First of all, I am new to this community and I am expecting very good knowledge sharing from the experts here.

I have recently installed Infini V 5KW system at my house with 325 x 9 ReneSola panels at my roof top.  These 9 panels are arranged in 3S3P configuration (3 panels in series and then 3 sets interconnected in parallel).  I am using off-grid mode and I am using SolarPower v1.14 SP2 software.  Version 1.10 came with inverter but later on I got its latest version from www.mppsolar.com website.

The inverter only has SUB and SBU modes defining the priorities.  So far I am able to get more energy savings with SBU mode rather than SUB whereas I was planning to use SUB as it will help prolong my battery life due to infrequent battery use.  Can somebody help me achieve a better configuration?

I have also read about ICC software written by Manie.  Will this software be able to do inverter settings or will it just provide more detailed statistics of PV, Grid and Battery?

Is it possible that I can tweak my inverter through the backdoor which SolarPower does not provide the option for?  I mean changing some values that can help achieve more savings.

From where can I check if my inverter has the latest firmware running?

Too many questions :-)  

49 minutes ago, Nadeem Ahmed said:

Can somebody help me achieve a better configuration?

No really. Both SUB and SBU prioritise solar (where one makes a saving). The two modes prioritise alternatively utility and battery as the secondary power source. As you have discovered SBU will give you marginally better usage at the expense of battery cycling. Unfortunately you cannot have your cake and eat it.

51 minutes ago, Nadeem Ahmed said:

I have also read about ICC software written by Manie.  Will this software be able to do inverter settings or will it just provide more detailed statistics of PV, Grid and Battery?

ICC will give you better data and you can control how you inverter behaves, and one could set it up to behave like SUB at times and SBU at other times.

Thank you Chris for your quick response.

Will my inverter be able to combine Solar with Utility in SUB mode (irrespective of the fact that I am off-grid or in Grid tie mode)?

Any information on my other question about latest firmware?

The Infinisolar V series should be able to combine solar and utility (that is according to its specs).

Voltronic firmware is problematic. From other users it seems Voltronic is only releasing firmware updates for some of their models pre-programmed on IC chips and one has to remove the chip and resolder the chip containing the new firmware. I have knowledge of what is happening wrt the V series.

I wonder why PV2 input is showing few volts whereas I have not connected anything on PV2.  All my  nine solar panels are providing input on PV1 only.  Is it s software bug or circuitary problem or what?  Does it cause any issue if I plan to add more panels in future on PV2 input?

See picture that I shared above.

On 2018/08/13 at 2:28 PM, Nadeem Ahmed said:

I wonder why PV2 input is showing few volts whereas I have not connected anything on PV2.  All my  nine solar panels are providing input on PV1 only.  Is it s software bug or circuitary problem or what?  Does it cause any issue if I plan to add more panels in future on PV2 input?

Any help from anybody with my question?

At first I thought it might just be a measuring error. A/D converters sometimes come up with small values when you leave their inputs dangling in the breeze. But I think your pictures shows more than just a few volts. Second might be some kind of leakage, since there is nothing there holding it down, there might be enough that leaks back from the battery side to show a voltage, though again... it's over 60V. Seems a tad high. Third option is that it's simply lying to you, aka bug in the software.

On 2018/08/10 at 1:46 PM, Chris Hobson said:

No really. Both SUB and SBU prioritise solar (where one makes a saving). The two modes prioritise alternatively utility and battery as the secondary power source. As you have discovered SBU will give you marginally better usage at the expense of battery cycling. Unfortunately you cannot have your cake and eat it.

ICC will give you better data and you can control how you inverter behaves, and one could set it up to behave like SUB at times and SBU at other times.

One more thing Chris ... if you look at the screenshot shared above ... under "Parameters setting" there is an option to set for Model type.  Options are Off-grid and Hybrid.  Currently I do not want to feed anything back to grid but I do want an effective combination of Solar and Grid to maximize my electricity savings.  Should I go with Off-grid or Hybrid mode setting?

3 hours ago, plonkster said:

At first I thought it might just be a measuring error. A/D converters sometimes come up with small values when you leave their inputs dangling in the breeze. But I think your pictures shows more than just a few volts. Second might be some kind of leakage, since there is nothing there holding it down, there might be enough that leaks back from the battery side to show a voltage, though again... it's over 60V. Seems a tad high. Third option is that it's simply lying to you, aka bug in the software.

My PV1 input wires and my AC (input and output) wires run through in the same piece of duct so they are very close to each other although the length of this duct is not more than 2-3 feet.  Could this be the cause of this (due to interference)?

4 minutes ago, Nadeem Ahmed said:

due to interference

Not likely, but you can always test it?

A simple small resistor across the unused input should draw it down immediately. If not, then the voltage you measure is simply incorrect.

Can somebody share some experience about using SNMP card with Infini V 5KW?

Somebody told me that Infini V does not support SNMP card.  However, we can use SNMP web box instead.  Any experiences?

I stand corrected.  There is no option for any card to be used with Infini V series inverters.  Apparently, I can use an SNMP web box with my inverter which is available at https://www.ebay.com/itm/SNMP-Web-Box-Remote-Monitoring-Solution-For-Off-Grid-Solar-Inverter-ISolar-SP-SM-/322846356702

I have heard that it works with Axpert inverters.  Does anybody know if Infini V and Axpert use the same protocols or if this SNMP box can be used with Infini V models?  

I really appreciate any information that sombody may have about it.

Thank you in advance.

Infini V and Axpert use different protocols. There are SNMP web box that are designed for only Axpert and those that can work with both Infini V and Axpert.

 

Hi fintech,

How can we distinguish between them?  Can you give me any URL that points to SNMP box for Infini V?

58 minutes ago, Nadeem Ahmed said:

Hi fintech,

How can we distinguish between them?  Can you give me any URL that points to SNMP box for Infini V?

Sorry it was flltech not fintech.

Just now, Nadeem Ahmed said:

Sorry it was flltech not fintech.

@flltech

14 hours ago, Nadeem Ahmed said:

I have heard that it works with Axpert inverters.  Does anybody know if Infini V and Axpert use the same protocols or if this SNMP box can be used with Infini V models?  

I really appreciate any information that sombody may have about it.

Thank you in advance.

The protocols are somewhat similar in flavour (responses start with open round bracket, for example); some of the commands have the same name (e.g. Q1), but have more fields in them (e.g. 23 vs 17).

So basically: different command protocols.

Spaces separate the fields with both Infini V and Axpert, so the same boxes should work for both as far as getting the data onto the SNMP network.

But then it's up to the monitoring software to make sense of it.

"SNMP web box that are designed for only Axpert" I assume means a web box designed only with the Axpert in mind; perhaps the Infini V didn't even exist at that point. But it should still work in the sense of getting the data into SNMP packets, since the basic form of the RS232 data (ascii commands with carriage return at the end, same CRCs, open parenthesis starts response, spaces separate ascii fields) is the same. It's just the details that are different (more, possibly exclusively 2 character commands, different number and possibly order of fields).

6 hours ago, Nadeem Ahmed said:

Hi fintech,

How can we distinguish between them?  Can you give me any URL that points to SNMP box for Infini V?

No easy way to distinguish. It is best to check with the seller before you buy.

 

1 hour ago, Coulomb said:

"SNMP web box that are designed for only Axpert" I assume means a web box designed only with the Axpert in mind; perhaps the Infini V didn't even exist at that point. 

Yes, I think that is the case. 

Thank you @flltech and @Coulomb for sharing valuable information.  It really helped.