diy solar

diy solar

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

Danny1987

New Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2022
Messages
62
Title basically says it all. My inverter will experience random voltage drops. But today was something new. On top of cutting off power it had finally spat out a warning/fault code (61). Not much information in the manual on code 61 other than "External MPPT consistent warning". Anyone have any ideas what this could be.
 
Update:

Another outage after about 2 hours of continuous uneventful powering/inverting. But this time the inverter completely shut off and all four EG4 batteries' red alarm LED was on. No green LED lights. Batteries SOC 90% when this happened.


@RichardfromEG4 any advice?
 
Thanks for the reply Timselectric. It very well could be a short.
But wouldn’t a short cause the circuit breaker in the main panel-to that appliance, to also trip?
 
Thanks for the clarification. But wouldn’t the “shorted” breaker trip while also on grid power? Or is the Growatt or BMS that much more sensitive and they just shut off?
Kinda confused since everything works fine on grid power.
 
It would depend on the duration of the short. And how positive the connection was.
This is just one possibility.
How long has this issue been going on for?
And, has anything else changed, that coincides with it?
 
First voltage drop happened within few days of installing and testing. I didn't think much of it until it happened few more times. This is around mid March. So I contacted SigSolar. Even the tech was perplexed on why the inverter is acting this way. After sending the tech all the voltage readings, wiring diagram and inverter settings. He suggested I remove the chassis ground wire as it might be creating a loop. And since removing the ground wire for about two weeks everything worked fine, at least in those four times the inverter was used. And it was used for about 8 hours a day. Fast forward to today and another voltage drop. Along with the battery alarm on top of that, which never happened before. No changes to the wiring or settings.
 
Are you monitoring your system with the WiFi stick? @AlexFromSignatureSolar when you get a minute can you look at this one. I think Tim might be onto something with a Short - no error code seems odd. Any rhyme or reason you can think of to when this is happening?
Thanks for responding Rich. Warning code 61 came up at first during today’s first malfunction. Then after powering down and restarting no more code.
 
If you can run without PV input for a while, check if inverter output AC is stable without PV input. MPPT warning may just be the result of unstable hybrid inverter AC output.

I think on the LF 12kVA inverter, the PV SSC is essentially a GT inverter in parallel with hybrid inverter AC output so if hybrid inverter output AC is unstable the SSC GT inverter will not like it.
 
Here is a post with this same issue - possibly your firmware is old?
I'd start here. Otherwise @AlexFromSignatureSolar should be around soon to take a look.
 
RCinFLA,
Inverter has been running without PV input for about an hour. AC output voltage under various loads is a constant 119v. Plus/minus 0.3 volts.
 
Thanks Rich.

Any idea where on the internet a firmware update could be located to one of these units?
 
Update:

About 20 minutes after calibrating MPPT-inverter voltage, the 61 code came back on for about 20 seconds, but then cleared. This has happened twice today so far, once before calibration and one after. This is what the specs look like on PVKeeper.
 

Attachments

  • Inkedgrowatt_LI.jpg
    Inkedgrowatt_LI.jpg
    988.4 KB · Views: 14
I have been working with signature for one inverter, growatt 12k. It will randomly do a quick restart it may go a couple weeks or a few days. It's so fast that sometimes the computer stays up. They have no idea as to the cause, and you can see it via solar assistant. The restart shows up in the voltage as a drop below the 230v. I have no pv input or ac on this inveter. We have monitored it for many months hoping to find a common restart based on appliances, etc but its very random.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for sharing, kromc5.
Same here, inverter’s been very random. I tried narrowing it down to a circuit breaker/run but cannot find a culprit. Even if every power hog appliance is running simultaneously the inverter does just fine handling the demand. But then at random it’ll just shut the power off even at low draw.

When you have a chance could you post which CPU and MPPT version you have installed.
 
Back
Top