GreenMan

Awesome, thanks Coulomb. Yes, it is the 145V with removable LCD display that needs to be updated. Current inverter versions are 71.92 and 02.40. So, would you recommend I update to your fully patched firmware pair vs the factory versions? If I remember correctly, one needs to update the Display (MCU) before updating the Main (MCU)?

What are the latest firmware versions for this inverter? Where can I download them?

Hi What are the latest firmware levels for Kodak 5.48 OG Plus? I need to get 2x units to the same firmware levels so that they can be connected in parallel.

Is this BMV still available?

Samsung cells are the best, IMO. But they do come at a cost. Try Samsung 18650 3500mA 3.7V Lion Battery - Micro Robotics, INR18650-35E

Anyone have any Hoymiles MI-600 micro inverters for sale? Or even a MI-1200. Two of my MI-600s were taken out by lightning. Ellies were the local Hoymiles distributor, but Ellies are no longer in business ☹️ Location - Jhb Please PM me if you have some that you wish to sell.

I got a quote of R6440 incl VAT from Electrolux for the Elon 100 unit.

Johnno M. Where does one buy them from?

No need to go overseas 😀. Available locally from Geewiz. Emporia Vue Gen 2 Energy Monitor - with 8x 50A Emporia Current Monitoring Sensors - GeeWiz

Thanks Stepp, yes got some 5Ah ones from them and their capacities measure close to that.

Hi DMAC Where is your friend based? How much does he want for it?

This graphic is from the looooong thread on mybroadband.co.za discussing these Mecer inverters. Speaks for itself!

Yes, it will work. I have a 12V 100A LiFePo4 connected to a 720w Mecer inverter. However, the charge switch MUST only be set to 10A and not 20A. If you do that, the inverter will eventually fail. This is well documented in the mybroadband thread. Other small catch is that if you drain the battery enough, then the battery BMS will turn off the battery. When the power comes back the inverter won't turn on as there is no battery voltage and hence cannot start charging the battery. Solution is to use a voltage source that is high enough e.g. 13.8V and connect it momentarily to the inverter battery terminals. This will wake up the BMS and allow the inverter to turn on and charging to commence. For safety I only use a power supply that is isolated e.g. ye olde transformer based psu. Yes the Mecer does charge the battery at below the ideal 14.0V but so far so good and if necessary I will hook up a 14.0V (isolated) PSU to the battery to let the BMS balancer do its thing. 14.2 V is probably even better.

How much you looking for and where are you based Nic ?

Item Wanted: 32700 LIFEPO4 6000 mAH cells Desired Age: New Location: GP There is a chap who lives in Rietfontein who stocks and sells these. Does anyone perhaps know and have his contact info?

I got a 2kW (bolt on type) element from Builders Warehouse a year or two ago - for Builder Warehouse brand geyser. I see they are still available - Buy Geyser Element 2kw Spiral WP | Builders They also have the screw in 2kW version - Buy Geyser Element 2kw Boss WP | Builders If you are going to do this, check the sacrificial anode and change it at the same time. On mine i also changed the gasket between element and geyser. It is great having less load on the inverter albeit that it takes longer to heat the water.

That is correct and normal operation. That Mecer inverter uses the voltage to determine whether to turn on the fan during charging, not the current draw. So, the voltage is high enough for the fan to not turn on, but the lithium battery is still being charged as you have noted. You have correct set the max charge current to 10A. If you had set it to 20A then the higher charge current without fan would have led to it blowing up. I have taped mine up with tape to ensure that nobody inadvertently selects 20A charge current. On other forums they suggest adding in a 12V PC fan to cool the unit when the built in fan does not run.

An update on this ongoing saga. After the unit's firmware was updated, the SOC display does not go into a spiral of reducing and reducing. However now with an 80W load, the SOC goes down from 100% to 0% in 30mins 😠. I suspected that the SOC display is still broken and ran the unit with the same 80W load. Even though the display showed 0%, the unit ran for 8 hours until the test was stopped. So, this shows that the LCD display was NOT fixed properly. Pretty poor show from Mustek, especially after the Mustek technician said he had tested it! Anyone have this problem with their units after it was "fixed" at Mustek ? Or with the fix for the Kool Energie unit ?

Update: As per my earlier post from about 2 weeks ago, Mustek updated the firmware on my in-law's Mecer unit. This after some confusing emails from them saying that a PCB had to be replaced as well. From the posts about the Kool Energy unit we can safely say that it is just a firmware update that is required to fix the problem. So far so good, the SOC is now displaying correctly. Glad this is now no longer a problem as the units look good and function well. As do the Kapa Energie ones with very similar spec - 1kW pure sine wave inverter and 1.2 kWh LiFePo4 battery. When the warranty runs out, a good upgrade would be to add another 24V (8S) LiFePo4 battery in parallel to the battery already inside. Has anyone opened their unit up to take a look inside ? If so, please can you share some photos.

The specs do look good and with the claimed cycles/lifetime it makes the price attractive - MAGNETO-SUPERCAP-RACK-MOUNT-BROCHURE-v3-vis.pdf - Google Drive PS don't be confused, LOL, the brochure has a mistake. Shift down the rows in the 1st column 😀

PM sent.

Yes that is why the majority of inverters are 48V.

To go lithium is a no brainer! I am seeing many lead acid batteries that are failing before 12 months use. This weekend I capacity tested a friend's Deltec "Deep Cycle" 657D as it was failing (after 9 months use). The battery measured 34.5AH at C/10 discharge rate. I am guessing that the battery was discharged regularly below 50% SOC and that caused the battery's early demise. Unfortunately, the majority of those trolley inverters don't allow you change the inverter's low voltage cutout setting in order to preserve the battery. Also the float charge voltage is a tad low at 13.5V. Going 24V with lead acid batteries presents another problem - the batteries can become unbalanced, and one should use a balancer such as the HA02 which you used. The Pylontech UP2500 works well - I have one. Just remember that a single UP2500 can output only a max of 56A continuous. At a nominal 24V this equates to 1.3kW.

PM sent to Noobie.

I was informed this morning by my contact at Mustek that they have a fix for the units that entails a (new?) PC board and software update.