Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM solar charging problems?

[Johnnysunrise]

Recently swapped out from lead acid to lithium batteries, which should have been a quick and easy swap, but through a misconfiguration on my part I bottemed out the BMS. Still should not be a real issue. What we are seeing now, is that the solar charging seems to top out at 1W, or essentially nothing.

So far we have done a factory reset of the Growatt inverter and reconfigured all the parameters, but still no luck with the solar charging.

A Growatt tech suggested a firmware update, but I am unable to get the Windows 11 laptop and the ISP software he provided to communicate with the Growatt inverter.

Instructions and firmware from Growatt:
Factory reset instructions - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wLJGblVADiF7X8Mk6dkMKqaMz3lpjcQz/view?usp=drive_link
FW link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/18s3iAq8eBRhn9xhie4L6z8dKx0WRpdWE/view?usp=drive_link

Firmware includes procedure, windows drivers, ISP write tool, and fw file. You will need a windows laptop with windows 7, 10, or 11, and a USBa to USBb cable.

Any suggestions on either getting the Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM firmware updated, or has anyone seen a problem where the solar charging appears to essentially not be working?

Tech:
- Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM 24V - current firmware read from Solar-Assistant as 502.10
- Q.Cell 395W panels in a 2s2p setup - Full sun I see about 75-81V from the panels on the Growatt, but the current stays at zero
- Vothium 200ah 24V battery
- Solar-assistant running on a RPi connected to the Growatt via USB

 

[Johnnysunrise]

Follow up. At this point I am pretty sure the charge controller on the Growatt all-in-one has died, as it no longer even recognizes that the panels are connected, although I can still read voltage at the leads going into the Growatt with a multimeter. Going to see about warranty.

 

[sparrowhawk]

Follow up. At this point I am pretty sure the charge controller on the Growatt all-in-one has died, as it no longer even recognizes that the panels are connected, although I can still read voltage at the leads going into the Growatt with a multimeter. Going to see about warranty.

It's my understanding that in most cases to update the Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM 24V you need a computer running windows 7.

I have the same Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM 24V but I bought a pair of them and put them into service in 2020 and within the first 6 weeks one of them stopped seeing the panels, but a couple days before that I started smelling a burnt electrical odor.

I contacted the vendor where I bought them and was instructed to take the one apart that wasn't working right to tighten a couple of electrical contact points but when I got it apart one of the contact points was charred which was the reason for the smell. The board that was damaged was the main control board and had to be replaced.

The reason it happened is poor quality control and the mppt connections to the main control board connections aren't always tightened down properly and I think in my case I was over paneled and so was sending the maximum amount of solar (2000 watts) through the mppt to the main board and cooked that loose connections goose.

Anyway I haven't had any problem like that since the repair but I do on occasion have a problem with one of the inverters mppt not starting in the morning until the wattage from the panels reaches about 400 watts. If it happens a couple times in a row then I will shut down the inverters and all power sources to them wait about 15 minutes and restart them and after that I don't usually see the problem reoccur for 6 months to a year.

If your inverter is out of warranty then I would suggest maybe opening it up and checking the mppt to main board connections. It's not difficult. The mppt sits just above the main board and the connections are aluminum post sandwiched between the 2 boards.

There are screws going through the mppt board into the top of the post and the bottom of the post are threaded directly into the main board. So if you remove the 2 top post screws you should be able to tighten the post. Lefty loosy righty tighty. Be careful how much you try to tighten then as they are just aluminum and would probably twist off easily.

 

[merrillbalan]

I

It's my understanding that in most cases to update the Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM 24V you need a computer running windows 7.

I have the same Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM 24V but I bought a pair of them and put them into service in 2020 and within the first 6 weeks one of them stopped seeing the panels, but a couple days before that I started smelling a burnt electrical odor.

I contacted the vendor where I bought them and was instructed to take the one apart that wasn't working right to tighten a couple of electrical contact points but when I got it apart one of the contact points was charred which was the reason for the smell. The board that was damaged was the main control board and had to be replaced.

The reason it happened is poor quality control and the mppt connections to the main control board connections aren't always tightened down properly and I think in my case I was over paneled and so was sending the maximum amount of solar (2000 watts) through the mppt to the main board and cooked that loose connections goose.

Anyway I haven't had any problem like that since the repair but I do on occasion have a problem with one of the inverters mppt not starting in the morning until the wattage from the panels reaches about 400 watts. If it happens a couple times in a row then I will shut down the inverters and all power sources to them wait about 15 minutes and restart them and after that I don't usually see the problem reoccur for 6 months to a year.

If your inverter is out of warranty then I would suggest maybe opening it up and checking the mppt to main board connections. It's not difficult. The mppt sits just above the main board and the connections are aluminum post sandwiched between the 2 boards.

There are screws going through the mppt board into the top of the post and the bottom of the post are threaded directly into the main board. So if you remove the 2 top post screws you should be able to tighten the post. Lefty loosy righty tighty. Be careful how much you try to tighten then as they are just aluminum and would probably twist off easily.

I do have the same problem I think my main control board is fried by over panel as well. How much did you have to pay to get the charger replaced? right now I bought Victron charger so I can still charge my batteries.

 

[Rednecktek]

It's my understanding that in most cases to update the Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM 24V you need a computer running windows 7.

I've done it with Win10, just had to track down the serial drivers for the USB connection.

Something that caught me with mine was setting the max charging rate. When I set mine for anything higher than the default it reset itself to 0 amps, so I was seeing voltage but it was refusing to charge.

 

[sparrowhawk]

I

I do have the same problem I think my main control board is fried by over panel as well. How much did you have to pay to get the charger replaced? right now I bought Victron charger so I can still charge my batteries.

It didn't cost me anything as it was under warranty. I only put a small part of the blame for the board being damaged on over paneling as I also had my battery charging maxed out along with a high amount of 120v/240v loads all of which added up to maxing out the mppt for most of the day. In reality the root cause was the loose connection between the main board and the mppt board so the heavy loads just helped it to fail sooner.

It's been close to 3 years since the repair and everything has been working normally. The only change I have made was to double the size of my battery bank which helps me keep my batteries better balanced since the amperage to each battery is lower and allows me to take better advantage of the over paneling throughout the day.

 

[sparrowhawk]

I've done it with Win10, just had to track down the serial drivers for the USB connection.

Something that caught me with mine was setting the max charging rate. When I set mine for anything higher than the default it reset itself to 0 amps, so I was seeing voltage but it was refusing to charge.

I never had an issue mine when I changed from the default charge to a higher setting. So yours works fine as long as you have it set at default or less?

 

[Rednecktek]

I never had an issue mine when I changed from the default charge to a higher setting. So yours works fine as long as you have it set at default or less?

Yeah, as soon as I went over it was charging at 0a, but putting it back down to the listed max got everything working. It was a frustrating first day online. ?