OzzyMozzy

Errr, so as I didn't have a sample with me I managed to buy the wrong caps... Also looking at the PCB I'm not sure if it is worth the effort, has a lot of scorching on it so maybe not worth it? I am also not sure how many of the caps (just C79?) needs the ceramic caps as it all just looks so messy. Thoughts? Time for a new inverter perhaps? And as usual, time is not my friend so any thoughts greatly appreciated.

I’m based in Pretoria but work in Joburg so will see what they have available. Thanks once again.

Hey, thanks for the advice, would you know where I could get the ceramic caps from locally and more importantly quickly? And yes, thanks to @Coulomb for his post on which caps to buy and what brand as I was in Australia earlier in the year and bought them according to his list. The man is a legend! And thank you for responding!!!

@Pilot My unit started to flicker on the weekend so I decided to open it up to try and fix it myself. Sure enough C79 had popped. It was repaired by a company about 18 months ago and I see that there are no ceramic caps between the pins. Could this have been the cause of the failure? And do I need to replace them or will a higher voltage cap be enough to compensate for them? The blown capacitor is also a YST brand btw. I am by no means an electrical engineer, far from it. Just trying to save myself a few bucks... Many thanks in advance.

On another note, I am thinking of transitioning away from Pylontech batteries but as I have 3 x US3000C which are 2 years old and 2 rather old 2000USB which are on their last legs and need to be replaced I am wondering if Pylontech are worth the money given the influx of different brands seemingly offering more Amps for your dollar. But I am not sure which brand would work with my Axpert 5kva hybrid invertors AND my 3 x US3000C batteries, would you have any views on this? Regards

Many thanks for this @Coulomb I was around in the days of Dick Smith Electronic shops and loved to spend time in there as a kid, oh well... I will look into the above but a big thank you for replying and also for helping me out a while back with my invertors.

Hi @Coulomb I am am in Sydney for a few weeks and I was hoping you might be able to direct me as to where to buy replacement Capacitors for my 2 X MECER SOL-I-AX-5M invertors. I suspect they might be a better quality here than I can get in South Africa? As am by no means electrically minded could provide me with the type and number of capacitors needed for a thorough refurbishment of one of these units please? Unfortunately I won't be coming to Brisbane but I imagine I can source them in Sydney. Many thanks in advance!

@Coulomb now that would be amazing 😂 @TheGhid I'm in Pretoria East. My wife is taking the unit to Mustek in Midrand as I couldn't find anyone who repairs them. Their service is pretty good tbh, had the same unit in there a few years back and they sorted it. On a side note, would either of you have a recommendation for your preferred brand of Hybrid inverter? Am thinking of replacing mine next year so your thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Hi there @TheGhid and @Coulomb I have 2 of the MECER SOL-I-AX-5M inverters, as luck would have it I'm overseas and my wife sent me the video attached just before midnight... Would this be the same issue and should I get it disconnected ASAP? VIDEO-2023-11-28-23-12-10.mp4

Hi there My advice would be to contact [email protected] and send him the data sheets that SegenSolar would have sent you to prove whether your battery was overcharging or not. Alternatively you can post the data sheets here and ask the forum to comment on them, that's what I did as I literally had no idea what they meant. There are some very clever, very generous people on here and they saved me a fortune...

Hi Jacques Ester Thanks for the tip, will definitely look into it.

Hi @Tinbum So after a lot of running around trying to find a suitable cable and getting nowhere I spoke to a technician at Mecer/Mustek in Midrand and he said not to use any cable as my inverters don't have a built-in BMS and it could cause problems if I did. He suggested I set my inverter to; Setting 02 - 40Amps Setting 05 - USER DEFINED Setting 27 - 52.8V Setting 29 - 46.5V I then emailed Pylontech China regarding this and this was their response; We recommend that you use an inverter that can establish communication with the battery. This inverter can work with our battery without communication, but you need to set the parameters manually. The maximum charging voltage of the battery should be set to 53.2V, otherwise, the battery will be overcharged and damaged. For US3000C, the cut-off voltage should be 47V and the max charge/discharge current should be 37A. I guess my question now is do I need a third party BMS to manage the communication between the inverter and batteries and if so which would be the most relevant if needed?

Hi @Tinbum Please see below: Are you using the batteries as a single pack? YES. I presume you have a master inverter and a slave inverter connected with an interconnecting communication cable. CORRECT. I don't know your inverter but looking at the manual it seems to use RS485 communication to the battery. RS232 Communication Port. If your using the US3000C as a master (which you should be) then your communication cable is wrong judging from a picture I found online for that cable. See attached. Have a look in the manual for the US3000C battery for the battery cable end. (pins 1 to 3 should not have any connections on them!). US3000C is the Master, I will try and source a new cable today or ask a friend to make one. With regards to dropping the Bulk charge to 52.5V what should the Float charge then be set to?

Hi @Tinbum Any advice would be greatly appreciated on the settings. Unfortunately I don't have the knowhow on extracting the data from my other US2000 units. Currently I'm using 3 x US3000C and the older 2 x US2000B. Dip switches set as per Solar Invertor Warehouse recommendations are: US3000C Master. Dip switch 1. ON. All others off. Rest of the batteries Dip switches are off. Invertor: 2 x Mecer SOL-I-AX-5M Program 02: 50 Amp Program 05: User defined Program 12: 48V Program 13: 51V Program 26: 53.2V Program 29: 46.5V The invertor is connected to the batteries via this cable: WIOSCAN35GL1 Regards

A big thank you to @P1000 and @BritishRacingGreen for taking the time to actually look at the data logs of my batteries. I contacted Pylontech China directly paraphrasing what the both of you mentioned and this was their response: "A few days ago, in the communication with Segensolar, there were two cases where this situation occurred. After re-checking the log, I think that the cells have been unbalanced before the overcharge data occurs. So I changed the warranty judgment and replaced the new batteries under warranty for the customer. We will continue to pay attention to similar cases and provide customers with warranty services." I was then offered 2 X US2000C batteries as replacements but decided to take a credit note instead. I think many people are correct in that to get any company in South Africa to honour a warranty is next to impossible BUT not impossible! They rely on customers not really understanding the technology and baffling them with multipage data logs in the hope that you just give up. Thank god for this forum and the people on it who willingly help out strangers, you literally saved me a small fortune! It is however a long, long process (nearly 6 months!) but worth exploring every avenue before throwing in the towel. I hope this might help some other members in their warranty claims as there does seem to be gremlins in those US2000 series batteries... Thanks again!