Good day,

I have an Axpert MKS II 5kW Inverter (Model  Name - SMD LynX 5000-48) with Pylontech batteries controlled with ICC software (Version 4.9). System installed in 2019, running without issues up till last week sometime.

The ICC software picks up all communication from the Pylontech batteries, but has zero data exchange with the Inverter, everything reads 0.

There are no faults displayed on the Inverter. ICC show the following error log:

2022-03-09 13:38:08  The Operating System did not found the USB cable. Detach and Attach the USB Cable or Reboot the Raspberry Pi

I have swopped USB ports on the Pi. I have replaced the USB cable between the Pi and inverter. I have restarted the ICC and Pi several times and updated the ICC software. I have restarted the Inverter as well. No luck with these basic steps.

I suspect the Inverter comms card has some sort of failure. Any advise or experience with a similar issues?

If it is a comms card, where can I get spares?

Edited March 14, 20224 yr by PduToit

perhaps try out watchpower on your pc with 3m usb cable, see if it establishes comms. this step checks whether the axpert board is working with usb or not.

if watchpower establishes comms continue here : it may be driver on your pi os, or some similar setting. also try a os update on the pi, should be a ubuntu flavor, steps can be googled, and maybe a also a forced file system check upon reboot, again the steps can be googled, sometimes the flash memory needs a file system check.

if watchpower doesnt establish comms, continue here : options then become replacing the chip yourself, or sourcing a local/ebay replacement board.

Almost any cell phone repair shop with soldering station (I always keep one handy for small fiddly ad hoc soldering jobs I don't feel like doing myself) can replace the chip for you for cheap (around R150) while you wait, just pop into a electronics supply shop first (phone ahead to check on stock) for the replacement part first.

Extra info below :

keep in mind usb doesnt like long distances 9m tends to be the max without some kind of intervention, try keep the cable to around 3m during testing, if longer is needed, pickup a usb extender from matrix with appropriate length ethernet cable, these usually go up to 30m-50m as needed.

also try serial comms with watchpower if the usb fails, it may just be the chip on the board in the axpert. the usb on the axpert is a serial to usb chip anyway, you'll need a usb to serial pc converter and actual serial cable for this. Cost around R270 for both at matrix. phone ahead to check on stock.

This should cover all the bases and get comms going again.

Failing all options, including sourcing a replacement, I know the axpert repairer of a major importer, if needed you can get in contact with him, great guy actually.

 

Edited March 15, 20224 yr by Nitrious

8 hours ago, PduToit said:

If it is a comms card, where can I get spares?

It might actually be repairable; some have replaced just the optos. But I think that was for firmware updating, which happens 4x faster (9600 bps versus 2400 bps for ordinary commands).

This post says that Mustek South Africa have the comms boards.

Other possibilities are your inverter supplier, and as a last choice Ebay / Ali Express. I believe that most if not all of the comms board variations are electrically much the same, so as long as they have the right connectors and actually fit, they should work.