To add the new firmware It's more or less a matter of just downloading the software from there web page. Then plugging your lop top into the usb port on the classic. Though I always take it slow and steady as its not something you want to go pear shaped 1/2 way through.
The 1st big bug improvement for me was logging to the Mymidnte server (midnite solars free online logging server) In the past I had very erratic logging. There was a bug in the firmware that was messing with the logging on some brands of routers. I had big gaps in the graphs. It had its good days and bad days although it was supposed to dial in every 10min even on a good day mine was only dialing in every 1hr or so. Resulting in ugly patchy graphs that didnt paint the full picture and were only good for a quick check to see if you had reached float. Or perhaps get the kwh total for the day. Now I am getting 100% reliable logging every 10min without fail.
Yesterday and part of today
You can clearly see the system reach absorb and hold it there then taper off to end amps setting and trigger float. You can see the little spikes in float as my fridge cuts in throughout the day. Finally you can see at 5pm on the dot the output drops of and my charger is unable to cover base loads and hold float voltage as the sun dips behind the house. I find this 10min resolution works really well. You get a detailed list of data if you select a area on the graph and you can add different things to the graph like time in float or input voltage. I find the three I have above work well.
The next thing that the firmware update added was support for a new product. It's called the "wiz bang junior". It's a shunt based current meter that talks to the Classic charge controller. For now its main use is to inform the classic charge controller what the loads are on the battery and enable (end amps) to be used to trigger float even when the system has inconsistent loads. This will be great for me as I often have the car charging during the day or my wife is washing dishes and loads can be on and off all over the place so you don't often have a steady load to factor into end amp setting to trigger float. Other features will be added to the classic to make more use of the shunt over time. I will run a 2nd set of sense wires to mine so my selectronics inverter can use the same shunt it to do its logging.
I got mine last week (though mine didn't come with the plastic cover on circuit board
) Its a 50mv- 500A shut. I will have a go at installing it this weekend.
Another thing not related to the firmware update but a big change I made to the classics settings. I had been running my classic in SOLAR mode but due to my BP panels being wired in 2 series configuration and and a reasonably low voc of 35.2v each (most likely because the initially it was set up for a non MPPT charge controller) Anyhow during a real hot day 35 C or over and around the time when the battery's were almost in absorb so high voltage 58v or so the input voltage from the PV wasn't much higher than the batterys. It was higher but low enough that the classic was trying to sweep all the time and come up with the highest charge power and getting a little flustered. I noticed during this short period it was settling on a less than optimum output. On advice from midnite solar I changed the settings from SOLAR to "Legacy P&O" setting that apparently would give much better results with panel voltage that was closer to Battery voltage.
why wasn't I using this seating before! On patchy cloudy day - Tuesday classic was pumping 4700w at 90A (ok a little of that was due to cloud edge effect ) But there was a good hr or so of it holding the full 4000w steady, that's the rated output of my system. It has made a massive improvement to the output of my controller especially during the high voltage areas of the charge.I have a 2nd classic charge controller now so over the next few weeks I will be installing that along side the old one and adding the additional 4200w of PV for a total of 8200w ready for Electric car charging over winter.
Kurt
