Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

 

Hello Everyone.

 

I have a strange issues on my inverter and now the people i bought it from is also ignoring my emails. See email bellow. Its stable for a week or two then it will do this strange behavior for a week or two. it goes in circles like this. I asked the people for a firmware update as i am sure its probably just a bug or something but everything is now being ignored.____

 

 

• I have a 5Kw III offgrid inverter.Please see images attached. I just want to know if there is an firmware update on it because I have to reset my inverter every other day.

• I also have to reprogram it basically every afternoon because it charges the battery but then does not go back to battery mode. So I have to log on to the software and apply settings every day. Really every day.

• It also then resets the charging mode to 10amps and makes the battery voltage to go "back to the battery mode 87volts". So it never switches back to battery mode. Always stays on bypass mode.

   

• This is really frustrating and makes the system unreliable. 
• I am running a Pylontech 3000 battery on the inverter.

   

• The inverter is about 3 months old.

If anyone can give me some decent advice on how to sort this it will be greatly appreciated.

I have 4 X JA405Watt Mono Solar panels in series - Average is only 1200Watts short spikes to 1600Watts now in winter.

5KW Inverter VMiii

Pylontech 3000B battery connected via RS232 port to the Inverter. Yes in communicates correctly.

We very light users when it comes to electricity so this is more than enough for my house. I might get another 2 more panels to push on the average watts to 1800Watts just for an extra boost when needed.

 

 

 

One US3000 Pylontech battery (continuous output 37 A or around 1.7 kW load) is a bit light for a 5 kW inverter. The battery might be disconnecting from the inverter, even though you are "very light users".

Setting the maximum charge current to 10 A is normal when the battery is full or nearly full.

Hello Coulomb

Yes i will be upgrading to a second battery soon but the Inverter resets completely. I understand the charging rate drops to lower amperage when battery is nearly full.  

The problem is the inverter resets itself on a daily basis. So it needs to be reprogrammed all the time.  Back to grid resets from 48 to 46Volts, Max Charging current resets from 30 to 10,  Battery cut-off voltage resets from 47 - 46, and Back to discharge resets  from 53 to 87Volts, yes 87 not a typo. 

The battery never disconnects because i never pull more than 450Watts on battery mode. So the battery lasts for about 10 hours on average after a full charge. and i never get a error saying battery connection lost. Even in the logs. But the logs give no errors on the reset thing either. so once it resets the solar does not charge the battery with more than 10amps and then never returns back to battery mode when it reaches 100% Charge so i have to manually put the inverter and reprogram it to SBU mode daily. and make the charging amps 30amps in the mornings. 

I work from home so all power hungry appliances run during full sun hours hours of the day but then i am on utility mode in any case. as this happens when i wake up in the morning and switch the coffee machine on the battery although still fine the voltage drops a bit then switches to utility mode. I know these inverters reads the voltage wrong but i am fine with switching to utility mode in the morning. But in the afternoons when all business Computers get switched off and sun goes down i have to then go back to the laptop and reset the inverter so it goes to SBU mode although the battery is normally fully charged at around 2pm daily. Sorry long explanation. That is if i remember to reset the charging amps to 30 again in the morning. 

My average usage on battery mode is about 200watts. The 40"LED tv internet Fiber router, Rasberry Pi for streaming and LED lights in the house. I dont run decoders or overly power hungry devices. We live a simple life. There is days now in winter that the battery does not charge fully but thats why i will also upgrade by adding another 2 405Watt panels that will bring the charging times down a bit plus give the system an extra boost when i need it. Geyser is solar so no electricity there and stove is gas,  also use a whistling kettle to boil water for tee. Washing machine is the only electricity hungry device but that always get run in the mornings on utility mode. We try and do washing as soon as we see the battery is charged then all the solar energy can go to the house.  

Anycase was hoping someone would have a firmware update otherwise its already just become a routine for me in the morning to reset charging amps and then in the afternoon go back to the laptop and switch to SBU mode again and reprogram everything. I feel its just should not be like this. 

Thank you

Hi Henry,

How old is the inverter? MCU Version 02.00 is quite old. Version 02.49 is available.

 

 

9 hours ago, Henry2501 said:

I understand the charging rate drops to lower amperage when battery is nearly full. 

Yes, but I'm not sure you're getting the fact that the firmware actually reprograms the EEPROM value for setting 02 to do this. So when you set it back again, you're undoing what the BMS has done, and it will undo what you've done soon anyway.

9 hours ago, Henry2501 said:

Back to discharge resets  from 53 to 87Volts, yes 87 not a typo. 

OK, that's weird. I can't see the back to battery voltage setting changed in the new King firmware, so I'd say that is something that they've decided wasn't a good idea (or was always a typo or something). It sounds like you'll need a new pair of firmwares to sort this out. I'm not aware of any available for download for the VM III, so you'll have to talk to your supplier.

Meanwhile, don't bother changing the settings, apart from setting 13 so you can get back to battery mode. And setting 01 to SBU if that was changed (I can't see why it would be though).

17 hours ago, HubbleLithium said:

Hi Henry,

How old is the inverter? MCU Version 02.00 is quite old. Version 02.49 is available.

 

 

Hello there. The inverter is about 4 months old now but the supplier has ignored the last 3 emails i sent to them. I can live with all the other problem but then i have to manually tell the inverter to switch back to Batterymode at night because the "Back to battery voltage" gets reset to 87volts(Like i said before its not a typo.) I did ask the supplier the first time please send me a firmware update but nothing has come of it. Just another case of bad service here in our country thats why i was hoping i could get help from here. 

I will just have to wait till there is a firmware version for the VM III available then. 

Thank you in advance.

 

12 hours ago, Coulomb said:

Yes, but I'm not sure you're getting the fact that the firmware actually reprograms the EEPROM value for setting 02 to do this. So when you set it back again, you're undoing what the BMS has done, and it will undo what you've done soon anyway.

OK, that's weird. I can't see the back to battery voltage setting changed in the new King firmware, so I'd say that is something that they've decided wasn't a good idea (or was always a typo or something). It sounds like you'll need a new pair of firmwares to sort this out. I'm not aware of any available for download for the VM III, so you'll have to talk to your supplier.

Meanwhile, don't bother changing the settings, apart from setting 13 so you can get back to battery mode. And setting 01 to SBU if that was changed (I can't see why it would be though).

Hello Coulomb thanks for your input. Thanks for clarifying the Amperage drop makes sense. Will see if it does change it back to 30 in the morning but if i dont manually change it to 30 in the morning the battery never gets charged by the end of the day. Its become a routine for me to change it in the morning. Will leave it tomorrow. Just for interest sake , the battery was fully charged at 12:12:47 pm today. From there it remained on inline mode. 

I did discover if i switch the Inverter completely off for a min including disconnecting the battery, and solar panels. Then restart everything the system will be stable for a couple of days then start the reset thing again. 

Ag well guess i just got to live with it. Thanks you for all the feedback. 

Ok so after i reset the inverter last week and disconnected all the Power sources it was stable for nearly a week only to get this again today. 

Here you can see the "Back to "Discharge mode is set to 84.8Volts (Normally its 87Volts) so i give up on this makes no sense. It will now stay like this until i reprogram the inverter. before i left it for 3 days and it just stays like this. Reprogram required. Any new ideas for me Thank you. 

 

1 hour ago, Henry2501 said:

Here you can see the "Back to "Discharge mode is set to 84.8Volts (Normally its 87Volts) so i give up on this makes no sense. It will now stay like this until i reprogram the inverter. before i left it for 3 days and it just stays like this. Reprogram required.

Ok, that does sound like a firmware problem. The Axpert King firmware is updating rapidly, perhaps partly as a result of @HubbleLithium working with the manufacturer to get things working with their battery. I have no idea whether the Axpert VM III firmware is updating as rapidly. I suppose it's possible that no-one has complained yet, so they're waiting for the King firmware to settle, then they can apply those changes to the VM III source code (or however they do that).

But you'll need to get your supplier to talk to you and liaise with the manufacturer to get things happening. If you can't get a response, perhaps it's time to talk to the consumer watchdog (I have no idea what that body is in South Africa; I'm based in Australia).

Hi @Coulomb,do you have the latest firmware update for the kodak vmiii?

22 hours ago, Blessing said:

Hi @Coulomb,do you have the latest firmware update for the kodak vmiii?

I have 41.07. I think it's not all that recent, because it came with remote display firmware version 02.08, which is now fairly old (up to at least 02.49 now). The file mentions "fan spin program". 

For anyone interested. I am not sure if i am allowed to do this but i finally got firmware from the actual factory in Taiwan that manufactures my specific unit. Its the VMiii 5kv unit with 48volt battery (I also have a Pylontech 3000 battery connected to it with no communication issues. )

I had constant issues with unit resetting stored settings and fan always on issues. I got the latest firmware from the factory for the Display unit and the Main CPU firmware.

They were very professional and quick to assist me after the local Company did not do much to assist, they did eventually respond but still did not give me the correct info.

After updating both the Main Firmware and the Display firmware my unit is way more stable and quieter. No fans running 24/7. I upgraded from 41.03 to 41.16 main cpu and 2.00 to 2.61 on the remote Display CPU and it is way more stable. This might not be the latest i don't know but it seems stable.

Was super easy to do. Hope this can help someone that is struggling.

Please note this firmware is for the VMiii 5kv Offgrid inverter with the Screen on the bottom left side of the Inverter box see image attached i believe the same as the kodak inverters.

I accept no responsibility for you bricking your inverter, this is used at your own risk.

If i can do it i am sure you can.

Remote Panel Firmware Upgrade SOP20190819.pdf Remote Panel_Reflash_MCU(02.61).rar VMIII reflash_ver41.16.7z

Edited December 23, 20205 yr by Henry2501

First of all, Merry Chistmas to all of you!

I have been waiting for the firmware upgrade for my inverter for a very long time. Thanks to your upload, I was finally able to use it. My inverter is a ISolar SMV III 5KW. It is basically a clone of the Axpert VM III 5000-48. My previous firmware was 

U1 41.15

U2 02.40

After the upgrade, this is the new version:

U1 41.16

U2 02.61

The issues with the fan speed are resolved. Thank you very much!

Salve e possibile avere il firmware  VM III 3000 24v l'ho acquistato nel 2018 ma il firmware e vecchio 

16 hours ago, serafino said:

Salve e possibile avere il firmware  VM III 3000 24v l'ho acquistato nel 2018 ma il firmware e vecchio 

Google Translate translates this to:

"Hi it's possible to have the VM III 3000 24v firmware I bought it in 2018 but the firmware is old"

Is your model PF1? (In other words, is rated at 3000 VA and 3000 W, or 3000 VA and 2400 W?

If it's 3000 VA / 3000 W (PF1), then you may be able to use the latest 5 kVA firmware.

What firmware are you running now?

ciao Coulomb il modello e questo il   firmware e vecchio perchè avevo chiesto il modulo wi-fi e mi e stato detto che non potevo montarlo in quanto devevo cambiare una scheda interna e il firmware e una versione vecchia 

Edited December 29, 20205 yr by serafino

ecco come ho fatto il mio impianto  VMIII  da 3kw  a 24v  con n° 12 pannelli da 300w  e 39,9v  facendo una stringa diciamo che sto al limite del VOC dichiarato di 450v  ma non ho mai avuto problemi uso N°4 batterie da 12v 135A   AGM  serie parallelo 24V  270A.

le impostazioni  tutto di default, d'inverno nei 4 mesi  metto come primario  SUB   (Sole  Enel  batterie ) mentre  negli 8 mesi  SBU  (Sole Batterie  Enel )

 giustamente facendo buio più tardi le batterie tengono e non richiede Enel,  mentre d'inverno si se utilizzavo SBU  di notte commutava per passare a Enel per caricare le batterie e le utenze, ma  notavo che dopo che aveva dato un pò di ricarica alla batterie commutava e ripassava a batterie ma non  potevano essere cariche in poco tempo.

@Coulomb Hi! My VMIII of-grid is setup as a backup power supply (with batteries, without PV). It switches randomly from the line mode to battery mode, even though the utility power supply is not interrupted. I thought it is supposed to go to the battery mode only if the utility power supply is interrupted. Do you know if this is a normal behavior? What could be causing these random switches to and from the battery mode?

 

8 hours ago, Ros said:

It switches randomly from the line mode to battery mode, even though the utility power supply is not interrupted.

It's supposed to switch to battery when the battery voltage exceeds the value in setting 13 (back to battery), if it's in SUb mode (Solar before Utility before battery). You'll want USb mode (Utility before everything else). That's setting 01 (output priority mode).

Quote

I thought it is supposed to go to the battery mode only if the utility power supply is interrupted.

It depends on what you are using the inverter for, hence the settings. They're not there as a test 🙂, though it may seem that way sometimes.

Hey. i also had the same problem with the fan speed and my SOC is not reading 100% on my inverter, i did do the firmware update but now cant find  a cable or cable pinout to get the battery and inverter talking. any tips on the TX and RX pins of the VMiii inverter thank you

On 2021/01/01 at 2:58 AM, Coulomb said:

It's supposed to switch to battery when the battery voltage exceeds the value in setting 13 (back to battery), if it's in SUb mode (Solar before Utility before battery). You'll want USb mode (Utility before everything else). That's setting 01 (output priority mode).

Thanks for the suggestion! The inverter is actually in the USB mode and it still keeps switching to batteries several times per hour. Each time is switches to batteries for about 30 seconds and then goes back to utility. Is there a way to diagnose what could be going wrong here?

 

 

Edited January 2, 20215 yr by Ros

17 hours ago, Ros said:

The inverter is actually in the USB mode and it still keeps switching to batteries several times per hour. Each time is switches to batteries for about 30 seconds and then goes back to utility. Is there a way to diagnose what could be going wrong here?

One thing is to check that AC-in is detected when this happens. But I think you're showing that above; I believe that the large hexagon on its own at the left is AC-in, correct? It's hard to tell from your photo. 

The next thing is to determine whether the AC-in is going out of spec occasionally. Maybe you have a large load (it might not be your house, it might be nearby on the same transformer). Do you have data logging software that can show data like line voltage and frequency, and something like battery discharge current which will tell you when the problem is happening? Then you can hunt for records of when it happened, and see if there is anything unusual about the line voltage or frequency (etc) just before it happens.

On 2021/01/03 at 5:25 AM, Coulomb said:

Do you have data logging software that can show data like line voltage and frequency, and something like battery discharge current which will tell you when the problem is happening? Then you can hunt for records of when it happened, and see if there is anything unusual about the line voltage or frequency (etc) just before it happens.

 

The logging software does not record any anomalies before this happens - voltage and frequency are normal.  My current hypothesis is that the voltage stabilizer is causing this. I have a large 12kw voltage stabilizer  -it is installed on the grid input and it then feeds into the inverter. When the inverter switches from bypass to battery it (inverter) makes  a clicking noise about 1 time per sec. I can also hear a clicking noise inside the stabilizer. I have now switched off the stabilizer in order to test if this remedies the strange behavior of the invertor.

On 2020/12/29 at 1:02 PM, Coulomb said:

If it's 3000 VA / 3000 W (PF1), then you may be able to use the latest 5 kVA firmware.

Just thought I'd confirm for anyone else wondering - this firmware works on the VMiii 3kw/24V model. I'd assume it's likely all VMiii software can be applied to both 5kw and 3kw.

Unfortunately this didn't fix my problem, but that's another story in another thread 😅

On 2021/01/12 at 9:52 AM, Ros said:

 

The logging software does not record any anomalies before this happens - voltage and frequency are normal.  My current hypothesis is that the voltage stabilizer is causing this. I have a large 12kw voltage stabilizer  -it is installed on the grid input and it then feeds into the inverter. When the inverter switches from bypass to battery it (inverter) makes  a clicking noise about 1 time per sec. I can also hear a clicking noise inside the stabilizer. I have now switched off the stabilizer in order to test if this remedies the strange behavior of the invertor.

I can confirm that the problem above was due to a slow step stabilizer. Basically, when the stabilizer switched to a different circuit, the inverter was able to detect this small disruption of electricity and consequently switched to battery mode. The solution I've used is to replace the step stabilizer with a modern inverter-based model, that provides continuous flow. So, to anyone out there considering to install the new VMIII behind a stabilizer - they are much quicker than the older models and this can create trouble for you.