Both Clamp meters have too low resolution of only 0,1A. However both Clamp meters are very close to the readings of Inverter and also very close to Victron BMV Shunt installed at Battery Cable 

So i disconnected the Panel cable(s) (very cloudy today and so very stable low power) and measured short circuit current. 

Inverter 0,5A, Multimeter Short Circuit 0,598, Clamps 0,6
Inverter 0,4A, Whole String connected directly to the Seaward Meter: 0,45A
Inverter 0,1A, Multimeter Short Circuit 0,135A, Clamp jumps 0,1 0,2, Seaward 0,15A
Multimeter has highest resolution 3 digits.

291 Volt x 0,45A = 130 theoretical watt
The inverter give 235v 90W before and 268v 98 watt after direct panel connection measurement on the photo above
so this is ok. and inverters measurements are ok too.

power loss again on 2 phases some minutes after F80 restart:

Not nice....


F80 errors have the tendency to appear either in the beginning of the PV day or at the end of the PV day.
Changed now Solar Assistant PI3b+ from direct USB to Serial (need 3 direct cables to see in SA MPPT2 as the bus does not share MPPT2 data)

On 2022/11/20 at 2:30 PM, Coulomb said:

@Oakyz, it's here:

It's factory firmware version 91.70, with the premature float bug fixed, and Georg's patches for 200V minimum MPPT voltage. So the leading "2" indicates both patched firmware, and 200V.

Untested, use at your own risk.

Other readers: only use if you know that your DSP processor is a TMS320F28066, e.g. the factory firmware was version 73.xx.

Hello Coulomb,

I seem to have a similar issue to everyone else in that it sticks at 90v on overcast days until switch to USB then back to SBU an then it starts tracking until some thicker clouds come over again. Please see attached photo.

If possible would you be able to create a firmware with 250v MPPT 1 & 175v MPPT (6 & 9 panels in series 34.5vmp if you think another voltage would be better suited)

One thing i have notice though is my firmware from factory is 57.04, this inverter was ordered from maximum solar on eBay. which was confirmed as a legitimate reseller by Peggy at MPP Solar.

Regards, Jeran

 

Edited December 5, 20223 yr by JDAVIES94

Also forgot to mention, anyway to stop the 30/40w parasitic draw from the grid even in SBU Mode.

Error 80 always seems to happen when the bus voltage drops - this explain also why this tend to happen in the morning at PV Start, in the afternoon and PV End and on sun/shade situations.

I swiched on grid charging 2amp (now Solar & Grid, before it was Solar only) on all 3 Inverters.
Now Bus voltage is much more stable.

Since switched on i had zero power losses on AC Out

Cant see in SA single inverters bus voltages - only combined, but i guess the AC Out power losses also are in relation with bus voltage drops.

lets see what the next days bring up.

Georg, maybe the "steal some Energy" can affect the bus voltage and cause voltage drops?
Just an idea. Anyway, F80 and AC Out losses also happened before patched Update, but maybe there can play something together. Maybe there is a way to steal in other directions to stabilize the bus voltage.

15 hours ago, JDAVIES94 said:

One thing i have notice though is my firmware from factory is 57.04, this inverter was ordered from maximum solar on eBay.

I don't have a 57.xx firmware to patch. What exact model do you have?

4 strings on 2 inverters collapsing exactly the same time, Inverter 1 AC Out loss

 

27 minutes ago, Coulomb said:

I don't have a 57.xx firmware to patch. What exact model do you have?

It's an 11kw max. Apparently its straight out the factory as they weren't in stock when I originally ordered.

 

Edited December 6, 20223 yr by JDAVIES94

And F80 again, exactly when Panels from 3P3 was ready to startup, bus voltage drop

2 hours ago, JDAVIES94 said:

It's an 11kw max.

I should have asked: Max 1 (removable display and straight LED bar) or Max II (colour non-removable display with round LED ring)?

I only have one 11 kW Max firmware, and that's for a Max 1 with a TMS320F28066 DSP processor. It's compatible with machines that come with a 73.01 firmware, so that doesn't sound like it's compatible with your model.

2 minutes ago, Coulomb said:

I should have asked: Max 1 (removable display and straight LED bar) or Max II (colour non-removable display with round LED ring)?

I only have one 11 kW Max firmware, and that's for a Max 1 with a TMS320F28066 DSP processor. It's compatible with machines that come with a 73.01 firmware, so that doesn't sound like it's compatible with your model.

Its the max1 with the removable display. Best way to go about checking the processor? I have contacted the supplier and they have given me an email at mpp solar. As soon as I have a response (hopefully with firmware) I'll let you know 

5 minutes ago, JDAVIES94 said:

Best way to go about checking the processor?

Would be to open the case, but that likely will void the warranty. What you want to know is how many voltage regulators are on the control board, per this post. To preserve your warranty, it might be enough to power everything off and use a combination of torch and dentist's mirror (or similar) through the fan holes, looking for the control board.

I'm guessing that yours will be a '2809 with the two voltage regulators, since firmware version 56.05 is for Axpert Max II 10 kW with the '2809 processor. I still don't know if the same DSP firmware will work with a Max 1 or a Max II.

Hi guys!

My battle with axperts so far is like this:

Initially had 2 x MPP SOLAR PIP-5048MKX running in paralel until F80 disease got them. Tried everything came to mind: cleaning the connectors, resoldering the connectors, shielding the communication cables between the inverters, nothing worked. Tried to split my loads into a two-phase system but managing the loads and leaving enough room to not overload the inverters was almost impossible. So, I decided to buy an MPP SOLAR MAX 11kVA and sell the MKXs.

As it turns out just to run into a complete new set of problems:

- as the grid (I live in the country side 30km away from the city) is shit (between 180V and 220V most of the time) the MKX way of converting it to DC and back to AC 230V was a nice and welcome feature since I vade electronic devices which are made for 230Vac input only and some died because of the unstable grid. The MAX does not do that....  so, I ended using a MKX after the MAX just to bring the voltage to 230V for the sensitive loads. Acceptable workaround since I had the MKX lying around

- MPPT 90V stuck issue (well, seems that can be solved or at least tamed)

- the inverter is injecting power into the grid! 

I have a smart energy meter from Shelly directly after the main breaker so I will know the power my house is drawing from the grid and turn loads on and off without exceeding the maximum allowed. Surprise, surprise, MAX is dumping energy into the grid as much as 1800VA when in Solar/Utility/Battery output priority and solar power is greater than the power absorbed by the load. Instead of charging the battery it goes back into the grid! And this can be REALLY dangerous.

Any ideas? (my first thought is to put a power relay and disconnect the inverter from the grid with an automation, but really... ) 

The Max1 8000 setup  is also feeding back to the grid in some situations. Once i had 8kwh on the grid meter. (my grid meter calculates these 8kwh as consumption and i pay for it...)
So as a temporary fix i monted a Tuya AC Breaker and when PV is on i drop the breaker until i have time for a better solution.

about the 90 volt issue:

the panels bring definitvely more than the inverter processes in low light conditions
measurements from today afternoon.

Measurement equals to 139 watt 7x300w string

 

connected string back to inverter:
show 17 watt only.

Other strings:

53w measured 13w inverter 8x195w string

85w measured 20w inverter 2x6x300w string

 

 

 

Edited December 6, 20223 yr by mjmx8k

8 hours ago, mchiriciuc said:

MAX is dumping energy into the grid as much as 1800VA when in Solar/Utility/Battery output priority and solar power is greater than the power absorbed by the load.

This often happens when large loads come off, can't do much about it. It's not really dangerous, because when the utility drops off, the inverter will switch to battery mode and won't touch the utility port except to monitor when it comes back.

My guess is that it's so large because the utility voltage is (can be?) so low.

8 hours ago, mchiriciuc said:

my first thought is to put a power relay and disconnect the inverter from the grid with an automation, but really...

The MAX already does this.

7 hours ago, mjmx8k said:

Once i had 8kwh on the grid meter. (my grid meter calculates these 8kwh as consumption and i pay for it...)

Yikes!

7 hours ago, mjmx8k said:

Measurement equals to 139 watt 7x300w string

139 W appears to be Voc multiplied by Isc. You can't get both at once; one is open circuit and the other is short circuit. You might get about 80% of that, which is still 112 W, way more than you are getting.

I had no luck yesterday finding the place that it resets the MPPT. I suspect it does it via boost status zero.

I note that there is highly suspicious code concerning the setting of the boost status in the MPPT interrupt routine. There is a pair of identical tests one after the other, so that there is unreachable code. I suspect that this code is supposed to handle high DC bus voltage, which isn't a common occurrence (depending on your PV setup I guess), so that may be how it escapes their rigorous testing regime. Cough. But I don't think that this is the main PV problem.

I'll just have to figure out my own code for resetting the MPPT. Would it be more convenient for your testing if I patched just MPPT1 or MPPT2? Or just do both?

Hi Coloumb,

thank you.
i think for testing it would make sense with both MPPT.

today I will replace 3P3 inverter as it makes crazy things during night. shows about 20 grid phase 3 only losses, but grid frequency still visible at ~50hz, 20 AC Out losses some as long as 7 Minutes and not switching to battery. showing in log 5 times PV Loss (in dark night) 4 times EEPROM fault.
3P1 and 3P2 behaved well without all these things and working continuously. 

This is the pink line inverter which lost all stored parameter after flash.

As the 3P3 carries a AC load of only ~20 Watts, could it be that it goes into any Eco Mode or Power Saving mode to disable AC Out and Grid for 7 Minutes without switching to battery?

Or do you think a reflash could make sense?

44 minutes ago, mjmx8k said:

As the 3P3 carries a AC load of only ~20 Watts, could it be that it goes into any Eco Mode or Power Saving mode to disable AC Out and Grid for 7 Minutes without switching to battery?

I don't believe that it would be going to power saving mode, as this is disabled for all output modes other than single. So disable for 3-phase.

Eco mode is basically bypass mode for Kings; I don't know what it would be for a Max. I don't even see the word in one of the manuals I checked.

47 minutes ago, mjmx8k said:

Or do you think a reflash could make sense?

I think you need to recover your eeprom. The best way is to explain the situation to your supplier, and get them to send a custom program for your particular serial number to reset the contents of all the eeprom sections. Many of these are hidden. Another reflash isn't going to fix the eeprom contents. Without this, it's likely that your inverter will end up with a fault code 90 after 60 days of running.

Are you able to send a QBOOT command to that inverter? If so, please paste the response.

Hi Coloumb, the EEPROM fault messages i have on all 4 inverters from time to time.

i have the AccessPort.exe but did not use it yet. What string i have to send exactly for this model?
 

EEProm Fault always appears the same time as PV Loss

7 hours ago, mjmx8k said:

What string i have to send exactly for this model?

The string "QBOOT" (5 letters, no quote characters), the CRC, and a carriage return. Carriage return is 0x0D, usually sent with a press of the enter key. For this command, the CRC is 0A 88; 0A is a special case that gets changed to 0x0B. 0x88 has the sign bit set, so you have to do some mucking about to get that to work.

If you can send completely in hex, it would be:

Q   B   O   O   T  crc1 crc2 cr (just for comparison, don't send this part)

51 41 4F 4F 54 0B  88    0D

This will tell you whether there is enough left of your eeprom that you won't be seeing fault code 90.

It might be easier to send the following command, which actually tells you more, and it doesn't have the sign bit set:

Q 7 7B 3A 0D

7B is open curly brace, and 3a is the colon. So just send

Q7{: and the enter key.

Or in hex:

51 37 7B 3A 0D

Edited December 7, 20223 yr by Coulomb

Hi Coloumb,

perfect, thank you. i will test this tomorrow on the 4th inverter first.

today i replaced 3P3 Inverter with spare and since 2 hours now running.

there is a small possibility that there was a weak connection on batt+ terminal screw/nut.
if so, this would explain a lot. lets see an hope.

Had not much time today for this. However, PV on 3P1 and 3P2 started up very well - PV curve very nice and parallel, made 10kwh with 4MPPT
PV of Inverter 3P3 breakers was off whole day for testing as Inverter was replaced.

Not one AC Out Phase loss on any phase since the inverter replacemnet the afternoon before! Happyness...

...until afternoon...

15:40 still 300w total PV Power out of 4 MPPTs
15.40 2 PV Breakers of 3P3 enabled -> got 0,1 amps / 30 watt extra

15:43 Grid breaker enabled -> MPPTs reinitialized, 3P1 & 3P2 went from 0,4 and 0,3 to 0,1 amps and did not go up any more (either locked in or really too less power)

15:45 : AC Out Loss 3P1

15:48 AC Out Loss 3P1 & 3P2

15:49  All 6 Trackers reach 0,1 amps / 100watt PV total -> Strong suddeen drop in Bus Voltage 397v down to 360v -> AC Out Power loss on all 3 Phases  -> Fatal F80

My finding:
when when PV gets very low watt / amps -> AC Out loss -> F80  
when PV is gone away System is stable again
when in the morning is enough PV power to start quickly then all is ok, when its bad weather and it has to play aroung to startup this results in F80

I have now flashed to 92.04.original to compare behaviors. i expect very cloudy wheather and snow for tomorrow and my next F80