Not all problematic modules have to be repaired or replaced at your own cost. It could be within warranty, yielding you a free replacement. However, most module manufacturers require additional information for you to claim your modules. The platform and mobile Field Link make it very easy to manage such a warranty claim.

The first step is to determine which anomalies fall within the warranty requirements. They're different for every module manufacturer, so be sure to check with them first.

For this example, we'll use the following warranty criteria:

The first criteria is something we can't check for you. Make sure your modules' warranty hasn't expired.

Next you'll want to filter on the anomalies that you could make a claim on. You'll have to create two separate filters in this case. You can learn more about filters here.

Let's start with this set of problems: Hot cells with a delta temperature of more than 20℃ under standard test conditions, caused by a physical problem in the module.

This corresponds to Hotspot or Multi Hotspot issues with a physical cause and a normalized delta temperature of more than 20℃. To generate the normalized delta temperature, you'll have to upload irradiance data. You can learn more about how to do that here.

Once you have your weather data uploaded to the platform, it will automatically calculate the normalise delta temperature for each thermal anomaly. So once you have done this you can open the Filters modal and set the following Filters for the Thermal Anomalies layer:

Each anomaly contains a remedial action that tells you and the technician the recommended action to fix this anomaly. There's a special Warranty action foreseen for managing warranty claims. If you're both managing a warranty claim and regular maintenance, it's best to set the remedial action to Warranty for all anomalies that belong to the claim, so you can easily find them again.

Use the Edit Properties bulk action to quickly change the remedial action to Warranty for all anomalies. You can learn more about how to use the bulk editing feature here.

Select the Thermal Anomalies layer, click the Select All button to select all anomalies and add a single edit for the Remedial Action property:

The next step is to create punch list items for these anomalies. Use the Create Punch List Items bulk action to quickly create them for all anomalies. Just click the Select All button and hit Create. Learn more about creating punch list items here.

You'll see a new punch list item was created for each of the anomalies in status To Do.

The important information is taken over from the anomaly: type, cause and remedial action.

We'll repeat the same steps for the second set of issues that we want to include in the claim. This one's a bit easier: Problems related to the diodes: open substrings, open modules and diode failures.

Apply the following filter:

Now change the remedial action and create the punch list items with the bulk actions. You should now see a clear overview of punch list items for your technicians to work on.

Now that you have a clear punch list, it's time to go on site and gather the additional information. For gathering additional information, Field Link is the best solution. Learn more about Field Link here.

Open the site you want to visit, configure the layers to your liking and use your phone's GPS to navigate to the correct modules. Tap on the punch list item to see the details.

Next, tap the pencil icon to edit the anomaly and add the serial number. You can connect a bluetooth barcode scanner to make this very easy.

Then, scroll down and open the Files section to add photos from the front and back of the module. If you want, you can also add any comments where needed.

Finally, edit the punch list item again to mark it as resolved. Repeat these steps for all punch list items and you're good to go to the next step.

Now that you've gathered all additional information, it's time to generate a report to send to the module manufacturer. Let's take another look at the reporting requirements stated in the beginning:

The claim must include the following information for each module:

On the Fuse platform, go to your operation and then select Export Report.

Use the Standard report and apply the following settings to include all information of the punch list items:

That's it! The perfect report will be mailed to you, so you can download it and send it to the manufacturer.