Hi all,

Newbie here, been a few weeks since I had the system installed. Its a grid-tied system consisting of:

2 × 5kVa Sunsynk Inverters
12 × Longi 550w panels all North facing
1 × 15kWh BSL Powerwall

Absolutely loving it and not being impacted by Load Shedding is like having sliced bread for the 1st time!

So l have the Sunsynk Data Loggers which are cool and the app provides a nice representation of metrics….BUT its only a snapshot of the system at 5min intervals. Not helping my case of really trying to maximise the system to get the most out of it.

I've ordered Solar Assistant and I need to have it installed. Since I have the 5kVa's I need the port splitter as the BMS and RS485 are on the same port - I ordered from Take Alot.
As you would know the PSU for the Pi taps into the battery breaker terminals on the side of the inverters. My question is what is the best way to shutdown the inverters and the battery and what would be the startup/turn on process?

I've seen the four bullet points in the manual but since I'm new to this its not very conclusive for me.
Hoping the wealth of experience and knowledge can shed some light for me? See what I did there 😆

Now since I am grid tied I was thinking of isolating the inverters and have the grid service the load whilst i do the install for Solar Assistant, instead of everyone in the house being impacted.

In the combiner box I have a change over switch labelled as "Grid Power" and "Inverter Power" currently in the "Inverter Power" position.
In the same box I have a "Main" breaker and a "Return" breaker...which I assume is power supply coming from the grid into the DB and is then feeding the Inverters and the "Return" is for the Inverters to feedback power to the DB to then power the house. I also have 2 x breakers one for each Inverter.

So here's my thinking on what I would need to do:

Shutdown:

Step 1 - flip the change over breaker to Grid Power so the house is powered by the grid
Step 2 - flip the Main breaker to stop AC supply to the inverters from the DB and flip the Return breaker
Step 3 - press the blue-lit button on the under side on the inverters
Step 4 - press and hold the reset button on the battery to shutdown, flip the breaker on the battery then pull the breaker box with the fuses for the battery (need to open this anyway to hook up the PSU for Solar Assistant)
Step 5 - flip the black round switch for the DC power from the panels on the underside of the inverter
Step 6 - flip the 2 × breakers in the combiner box for the inverters.

At this point I'm hoping the system is now isolated and both inverters and battery are shutdown allowing me to get SA installed.

Startup:

Step 1 - flip the breakers for each inverter
Step 2 - flip the Main breaker to provide AC power from the Main DB to the combiner box/inverters and also flip the Return breaker
Step 3 - press the blue-lit button on the underside of the inverter (check the ON signal and wait for Normal light)
Step 4 - flip the battery breaker and press the "Reset" button to start the battery
Step 5 - flip the DC switch to on for panels
Step 6 - flip the change over breaker to Inverter power

Thoughts please..and thank you 🙏

 

Edited June 28, 20232 yr by Carl Anthony

1 hour ago, Carl Anthony said:

Step 4 

Before switching off the battery I would switch off the PV, but that is just my gut feel.

For future reference on the Sunsynk Inverters

Shutdown process:

1. Flip the Change Over Switch to Grid (To power the house from the Grid and bypass the system)
2. Flip the Inverter breakers Off in the DB Combiner Box
3. Flip the PV (DC) Isolator on each Inverter Off
4. Press the On/Off button on the Inverter to turn Off (Takes about 60-90sec for the inverter to turn off completely)
5. Flip the breaker/s on the battery to Off

System is now shutdown and safe to work on.

Startup process:

1. Flip the battery breaker/s to On
2. Flip the Inverter breakers on DB Combiner Box to On
3. Press the On/Off button on the Inverter to turn On
4. Flip the PV (DC) Isolator on each Inverter On
(WAIT for the system to startup and Normalize, at this point you will see the DC(if during the day and you have panels) and AC lights. The NORMAL light can take 60-120sec to illuminate you will hear the relays when this happens.)
5. Once you see the NORMAL light you can now flip the Change Over Switch to Inverter for the system to pick up the load.

On the other note, I managed to get Solar Assistant installed.

The splitter I got from Takealot was faulty as only one side allowed communication.

SO I went with the alternative method of combining the Solar Assistant cables and the Battery Comms cable into a single RJ45. Works like a charm and dont have to worry about a splitter now.

Pics to follow.

Solar Assistant...ordered it Wednesday late afternoon like 4pm, it was delivered Thursday early afternoon

Combined the Solar Assistant RS485 cable (Pins 123) with the Battery Comms cable (Pins 45). I made a new battery comms cable.

All nicely into 1 x RJ45...battery comms and Solar Assistant reading perfectly.

Power Supply tapped onto the battery breaker on the side facing the inverters.
Solar Assistant tucked away nicely into the trunking, the Orange Pi has the ability to display via HDMI but I dont have a screen now for it. Maybe later...

A few days later I decided to buy a battery cable, ordered it at 09:00 and it was delivered at 15:00 🤩

Plugged into the RS232 port on the battery...and voila additional battery stats including cycle count 😬