Solar Edge Inverter update seems to have killed output

[h2ofun]

I just did another, as I have done many times, a FW update to my 2 solar edge inverters. Even though the light is green and blue, neither are
making any solar output now. I powered them both down, and threw the breaker, and fired them back up. Nothing, no output. Oh well, of course
they are only open for support on weekdays. And I was producing 50 kwh a day now with the nice sun. Oh well, PGE is happy, 100% draw from grid.

Any other ideas or do they have a bug in their latest fw update?

 

[h2ofun]

Had no output from inverters over the weekend, and SE closed.

Talked to SE this morning, and they said they have had no issues with FW updated. I then brought up I had powerwalls and he then changed his tone saying I needed to talk with Tesla.

So, I called powerwall support this morning. Of course, the solar seems to be working again. He thought the AI sw in the GW got confused and was now fixing itself. I said seems if it was confused, it could have changed the Frequency to the Inverters and shut them down. Told me to watch and see what happens.

Interesting.

 

[miimura]

When you are on grid power, the Powerwalls should not be able to do anything to shut down your solar. The Powerwalls can only change the frequency when disconnected from the grid.

 

[dareed1]

I agree with miimura that the grid sets the frequency if it is up. However, if there is any question, $20 will get you a meter that plugs into a wall socket that can measure frequency and line voltage, and if something is plugged into the meter's output socket will also measure current, power, and power factor. I use a Poniie PN1500, but Amazon has quite a variety.

 

[h2ofun]

When you are on grid power, the Powerwalls should not be able to do anything to shut down your solar. The Powerwalls can only change the frequency when disconnected from the grid.

Good point.

 

[h2ofun]

I agree with miimura that the grid sets the frequency if it is up. However, if there is any question, $20 will get you a meter that plugs into a wall socket that can measure frequency and line voltage, and if something is plugged into the meter's output socket will also measure current, power, and power factor. I use a Poniie PN1500, but Amazon has quite a variety.

I have one of those. Works great

 

[h2ofun]

I produced 51 kwh yesterday. I still would love to understand what happened. Meaning, when I updated the inverters, they said everything was fine, just no output. So, what was talking from the gateway to the inverters that made them stop outputting? I agree since I was connected to the grid that the frequency could not be changed, but something told the inverters to stop producing. So for you technical folks what communications are going between the GW and inverter?

 

[Zinc_Saucier]

So for you technical folks what communications are going between the GW and inverter?

If you’re on grid, nothing. The only communication is the frequency change.

Since you have two GW and two inverters, I’d guess that there was an issue with the update or update procedure with the inverters, and some combination of time/being shut down caused them to work again. That’s the variable the changed, if there was a GW malfunction it would be rare that both would be impacted at the same time.

 

[h2ofun]

If you’re on grid, nothing. The only communication is the frequency change.

Since you have two GW and two inverters, I’d guess that there was an issue with the update or update procedure with the inverters, and some combination of time/being shut down caused them to work again. That’s the variable the changed, if there was a GW malfunction it would be rare that both would be impacted at the same time.

Not what SE told me. Everything we checked was working. But he stated with batteries, they have heard of issues, but would not tell me what.

They fw updates on the inverters now has stuff for working with batteries, by reading their comments about what changed.

Again, I have no idea what is was, but clearly, something happened. The PW person said it was probably their learning sw, but again, if so,
what other handshaking is going on. Got to be more than we know?

 

[BGbreeder]

Not what SE told me. Everything we checked was working. But he stated with batteries, they have heard of issues, but would not tell me what.

They fw updates on the inverters now has stuff for working with batteries, by reading their comments about what changed.

Again, I have no idea what is was, but clearly, something happened. The PW person said it was probably their learning sw, but again, if so,
what other handshaking is going on. Got to be more than we know?

This is just a random thought, but have you reserved IP addresses in your router so that all of the equipment (Gateways, SE inverters, etc.) stays at their designated address? I.e. Have you checked the Gateway configuration menu to see a) whether the Gateway stored IP address matches the one in your router (for each Gateway), and b) whether there are addresses for your inverters stored in your Gateways?

I bring this up because I know that the Gateway relies on being at a given address for its communication with Neurios, which also rely on the fixed addresses for their communication back to the Gateway. With the firmware upgrade, it is possible that the solar edge inverters are no,longer where the Gateway expects them, and potentially vice versa, as you powered cycled your gateways, which may have moved them to an unfamiliar IP address. I am not saying that I think that the SE inverters communicate with the Gateways via WiFi (who knows?), just that the Gateways may not be where they expect themselves to be.

All the best,

BG

 

[Zinc_Saucier]

Not what SE told me. Everything we checked was working. But he stated with batteries, they have heard of issues, but would not tell me what.

They fw updates on the inverters now has stuff for working with batteries, by reading their comments about what changed.

Again, I have no idea what is was, but clearly, something happened. The PW person said it was probably their learning sw, but again, if so,
what other handshaking is going on. Got to be more than we know?

I’m assuming that this is the firmware update? If so, PWs aren’t mentioned at all. There indeed may be more communication, especially between the SE inverters and the SE Energy Bank (or the other DC coupled systems). I’m guessing the SE customer rep was confused by the differences between the battery systems listed in the release notes and the PW, and front line Tesla support doesn’t seem to know their products very well either.

 

[h2ofun]

I’m assuming that this is the firmware update? If so, PWs aren’t mentioned at all. There indeed may be more communication, especially between the SE inverters and the SE Energy Bank (or the other DC coupled systems). I’m guessing the SE customer rep was confused by the differences between the battery systems listed in the release notes and the PW, and front line Tesla support doesn’t seem to know their products very well either.

Yep, that FW. He talked about all the various batteries, telsa, LG, theirs etc. Again, all I know if for 2 days nothing, and days 3 normal. SE had no smarts only the gateway.

 

[Zinc_Saucier]

Yep, that FW. He talked about all the various batteries, telsa, LG, theirs etc. Again, all I know if for 2 days nothing, and days 3 normal. SE had no smarts only the gateway.

So the firmware release notes have no reference to Tesla or AC coupled batteries, but the front line customer service guy talked about all battery systems despite seeing the same release notes…? I know who I would believe, and it’s not the guy you talked to.

I’m going with Occam’s razor on this one and saying that there isn’t a secret communication protocol between Tesla gateways and all the inverters manufactured across the globe that no one has any information on, and that this particular firmware update disrupted until the Tesla AI could learn and configure itself correctly.

 

[mstgkillr]

I just did another, as I have done many times, a FW update to my 2 solar edge inverters. Even though the light is green and blue, neither are
making any solar output now. I powered them both down, and threw the breaker, and fired them back up. Nothing, no output. Oh well, of course
they are only open for support on weekdays. And I was producing 50 kwh a day now with the nice sun. Oh well, PGE is happy, 100% draw from grid.

Any other ideas or do they have a bug in their latest fw update?

Are the inverter FW updates not automatic? If not, how did you update the FW? Is this something that I should be regularly checking/performing?

 

[h2ofun]

I have never seen them automatic. I need to check myself since the installers never do, nor would they. I needed to get a solar account with them to be able to do