MLT Inverters POWERSTAR 10H Series Installer Manual
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MLT Inverters POWERSTAR 10H Series Installer Manual

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POWERSTAR 10H
Installer's Manual

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Summary of Contents for MLT Inverters POWERSTAR 10H Series

  • Page 1 POWERSTAR 10H Installer’s Manual...
  • Page 2 © 2018 MLT Inverters Edition – May 2020 POWERSTAR 10H USER MANUAL PAGE...

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Powerstar 10H Series Installer's Manual Table of Contents Introduction ..........................7 Warnings and cautions ....................... 7 Contacting MLT Inverters ....................8 1.2.1 Product support ......................8 1.2.2 Contact details ......................8 1.2.3 Telephone ........................8 System specifications ......................9 1.3.1 AC parameters ......................9 1.3.2 DC parameters ......................
  • Page 4 Electrical connections ....................... 20 2.6.1 Making the DC electrical connections ..............21 2.6.2 Making the AC electrical connections ..............22 Communication wiring...................... 23 2.7.1 The MLT Bus RJ45 socket ..................24 2.7.2 The ethernet port ..................... 26 2.7.3 Communication between the machines and the battery bank ......26 2.7.4 Communication between Powerstar 10H’s ............
  • Page 5 Testing the communication and signal wiring ................. 40 Communication between machines and the Battery Management System ....40 Communication between the inverters and/or solar chargers ........41 5.2.1 Confirm the device counts on the CAN bus ............41 5.2.2 Confirm the serial numbers and sync messages on all inverters ......42 5.2.3 Confirm the CAN communication from the MLT Nomads ........
  • Page 6 Figures Figure 1. De-rating the PowerStar inverter output power at high altitude ........10 Figure 2. Identifying parts of the Powerstar 10H ................11 Figure 3. A typical layout of a single-phase Powerstar 10H installation showing the inverter (7), the battery bank (10), the battery cable fuse box (9), the AC Bypass Box (3), and an optional MPPT.
  • Page 7 Figure 20. Screenshots showing how to access and edit user settings. From the advanced setup screen, enter the default passcode (1918), select all user settings, scroll to the relevant setting, click edit and then submit the new value................... 47 Figure 21.

  • Page 8: Introduction

    CAUTION: Proper grounds, disconnecting devices, e.g. bypass boxes and other safety devices and their location are the responsibility of the user and are not provided by MLT Inverters. CAUTION: Do not cover the device or store it in a small space - always keep it well ventilated and well away from flammable gases or powders.

  • Page 9: Contacting Mlt Inverters

    Contacting MLT Inverters 1.2.1 Product support When contacting Product Support via telephone, email or fax please provide the following information for the fastest possible service: ▪ Type of Inverter ▪ Serial number ▪ Battery type ▪ Battery bank capacity ▪...

  • Page 10: System Specifications

    250 Ah Lead-Acid charge control DIN 41773-1 IOuO three-stage charging with equalisation charge ¹ At 25°C Contact MLT Inverters for details on supported Batteries. 1.3.3 Efficiency Maximum Efficiency 92 % stand-alone / 95% with AC connected No Load Power Consumption (On) <...

  • Page 11: General

    1.3.4 General Mounting Method Wall Mounted Dimensions (W x H x D) 400 x 500 x 250 mm IP/NEMA Rating IP20 / NEMA1 Colour white front with black sides Weight 95 kg Operating Temperature -5 to 45 °C (23 to 113 °F) Architecture Galvanically Isolated, Forced Air Cooling 1.3.5...

  • Page 12: Battery Bank Size Requirements

    1.3.7 Battery bank size requirements If using a lead-acid battery bank, please ensure that the battery bank size is a minimum of 250 Ah/per inverter. Having too small a battery bank might cause system instability. The above value is a guideline and depending on the type and technology of battery, and size of the load, a larger or smaller bank might be acceptable.

  • Page 13: Typical Off-Grid Or Self-Consumption Application

    1.4.1 Typical off-grid or self-consumption application The Powerstar inverter is ideal for off-grid installations where the renewable source of power is fed directly into the batteries. The Powerstar converts the battery power into clean AC power that the load can use. The built-in battery charging function allows the use of a backup generator or the grid without the need for external battery chargers.

  • Page 14: Installation

    Installation A typical installation will include the inverter/charger, a battery bank, a battery cable fuse box, and an AC Bypass Box (3). The installation often also includes either some dc-coupled solar chargers or ac- coupled solar grid-tied inverters. An example of such a system is shown in Figure 3. For optimal performance, please refer to the following instructions regarding the installation and setup of your Powerstar.

  • Page 15: Planning The Layout Of The Machines On Site

    ▪ Run any necessary cables necessary for remote monitoring, i.e. LAN cables between the inverters and the site’s router. ▪ Run any of the cables required for any optional sensing or control (for example, external current sensing or generator control). ▪...

  • Page 16: Tools Required

    Figure 4. Minimum clearance distances around a unit or between units. It is worth taking some time to consider the optimal arrangement of the inverters and their accessories before starting to mount the inverters. Tools required For the installation, one will require the following tools: ▪...

  • Page 17: Essential Accessories

    Essential accessories The following accessories will be required for the installation but are not supplied with the inverter: ▪ AC Cables chosen in accordance with the local wiring code, ▪ DC Cables chosen in accordance with the local wiring code, ▪...

  • Page 18: Mounting The Inverter

    Mounting the inverter 2.5.1 Mounting considerations Please take note of the following before mounting the inverter: ▪ The Powerstar is designed to be wall mounted. A solid support surface must be available for mounting, e.g. concrete, masonry, or a steel frame. ▪...

  • Page 19: Mounting Procedure

    Figure 5. Permitted mounting orientation. 2.5.2 Mounting procedure To mount the inverter, proceed as follows. Choose a suitable location. The inverter must only be mounted in one of the permitted positions. Using a 10 mm masonry drill bit, drill 4 holes using the bracket as a template (Figure 6). Insert the M8 wall anchor bolts through the bracket into the holes, and tighten with a 13 mm spanner, fixing the bracket to the wall.

  • Page 20: Figure 6. Wall Mounting

    Figure 6. Wall mounting Figure 7. The AC and DC cable entries on the Powerstar and the location of the On/Off switch. POWERSTAR 10H USER MANUAL PAGE...

  • Page 21: Electrical Connections

    Electrical connections Once your Powerstar has been mounted on the wall, you can begin making the electrical connections. The AC and DC cables enter the machine through M40 cable glands on the underside of the inverter as shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8. Please refer to your local wiring codes to determine what size cables are needed for the installation and what protection devices are needed between the various parts of your installation.

  • Page 22: Making The Dc Electrical Connections

    Ensure that any electrical connections are dead before touching any potential live wiring. Certain electrical connections must be performed by a qualified electrician. If in doubt about anything, contact MLT Inverters for assistance. All wiring must be compliant with local legislation.

  • Page 23: Making The Ac Electrical Connections

    If a source such as a generator or utility is connected, make sure it is turned off, and that the breakers to the source are disconnected. Remove the DC Fuse. Wait for the inverter’s DC capacitor bank to discharge to safe levels. If required, the Powerstar can now be disconnected from the batteries.

  • Page 24: Communication Wiring

    NOTE: External protection devices such as fuses, circuit breakers and earth-leakage protection are the responsibility of the owner, and not of MLT Inverters. MLT Inverters cannot be held responsible for personal injury, death or damage to property or equipment caused by the improper use or installation of this equipment.

  • Page 25: The Mlt Bus Rj45 Socket

    ▪ The Powerstar 10H and other MLT products, and ▪ The Powerstar 10H and MLT Portal, which is used for remote monitoring and control. NOTE: Both the CAN bus and the ethernet connections on the Powerstar 10H use RJ45 sockets. Plugging communication cables into the wrong socket could damage the inverter and/or other machinery! 2.7.1 The MLT Bus RJ45 socket...
  • Page 26 Table 1. The pinout used on the RJ45 socket used to connect communication cables between machines on the site. RS485 GND CAN/MLT SYNC GND MLT SYNC H CAN H CAN L MLT SYNC L RS485 A RS485 B Multiple machines can be connected to the same CAN bus, with the connection daisy-chained from one machine to the next.

  • Page 27: The Ethernet Port

    2.7.2 The ethernet port The Powerstar 10H includes an ethernet port which can be used to connect it to a LAN and the internet. The inverter’s ethernet port can be found on the underside of the machine as shown in Figure 7. Use a “straight”...

  • Page 28: Communication Between Powerstar 10H's And Other Mlt Machines

    Before the machines are started up for the first time, the installer must check that the communication between the machine(s) and the BMS is working! 2.7.5 Communication between Powerstar 10H’s and other MLT machines The Powerstar 10H can communicate with other MLT products, for example the Nomad Solar Charger, over the same CAN bus that is used to communicate with the BMS.

  • Page 29: Digital Input/Output Signals

    Digital input/output signals The Powerstar 10H has two auxiliary relays that can be used as digital outputs to shed loads or start/stop a generator. The Powerstar 10H also has a set of inputs which can be used to send digital inputs signals such as the position of an external contactor (ExtCB) or the position of an emergency stop (Estop)/fireman’s switch.

  • Page 30: Powering Up The Powerstar 10H

    Powering up the Powerstar 10H Before powering up the inverter for the first time, it is recommended that you read this manual in its entirety, specifically the sections on how to test the communication wiring and how to configure the machine.

  • Page 31: An Introduction To The Inverter's Human Machine Interface

    An introduction to the inverter’s Human Machine Interface Before the inverter(s) can be started up for the first time, the communication between machines should be tested and the inverters should be configured to match the particular installation. This will typically be done using the machines’ touch screen displays. The touch screen display forms part of the inverter’s Human Machine Interface (HMI).

  • Page 32: Figure 11. The Hmi's Four Main Screens. Namely The Dashboard Screen, The Control Screen, The

    The touch screen display’s user interface consists of four main screens, namely: ▪ the dashboard screen, ▪ the control screen, ▪ the charts/logs/data screen, and ▪ the settings screen. Examples of these four screens are shown in Figure 11. To navigate between these screens, click on the relevant icon on the right-hand side navigation bar.

  • Page 33: The Dashboard Screen

    4.1.1 The dashboard screen The dashboard screen gives a real-time view of the current state of the system. An example of how the dashboard screen might look is shown in Figure 11a. The dashboard shows a collection of icons which can show how power is flowing through the system or alternatively the voltage and currents measured at various points in the system.

  • Page 34: The Charts, Logs, And Data Screen

    The reset button can be used to clear any temporary faults that the inverter has detected. If the inverter’s controller has detected some fault which will prevent it from starting then the icon on the left will not show a tick, a relevant message will be shown in the status bar, and the Inverter Status LED (described later) will not be green.

  • Page 35: The Settings Screen

    Table 4. A table describing the icons shown on bottom of the Charts, Logs, and Data screen Icon Data Shown Source Power Chart A plot of the power measured at the inverter’s source port over the last 24 hours. Load Power Chart A plot of the power measured at the inverter’s load port over the last 24 hours.
  • Page 36 ▪ the auxiliary relay setup. These wizards will be described more in following section on Configuring the machine. Besides the settings shown in the setup wizards, one can also access all the user settings and some data relevant to advanced users (e.g. installers) by clicking on the advanced setup button. Doing this will bring up the screen shown in Figure 13a.

  • Page 37: Screen Summary

    Selecting the advanced selection icon when on the advanced setup screen will bring up the advanced table selector screen shown in Figure 13b. From here one can navigate to groups of related user settings (i.e. the checkboxes shown in the top half of the screen) or collections of real-time data which can be helpful for setting up the machine or troubleshooting.

  • Page 38: Buttons And Switches

    The following sections describe the rest of the inverters HMI (e.g. the buttons and switches and status LEDs) and after that how to check the communication wiring and setup the inverter before turning on for the first time. Buttons and Switches In addition to the touch screen display, the Powerstar has a number of buttons and switches that the user can use to control the inverter.

  • Page 39: The Ac Source Led

    AC Source status Inverter status Battery status Figure 15. The icons used with the status LEDs. The following tables describe what the status LEDs indicate based on their colour and whether they are blinking or not. 4.3.1 The AC Source LED LED status Notes No (or very low) voltage is detected on the inverter’s source port.

  • Page 40: The Inverter Led

    4.3.2 The Inverter LED LED status Notes The inverter’s On/Off position is in the Off position but no other faults are detected. Green - Blinking The inverter is in Standby or Startup mode and is ready to start. Green - Solid The inverter is running.

  • Page 41: Testing The Communication And Signal Wiring

    Without a stable internet connection the inverters can not connect to MLT Portal and support from MLT Inverters will be hampered. If an external Current Transformer (CT) has been installed, then one needs to check that is installed with the correct polarity.

  • Page 42: Communication Between The Inverters And/Or Solar Chargers

    a) BMS Info b) BMS Info (continued) Figure 16. The BMS Info screen. Communication between the inverters and/or solar chargers If there are multiple inverters installed on a particular battery bank, then they need to communicate with each other over a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus and the "MLT Sync Bus". Before the machines are started up for the first time, the installer must check that the communication between all the machine(s) is working! This can be checked using a combination of the information shown on the HMI’s System Info screen...

  • Page 43: Confirm The Serial Numbers And Sync Messages On All Inverters

    ▪ click on the settings icon → then the advanced setup icon → enter the default password 1918 and then select advanced selection → click on the system info checkbox. Once on the System Info screen select the communication filter button and then scroll down until you see PS10H Count and Nomad Count as shown in Figure 17a.

  • Page 44: Testing The Internet Connection

    Testing the internet connection If the inverters are connected up to the internet the inverters will connect to MLT Inverter’s servers which enables remote monitoring vial MLT Portal. Any support will be dramatically hampered if the machines are not connected up to the internet. The internet connection should be checked as part of the installation.

  • Page 45: Testing That The External Current Transformer Is Wired In Correctly

    Figure 19. An example of MLT Portal’s version of the Dashboard Screen. Testing that the External Current Transformer is wired in correctly If installed, the external Current Transformer (CT) must be wired in with the correct polarity! If the source port of the Powerstar 10H is powered (i.e. it measures an in-spec AC voltage) and the Ext CT used setting is set to Yes, an additional icon will appear on the PowerStar’s HMI’s dashboard screen.
  • Page 46 ▪ turn on a fairly large resistive load (for example a kettle); ▪ you should see an appropriate increase in the external CT power as shown on the dashboard panel of the Powerstar’s HMI. Once all the communication and signalling wiring has been tested, you can move onto configuring the machine(s).

  • Page 47: Configuring The Machine

    Configuring the machine On first power up, the Powerstar 10H will have default factory settings. However, as the Powerstar 10H can be installed and used in a variety of configurations it is necessary to configure the machine (or machines) to match the requirement of the particular installation. As an overview the following questions need to be considered: ▪...
  • Page 48 Once you have found a setting that needs to be updated: click the edit button; use the up and down arrows to adjust the relevant setting; and then click the submit button. Finally, confirm that the setting has updated (the current value of the highlighted setting is shown just to the right of the setting’s setpoint number).

  • Page 49: Setting Up The Inverter-Ac Supply Interaction

    Setting up the inverter-AC Supply Interaction The Powerstar 10H can be setup as an Energy Management and Storage System where it dynamically adjusts how much power it draws from or exports to the AC supply. Some of the settings that relate to this will be set while setting up the battery control, i.e.

  • Page 50: Setting The Battery Type

    ▪ The voltage and capacity of the battery bank must be suitable given the specifications of the inverter (see section 1.3). ▪ When using a Li-Ion Battery Bank the battery bank must be fitted with a Battery Management System that communicates with the inverter(s) over a CANbus. On first setup the installer or user must: ▪...
  • Page 51 For both types of batteries, the user can choose how to use the stored battery energy for energy management. The user can choose to enable partial charging, inhibited charging, and peak-load shaving. The relevant settings are described in Table 9. Table 7.
  • Page 52 Description Variable Unit Charge Start Time Chg Start Time (HH) The preferred charge start time. For Lead-Acid Batteries, once the battery voltage drops below the charge enable voltage, a charge will be scheduled to start at the specified hour. Once a Bulk/Equalisation charge has been started, any peak-load shaving will only start if the battery voltage is 0.2V higher than the current battery charge stage's target voltage.
  • Page 53 Description Variable Unit Load Reconnect VpC Pb:Recon Load VpC The battery voltage (per cell) at which the inverter can automatically restart after it has entered Low Battery Mode (assuming there is some external charger, e.g. a solar charger, also connected to the battery). If grid-connected, once the battery voltage (per cell) drops below this threshold, the inverter will ignore any charge inhibit and peak-load shaving settings and only limit its charging based on the 'Source Size' and...
  • Page 54 Table 9. Battery settings found under the Battery Setup Menu relevant to both Lead-Acid and Li-Ion battery installations. Variable Unit Description Partial Charge Enable Partial Chg Ena If partial charging is enabled, then the inverter will stop charging once the battery SoC is above the 'Chg Disable SoC'. Charge Inhibit Enable Chg Inhibit Enable If charge inhibit is enabled then the inverter will limit (inhibit) its charging...

  • Page 55: Setting Up Alarms And The Auxiliary Relays

    If large changes need to be made to any of the settings, then it might be more convenient to use the “Advanced Setup” menu system. To access battery settings via the “Advanced Setup”: click on the “Settings” icon in the HMI’s navigation bar → click on the “Advanced Setup” icon →...

  • Page 56: Setting Up The Alarms

    Condition Description Warnings The alarm will trigger on a list of conditions each of which indicate that the user (alarm only) or installer might need to take some corrective action (for example, the machine’s internal temperature is high). A corresponding flag will be shown on the machine’s touch screen display.

  • Page 57: Setting Up The Auxiliary Relays

    6.4.3 Setting up the auxiliary relays The events and conditions that can be used to activate the auxiliary relays are described in Table 10. You can use the relay setup screen (shown in Figure 23) to select which conditions will activate the relay(s).
  • Page 58 Variable Unit Description Relay1 Hi Load Delay Relay 1 Control: High Load Delay The delay, in minutes, before engaging the relay on high load. Relay1 Ok Load Delay Relay 1 Control: Ok Load Delay The delay, in minutes, before disengaging the relay once the load is no longer above the high load threshold Relay1 Min Load Relay 1 Control: Minimum Load...

  • Page 59: Starting The Machine

    Starting the machine Before starting up the inverter for the first time, ensure that you have tested the communication between the machines and configured the machine (or machines) appropriately as described earlier in this manual. General Instructions One will normally startup/stop the inverter using its touch screen display (referred to here as the Human Machine Interface or HMI for short).
  • Page 60 start-up together in Stand-Alone Mode. Similarly, the stop command can be given on any one of the machines. POWERSTAR 10H USER MANUAL PAGE...

  • Page 61: Manual Controls

    Manual controls The user might find that they sometimes want to manually start a charge or activate one of the auxiliary relays. This can be done via the control screen as described in the following sections. Forcing a battery charge If the Battery Type has been set to Lead Acid, the user can manually force a charge to start before one of the conditions that would automatically trigger a charge have been met.

  • Page 62: Forcing An Auxiliary Relay To Turn On

    Forcing an auxiliary relay to turn on In some instances, the user might want to force a relay to engage (for example, they want the generator to start even though the logic used to automatically start the generator have not been met yet). This is possible using the Relay Control Menu: ▪...

  • Page 63: Glossary

    Glossary Alternating current. The utility, generators, and inverters can supply AC. The AC voltage to homes in South Africa is described as 230V AC 50Hz meaning 230V RMS that is alternating between a positive voltage and a negative voltage 50 times a second.

  • Page 64: Appendix A: Single Line Wiring Diagram

    Appendix A: Single Line Wiring Diagram POWERSTAR 10H USER MANUAL PAGE...
  • Page 65 PAGE PS3-UM-06.02.00 POWERSTAR 10 INSTALLER'S MANUAL...

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