bit of a pain to set up with WiFi. It's giving better information than you could ever get from the Outback, in a better-presented way.

[@hegefarms4260]

Im running the Victron 150/45. Its working Great. Good Luck 🤞👍

[@TheWickerShireProject]

I had no idea how good these were. I figured it was going to be no better than the outback. Performance and efficiency wise the vic 60 is on par with the Outback fm 80 and even more efficient! We get crazy numbers from out solar array all day long.

[@hegefarms4260]

@@TheWickerShireProject I'm ordering another 150/45 I'm putting it in my Faraday Cage just to have as a spare. Because you NEVER know

[@mikeschaoticgardening]

Read your reply to others..glad you got a better unit!👊🏽

[@TheWickerShireProject]

One of the top brands. Worth the money even if its the 60 amp model and not the 80 amp. We got what we could afford. It almost uses all the solar the old 80 amp did. It's just way more efficient and produces earlier and later and better in between.

[@bowtielife]

RIP Flexmax! 😢😢😢 Even the Outback can't stand against a lightning strike. We get a lot of lightning here in Destin. Some storms are like a war zone with hard ground strikes. It really gets the heart racing sometimes. C'mon KZbin money! Fund a new system! 😊😊

[@TheWickerShireProject]

So It survived a lightning strike! It ran for another 7 months after at 65% solar capacity. That's how rugged it is. I cannot stress how much it is worth to install a Pro lightning arrester type product in the DC breaker box out near your panels. Obviously you have to ground bond all panels together and set them to a grounding rod on a solid copper 10 gauge ( minimum ) wire. The Victron is a beast! Ultra Efficient and much cheaper and has Bluetooth!

[@TheWickerShireProject]

I thought I dropped a comment! The flex max is 100% repairable. I'm not going to struggle over throwing parts it at. I'm sure at Outbacks HQ's they can plug in a diagnose reader and see whats knocked out with whatever error codes come up. When these units go its mostly the power mosfets or the control board.

Lots of people are switching to the Victron or other systems if they are not deeply tied into a different brand.. I am heavily invested into Outback mainly because they are US made/based or at least they were.. The setup here includes 2 Flexmax80's, each controlling 3.6kw of Solar-World panels made in Oregon, 2 Radian inverters totaling 12kw, 30kw LiFePo4 battery bank that replaced a 5 year old L-16 battery bank and a Mate3s system controller.. The Radian inverters are pretty dated and I believe out of production now so sometime way down the road support will end and a big breakdown will have me searching for new devices.. For me I would fix the damaged FM-80 as it is one of the best in the 150v class.. A cheap and not to bad way to protect from surges/spikes is to get some MOV components that are fairly cheap and bridge them between the combiner lugs and ground and or the breaker input and outputs and ground.. You can get them for less than 50 cents each from any of the large part houses and they have a proven track record of working.. Surge arrestors like the Midnight Solar or LAR are in common use but do cost quite a bit and have that UL and NEC approval if you have to get inspected. The FET's in the FM-80 may be unmarked or have a brand part number but there are a few sources that you can get a viable part number for them.. I would worry that there may be other damage on the board like to the drivers and IC controller but until you rip it apart you won't know for sure.. Worst case you could send the board in for repair.. I have hope that the new owners of Outback come out with a more feature rich controller in the future but I can access my system with wireless networking which is more secure than Bluetooth..

[@TheWickerShireProject]

Killer system and fantastic read! I'm all about simplicity and cost. Less I have to diagnose or repair or replace. I'll look into optional Lightning protection. My fault for not Tying the Out back to a ground as the Aims inverter is a closed looped floating deal. I see my flaws and will fix them.

[@LazzatKadahPakwan]

Very good

[@TheWickerShireProject]

Best solar charge controller we have ever used. Very Impressed! Decent price too! بہترین سولر چارج کنٹرولر جو ہم نے کبھی استعمال کیا ہے۔ بہت متاثر! مناسب قیمت بھی!

[@P.Damaso]

Sorry man praying for you

[@TheWickerShireProject]

New Solar charger arrived by Amazon 5 days later. It soo good of a device!

[@guy4698]

I have two of the controllers..have dc circuit breakers and lightning protection at pvs and charge controllers..living here in the high desert, lightning is a real problem

[@starhomesteadindia8999]

Storm is a bad thing. It just destroys all things.

[@TheWickerShireProject]

Bad storms only happen in February down here for the most part as cooler and warmer weather dance together as the season changes in to spring. it sukkz but, its life!

[@starhomesteadindia8999]

​@@TheWickerShireProjectone month is bearable I guess

[@P.Damaso]

🙏

[@survivor4041]

If anyone can fix a system YOU can.

[@TheWickerShireProject]

I'll wait for John to come back before doing anything. I trust an Army Electrical Engineer over my self learned Electrical repair knowledge. Just need to bounce questions off of. He can and will answer them.

[@shawneegrows]

Check you out! problem solving power issues. What's your back up when solar malfunctions? Should you keep a backup charge controller on the shelf? Lol

[@TheWickerShireProject]

we had the PowMr 60 cheapo back up at 66% efficiency ( I had little faith in ) until the Victron 60 came in 5 days later. All I can say is the Victron is Way more efficient over the Outback by far! Less power consumption and converts High voltage to battery voltage to charge around 97%+ on average. We are stupid impressed by this company. No shenanigans here!

[@daveknight1154]

Nice upgrade Billy. Solar get cheaper every year.

[@TheWickerShireProject]

1/2 the price of the big boy we got. $675 vws $350... this is 20 amps less but makes up for it in pure efficiency all day long. My old 80 amp could do 3,800 watts to 4k. This one will grab 3,600watts then throttle out but make the most out of every amp conversion that it see's almost in real time. Thats True hard core MPPT tracking for you!

[@starhomesteadindia8999]

Bluetooth connectivity wow 👌

[@TheWickerShireProject]

It works with phones and Tablets but does not have codex and software for PC. I wanted this on my computer running in the background would of been a super cool widget! I'm Like... Oh my new pc has blue tooth connectivity!

[@starhomesteadindia8999]

​@@TheWickerShireProjecti agree

[@vladimus9749]

@@TheWickerShireProject maybe you could run an android emulator and pull the logs on your pc?

[@TheWickerShireProject]

@@vladimus9749 oh thats cool. I'll look into it!

[@starhomesteadindia8999]

Solar charge controllers are super expensive bro. Here its little bit cheaper though

[@TheWickerShireProject]

Yeah the USA Price gouges and inflates the sh8t out of everything. Assuming we all have 6 figure jobs 10 cars, three houses and a boat load of passive invested income. NOT the case! Bulk of us are P*ss poor too. Just struggling to pay bills.

[@starhomesteadindia8999]

Yo, i have a scooter like that too .

[@TheWickerShireProject]

49 cc Chinese tao tao? Mass produced! Wanna cry? I spent $1,200 on it. Yup I'm stupid! I should of ordered one online and had it shipped for half the price!

[@starhomesteadindia8999]

9:48 where are the days listed? I can't see

[@TheWickerShireProject]

Just a simple bar graph that reads in reverse. Far left is TODAY! Far right are consecuative passed days production. If you owned one and had it in your hand you'd get a better feeling. I'll do more video's on it this and next year as we go back over solar education.

[@starhomesteadindia8999]

​@@TheWickerShireProjectthad be great.

[@starhomesteadindia8999]

What is mppt?

[@TheWickerShireProject]

OK Solar lesson. Pwm ( Pulse width Modulation ) small cycles that grab energy on a clock cycle. It works but has voltage limits. Old technology. MPPT = Maximum Power Point tracking. This allows a Higher voltage to be used with a Lower voltage bank converting high voltage down to lower voltage. So when this happens you get more amps. Amps = better charging. MPPT computer sweeps finding the best conversion rates of voltage to amps. The lower the voltage comes down with Mppt the higher the amps go up supercharging your system. This how electricity works.

[@kevinroberts781]

Outback is outdated

[@TheWickerShireProject]

Yeah this is why we chose Victron. Simple system build, good price and Bluetooth connectivity where I can see everything under the sun on a tablet or phone. Just a game changer.