87 Dream

Hi Isetech I could be very wrong in my assumption but let me go ahead anyways. Please do correct me if so. You are trying to run the Solar Assistant through your laptop without the use of the Raspberry Pi? The minimum hardware is the Raspberry Pi Zero W. The recommended is the Pi3B. I have installed a few Installations with the solar assistant as the data logger & monitoring option. The only way which I am aware that it can function is through a Raspberry Pi. For most of my applications I have made use of the Pi4. I would advise against it though. The most compatible Pi is the Pi3. It still works however, with a few interesting sticky problems. This is also available through the online shop on their website. I have never bought this option & have Ras Pi s always as a stock item on shelf for sale. I then flash this onto a Micro SD card then insert this into the Pi. Then I follow the instructions as per the start device for the first time. I hope this helps somewhat to clarify the issues I think you are having. Please let us know how it goes. I can only recommend Pierre & Solar assistant as I have had good first hand experience with him & have had some technical problems addressed very professionally with him. Good luck. 87

Great project & will be very viable especially if sold off afterwards. We are currently specing & building a system with instantaneous amounts of power not to the same degree & not much backup for night ops as not required. We therefore only needed some backup power supply for low light days. More & more one ponders these type of projects you realise how financially viable the off grid power & independent production really is. Al the best with your project 87

So far for me it's been a revelation & made the Axperts quite clever & much more user intuitive. The Axpert is a great machine don't get me wrong but the human User interface is well in the dark ages of analogue computers. Networking them & being able to collect data & display this data has made it a very viable & affordable option in our market. No experience with ICC but I hear they do the same type of thing. 87

I can only speak about Solar Assistant. If some other guys can comment on the ICC or I think they changed name to another which I'm not sure about. https://solar-assistant.io/ 87

So what did the trick? To view watts you need to keep selecting up or down to cycle the view to display output watts. There is protection as @JaseZAmentioned so it will not explode in any case even before your bypass mode change. Glad u got sorted 87

Unless you can reach these I think you will always have your doubts. What is your plan if action with this unit? Will you try to repair or will you look to upgrade? I have never owned this very small type of inverter Model but was always inquisitive on their quality & longevity. How long have you had this unit & how close to its design limits did you run it? 87

At least your battery is still in working order. So not all is lost. Did you manage to check the fuses I mentioned earlier the 5 X 40A ones under the plastic shield material? 87

Then you have a single solution to run the inverter in standby mode with its switch in the off position. In this way it will keep your batteries charged & it will bypass & not run the electricity through. Another very obvious idea is to turn your automatic transfer switch or if you had a manual transfer switch installed to GRID. This is a CoC compliance requirement that you have a switch to isolate the inverter. Not sure on your install but it looks similar to this...With grid selected your DB box or essential loads are fed directly from Eskom & does not enter your inverter. The inverter will still remain powered though through the AC input breaker from your DB Box it just won't be powering the essential loads or backed up loads. I hope this helps you try to get some closure & get to a final solution. You are very right to have these concerns & are quite aware to not overload the inverter. Try these steps & see which ones work for you. 87

Hi again here is extracts taken out of a MAX manual, it should be similar in nature to the KING. I got my wires crossed. The mode I described above is called standby mode & line mode still uses the unit to get the current & energy through. However, think about it, the unit it just a glorified conductor in this situation. Because it's taking AC to feed AC . Only once you have the conversion of energy from a DC source to feed AC loads is the machine actually Inverting. In theory the machine can also be called a Rectifier because it has the ability to charge from AC sources to a DC battery. 87

Then what you have just described is called line mode. It works to use Electricity through the unit & will blend power according to what is available & also what is setup in option number 1. The only way to get into a bypass situation & I may be wrong, is to have the inverter turned off in its on/off switch & then it will just have the display on but then bypass. The King as well as the VMIII are very different to your older 2kW unit. They have blending power abilities. I have an older MKSII & it cant blend power. It just uses up to capacity what it has in reserve. If the load demand was higher than PV it would feed from the Grid or battery again depending on what the settings are in option 1. So it actually is not as efficient in operation. Do you have solar panels attached to this King or is it just a backup system? 87

Hi Jashwin, This looks like the VMiii or even a King? Which model did you install? If you scroll through the various up & down buttons you will find the exact load eg 900w or 0.9kw on the load indication. Don't worry it will not blow up. It has overload protection. It will warn you first & also if you overload it it will go into bypass mode. The only sure way to put it into bypass is to set menu option 1 into UTI. Then it will use Grid power for all loads except loadshedding will force battery. Otherwise SUB will blend power & use Solar if & when available. Nice upgrade on the 2kW unit much more robust & larger capacity. Enjoy it 87

Should you ever upgrade you will be very pleasantly surprised as was I. There should also be a good second hand market for your 5kw inverter. The market is quite open for the affordable upgrader whom wants to sell to recover costs for a bigger system. Similarly there are others trying to get in on a dime trying to get a bigger bang for their buck. 87

On closer inspection there are some what looks like 40A set of fuses near the top 5 capacitors...these are blade type auto fuses. Try taking a look at them. Sorry might be obvious but hey might be a blown fuse??? 87

Wow, she still looks in good shape. If you have a multimeter can't you see if there is still voltage on the battery terminals? Where are you based I know a repair centre to that can assist but only if you in Gauteng close to Randburg. If you elsewhere then I guess some closer self inspection of the unit might be needed. 87

They way I understand this post is that 10kw & 8kw by day & night respectively. The total demand will never go above 10kw so choose your choice of inverter system. You can upscale to 3 of these said systems in parallel so that you have the machines not working as hard for the given job so you have some longevity as well as redundancy. One unit working at close to peak on this job will be all your eggs in a single basket scenario which wouldn't be wise. Add solar panels PV to the amount of 15kw using multiple MPPTs so that you can feed the inverters to feed the loads directly during the day as well as charge the batteries with the excess power. By night the given storage will need some margin in capacity & also some margin for bad light days. Margin can be scaled for up to 4 days of reserves & then you have yourself the solution totally met. That equates to +-400kWh of battery storage. At this capacity level you can throw away the Generators. Your load is covered through PV & storage. Rent a Generator should you find it ever necessary. You will know after 2 days of poor weather & forecasts. Gives you time to plan a hired unit. Saves on costs. So you can scale any which way you like eg. 25 X 16kWh battery packs all connected in parallel via industrial grade busbars to your inverters. The type of battery storage capacity makes this mini grid status but totally scalable & possible. Such a battery storage centre would need a well designed system to keep the inverters halfway between the battery banks to balance the resistance within the storage units. Really not at all beyond the scope of what battery technology has readily available in the local market. The least complicated way would be a tailor made solution using the largest sized quality cells available & custom built enclosures. Companies in the off-grid mining industry in Africa are setting up & carrying out these exact type of operations daily. Their scales of operations are even higher. Mainly making use of old shipping containers with AC units inside to keep the batteries/ Inverters safe, optimum & easy to transport & then laying out the PV as a fixed built structure. 87