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5 hours ago, Mike Baker said:

Hi Johan, 

the booklet has 2 sets of warning signals that, just to confuse matters, use the same numbers.

An 'error 12' is to do with overheating, a "Fault 12" is leakeage or gfci

An "error 16" is low battery, a "fault 16" is gfci fault. Mine are definately faults as it has a triangle icon with an exclamation point

Most of my settings have been left on default

The system is set up on grid tie with back up 2. I have a 4 x 12v 260 amp sealed lead acid batteries set to charge at:60 A   Floating charge at:54 v   and I don't charge from the grid

Battery specs here: http://www.aasolar.co.nz/AA Champion AGM Deep Cycle Batteries.html  Battery is C12V260  Battery voltage Regulation is 13.6-13.8v

At first I thought the fault was weather related, it still might be for all I know. The system shuts down with a Fault 12 warning mainly in the mornings, and usually if there has been a heavy dew or overnight rain. Once we get to the afternoon it usually runs fine. The other day it was churning out 4.4 Kw and the current was 20amps so it seems to run well.

I restarted the inverter the other night to clear a fault 16 message. There was no PV being generated. I switched off the Solar PV DC isolator switch, the AC Isolator from the grid and the battery isolator. Then reversed the order to switch it back on. Instant fault 12 shutdown, even with no PV.

So I turned it all off and restarted with the PV switch off, it worked fine and I turned the PV switch back on later.

I then switched everything off and tried it without the AC from the grid, as if there was a grid outage. It was running fine until I turned the AC back on and then Fault 12 shut down.

I've included some screen shots of the software settings.

Cheers Mike

 

gridtie.JPG

parameters.JPG

Mike,

You need to consult the battery supplier to ascertain what the absolute minimum cutoff voltage must be for the lifetime you require from your batteries.

The settings which I query are the following:

ac setup of 240v. Google says NZ is 230v

frequency setup as shown. This may be far too wide as it affects the trips. Some overload controls actually use this (and not amps) to monitor overloads.

battery cutoff voltage 40v - divide this by 4 for a single battery and it may be far too low if it really happens. Members may care to comment on this as I have lithium batteries which charge diffently and easily. You need to measure the voltages with a multimeter the next time the inverter reports it as too low to verify what is really happening.

As for the gfci trip - does it mean you have excessive leakage to neutral? You need to eliminate this one by one. I suggest you measure the leakage from neutral to earth to see how much it is. You also make no mention that your gfci trips so it may be faulty. The number one reason in my experience for neutral to earth leakage is a wrongly connected neutral (you need to have a seperate neutral bar for the inverter which is not connected tomthe incomer neutral bar). If everything is connected right it should show zero volts. If you have a clamp meter it will show the neutral leakage in ma which should also be zero (my preferred way).

From the db photos I cannot make out anything. There is a vast difference between the ZA and RSA standards. Is your inverter db seperate from your house db? A wiring diagram will be of more use - this means you will have to trace all the wires between the different components. Without doing this you will be no closer to a solution.

I have just redone my db and it is roughly:

inverter connected to the mains circuit breaker via a 40a overload mcb bypassing the house gfci.

Gfci on the inverter output side connected to a 20a overload mcb with all the low amperage mcbs connected to the gfci.

I still think you need to enable the ac battery charging (but make it late afternoon).

Please post your system performance which shows where all the amps are going to.

Johan

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1 hour ago, Johandup said:

battery cutoff voltage 40v - divide this by 4 for a single battery and it may be far too low

= 10v which is a flat battery.
Flatter than flat.
Deader than dead.
Below 100% DOD.
Like with a Eskom shutdown
Like in when the rains failed to return 100 days after DayZero (Could not resist.)
... HIGK (Hier Is Groot K..)
 

At that volts, could also be a faulty battery ...

 

 

Dead.jpg

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Hi Guys,

than you for the input.

The 40v you're referring to is not enabled. I believe it is under the grid charging option. I have never changed the value as I only use PV to charge the batteries.

The error 16 was actually for a low battery, not GFCI fault as I thought.

I'm waiting to hear back from my battery manufacturers re settings.

Cheers Mike

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8 hours ago, Mike Baker said:

Hi Johan, 

the booklet has 2 sets of warning signals that, just to confuse matters, use the same numbers.

An 'error 12' is to do with overheating, a "Fault 12" is leakeage or gfci

An "error 16" is low battery, a "fault 16" is gfci fault. Mine are definately faults as it has a triangle icon with an exclamation point

Most of my settings have been left on default

The system is set up on grid tie with back up 2. I have a 4 x 12v 260 amp sealed lead acid batteries set to charge at:60 A   Floating charge at:54 v   and I don't charge from the grid

Battery specs here: http://www.aasolar.co.nz/AA Champion AGM Deep Cycle Batteries.html  Battery is C12V260  Battery voltage Regulation is 13.6-13.8v

At first I thought the fault was weather related, it still might be for all I know. The system shuts down with a Fault 12 warning mainly in the mornings, and usually if there has been a heavy dew or overnight rain. Once we get to the afternoon it usually runs fine. The other day it was churning out 4.4 Kw and the current was 20amps so it seems to run well.

I restarted the inverter the other night to clear a fault 16 message. There was no PV being generated. I switched off the Solar PV DC isolator switch, the AC Isolator from the grid and the battery isolator. Then reversed the order to switch it back on. Instant fault 12 shutdown, even with no PV.

So I turned it all off and restarted with the PV switch off, it worked fine and I turned the PV switch back on later.

I then switched everything off and tried it without the AC from the grid, as if there was a grid outage. It was running fine until I turned the AC back on and then Fault 12 shut down.

I've included some screen shots of the software settings.

Cheers Mike

 

gridtie.JPG

parameters.JPG

Mike, 

Your settings was to cut out at 42v for the pv side. As per the above settings it means it passed 100% dod.

A deep cycle battery is not a solar battery. My experience with them doing camping is they have a very short life time and they must not be discharged below 20% dod.

My 8.8kw Pylontech batteries cost 3x as much as my inverter and I could choose between having 4 of them or two batteries plus solar panels for their prize. They are managed by a built in bms which manages everything from safeties, temps, voltages, charging etc. As far as I am concerned it is a set and forget about it system.

Many contributors on the forum reckon this is the way to go as you must compare a 1000+ a bit life cycle solar battery to a 6000 life cycle lithium battery.

A deep cycle might give you 250 cycles - open for discussion on this.

Johan

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6 hours ago, Johandup said:

A deep cycle might give you 250 cycles

+-250 cycles on 50% DOD.

If lightly used, maybe 5 years and they are done.

Comparing apples with kinda apples, Trojan T105RE's deep cycle solar and forklift approved batteries can give you 1600 cycles at 50% DOD and 4000 cycles at 20% DOD, without breaking the bank too badly when compared to 12v leisure so-called "deep cycle" batteries.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/7/2018 at 4:15 PM, The Terrible Triplett said:

1600 cycles at 50% DOD and 4000 cycles at 20% DOD, without breaking the bank too badly

I think this is where the Pylontechs are coming in. We're at the point where a good set of Trojans cost the same as a comparable (mostly) Pylontech rack.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 7/02/2018 at 9:08 PM, Johandup said:

Mike, 

Your settings was to cut out at 42v for the pv side. As per the above settings it means it passed 100% dod.

A deep cycle battery is not a solar battery. My experience with them doing camping is they have a very short life time and they must not be discharged below 20% dod.

My 8.8kw Pylontech batteries cost 3x as much as my inverter and I could choose between having 4 of them or two batteries plus solar panels for their prize. They are managed by a built in bms which manages everything from safeties, temps, voltages, charging etc. As far as I am concerned it is a set and forget about it system.

Many contributors on the forum reckon this is the way to go as you must compare a 1000+ a bit life cycle solar battery to a 6000 life cycle lithium battery.

A deep cycle might give you 250 cycles - open for discussion on this.

Johan

So it turns out that I've been duped,

 the inverter that was sold to me as an Infinisolar super 4k, suppled with the infinsolar manual and SUV certs for that model is not what I paid for.

I have something called an EASun IGrid SS 4kw, that has not been approved in NZ. So I guess my install is completely illegal. Has anybody heard of these inverters before?

 

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Hi all,

I'm back with more silly questions.

The inverter manual quotes a "Max. PV array open circuit voltage of 145 VDC (voltage direct current?)

Working out open circuit voltage for my panels, I come up with 368 Voc and my inverter trips when my "PV Input Voltage" gets to around 300 v.

Have I completely oversized my panels? I'm running 2 strings of 9  x 250w panels in parallel?

Thanks for your time

Mike

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Hi @Mike Baker,

I think somewhere there is a mixup.

You may have been supplied the wrong manual. the Voc max = 145 V, is a typical parameter on the Infinisolar V series, as they are based on the Axpert range, and thus share the same MPPT's.

The specs for the Infinsolar Super 4kW is :

Nominal DC Voltage / Max DC Voltage = 360 / 580 VDC

Start-up / Minimum Feed-in = 116 / 150 VDC

MPP Voltage range = 280 - 500 VDC

From your previous screenshots, that is how the inverter is setup by default. Probably need a factory password to change those, so I wouldn't play around with this. The supplied factory software have an order of magnitude more settings that from the LCD panel. Must admit, I've never used it, but may need to install it to figure out what's wrong with my installation:-(

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Thanks Sidewinder,

you called it right, I had 2 manuals on my laptop and I was reading from the wrong one. Rookie mistake.

I have another random question for anyone who can help.

On the "Solar Power" software, under parameters, my settings have "Parallel for Output" enabled. I'm only running one inverter, so assumed I should change the setting to disable.

Whenever I do, there is a click as the settings are changed, and then it shuts down with the "fault 12" message that has been causing me so much grief. This will happen regardless of day or night, generating PV or not. I have contacted my supplier and even asked him if it could be a firmware problem as I'd heard that a lot of random bugs were fixed with new firmware. I'm still waiting (several weeks later) for an answer.

Thanks to everyone for your time and your patience.

Cheers

Mike

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I think that's what is called a dry joint in electronics parlance.

Off topic, but for those also into cars, it is quite common on older VW Polo/Golf MK1 models with EFI. The Fuel pump relay tends to develop dry joints.

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On 14/03/2018 at 10:28 PM, fran_pascualin said:

Hi.
I received yesterday news of my 4k, they ask me for more photos, in addition to the firmware to correct the error 12 and 36
, the only thing that I dare not install anything until I have both repaired and know that I have a reservation.
attached photo of the message.

 


best regards

Captura de pantalla (5).png

Hi Francisco,

do you know what version of the firmware MPP Solar have sent you or how old it is?

I have a "Reflash" tool that says it was created Feb 14 2016. Surely there is a newer version.

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  • 1 month later...
On 2018/05/11 at 10:10 AM, fran_pascualin said:

Good morning!
A question:
How long did it take to send you the plate from the technical service?
It's been a month since they said the engineers were testing it.
And since December with her broken.
Best regards.

There is obviously a big difference between how we operate here in Africa vs Europe.

We do not do this stuff the do it yourself way.

I am baffled.

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  • 2 months later...

I too am struggling with an install producing fault 12 - leakage current exceeds the limit on a 4kW Super Inverter. Our inverter output neutral is separate from the grid tie input neutral. Had a batch of 4kW supers (at least 3 or 4) producing an E7 error. So far, not impressed with the reliability of this product. As others have mentioned, I too feel like Voltronic are using the public as Guinea pigs to test their new product. 

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Everybody still happy with their units after its been fixed?

On 2018/07/24 at 7:30 PM, Nicholas said:

As others have mentioned, I too feel like Voltronic are using the public as Guinea pigs to test their new product. 

I have only returned my units this week for the hardware and firmware updates, but was informed that Voltronic has stopped distribution of these models. They are still selling the 5Kw and there is a few 4Kw still available from shops in SA, but seems no new ones will be released from the factory.

I was glad to hear from Paul at Full Circle and a lady at another Solar company that Voltronic is indeed very supportive and that they are doing their part in supplying what is needed to solve this issue. I am glad they didnt just leave the distributors to pull the fat from the fire....

Voltronic has made a fair share of boo-boos up to now, and in the back of my mind I started loosing confidence in them, but I have the units and Voltronic did assume responsibility, so I guess I will give them the benefit of the doubt and see how the units perform when I putt them back . 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

Eskom.PNG

With Eskom playing this game again I can not thank Paul at Full Circle Solar and his team enough for the speedy fixing of my Inverters. They are back on the wall, connected, and produced their first 8Kwh for the day...

I was a bit worried when switching them on , but was surprised to see how  quiet the syncing and startup were. Totally different from previous startups.  

Edited by Jaco de Jongh
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@Peter Topp @Johandup or anyone else running these inverters in parallel,  have you noticed that one takes care of charging the battery's as long as the current is  still below maximum allowed  charging current? I have seen that one inverter produces more than the other every day and when i looked into it, i saw its because only the one does the charging although the settings on both are the same. 

Is it the same with your setups? 

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