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Henry2501

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Everything posted by Henry2501

  1. 100% you need another panels. We always recommend a minimum of 4 panels in series on all axpert models. The only one that is slightly better is the Axpert max 1, 7.2kva , for some reason they have a mppt controller that starts up at 90volts. up to 450volts. I love these units but most people dont go for them they want the 5kw units.
  2. One Pylontech UP5000 should be set to 1000 then the next one should be 0000, simple. Then the MAstyer (1000) should have a network cable the short black one that came with the battery connected to the (LinkPort1) to the slave battery (LinkPort0), switch the slave battery on first, Then the MAster battery, Press the little red button for 3 seconds and all the batteries will sync. Thats it. Also leave the battery terminals connected together for an hour or two without being plugged in on the inverter to equalize. Leave both batteries on and linked.
  3. Like its been said here. 10 years down the line and now the installer is blamed. Thats like saying i bought my car 5 years ago never serviced or checked it. now the engine is broken. What now. Is the dealer responsible. please man. I have seen installations done by people that have all the new green cards and so called qualified but people will always take a shortcut to make more money. Some installations look beautiful till you take the covers off, Open all the DB boards then look at it. My 5 year old son can make better connection than that. Dont be fooled by the outside but look on the inside you will find a different outcome. What cables are used. Quality and thickens of cables that is used. How the connections are terminated. Just twisted and shoved half assed in to the socket or is it nicely crimped and inserted without extras hanging out and looking need. have they what i call tighten and tug on the cable to make sure its nice and tight in there. Here a simple example. Most household inverters aka Sunsynk, axpert, Dye, Solis etc have an mppt controller that can handle a dc voltage of between 90-500volts, yes sunsynk start at 120 ok!! but 99percent of all the installation i come across has a SPD of 600Volts or 1000volts on dc side. Its fits the code of having a SPD well done you pass. Great now what its all in code. NO NO NO You need to install a SPD of 500volts preferably 450volts max to protect the Inverter of a surge of electricity. By the time the 600volts spd has grounded the connection the intverter mppt is already blown. See how clever that was. But the SPD will protect me from lightning. ALSO WRONG, NOTHING can protect you from a direct lightning strike. NOTHING !!!!!! Lets hear the clever comments on how it can. Please reply. Do i have my greencard- no - have i been doing installation on solar for many many years - yes - Do i do it the right way. I surely stick with code and make sure the quality of my work is in such a way i can pitch up years later and be proud of my work. My clients are protected and so am i. Quality cable and correct thickness is used to make sure no losses can occur or minimal losses for the clever comments. but i dont go use 4mm2 cable on a roof that is running 6000watts in solar running just over 300volts at 16-19amps. But the cable specs say it can handle 40 amps in an open environment maybe for a short time. Go stick you hand on that 4mm2 cable and feel how hot that cable gets. On a nice and sunny day pushing full load the cable heat up become very hot to the touch. Over years the cable will start degrading causing more heat and causing fires. I can go on forever about the bad workmanship i come across but that's just two simple examples. Any person can do a installation its pissy but doing it correctly is another story. Go get your so called green card guy with a flashy certificates , 50 workers and bullshit overcharging you by a 50-80%, nice flashy bakkie and so on, hes must do good work. Look how well he is doing YES YEEEEEES MUST BE. Bullshit baffles brains. I guess thats the secret in South Africa. But good workmanship is a sin. All the code is most of the time dumb. If you as an electrician walk in and just stick your hand in the db board without checking if there is power you are a loose head. All the stickers are there for when another electrician comes there so they can see the inverter is connected to the db board. Well if you cant recognize that there is an inverter in the same area as the db then you don't deserve to be called an electrician. These things are all common sense. like the one person said here always check if there is power and double check and check again. Then continue with work. As an appy that is what you are taught. especially when it gets to 3 phase. that shit burns....... and kills
  4. VOC 47 ( NOCT) Vmp 39 ( NOCT) so four panels are = 156 we get this constant voltage out on the screen but wattage is all over. On a full sunny day yesterday- sun all day no clouds we got a measly 1.1kw out the solar panels. That should have given the client atleast 5-6 units. not 1.1. Thats unexceptable. I know where you going as the inverter mppt controller only kicks in at 125Volts but we also used a 5kw VMiii on the same panels and we get full Solar capacity it also runs at 120-450Volts DC mppt. ( I did all the tests just to make sure its nothing on the installation) Its basicly the same mppt controller just a bigger unit. Everything points to the Inverter. GC solar said its not their responsibility to update the firmware on all the units they import. Another bull excuse. Then we said please give us the firmware, then they said no if we update it then the warranty is null and voided. I then contacted the CEO but hes just avoiding my calls now. So basically i have a unusable Inverter and i am taking it further with GC Solar. They are a useless company. Now they want me to wait 14 working days for one of their useless technicians to come out and try and update the firmware. where they should have a service desk to quickly update it. Seriously. its 10minutes. sorry i am ranting just a bit frustrated.
  5. Just remember please clean the inverter out often depends on how much dust you have. I wipe my side vents at least 2 or 3 times a month. When i walk in to the garage and see dust on them i clean it. Then also open the inverter once a year and blow off any extra dust inside out.
  6. yes we have experienced this with modified inverter that we come across. Especially the axpert inverters. If you look at the bottom where the fans is you can see a lot of small parts components. I came across 2 inverters already where people turned the fans around and those small components eroded from the forced air on them. That also one of the reason i did not do the fan mod. Did not want to go in to this as some smart people here will probably say i am talking nonsense as electronics have a coating on to prevent erosion but thanks for bringing it up.
  7. I run my 3kw element on the Inverter 8kw, I upgraded it from a 2kw element found it worked quicker and better. 2kw took way to long. IF solar is available i manually control it to run during the day. Sun = free energy so why not take advantage of it. That is if the inverter and solar you have installed can handle the load. On average my geyser takes about 30-45 minutes to heat up to 60. So why not. Every cent you can save on eksdom side why not. Even if she uses 2000watts of the batteries for 30-40 minutes im not faced as there is normally enough time and sun to charge it up again after the geyser gets to temps. Also add a blanket around your geyser. I went cheap and got some underfelt(the stuff you put under carpets grey looking stuff) and wrapped the geyser in that 3or 4 layers cant remember. Works better than these stupid geyser blankets hold heat much better now. Just remember to switch it off on very overcast days as it will drain the batteries very quickly. I am 95% offgrid so my eksdom is off most of the time. But sometimes i have to tuck my tail between my legs and ask for some power from the big man then i will switch my incoming eksdom on.
  8. I also have a Axpert max 1. I removed the filters long time ago and manually open the inverter once a year and blow it out with a blower. Temps stays nice and low even in summer. Those filters slow the airflow down so much. I get they there for dust, but if the unit constantly over heats whats the point not going to last long in any case. Inverter also runs much quieter as it does not need so much fans constantly running. My fans are still the original fans still facing down. I was contemplating turning them around but just the filter delete made the inverter better. My 2 cents. see image for temps the last 3 months.
  9. So far we did one installation of these VMiV 3600 inverter a growcol branded unit from GC Solar. Client upgraded from a Must inverter to this unit. Nothing but problems so far. The MPPT controller is so unstable and never reaches the peak performance of the Solar panels. Wattage jumps around like a mad rabbit. From 600 instantly drops to 0 then jumps back to 300watts. its very unstable. The Panels 4x415Watt panels get on average only 350-600watts out of them. Connected a different inverter and full peak is there so its inverter related issues here. Also had the inverter at my own place to try and test it same symptoms, cant get it stable on my old panels thats been running for almost 8 years. Contacted GC Solar. They have no clue. Asked for a firmware file also cant assist. Asked for a refund not interested, their technical staff is so uneducated they don't even know how to load the firmware. Asked them to please get me the firmware they just answer with all sort of excuses and delay tactics. My client insisted on this inverter so now they blame me for being useless. Growcol does not answer their emails either. I am sure its firmware related as i have seen this before but nothing from the GC Solar or growcol. logged in via Solar assist software it shows firmware version 61. Sidenote. I agree with one user here why do we need RGB on an inverter. I myself run a Axper 7.2kv and disabled the Stupid and anoying RGB light. So dum and not adding any function to the inverter. This is only my second time i delt with GC Solar and i would not recommend these people. Sorry to say but they have no clue what they doing. I should have known when you walk in by their Warehouse and they in the dark during load-shedding. Could not even print a basic invoice. They were the only people with this inverter so had no choice. Il rather stick with my other suppliers thank you. Forgot to add its a VMiV 3.6kva Growcoll inverter so not sure if the firmware on this page will work but might be not worth testing as GC Solar might not swap the unit out if its the wrong firmware.
  10. Hello @Coulomb no this is a brand new inverter ( exact same model) with the original 72.01 firmware, but now the battery doesn't charge again. Thats why i upgraded the previous inverter firmware with the new firmware of 90.06 but then it failed after 60 days F90 error. ( Should i upgrade again DO you think) So This Inverter is brand new - Original Firmware as from Mustek (Mecer) does not charge the battery unless you put it in grid only mode. then solar will charge the battery but then it wont feed the extra solar in to the house. Then you have to set it to SUB mode then it will feed power to the house but battery wont get charged. Also does the lose solar for no reason what i now call a bug. Yesterday on the new inverter i had to restart 5 times before the solar started working again. The exact same issue as the old inverter did in the beginning. Battery is also set to only charge of the Solar.
  11. So i got on the roof today and removed the Earthing cable from the Solar panels because the book implies no earthing of the solar panels. I have MONO panels so does not apply to that maybe there is a grounding earth leak somewhere. But i will monitor it.
  12. Hello @Coulomb I loaded the firmware from the forum the 90.06 under the download link and exactly 60 days later F90 error. Already the New inverter stopped feeding Solar in to the house, had to restart 5 times then all of a sudden its feeding solar in to the house again. These Mecer units are nothing but problems as far as a i can see. This is is doing the exact same as the previous unit with the 72.01 firmware. Stop charging the battery and stops feeding power in to the house. When i loaded the 90.06 she was a bit more stable but still did it, but now i am scared. Here you can see the inverter drops the solar for no reason then i have to restart constantly till she works again. I ran my old inverter my 5kv one for the last week and it never did any of this stuff just worked out the box. I got it back from the person i sold it to as he did not pay me. This happens at random and Mustek keeps telling me its not the inverter. I dont know what to do anymore. as i paid R22000 for this thing. Please see the images attached. you can see the solar just drops the 04/06/2022 is a perfect example of how the solar drops then pumps then drops then its like in perfect frequency. The guy at mustek sayd but than can just be clouds. Perfectly timed clouds must be.
  13. word of Warning to people with a Mustek Max 8kw inverter the one with the rgb led in front the straight RGB light not the round one. I have one of these Mustek inverters and it has been in twice to replace the Main controller. Eventually i asked for a new inverter and they did give me a new one as the old one is now only 5 months old. WORD OF WARNING IF YOU HAVE A M3C3R MAX INVERTER Dont load the new firmware on it as after exactly 60days mine said F90 error. MIGHT HAVE BEEN JUST MY BAD LUCK I DONT KNOW. The firmware was loaded on the 12/4/2022 and on Sunday the 12/06/2022 F90 message appeared and nothing wanted to respond or work and no power to the house. I now have a new inverter but to scared to change the firmware to the new firmware as this one came with the same as my previous inverter fans are always on and very noisy. I just installed the new inverter again and will see if this firmware works correctly as the previous one did not charge the battery correctly. So time will tel. @Coulomb if i am wrong please correct me but now i feel like must3k might be importing Voltronic ripoff units or am i just being paranoid now. I remember reading somewhere on the forum about the F90 error. THIS inverter has been nothing but a nightmare. Driver Axpert Max Firmware version 72.01 Model number 44 Machine type Off Grid Topology Transformerless Max parallel units 9 units Nominal battery voltage 48.0 V Expected AC input voltage 230.0 V Max AC input current 34.7 A Max AC output current 34.7 A Max AC output power 8000 W Max AC output apparent power 8000 VA
  14. GoodDay. I am also from CapeTown South africa. And yes you can definitely see less production this year. To my small brain its definitely more pollution in the air. In 2020 when we were in lock down the air quality was a lot cleaner so no smog in the air the production on my solar panels were off the charts. I was getting over 2200 watts from my 1600 watts string panels. 4x405 Mono Panels halve cell. now 1000watts on average, My 4x545watts string is only producing 1600watts on average so all down facing north . Yes we always have smog especially now the last couple of weeks with very little wind. You can see even the sun looks a bit yellow/brown some days. That why the day after rain production ramps up again. Drive up to durbanville and look back towards capetown. From strand all the way to westcoast all you can see is a thick smog layer. Horrible. Cape town is know for its bad quality air especially now when the wind is not howling. if you fly you can see the smog all over the lower cape town area basically all the way from somerset west to almost as far a Yzerfontein the whole of bottom corner of the western cape is covered in smog. So sad, i hope we get lots off rain soon to clean the air. This is all just based on my opinion and offcoarse i can be wrong
  15. Hello Coulomb Thank you for your great assistance like always. I tried everything in the end and nothing worked. Took the unit in to my local mustek dealer and they replaced the main controller board as no firmware wanted to load on to it.T^hey even tried many times. new board now running 46.05 It seems to be behaving normally now but i only installed it today so will see. Thank you again i just wanted to respond to you.
  16. @Coulomb thank for the updates on the firmware. I just upgraded to a Mecer Sol-I-AX-8M inverter and its running Main CPU 72.01 and Remote ppanel 12.13, i emailed supplier and mustek for firmware updates as this inverter is doing funny thing like never charging the battery they send me Main firmware 46.05 and Remote firmware 12.13. My question is watt do i use. The Mustek firmware 46.05 or the firmware on the net 90.06 and why is my inverter running 72.01??? Im very confused and dont want to brick my inverter. Already sold my older inverter that i also had to upgrade the firmware to work correctly. But now i am scared to use the wrong one. I read through most of the forum and found most people have the 46firmware and havent found anyone with 72.01 firmware. The box was opened when i got it but i thought maybe they just updated the firmware thats why it was opened but now i am worried someone send the unit back after they loaded the wrong firmware. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
  17. Dont know if you got yours fixed @Blessing @Coulomb but here is new firmware for my Inverter i believe its the same as the Kodak VMiii inverter. Fixed a lot of issues.
  18. For anyone interested. I am not sure if i am allowed to do this but i finally got firmware from the actual factory in Taiwan that manufactures my specific unit. Its the VMiii 5kv unit with 48volt battery (I also have a Pylontech 3000 battery connected to it with no communication issues. ) I had constant issues with unit resetting stored settings and fan always on issues. I got the latest firmware from the factory for the Display unit and the Main CPU firmware. They were very professional and quick to assist me after the local Company did not do much to assist, they did eventually respond but still did not give me the correct info. After updating both the Main Firmware and the Display firmware my unit is way more stable and quieter. No fans running 24/7. I upgraded from 41.03 to 41.16 main cpu and 2.00 to 2.61 on the remote Display CPU and it is way more stable. This might not be the latest i don't know but it seems stable. Was super easy to do. Hope this can help someone that is struggling. Please note this firmware is for the VMiii 5kv Offgrid inverter with the Screen on the bottom left side of the Inverter box see image attached i believe the same as the kodak inverters. I accept no responsibility for you bricking your inverter, this is used at your own risk. If i can do it i am sure you can. Remote Panel Firmware Upgrade SOP20190819.pdf Remote Panel_Reflash_MCU(02.61).rar VMIII reflash_ver41.16.7z
  19. Ok so after i reset the inverter last week and disconnected all the Power sources it was stable for nearly a week only to get this again today. Here you can see the "Back to "Discharge mode is set to 84.8Volts (Normally its 87Volts) so i give up on this makes no sense. It will now stay like this until i reprogram the inverter. before i left it for 3 days and it just stays like this. Reprogram required. Any new ideas for me Thank you.
  20. Hello StephenB This is not a solution just a question. I also have strange behaviour issues with my 5kva inverter its a VMIII and idea what yours is. I think its firmware related but i havent been able to solve it. Hope you come right
  21. Hello Coulomb thanks for your input. Thanks for clarifying the Amperage drop makes sense. Will see if it does change it back to 30 in the morning but if i dont manually change it to 30 in the morning the battery never gets charged by the end of the day. Its become a routine for me to change it in the morning. Will leave it tomorrow. Just for interest sake , the battery was fully charged at 12:12:47 pm today. From there it remained on inline mode. I did discover if i switch the Inverter completely off for a min including disconnecting the battery, and solar panels. Then restart everything the system will be stable for a couple of days then start the reset thing again. Ag well guess i just got to live with it. Thanks you for all the feedback.
  22. Hello there. The inverter is about 4 months old now but the supplier has ignored the last 3 emails i sent to them. I can live with all the other problem but then i have to manually tell the inverter to switch back to Batterymode at night because the "Back to battery voltage" gets reset to 87volts(Like i said before its not a typo.) I did ask the supplier the first time please send me a firmware update but nothing has come of it. Just another case of bad service here in our country thats why i was hoping i could get help from here. I will just have to wait till there is a firmware version for the VM III available then. Thank you in advance.
  23. Hello Coulomb Yes i will be upgrading to a second battery soon but the Inverter resets completely. I understand the charging rate drops to lower amperage when battery is nearly full. The problem is the inverter resets itself on a daily basis. So it needs to be reprogrammed all the time. Back to grid resets from 48 to 46Volts, Max Charging current resets from 30 to 10, Battery cut-off voltage resets from 47 - 46, and Back to discharge resets from 53 to 87Volts, yes 87 not a typo. The battery never disconnects because i never pull more than 450Watts on battery mode. So the battery lasts for about 10 hours on average after a full charge. and i never get a error saying battery connection lost. Even in the logs. But the logs give no errors on the reset thing either. so once it resets the solar does not charge the battery with more than 10amps and then never returns back to battery mode when it reaches 100% Charge so i have to manually put the inverter and reprogram it to SBU mode daily. and make the charging amps 30amps in the mornings. I work from home so all power hungry appliances run during full sun hours hours of the day but then i am on utility mode in any case. as this happens when i wake up in the morning and switch the coffee machine on the battery although still fine the voltage drops a bit then switches to utility mode. I know these inverters reads the voltage wrong but i am fine with switching to utility mode in the morning. But in the afternoons when all business Computers get switched off and sun goes down i have to then go back to the laptop and reset the inverter so it goes to SBU mode although the battery is normally fully charged at around 2pm daily. Sorry long explanation. That is if i remember to reset the charging amps to 30 again in the morning. My average usage on battery mode is about 200watts. The 40"LED tv internet Fiber router, Rasberry Pi for streaming and LED lights in the house. I dont run decoders or overly power hungry devices. We live a simple life. There is days now in winter that the battery does not charge fully but thats why i will also upgrade by adding another 2 405Watt panels that will bring the charging times down a bit plus give the system an extra boost when i need it. Geyser is solar so no electricity there and stove is gas, also use a whistling kettle to boil water for tee. Washing machine is the only electricity hungry device but that always get run in the mornings on utility mode. We try and do washing as soon as we see the battery is charged then all the solar energy can go to the house. Anycase was hoping someone would have a firmware update otherwise its already just become a routine for me in the morning to reset charging amps and then in the afternoon go back to the laptop and switch to SBU mode again and reprogram everything. I feel its just should not be like this. Thank you
  24. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated. Hello Everyone. I have a strange issues on my inverter and now the people i bought it from is also ignoring my emails. See email bellow. Its stable for a week or two then it will do this strange behavior for a week or two. it goes in circles like this. I asked the people for a firmware update as i am sure its probably just a bug or something but everything is now being ignored.____ I have a 5Kw III offgrid inverter.Please see images attached. I just want to know if there is an firmware update on it because I have to reset my inverter every other day. I also have to reprogram it basically every afternoon because it charges the battery but then does not go back to battery mode. So I have to log on to the software and apply settings every day. Really every day. It also then resets the charging mode to 10amps and makes the battery voltage to go "back to the battery mode 87volts". So it never switches back to battery mode. Always stays on bypass mode. This is really frustrating and makes the system unreliable. I am running a Pylontech 3000 battery on the inverter. The inverter is about 3 months old. If anyone can give me some decent advice on how to sort this it will be greatly appreciated. I have 4 X JA405Watt Mono Solar panels in series - Average is only 1200Watts short spikes to 1600Watts now in winter. 5KW Inverter VMiii Pylontech 3000B battery connected via RS232 port to the Inverter. Yes in communicates correctly. We very light users when it comes to electricity so this is more than enough for my house. I might get another 2 more panels to push on the average watts to 1800Watts just for an extra boost when needed.
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