ws-8-150-dc on solar charged batteries

[stevel]

hi, i have 3 solar powered security camera towers all using ws-8-150-dc switches, they have been up for 6 months during the summer and all was good until we hit some prolonged bad weather and the available sunlight was restricted. at first all was as it should, i got emails from the switches at the warning voltage, then devices were shut down as per the power plan, then the towers went offline.
next day, some towers came up, some did not. the router on the tower was active but it seemed that the switch was offline, the router is powered by the switch.
over the next 2 days the same thing occurred but different towers came up and ones that were up stayed down.
site visit, 2 towers up, one tower down - found the faulty tower power was all good on the PV and battery, the switch was running but only supplying POE power, no network activity off the switch. with a patch cable to the switch i could access the switch. the ports showed POE up, port DOWN. i powered off the switch and everything was fine after. firmware was 1.5.17rc2, i upgraded all to 1.5.25.

on the power tab, there is a warning to not let the switch go below 9.5v, there are settings for warning voltages and options to shut down ports to save power. there does not appear to be an option to shut down the switch at a set voltage and to fire it back up again. is there one for this switch and if not how best to manage this problem?

[stevel]

hi Support

this is the first time i have posted an issue, i was wondering how long it usually takes to get a reply to the post - thanks in advance

[sirhc]

From what I understand switches were running v1.5.17rc2

You have now upgraded to v1.5.25 - SMART

If occures after upgrade to v1.5.25 report back. There were MANY fixes since v1.5.17rc2, VERY OLD FIRMWARE.

TO LIST A FEW IMOROVEMENTS AND FIXES:
Hack fixed
Memory leaks fixes
SFP ports not coming back up after warm reboot fixed.
MANY MORE SEE RELEASE NOTES

[stevel]

thanks for the response - appreciated.
the units were installed December 2024 and were upgraded to the latest firmware at that time - or so i thought, but now on the current latest.
one tower went offline last night and came back up this morning.

re the management of the power and protection of the batteries, can you advise on how to shut down the switch at a given voltage and to power it up when an acceptable recharge voltage is reached. is that possible with this switch. i saw a post from 2015 that suggests this hibernate option was to be made available on this model switch but it does not seem to be in this firmware version

[sirhc]

The WS8 does not have the same hibernation as a WS-12-250-DC. There are many detailed posts on this subject, do a search of forums for more details.

For advanced hibernation you need WS-12

WS-8 was a cheaper solution and does not have a separate low powered CPU like the WS-12-250-DC and WS-26-500-DC and relies on the CPU in the switch core.

We shut down what we can on the SOC but your still powering the SOC in the WS-8 and thus need more power to keep it in quasie hibernation mode and continue to draw down battery bank much faster than a WS-12-250-DC or WS-26-500-DC.

If you want tuned suspension and real leather interior you have to purchase the higher end car.

[stevel]

hi - update - all 3 towers went offline last night, only 1 tower came back on line, going out to manually reset the 2 switches

[sirhc]

hi - update - all 3 towers went offline last night, only 1 tower came back on line, going out to manually reset the 2 switches

Are you running v1.5.25 and using g SFP ports that could be your problem?

If your losing power this often your solar is under powered or bad batteries.

Even good batteries should be replaced 3 to 5 years.

You cold have bad or insufficient panels and or charging controller.

Your switch/ site should rarely need to hibernate and in the case of using WS-8 set hibernation to a higher voltage to insure enough power to keep switch up and not drop out.

The WS-8 will continue to draw down batteries at a MUCH faster rate than WS-12.

If batteries drop below a certainevel they require 10 amps per battery to recover which i doubt you have. Thus set site to hibernate much higher voltage and or beef it up, clearly it is undersized.