I have 2 identical installations, that now developed different issues.

8 Kw RCT (Axpert) inverters

2x 7.2 Kwh BSL batteries on each

16x 540 w panels (8 each on each mppt)

All isolators, fuses and extras installed

Installed Orange Pi Solar Assistant connected via hdmi to pc monitors. Comms cables from battery and inverter to Pi, no comms between inverter and battery. Did make up an custom cable but no luck.

Issue no 1 in Pretoria setup.

Running as a battery backup system

since this morning inverter tripped 3x without an error code when charging batteries when solar input reached 2.7 kw been pushed into the batteries. Unplugged Solar Assistant and problem stopped.

plugged  Solar Assistant back in and boot up system. Pi was completely dead, Pi power supply seems fine.

could there be any issues between the inverter and Pi? Pi installation was done 3 days ago and it ran fine for 2.5 days.

Issue no 2 Northern Cape

Running as off grid system during day time

while in Pretoria busy with installation one I noticed Watch Power not connecting on this setup.

On return today I tried reinstalling WP. Was able to connect the phone to the inverter wifi unit. But seems the wifi unit doesn't connect to the inverter. Tried on both ios and android. Solar Assistant was running fine on hdmi monitor and phone. After rebooting system twice as proposed on the WP app I am now sitting with a second dead Pi. This Pi was running since the 29th of December 2022. 

Could there be power spikes been created by either system that caused these failures. 

With the inverter not connecting to its own wifi, could I be sitting with damaged there as well? If its the wifi module, can I replace it myself? Shipping to Gauteng 1500 km to and from will take time and down time

I am very impressed with the Pi's data and interface and would really like to keep them connected.

Will be returning the units but don't want to be in the same situation again with new ones

Deon

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAB bus RCT_BSL.xlsx

Edited January 6, 20232 yr by Deon Zeelie
Spelling error

9 hours ago, Deon Zeelie said:

I have 2 identical installations, that now developed different issues.

8 Kw RCT (Axpert) inverters

2x 7.2 Kwh BSL batteries on each

16x 540 w panels (8 each on each mppt)

All isolators, fuses and extras installed

Installed Orange Pi Solar Assistant connected via hdmi to pc monitors. Comms cables from battery and inverter to Pi, no comms between inverter and battery. Did make up an custom cable but no luck.

Issue no 1 in Pretoria setup.

Running as a battery backup system

since this morning inverter tripped 3x without an error code when charging batteries when solar input reached 2.7 kw been pushed into the batteries. Unplugged Solar Assistant and problem stopped.

plugged  Solar Assistant back in and boot up system. Pi was completely dead, Pi power supply seems fine.

could there be any issues between the inverter and Pi? Pi installation was done 3 days ago and it ran fine for 2.5 days.

Issue no 2 Northern Cape

Running as off grid system during day time

while in Pretoria busy with installation one I noticed Watch Power not connecting on this setup.

On return today I tried reinstalling WP. Was able to connect the phone to the inverter wifi unit. But seems the wifi unit doesn't connect to the inverter. Tried on both ios and android. Solar Assistant was running fine on hdmi monitor and phone. After rebooting system twice as proposed on the WP app I am now sitting with a second dead Pi. This Pi was running since the 29th of December 2022. 

Could there be power spikes been created by either system that caused these failures. 

With the inverter not connecting to its own wifi, could I be sitting with damaged there as well? If its the wifi module, can I replace it myself? Shipping to Gauteng 1500 km to and from will take time and down time

I am very impressed with the Pi's data and interface and would really like to keep them connected.

Will be returning the units but don't want to be in the same situation again with new ones

Deon

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAB bus RCT_BSL.xlsx 243.07 kB · 2 downloads

Hi Deon, sorry to hear about such upheaval, its a nightmare for installers to have such unforseen issues. I have 2 questions:

1. How did you power the pi? 

2. Bear in mind that a pi can appear completely dead when its sd card gets corrupted. And this happens, i have experienced it.  Can you confirm. 

Good news on my second unit. It started up and id running fine, maybe a polyfuse that resets itself

On the second unit not so lucky, the power IC blew

9 minutes ago, BritishRacingGreen said:

Hi Deon, sorry to hear about such upheaval, its a nightmare for installers to have such unforseen issues. I have 2 questions:

1. How did you power the pi? 

2. Bear in mind that a pi can appear completely dead when its sd card gets corrupted. And this happens, i have experienced it.  Can you confirm. 

Both units were powered by the BLA batteries via the 10-60 v power supply. Will be switching to AC supply to separate it from the dc side.

The Orange Pi's doesn't use a sd card it's imbedded on the Pi. You can however still make a backup onto a sd card. The process is explained on their website.

Must thank Pierre from Solar Assistant for all his help with this issue 

Good news on my second unit. It started up and id running fine, maybe a polyfuse that resets itself

My unit in Pretoria keeps tripping when solar input reaches +2.7 kw. This inverter had issues out of the box as it tripped on F8, board was replaced but now and again it tripped on same fault The new trip without alarm code is becoming annoying. Tried talking to RCT technical support no reply. Think they should have swapped out the unit as it was faulty out of the box, bought it March 2022

Unit was swapped out by RCT and the new one runs flawless. No F8 or ghost trips anymore