# Anyone ever troubleshoot a Trace C-40



## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Might need to post this in the Alternative Energy forum....

My Trace C40 Charge controller has died... I've disconnected it from the system, and opened it up and can't find any fuses or user exchangeable parts...

Anyone have any experience? Good or bad?

New ones are pricey... of course, without it, my system will overcharge the batteries and boil em away, unless I monitor them continously, which isn't going to happen...since I'm currently On the grid.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

You'd need a pretty fancy test bench to work on it.
And no I've not heard of a end user repairing a smoked unit.
I have one on the shelf never used, I have been installing the Outback MX60's
And I'm not shure about Zantrex's repair policy's


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## lodestar (May 19, 2005)

Hey...trace is xantrex now...here's their support page on the internet.

The C40 is solid state electronics, so I don't know if there's much you can do...also, you didn't mention what it's doing, or not doing.

xantrex support page 

good luck


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Thats my point.
Not many folks around who can repair those circuit boards.

Like it or not, but most of the time when some thing like that smokes, . . .oh well, . . .time for a new unit.
-----unless there is any warrenty time left-----


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

It never smoked...  I can speak from experience...I have accidentally smoked my share of electronics in the past.

After going on the grid, I kept my solar array going, as backup. Of course, the batteries were always charged. So I'd turn the array off with a master breaker for up to three weeks at a time, flip it back on and let the batteries charge back up for a few days, then repeat.

One day I went in and the l.e.d. had stopped blinking (on the controller)...checked the battery voltage and it wasn't fully charged... so apparently it just 'stopped' working... No lightning stikes or surges or crossed wires...

I immediately took it out of the system, opened the box and found no fuses or anything 'checkable', so figured it was one of the solid state parts...

any practically speaking, it'd be cheaper for me to just buy another one, instead of learning how to disassemble and find out which transistor/ic circuit, etc., was faulty...


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## lodestar (May 19, 2005)

Why did you keep kicking off your pv supply coming in? The charge controller should keep your batteries from getting over charged...and flooded batteries lose charge just sitting there. May as well keep them topped off.


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## 12vman (Feb 17, 2004)

I have a C-40 and it did something silly a while back. I looked at it early in the morning and the L.E.D. was on solid green. I knew this wasn't right. I disconnected the positive battery lead and gave it the big reset and it straightened up..

The only reason it messed up that I can think of is the night before I was working some DX on my 2-way radio and the high level RF made it it go nuts..

Have you tried to reconnect it since you've had the power disconnected?

To Add..

If there isn't any power getting to the controller from the battery it will appear that it's dead. Before you took it out of line, Did you check for voltage at the battery connections at the controller? If the controller doesn't see a battery it won't work. Check the circuit that your breaker is in. Maybe it's open or the breaker is bad. Is there a fuse in there?


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

thanks 12vman... 
why didn't I think about that...

seeing as a new one is ~130, will hook it back up, and recheck everything...

fuses included...although I'm thinking that there was voltage from the battery...but still, it's worth fiddling with some more.

thanks
phil


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## 12vman (Feb 17, 2004)

Lodestar is correct also. If your controller is set right, There's no need to disconnect from the battery..


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

And by flipping the input breaker on and off you are hitting it with a bit of a spike (pv open circuit voltage) each time.
Better to leave it connected and let it do its job.


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