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!

That's impressive! Would you be able to recommend a BMS to work with my 2 X Mecer SOL-I-AX-5M invertors (circa 2015) and 2 X US2000 and 1 X US3000C Pylontech batteries? I don't trust the built-in BMS, for obvious reasons... And where do sell your batteries btw?

It seems that the warranty claim was forwarded to Pylontech China and refused on that side so I have the email address of the individual and have followed up with him directly. Is Segen the only importer of Pylontech batteries into South Africa? It would be interesting to see if there is another importer and if they are more sympathetic to these issues with their batteries?

Hi @Raj35 I have been working in the film and television industry for longer than I care to admit and I can tell you quality Lithium batteries are worth every penny. Right now I'm sitting with 7 camera batteries, 4 X genuine Sony batteries and 3 X generic. All 3 generic are swollen in just 3 years. Perhaps we as consumers need to take a much closer look at the quality of the lithium that goes into the battery as well as the ins and outs of the warranty provided.

Hi @Tinbum The invertor bulk charge setting is 53.2 V. Pylontech allows for a 0.8V margin so it should have stayed under 54V. All batteries are connected to the invertor via the CAN cables. Would you know how to pull the data from my remaining batteries? As you say it would be interesting to see if there were spikes on my remaining batteries and to see if they correspond to my failed 2. I am a proper newbie to all of this, not because I have no interest but because it was supposed to be a plug and monitor situation... If you have a link to the appropriate software and a "how to" guide I would be very happy to share the results.

Hi CarloB I'm so new to this forum I'm not even sure how to tag you correctly! The event data sheets were provided by Segen and as I'm off-grid and ignorant when it comes to all things Solar I can't offer any advice as to how to extract them. Perhaps another another member could advise? I would also appreciate any advise on how to do this as well as updating the firmware on Pylontech batteries.

A friend of mine had this system installed at his office the other week and is very keen to see how Segen handles my warranty claim.

Thanks for all the feedback, I have used the above observations in a response to Segen and will forward it once received. I took the extended warranty on these just in case but perhaps there is more money in sales than honouring legitimate warranty claims given the current situation here?

Hi there I have a rack of 4 X Pylontech US2000 Plus batteries that were installed in Feb 2018. They are connected to 2 X Mecer SOL-I-AX-5M inverters thru 48V battery fuses. Solar panel strings run via 6 fuses from the roof then to the PV BUS Bar, 2 X 145v. Backup power is a Honda 20i generator set to a 2amp input in the Master inverter. Program 26 on the inverter is set to 53.2 volts for bulk charging. In January of this year we arrived back from our Christmas/New Year break to notice the 2 batteries in the middle of the stack of 4 were not holding charge overnight. A visual inspection of them and I could see swelling of both units. The unit at the top and bottom are operating normally. We had to wait for the company we bought them from to open in the middle of January before we could log the fault. They were eventually sent to Segen Solar for assessment and were rejected for overcharging. However these dates on the the "Event Data" spreadsheet correspond with the time we were away and most likely when the batteries started to fail. They also occur when charging would not be possible given my property is north facing from a solar perspective and the generator is only used on overcast days. Could these voltage spikes be as a result of the battery cells failing and if so how could this be proved? I have attached the Event Data sheets if anyone would care to take a look and offer any advice. Any and all thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated. Stuart Event Data 0159.xlsx Event Data 4669.xlsx

Thanks again.

Great, thanks.