Thx for the replies, I checked last night and downloaded that latest version of SolarPower (Ver: 1.09) that was released in August 2015, will try it and see if I get any joy. Previous bundled version was released in 2014.

Hi

 

Can you post the link to the latest software I would be much appreciated,

 

Thanks

Hi

 

Can you post the link to the latest software I would be much appreciated,

 

Thanks

See links above... (post #22)

Thanks... missed that

I see the new version now also have the NRS097-2-1 standard available.

 

When one wants to change this setting it requires a factory password... Does anyone know what that is?

 

thanks

Stephan

Is anyone using Sonic GEL batteries?  I would like to know what your settings are pls?

 

best

Stephan

just for interest on the above, re the Sonic 200Ah Gel batteries:

Float Service: 2.25V / cell @ 20/25C

Cycle Service: 2.35V / cel/ @ 20/25C

 

that means I set my bulk charge to 56.4V (2.35 * 6 * 4), and my float voltage to 54.0V (2.25 * 6 * 4).

 

and set the max charging current to 20A (C/10)..

 

best

Stephan

Need some help with charging settings... It seems my batteries are not charging...

 

I have no PV at present - just the infini 3k+ and 4x Sonic Gel 200Ah

 

here's the summary:

We can see:

 light load of 8%, battery voltage at 52.2V and zero charging current - on the graphic it also states Bypass without charging...

 

and my parameters as such:

Below you can see I se the charger to switch off if the charge current is <0.7A for a period of 60minutes, BUT is should switch back on if the voltage is <53V...

which is doesn't seem to do...

 

MyPower management is set as follows:

 Now I'm not sure how the battery schedule settings in MyPower interact/influence the settings in the Parameter setup...?

 

Any suggestions welcome...

 

best

Stephan

Stephan

 

Should the option "When battery voltage <#V, then AC starts charging" at the bottom left of your Power Management page not be ticked? Looks like you can also limit times of the day that AC can be used for charging.

 

I don't have an Infini, just looked at your settings. Hope it helps.

 

C

yes, I will try that.. but I was hoping to get some info of how these two settings interact... of people that have tried them before...

One thing we have found was that sometimes the settings does not seem to take effect and you have to do it again. It might be an issue with the Mac version of the software, I have not tried the MS Windows version.

yes, I noticed that too... and using the latest Win version - still need to try the MAC version.. but it seemed a version or two behind...

StephanT, you've specified that AC charging must only happen between 00:00 and 04:00 during the night.  Change that to 00:00 - 0:00 - then it will charge any time of the day. 

yip, I saw that and fixed it..  at present I can see my battery charging at around 0.4A... but it's still only at 76%... where it was last night... and I have not run anything off the battery... Hmmm

 

Does anyone know where/if one can specify the battery setup?  How does the inverter know what type of battery I have and what size...  Sure I set the float and bulk voltages as well as the max Current... but that could still be 20Ah batteries in there ;-) in stead of 200Ah...  No wonder the battery level guestimate... is just about that...

 

I must say I'm a little disappointed at the battery management detail... I would like to specify the cut-off accurately... and a measurement that's out by 25%... is by no definition good enough, especially if you take into account the cost of the batteries that you are trying to maximize the life of!

yip, I saw that and fixed it..  at present I can see my battery charging at around 0.4A... but it's still only at 76%... where it was last night... and I have not run anything off the battery... Hmmm

 

What is the current battery voltage reading and the bulk and float settings

ok, tonight I wired in my shunt - bought a BVM700 Precision Battery Monitor, in the hope of getting a better hold on the status of my battery..

 

So I opened the fuses (have 2x 100A in the 48V and 0V paths) then undid the one cable... and noticed that my inverter display is still reading 78% and charging at 0.9A..

 

I monitored this for a while and even plugged in the solarpower software.... and it is adamant that it knows the battery voltage and that it is charging it... 

 

Am I missing something????

ok, tonight I wired in my shunt - bought a BVM700 Precision Battery Monitor, in the hope of getting a better hold on the status of my battery..

 

So I opened the fuses (have 2x 100A in the 48V and 0V paths) then undid the one cable... and noticed that my inverter display is still reading 78% and charging at 0.9A..

 

I monitored this for a while and even plugged in the solarpower software.... and it is adamant that it knows the battery voltage and that it is charging it... 

 

Am I missing something????

 

I've also noticed that; battery disconnected and infini still "sees" the battery. It obviously measures the voltage on the battery bus (caps) and the 0.9A current is obviously 0A - the infini is just not calibrated.

 

My infini reports 0.4A charging current when the battery is disconnected. When the battery bank is connected, the Fluke and BMV measures 0.0A when the infini reports 0.4A. 

I've also noticed that; battery disconnected and infini still "sees" the battery. It obviously measures the voltage on the battery bus (caps) and the 0.9A current is obviously 0A - the infini is just not calibrated.

 

My infini reports 0.4A charging current when the battery is disconnected. When the battery bank is connected, the Fluke and BMV measures 0.0A when the infini reports 0.4A. 

Ahh.. good point about the caps - although having caps in a battery has no real purpose (unless they are supercaps that will provide an initial loadspike much faster than the batteries can (however I doubt our little inverters have those ;-) )

Ahh.. good point about the caps - although having caps in a battery has no real purpose (unless they are supercaps that will provide an initial loadspike much faster than the batteries can (however I doubt our little inverters have those ;-) )

 

The Axperts and infinis (and most other inverters) have caps on the battery bus. Before connecting the battery bank initially, or if the battery bank was disconnected for a while, you can charge the caps via a resistor (or 220V 100W or similar bulb) to minimize the arc/spark. 

indeed, that makes good sense...

in order to try and get to better numbers for my Discharge limits, I decided to do a discharge test...

 

just a quick recap:

  setup: infini3kP with 4x 200Ah Sonic Gel batteries.

  load: all house lights, some house appliances like Fridge/freezer, TV, internet etc.

 

purchased and hooked up a Victron BVM-700, configured for 200Ah batteries..

 

Grid supply OFF.. and here we go!

the Yellow are the values I got from the BVM700, the green just the Battery voltage read off the inverter LCD, and the blue are the values from the SolarPower app. (Some values I didn't log right from the beginning)

 

 

Here is a graph of the BVM700 info:

Note1: I scaled the Battery power by a factor 10 for better visualisation... (as you can see the average Battery power was around 772W, compared to the average load power of 674W)

 

 

And for interest sake, I thought to look at the difference between what the Inverter is measuring vs. what the BVM700 is measuring:

There's about a 0.5V to 0.6V difference...

 

 

From the above I think I'll set the "Battery cut-off discharging voltage when Grid is unavailable" to 48.0V, or maybe 47.9V for that matter...

 

Any thoughts/help appreciated?

 

 

Once I've got automated logging going (wink-wink), I'll do some more discharge logs at different loads - one lower and one greater...

Hi steplan

I am new member.From Thailand,I had install hybrid pv system(12 panels 280w suntech, 4x12v 200ah gel deepcycle battery.I have the same problem,How to setting.

How about your setting? And the system work finely?

Best regards

Prasert1965

Hi all 

My pv system run ok, this time I setting on mode off grid. with battery bank 8 of solar gel deep cycle battery. 4x2 12v 200ah. To support deep freezer -80. I would like to ark someone,who had setting the max bettery discharge current setting. I cannot setting it.  The software default is 0 amp.

 

19 hours ago, Prasert1965 said:

Hi all 

My pv system run ok, this time I setting on mode off grid. with battery bank 8 of solar gel deep cycle battery. 4x2 12v 200ah. To support deep freezer -80. I would like to ark someone,who had setting the max bettery discharge current setting. I cannot setting it.  The software default is 0 amp.

 

Prasert1965,

> max battery discharge current setting. I cannot setting it.  The software default is 0 amp.
the SolarPower software may have some settings which are not applicable to your inverter (i.e. cannot be changed, such as for example enabling "Generator as AC source") or require "factory password" (example min or max grid-connected frequency).
I suspect that is why you cannot set "max battery discharge current".
From screenshot your PV output is only 20W and that is directed to load. Therefore I am not surprised that you have charging current = 0.0A

Take note that your inverter is similar to but it is not an Infinisolar 3kw+, although user manual and specs are almost identical to it.
I have your same inverter (3KW PV 4.5KW) by Santech and my understanding is that Infini and Santech are manufactured by the same factory.
If you check carefully your metal casing is slightly different from the Infinisolar 3kw+.

On the other hand comparing the inside of the two units inside I found them to look almost identical but not exactly the same.

Labels on the two units are different:

for 3kw+

ad for for 3KW PV 4.5KW

My 3KW PV 4.5KW test installation includes 4 x 150Ah valve regulated gel batteries (Oliter) and 2 arrays of 9 x 205W panels (PV 3690w total).
Here is my current parameter setting:

Please note that I have not yet given attention to my battery settings since I want inverter manufacturer and battery manufacturer to agree what ideal settings should be.

I noticed that your software is a different version from mine (my inverter came with version 1.07 and the upgrade option returns a message that this is the latest available option ... not sure I should to experiment with some other generic versions before I completed my other tests).
Actually update button checks with http://www.power-software-download.com/solarpower/updatewindows.zip

What software version do you use? Is that from original CD?

Once I have completed my tests with this configuration I will add 1 more panel to each array (for total of 4100w for 20 panels).
Reason for my tests is to establish actual maximum Vmpp for the alternative PV arrays and then evaluate if it is safe to connect a solar air conditioner (with MC4 input) between PV panels and inverter.
Theoretical Vmmp of the 20 panel arrays is very close to aircon Vmmp threshold ... aircon factory gave me ok to try but at my own risk.

This is my inverter installation:

Note:
- I have put my AC filter inside trunking.
- I have a second solar board where the 2 arrays are combined.
- the top right pair of MC4 connectors on board is where solar aircon will be connected.
- I have a 100A fuse + circuit breaker between batteries and inverter.
- I use a rs232-to-wifi unit (on top of shelf) to monitor/control inverter through SolarPower v1.07

The main difficulty in my tests is the utility digital 3-phase meter (obviously I connected inverter to one phase only) which will bill me for feeding back to grid.
Feeding back to grid: my initial tests give me a daily production of 20-22kwh with 18 panels (scattered clouds present during testing) .
On-grid but Without feeding grid: I get a daily production of ~15kwh which limited by my total load (in addition to usual domestic stuff I have connected a cold room, a swimming pump and a 1500W ups).

At the moment I am leaving out of inverter a 3-phase borehole pump, a single phase heat pump and supply to a small out-building. These should account for the 4kwh consumption I get on the meter across daylight hours.
So with 18 panels I have something like 10kwh per day available for the future 24 000btu solar aircon I will eventually connect: not sure if 10kwh per day will be sufficient
 
I have also been testing overloading the 3KW PV4.5KW inverter while connected from grid and up to 3500W (120%) I simply get a simple warning.
Tomorrow I will try to test the inverter overload limits

I also need to find an automatic way to switch off non essential load (such as pool pump) during a power outage: I do not wish to drain batteries unnecessarily: I have my ideas but maybe someone is able to offer a simple clever solution.

I have another hybrid inverter (4kw, PV 3kw) but I really like the 3kw PV4.5kw because of the high voltage.

I was expecting issues for earth leakage (needing to bind earth and neutral) but I did not have any.

It's a great little unit.

 

 

 

 

 

Hi MaurizioZA

My hybrid inverter is HS 3kw from santech too. Not 3 kw+. I think it the same infini factory.The software is not from original CD, because it is linux version. I had download the software version 1.09sp2 from this weblink. http://www.ostrovni-elektrarny.cz/index.php?page=podpora. The purpose of this project to slove the low voltage of the utility grid(170-180v). The grid tie with backup mode and off grid I,II cannot setup.(because the inverter show error trip).Then I setup my hybrid inverter with mode off grid III ( grid relay disconect). And I setup when charging current <2 amp for 30 mins, the inverter will off charging. When battery voltage <48 v it will recharge. When PV is unavilable the inverter will charging fron grid at the time 00:00 - 04:00, that I think the grid voltage not too low to cause the inverter trip. The system now is ok.

Thanks for your sharing.

Best regards

Prasert1965

Hi Prasert1965

I will contact Santech to find out about new versions of SolarPower: in my mind a software upgrade is not ideal unless a firmware upgrade is applied to inverter first.

If it works why break it ?

I will let you know what their response is ... although sales people technical knowledge is not great.

I have only tested standard configuration "grid-tie with backup I ".

At the moment I am happy  just by disabling "allow to feed-in to the Grid" (it works but I must pay for energy I feed to grid) and by not charging battery from AC (I will run battery tests only once battery factory confirms correct parameters I must use".

The only issue I have is that if I switch cross-over-switch (I have a generator installed) to off position then earth leakage under inverter will trip.

I do not know what to think of this.

This makes me fear that if power is disconnected at substation then my earth leakage will trip. If so I will probably I will need to bind ground and neutral in my board.

My ground is from grid but I have a second earth spike (connected to grid ground) for the eventuality that I loose ground from grid (there is lot of cable theft in South Africa).