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Growatt 12k random voltage drops and fault/warning code 61. Anyone else?

Hello Danny1987,
I have the SPF 6000T DVM MPV version and have had it in service for just 10 days. Now receiving the same fault/warning code 61 as you are but not seeing any voltage swings. I have sent an email to tech@signaturesolar.com as Alex suggested above, however, I wondered if you had an update on your issue yet?

thanks
Bruce
 
Hey Bruce,

No update yet. Haven't had much time to mess around with the system the last two weeks. But will have everything calibrated and up-and-running sometime tomorrow. The plan is to let the inverter idle for 20-30 days to see if it'll throw a fault or any voltage drops/power shutoffs/ or resets are experienced. If nothing is recorded then only thing left is as timselectric suggested, most likely a short somewhere in the appliances or wiring. And I'll definitely keep you posted with the data logger results in few weeks.

Did the calibration tool fix your growatt error?
 
Danny
I just got the warning code 61 on 5/28, three-day weekend-right? so I'll see what tech @SignatureSolar has to say soon I hope. I'm running well pump and 2 pressure pump off the 6000T and it has no problem with one at a time so is somewhat of a balancing act to get them timed right, has been fine over the last week and we had some high clouds on Saturday, edge of cloud push PV higher than I have seen it so far (15 250 watt panel set 5S3P) got 3200 watts and the log showed around 172 volts on PV so IDK if thats what caused code 61? a long way from 250 V max input rating. I will post if I make any headway.

Bruce
 
Possible cause:
Not enough battery capacity to handle the surge.
Check the inverter manual for recommended battery ah. If you don't have enough battery, the voltage will dip too low, when an appliance starts up. (Air compressor, pool/well pump, refrigerator/freezer)
I have an all in one copier, printer, scanner, that causes a problem, whenever the battery SOC is very low.
 
Hello Tim,
is your comment referring to my 6000T well pumping? I havent had any battery issues: 3 EG4 lifepower seem to be adequate for my demand, never was intended to run more than 1 pump at a time
 
Mines still doing the quick restarts, sometimes so fast the voltage drops almost merge, 4 in total. Inverter 1 which has higher loads has not restarted once.
 

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Not speaking to anyone in particular.
Just offering a possible cause.
If you have enough battery capacity, then it doesn't apply to you.
 
kromc5 said:
Mines still doing the quick restarts, sometimes so fast the voltage drops almost merge, 4 in total. Inverter 1 which has higher loads has not restarted once.
Click to expand...
Take what you see in Solar Assistant with a grain of salt. It display's random events on my system that never actually happen and I suspect that's what you're seeing here. There is a communication issue between it and my Growatt inverter, where the connection status will display "connected" and then cyclically display "invalid data received". I've reported the behavior and a few other issues and am waiting for a response.

Just the other day Solar Assistant was showing a 31 amp draw from the batteries along with a load of 1619 watts. In reality, there wasn't anything pulling that kind of load, which was confirmed at the inverter. Solar assistant was stuck at those values but was allowing me to change views and was refreshing data when commanded, with the same stalled data. A reboot fixed it.
 
shopman said:
Take what you see in Solar Assistant with a grain of salt. It display's random events on my system that never actually happen and I suspect that's what you're seeing here. There is a communication issue between it and my Growatt inverter, where the connection status will display "connected" and then cyclically display "invalid data received". I've reported the behavior and a few other issues and am waiting for a response.

Just the other day Solar Assistant was showing a 31 amp draw from the batteries along with a load of 1619 watts. In reality, there wasn't anything pulling that kind of load, which was confirmed at the inverter. Solar assistant was stuck at those values but was allowing me to change views and was refreshing data when commanded, with the same stalled data. A reboot fixed it.
Click to expand...


I work from home so each one of those dips is the power going off for just a few seconds as it restarts. We have to take a lot of notes/data entry and I had to put a small backup on the pc so we do not lose our work. Sort of laughable to have to add a ups to my system.
 

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Here's a prime example of erroneous data. Grid spike to 500 volts? I don't even have the grid connected to the inverter. Do those voltage drops on the output look just like your restarts? This "supposedly" happened here last night but none of this actually occurred. Solar Assistant is a valuable work in progress and I do hope he gets the kinks out at some point.

The other error you're experiencing seems to me, based on the error message, to be the inverter thinking its communicating with an external charge controller. First thing I'd do is to disconnect the USB cable that's feeding Solar Assistant and see if the error goes away. Remove the cable from the inverter to rule out any issue with the cable itself. Just an idea.
 

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shopman said:
Here's a prime example of erroneous data. Grid spike to 500 volts? I don't even have the grid connected to the inverter. Do those voltage drops on the output look just like your restarts? This "supposedly" happened here last night but none of this actually occurred. Solar Assistant is a valuable work in progress and I do hope he gets the kinks out at some point.

The other error you're experiencing seems to me, based on the error message, to be the inverter thinking its communicating with an external charge controller. First thing I'd do is to disconnect the USB cable that's feeding Solar Assistant and see if the error goes away. Remove the cable from the inverter to rule out any issue with the cable itself. Just an idea.
Click to expand...
I have two 12kw running both using the same pi model and inverter 1 it runs perfect. It never does any quick restarts and the data is totally stable no odd fluctuations. I have no pv or grid on either one as well.
 
kromc5 said:
I have two 12kw running both using the same pi model and inverter 1 it runs perfect. It never does any quick restarts and the data is totally stable no odd fluctuations. I have no pv or grid on either one as well.
Click to expand...
I'll run an experiment. I like experiments. I'll put my calibrated and traceable Fluke meter on the output of the inverter and graph its output until one of the anomalies occurs and see if there's actually anything there.
 
shopman said:
I'll run an experiment. I like experiments. I'll put my calibrated and traceable Fluke meter on the output of the inverter and graph its output until one of the anomalies occurs and see if there's actually anything there.
Click to expand...

kromc5 said:
I have two 12kw running both using the same pi model and inverter 1 it runs perfect. It never does any quick restarts and the data is totally stable no odd fluctuations. I have no pv or grid on either one as well.
Click to expand...
I ran the test over the past 24 hours and caught one anomaly on Solar Assistant where my output apparently dropped to zero. As you can see in the Fluke display, that never happened. Seeing as I was out in the shop working at this time, I would have noticed if everything went dead. I've communicated all of this to Pierre at Solar Assistant. He's aware of the issue and is addressing it now. He's asked that I try the next beta release where he hopes to have it fixed and I will do that when it's available. Keeping in mind that Solar Assistant can also send data to the inverter, that's the reason why I suggested disconnecting the USB cable from your inverter to see if your fault code 61 goes away.
 

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Update:

Inverter was on for about 2 hours powering the house before it experienced another hard restart. Power completely shut off for few seconds then came back on. At the time I was standing right next to the thermostat and as soon as I heard the thermostat "click" to kick on the A/C that's when I noticed the inverter had shut off. Prior to this the inverter was running fine with the A/C on/off cycling normally. PVKeeper shows a low battery error and overload warning. Battery is 91% full. My air conditioner draws around 2200 watts, so pretty small power draw.
Definitely not a A/C inrush problem for this 12k. Back in April without the A/C running it had also experienced same restarts. Back to grid power again.


Any ideas anyone?
 

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The compressor start up surge is up to 5 times higher. It could just be the right combination of things starting at the same time. (Refrigerator, freezer, A/C)
 
But even without the A/C same restarts happened, and not aure what could cause this. At one point when I initially tested the inverter I had a compressor running, shopvac, all lights, and whatever was in the background. And then turned on the A/C and this thing had no problems what so ever. Just random restarts.
 
Compressor surge currents can vary widely depending on load at time of startup. You should install a soft start unit on any standard condensing unit scroll compressor intended to be operated on an inverter. If I try to start my 2.5 ton condensing unit on the 8kw inverter, it will kill the BMS's in all 4 EG4 batteries instantly.
 
Danny1987 said:
Update:

Inverter was on for about 2 hours powering the house before it experienced another hard restart. Power completely shut off for few seconds then came back on. At the time I was standing right next to the thermostat and as soon as I heard the thermostat "click" to kick on the A/C that's when I noticed the inverter had shut off. Prior to this the inverter was running fine with the A/C on/off cycling normally. PVKeeper shows a low battery error and overload warning. Battery is 91% full. My air conditioner draws around 2200 watts, so pretty small power draw.
Definitely not a A/C inrush problem for this 12k. Back in April without the A/C running it had also experienced same restarts. Back to grid power again.


Any ideas anyone?
Click to expand...
Inveter #1 has never restarted and had no issues starting a very old 4 ton unit with the 1.5 ton mini running. Inverter one has been right 11,600w with 190 amps battery side and just keeps going. Signature had me do a full reset and upgrade the firmware on inverter 2. I will update the thread if that stops the restarts.
 
Last edited:
I’ll pick up one of those microair soft starts when they’re back in stock on Amazon. And as to the overload, my 12k has no problem starting my A/C at all. Rated at 36k watt max, and when it does start and run the A/C the lights don’t even dim. For me that’s pretty good indication it can handle anything in my house and more. But randomly for no reason it’ll just restart itself.
 
I just add a 24k BTU window unit to the inverter, today. It was running fine all day. (Very sunny day)
Once the solar production started reducing, in the evening. It kicked the BMS, and shut down.
It was a test, that I figured would fail.
 
Getting the 61 code as well with the EG4 6500EX. Hooked up for the first time late yesterday afternoon, only had batteries connected running a 120v mini split. Started giving me the code this AM with zero load batteries only. Beeped for couple of minutes and went away on its own. I shut it down and connected solar panels. Now it's only beeping occasionally, still now load. Currently charging batteries (EG4 LP4's as well).

System is too new for me to provide any meaningful findings, but hope there is a fix.

​

 
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