Daily reset/shutdown of my Powerwall+ and/or Inverter after coolant top-off?

[Bitslizer]

I see I also just responded to your post on Reddit about the financing

At 7:30pm tonight, I will push the red button and then report back what happens tomorrow. Hopes it pushes out the daily restart.

What panel size and inverter size do you have btw?

If my theory is correct you will see your daily cut out at 7:40 tomorrow night. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow looks to be good intermittent cloud morning so I will see if I'm still cutting out about 9:30ish

 

[bryan995]

What panel size and inverter size do you have btw?

If my theory is correct you will see your daily cut out at 7:40 tomorrow night. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow looks to be good intermittent cloud morning so I will see if I'm still cutting out about 9:30ish

So I just went out and pressed it. I was watching the inverter login the whole time and noting. Pressing the button did indeed click and fully actuate the switch, but it had no effect on the system function. Solar was always working. Not super promising as an “emergency” stop.

I alao tried to press the restart on the gateway and it indeed cycled the gateway and powerwalls, though everything came back up within seconds.

Not so sure this will help.

I have 12kW total of PV. 8kW Tesla and 4kw of sun power. 1 x PW+ and 1 x PW2. The inverter is the 7.9kW one. Hence why I never drop to 0. The 4kw is always producing, even when the Tesla system reboots.

 

[Bitslizer]

So I just went out and pressed it. I was watching the inverter login the whole time and noting. Pressing the button did indeed click and fully actuate the switch, but it had no effect on the system function. Solar was always working. Not super promising as an “emergency” stop.

I alao tried to press the restart on the gateway and it indeed cycled the gateway and powerwalls, though everything came back up within seconds.

Not so sure this will help.

I have 12kW total of PV. 8kW Tesla and 4kw of sun power. 1 x PW+ and 1 x PW2. The inverter is the 7.9kW one. Hence why I never drop to 0. The 4kw is always producing, even when the Tesla system reboots.

I think you have to be in the installer mode system screen is I remember correctly to see the stop message. Just a picture of the screen for reference, too lazy to go outside to push the button

 

[Bitslizer]

Or did you meant you pushed the button but the system was still generating? Mci are allowed 30 seconds to shut down. Otherwise are you sure they wired it to the gateway or the pw+ inverters? Any wire opposite side of the wall of that button?

 

[bryan995]

Or did you meant you pushed the button but the system was still generating? Mci are allowed 30 seconds to shut down. Otherwise are you sure they wired it to the gateway or the pw+ inverters? Any wire opposite side of the wall of that button?

Yes pressed it and nothing happened. Solar continued to flow. Will need to look for a wire, I assume it routes through the wall and into the gateway, but cannot easily see.

Will try tomorrow for longer, but I did give it pretty close to 30 seconds!

 

[CrazyRabbit]

I have not read this whole thread, but water cooling systems need to be filled with the pump running...

 

[Bitslizer]

Yes pressed it and nothing happened. Solar continued to flow. Will need to look for a wire, I assume it routes through the wall and into the gateway, but cannot easily see.

Will try tomorrow for longer, but I did give it pretty close to 30 seconds!

Is the button directly opposite of the gateway behind the wall? Also the button should be wired into the pw+ inverters and not the gateway or at least that's how my functional button is wired. I'm not sure if wired into the gateway does that get passed through to the inverter which is now the actual gateway "brain" the TEG2 box if 3 now slaved to the pw+ inverters via a 4 conductor comm cable

 

[Bitslizer]

I have not read this whole thread, but water cooling systems need to be filled with the pump running...

We ruled out cooling problem by page 2

 

[Bitslizer]

Yes pressed it and nothing happened. Solar continued to flow. Will need to look for a wire, I assume it routes through the wall and into the gateway, but cannot easily see.

Will try tomorrow for longer, but I did give it pretty close to 30 seconds!

Had to walk the dog and may as well push the big red button again....

Here's my screen with the red button and then also if I flip the breaker in the gateway (not the big blade disconnect)

Also I think the gateway also measure your sun power, so when you said still generating, was that the Sunpower or the Tesla as I'm but sure the red button can control the inverter of the sun power system?

 

[bryan995]

Had to walk the dog and may as well push the big red button again....

Here's my screen with the red button and then also if I flip the breaker in the gateway (not the big blade disconnect)

Also I think the gateway also measure your sun power, so when you said still generating, was that the Sunpower or the Tesla as I'm but sure the red button can control the inverter of the sun power system?

You’re right. It was late and perhaps the sunpower was still pushing 0.2-0.1 kW. It is the most optimally west facing string. The red button may indeed only shutdown the Tesla system. Previously we did not have an emergency stop button.

It is mounted outside, below our now empty main panel, which is opposite the gateway in the garage.

The inverter and PW are also outside and connected via conduit, with I assume comm cables.

Are you logged into installer mode? I log into the TEG from the inverter, not the gateway. My gateway no longer broadcasts a TEG. My customer mode screen looks very different Will try again this morning, and will explore installer mode. Perhaps that too is possible.

 

[Bitslizer]

You’re right. It was late and perhaps the sunpower was still pushing 0.2-0.1 kW. It is the most optimally west facing string. The red button may indeed only shutdown the Tesla system. Previously we did not have an emergency stop button.

It is mounted outside, below our now empty main panel, which is opposite the gateway in the garage.

The inverter and PW are also outside and connected via conduit, with I assume comm cables.

Are you logged into installer mode? I log into the TEG from the inverter, not the gateway. My gateway no longer broadcasts a TEG. My customer mode screen looks very different Will try again this morning, and will explore installer mode. Perhaps that too is possible.

It is the inverter installer mode.

I am just wondering I don't see why conduit or comm cable from the button... Unless they went inside the wall?

 

[Bitslizer]

Have installer mode system screen up on one of my monitor, staring at it all morning. inverter was "Active" and generating from 9am through 10am (now). I should have cut out about 9:20-9:30 ish. No picture as the morning been cloudy so its not a clean graph with a single dip but have lots of dips and peak typical of cloudy day, but if the inverter went into self-test mode or "wait for solar" like last time i caught it. I'm 100% certain i would have seen it on the system screen

 

[bryan995]

Using installer mode now. I assumed it would be protected a bit more than just a simple toggle of the PW power switch . Will try the reset again tonight. But today will be a good test. I should restart at 3:15 PST today if yesterday’s restart did not work. Will login and watch as it happens.

And yes the estop is directly opposite the gateway, so the wire must go through the wall and then through the conduit onto the inverter.
EDIT - added pics.

 

[darryllee]

Huh. I wonder why I didn't get a big red button. Maybe PG&E or the City of San Jose don't require it?

That being said - how the heck am I supposed to restart? Still having issues.

I put myself into Installer mode *just before* the event was over (I happened to be out grabbing lunch), and caught this error, but I think that's just because it was restarting. Unfortunately as far logs from my gateway are concerned, nothing got "restarted". Uptime is still over 155 hours.

Shoot, what I should have done was try to get the new "vitals" data out of it to see if that has any useful info. Time to write another script. :-}

 

[power.saver]

Huh. I wonder why I didn't get a big red button. Maybe PG&E or the City of San Jose don't require it?

That being said - how the heck am I supposed to restart? Still having issues.

View attachment 694951View attachment 694952View attachment 694953View attachment 694954

I put myself into Installer mode *just before* the event was over (I happened to be out grabbing lunch), and caught this error, but I think that's just because it was restarting. Unfortunately as far logs from my gateway are concerned, nothing got "restarted". Uptime is still over 155 hours.

View attachment 694955
Shoot, what I should have done was try to get the new "vitals" data out of it to see if that has any useful info. Time to write another script. :-}

Actually, maybe you did catch it. Did you ever see that "Self-test (4/6): Isolation" before? Maybe the inverter is goes thorough a daily self-test?

 

[Bitslizer]

Huh. I wonder why I didn't get a big red button. Maybe PG&E or the City of San Jose don't require it?

That being said - how the heck am I supposed to restart? Still having issues.

View attachment 694951View attachment 694952View attachment 694953View attachment 694954

I put myself into Installer mode *just before* the event was over (I happened to be out grabbing lunch), and caught this error, but I think that's just because it was restarting. Unfortunately as far logs from my gateway are concerned, nothing got "restarted". Uptime is still over 155 hours.

View attachment 694955
Shoot, what I should have done was try to get the new "vitals" data out of it to see if that has any useful info. Time to write another script. :-}

2 things to try for resetting without the big red button....
1) the disabled/enabled here
2) the big stop system button in the power flow page

I really think its some sort of 24 hours timer from the inverter last operating start time, + 10 min of wait/self test

per link below, CA require someway to initiate rapid shutdown per NEC 2017

Rapid Shutdown For Solar: What You Need To Know

Learn all about rapid shutdown, a safety measure for solar panel systems.

news.energysage.com

Since the inverter is self powered by the powerwall, flipping the big blade breaker disconnect won't trigger a rapid shutdown. Did the installer mention how to initiate a rapid shutdown?

Basically the inverter continuously send a signal via the PV line that say "ok to operate". and the rapid shutdown would initiate if it lose that signal. the big red button trigger a software switch that tell the inverter to stop sending the signal.

 

[darryllee]

Actually, maybe you did catch it. Did you ever see that "Self-test (4/6): Isolation" before? Maybe the inverter is goes thorough a daily self-test?

Yeah that used to happen every time I got the infamous "Inverter Over Temperature" error due to low coolant. I'm pretty sure it's just part of the regular "restart" cycle.

Speaking of coolant:

I have not read this whole thread, but water cooling systems need to be filled with the pump running...

Yeah, the service tech who came out had to pull the entire inverter off of the wall to top off the coolant, so it wasn't running when he did that. He remarked that engineers insisted it should be possible while it is still mounted, but I think they might have forgotten about gravity. ;-}

At any rate, I have not seen errors about Inverter Over Temperature.

 

[abek]

I see I also just responded to your post on Reddit about the financing

At 7:30pm tonight, I will push the red button and then report back what happens tomorrow. Hopes it pushes out the daily restart.

Huh. I wonder why I didn't get a big red button. Maybe PG&E or the City of San Jose don't require it?

That being said - how the heck am I supposed to restart? Still having issues.

View attachment 694951View attachment 694952View attachment 694953View attachment 694954

I put myself into Installer mode *just before* the event was over (I happened to be out grabbing lunch), and caught this error, but I think that's just because it was restarting. Unfortunately as far logs from my gateway are concerned, nothing got "restarted". Uptime is still over 155 hours.

View attachment 694955
Shoot, what I should have done was try to get the new "vitals" data out of it to see if that has any useful info. Time to write another script. :-}

What I find interesting about your photos is that your system cones back at full power. Mine comes back every day at about 1 kw lower output than before the shutdown.

 

[bryan995]

Well it happened. 3:20 on the dot, all Tesla PV dropped to 0.

I could not find any visible error messages, but via installer mode, I could indeed see AC solar power hit 0.
It is 100% a software derived daily self test, offset by +10 minutes each day.
Can try to e-stop again tonight to see if that does anything.
-

3:13pm - working fine, 6.2kW from Tesla and 4.0kW via SunPower

3:16 - still producing max, 10.2kW total

3:21 - now ac power at 0W/0A, system has 'shutdown'. No error messages.

03:32 - system is now restarting. It went through all 6 stages of the self-test and then started producing again.

 

[bryan995]

What I find interesting about your photos is that your system cones back at full power. Mine comes back every day at about 1 kw lower output than before the shutdown. View attachment 694976View attachment 694977

Yes that is strange. My came back at close to 100%. Though today is cloudy, so that is also causing a decrease.