Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

That's nuts for a 3D printer alright. I'd expect that the DC power supply would smooth that out better. Adding capacitance at the DC side might help, but that's an unusual thing to have to do. I just realised that the variation is between 100w and 500w so it's probably the heater element switching on and off rapidly, DC capacitance isn't going to help there too much.

I think the Garo unit was called out as being very dodgy in previous posts, and that you need a Hagar or something other than a Garo. I think the Garo is too sensitive, but others here will confirm.

Had a strange issue over the weekend the backup supply from the Solis inverter seemed to surge and fried the Sonoff S26 plug I use it for automating the fan I have installed above the heatsink on the inverter.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08GNRPMFZ/ref%3Dppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Just looking back in HA the fan does a good job of reducing the temperature. I really noticed the spike during heavy load over the weekend while it was not working.

It was a surge it burnt out the surge protected double socket that was attached along with the Sonoff S26 and also the power supply for a Google Wi-Fi access point. The fan was powered via the S26 socket.

It seemed to happen after the inverter RCBO tripped due to rain and I powered it back on.

No it just goes straight to the dual socket extension lead.

Folks, I'm being driven demented here. I changed broadband provider recently but can't get my Solis datalogger to connect to the new network. I have tried reconfiguring multiple times and going into the setup wizard in the app. I've also recently tried resetting the data logger itself but to no avail.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Yes, or create a second SSID with the same password off the main one on the required frequency (2.4G/5G).

Has anyone had a problem with the inverter tripping the MCB to the battery, mostly at sunrise? I've a Solis 5kw (55-eh1 p5k.l) with a 15kWh Pylontech compatible battery (Battery —> 125A DC MCB —> Inverter). The battery was fitted a couple of weeks ago and everything was fine until a few recent sunny mornings when the MCB tripped - always at sunrise. It has also tripped once while the battery was discharging at 85A.

I contacted Solis support and they updated the inverter with the latest firmware but the same thing happened this morning. They have reduced the charge current to the battery from 90A to 85A but I can't see how this would really help. I have charging set from 0200 to 0500. Sunrise is currently about 0620 give or take.

Could this be related to capacitors in the inverter which charge up on sunrise switch-on, thus drawing a high current and fooling the BMS into thinking a short has occurred? No idea why it would trip when discharging though.

Any suggestions are welcome.

No, there are no battery voltage errors and the battery remains connected at all times. That's a good suggestion about the MCB potentially being faulty, I'll look into getting a replacement. Thanks.

Same SSID name and password including capitalisations of any characters? Is the inverter picking up an IP or do you know if it was DHCP or static? Can it be pinged?

I don't have a battery or a hybrid inverter but had a similar issue - I can't find my posts on this thread right now but have a look. Suggestions were that it might be shorting due to damp and not being grounded, as far as I recall. I still have to get on to the providers about it.

Anyone have a link for a certificate for a Solis S6-GR1P3.6K for the NC6 please ?

Effectively, yes. You would sum the voltages for each panel, so if you had 8 in a string of 40 Vmpp each, it would equal 360v, for example. (I took the Vmpp there as the example as we're not talking about the max V load of the inverter.)

But are you sure it's split into 4 and 8 because the graph looks like it could just be a 6/6 split, except that the Vmpp would then be around 20v… which isn't all that sane as you have 430w panels…

111v / 4 = 27.75v.

Hmmm, seems like you're missing 4 panels, or thereabouts, on string 2.

Any optimisers fitted?

Don't confuse Volts and Watts. Volts will stay pretty constant, beit in shade or direct sunshine. The Amps (current) is what changes.

Volts X Amps = Watts (the output)

So everything points more towards two strings of 4 panels. Your graph appears to show output dropping off considerably after about 15:00 which would imply the SE panels.

Are you sure it's not 8 SE and 4 S ? Then for me, the 4 S are missing