Janosh

Hallo Marius Please let us know if you were able to get disconnected from the municipal grid, and also which municipality. With the ongoing thread of a costly basic charge, I am also considering the same, because I am not prepared to keep on subsidizing illegal connections, nor non-paying municipalities.

I agree with you. I still have not figured out the solution. The 80A isolator switch does not have overcurrent protection, and I don't think it's preferable to connect a SPD to that, unless I'm mistaken.

I have done some research on your proposal. It proof to be quite expensive, and not a viable option for me.

Hallo forum members With the heavy recent thunder and lightning, I have decided to put in an additional surge protector that will hopefully protect my whole house electrical system. I have a surge protector installed in the DB, but feel I need to do more, since the current setup did not provide sufficient protection, and I did suffer some damage. I now want to put in a surge protector where the line comes in to my house from the street where I have a 80A single pole master breaker. What type of surge protector should I be looking at?

Thanks so much for your response.

Hallo Coulomb I noticed you to be quite an expert on firmware updates, and was hoping you can assist me. I have a Mecer, SOL-I-AX8M2 inverter with the following firmware data, and would like to know if more recent firmware updates are available, and where to find them. Thanks for your help.

I have two Hubble AM2 batteries connected in parallel to my Meccer Max 2 inverter. I have noticed that the number of cycles, which in the beginning was both the same, has now gone out of sync, with the one battery at 533 cycles, and the other at 544. I have no idea why this would happen, as I seldom discharge the batteries beyond 50% SOC in normal day to day use. I am about 95% off grid, and grid power is only utilized when cloudy/rainy. I want to know if I can switch the battery at 544 cycles off to allow the other one to catch up on the cycles, and in doing so, change the charge amps on the inverter to 40A in stead of 80A, so that the single battery is not overcharged. Can this be done safely, and without damage to any of the batteries?

Yes. The feed from the combiner box to the inverter will be plug-n-play which will be installed on the trolley. This way you can unplug the whole system and move to another premises, at least taking the more expensive equipment with. By flipping the changeover switch on the secondary DB the premises will have normal Eskom to both essentials and non essentials.

Yes 100%. Each DB will have its own individual switch disconnector

No, they won't, as I will bridge these with a bus bar. The only one that will have a double cable is the SPD.

I think not too much, since the batteries will be in the bottom part, and they are by far the heaviest equipment

I hope someone will be able to help. I want to make use of a 4 pole MCB with overcurrent protection to split my DB board into non-essentials, and secondary DB. The secondary DB will feed power to the inverter, and also to non-essentials if the inverter is out of commission. Can I do it the way I indicated in the picture below, or will I have to make another plan. The reason for doing it this way is to not having a double 16mm2 cable to feed the sub DB and Non-essentials on the outlets of a 2-pole MCB. On the SPD however, I will have to double up on the 16mm2 cable to feed into the Earth leakage.

Hallo fellow DIY-ers I have recently stumbled upon a system provided by Solar and Inverter Warehouse as in the above picture. I am strongly considering designing my own system based on the same principle, but connection to and from the main DB board will have to be done in such a way, that I will be able to obtain a COC certificate. I will make use of two industrial plugs and sockets to connect the inverter and battery to the DB board providing power, and to connect to the grid. What are the pitfalls that I will have to be on the lookout for if I want to do the installation in this manner.

So I had Thula and his assistant Wellington from Power Guru to come do my DIY solar COC. Since I bought the house new in the 90's, I also asked him to do a full COC on the house as well. What a pleasant man. I can really recommend him. Him and his assistant were very professional and to the point. Thankyou Paul, for your post. It is not too easy to find someone willing to do a COC on a DIY installation. The outcome on both the house and the solar installation was passed with flying colors. I can highly recommend Thula and his team from Power Guru.

I have also now made contact with the Power Guru for a DIY installation COC. I will let you know the outcome when it is done

Thanks for this info!

Hallo everyone. I am in the process of obtaining a COC for my solar installation, and the one person I have spoken to, insists that the positive(+) and negative(-) DC cables running from the panels to the combiner box must be in separate conduits, and that + and - cannot run in the same conduit as I currently have. Now I have read though all conduit requirements pertaining to solar, and I have not come across this requirement in any document, unless I have missed it. Can someone more knowledgeable than this beancounter please shed some light on this issue and provide me with accurate information.

Hallo Janus I am still unable to sort out my RJ45 cable. Info about this topic seems to be very wishy washy, and I would rather not have this function, than cause damage to my batteries.

Blessings to all for the new year. May your own power generation comfort you in the darkness of load shedding, which is not going away soon. I have a Mecer Max II 8kW inverter, connected to 2 Hubble AM2 batteries, and is currently providing power to my entire house, including the geyser. I have not yet experienced any major problems, and the system seems to be working extremely well. I do however need some understanding of the control settings on the ICM screen, which coincide with the programming of the inverter settings 99 and 100. Can someone please explain this screen, and how it should be programmed correctly. What does: "Note: All cells need to be set" mean in terms of the programming thereof. I appreciate any assistance.

Thanks for your feedback Mate.

Ok, so it is not flashing. Should I set the inverter program 5 to LIB and not USE, and then the voltages etc in 26-28 as per Hubble instructions. Also, please confirm the correct pin layouts on the RJ45 cable please: I have it as: Inverter: Pin 6 = CAN-H, Pin 7 = CAN-L and Pin 8 = Gnd Hubble battery: Pin 2, Gnd, Pin 4 = CAN-H, and Pin 5 = CAN-L I wish they could make the instruction more clear....

Ok, so I have followed the instructions above, and are not sure what indication on the inverter tells me that the BMS is actually connected, as I cannot see any new icons indicating successful connection. There is a stable "BATT" icon however.

Thanks so much. I will give feedback once done. Are you happy with my RJ45 pin configuration?

I have not yet linked the BMS communication of my inverter to the batteries CAN-bus and want to do so now, because I was advised to do so by Hubble. Unfortunately, the Mecer manual is very vague regarding instructions as to how this is done, therefore my request to the forum for assistance. I have made up the custom made RJ45 cable with the following pin selections: Inverter: Pin 6 = CAN-H, Pin 7 = CAN-L and Pin 8 = Gnd Hubble battery: Pin 2, Gnd, Pin 4 = CAN-H, and Pin 5 = CAN-L The pin selection pins on the batteries is set Battery 1 Master, Battery 2 Slave, as per Hubble manual. How do I connect the cable, do I need to switch the inverter and batteries off, and then connect, or is it like a "plug-and-play" with the inverter and batteries on. Do I need to change any settings on the inverter? If someone has the correct steps to follow, I would so much appreciate your assistance.

Can you use the same cable for a Mecer 8kW Max II or do I need the custom build one?