Mystery used Sol-Ark 12K Full Failure (Fixed itself)

[AleksK]

Hello I have Solark 12k that will not turn on the Normal LED or inverting/charging function even with battery and PV connected. Screen comes on but even after a long wait still shows "OFF" on the display.

It does display the voltage of the battery at about 53V and about 300V for both PV MPPT charge controllers.

Been calling solark all day no answer.

Any help? I suspect internal damage but not sure what exactly could cause this.

 

[LydMekk]

How long has this been installed?

 

[AleksK]

Only trying to install now but unit seems used to some extent, purchased third party. Although it displays 0kwh generated. Alarm history indicates F55 and F59 but no current faults

 

[AleksK]

No electronic burnt smell detected and no visual damage detected from looking inside but didn't disassemble anything but front panel to check for something obvious like a disconnected plug visual damage.

 

[OzSolar]

What does the 3rd party have to say? Could you've bought a used inverter with an unknown history from a unauthorized reseller?

Sol-Ark will call you back if you leave a message.

 

[AleksK]

Cut and run kind of deal I did get it quite cheap so suspected some issues were possible. Still he was a Solar installer in Bridgeport Texas so real shame he lied being a professional

 

[OzSolar]

Cut and run kind of deal I did get it quite cheap so suspected some issues were possible. Still he was a Solar installer in Bridgeport Texas so real shame he lied being a professional

That's what I thought. Doesn't sound like a Sol-Ark problem to me. I hate to be that guy and I don't work for Sol-Ark but the title of your thread should be edited.

 

[AleksK]

I'm not claiming it's a solark problem, although it could be the unit seems completely fine otherwise and displays zero kwh generated. But yeah I'm not saying they owe me warranty I don't yet know what happened. Also it's a failure of a solark 12k as in it fails to function I don't think we need sugarcoating.

 

[Lt.Dan]

I don't know of any way of resetting the history to 0kWh. It must be new.

Did you go through the manual of how to program and get it turned on the first time?

 

[AleksK]

I've installed quite a few 12ks so I think I checked everything, they usually turn on regardless of whatever issue just go into fault mode and beep.

One thing I would like to know is the default password to reset the unit to factory settings if anyone knows. Thanks

 

[OzSolar]

I'm not claiming it's a solark problem, although it could be the unit seems completely fine otherwise and displays zero kwh generated.

Ok, it sounded to me like you were. You bought something that was already trashed. Original installer knew it. He probably trashed it right out of the box therefore 0 KWH.

Leave a message with Sol-Ark or even better submit a ticket on thier website with the all information and they will look into it.

 

[AleksK]

I'm just brainstorming here, hoping someone can help narrow down what possibly could have happened.

So far I can only think of these possibilities:

1. The unit received too high of a solar voltage on the input.

2. The unit got battery leads reversed or higher than 63V input.

Questions: if that's the case, why can it still show voltage of battery and both MPPTs? Why is not in some fault mode with alarm code? Why both MPPTs don't work?

 

[AleksK]

Ok, it sounded to me like you were. You bought something that was already trashed. Original installer knew it. He probably trashed it right out of the box therefore 0 KWH.

Leave a message with Sol-Ark or even better submit a ticket on thier website with the all information and they will look into it.

Nah, I've got 4 of them myself and they've been great units so far.

I just don't understand why sell it to me sort of cheap, what could they do to it? Why did they not warranty or repair the unit?

 

[Lt.Dan]

Alarm history indicates F55 and F59 but no current faults

Well 55 was high DC voltage. There is no such thing as F59 in the manual though.

 

[DIYrich]

I would try to get one thing at a time working. Passthrough grid, battery, then pv

 

[AleksK]

Well 55 was high DC voltage. There is no such thing as F59 in the manual though.

F59 is not in the manual. But it does exist it say AC_V_Grid_Curr-High_Fault

 

[AleksK]

I would try to get one thing at a time working. Passthrough grid, battery, then pv

Pass-through from grid to load does work. PV does nothing but display PV voltage. Same goes for battery. Never leaves Inverter off state so it can't do anything with DC. I also do hear a relay click after some time from powering on but nothing changes.

 

[DIYrich]

I belive it does a power cycle to switch from no battery to battery connected.

Both the battery and pv go through the high voltage bus to connect to inverter. Maybe the f55 error indicates a damaged high voltage bus. Maybe they exceeded voltage with panels.

Try turning on with no grid and connected to battery only (no pv).

Also try with pv and no battery.

 

[AleksK]

I belive it does a power cycle to switch from no battery to battery connected.

Both the battery and pv go through the high voltage bus to connect to inverter. Maybe the f55 error indicates a damaged high voltage bus. Maybe they exceeded voltage with panels.

Any ideas what I can do to check the high voltage bus or where it's located inside? Also how much of the unit would need to be replaced in such case? Do you know if visible damage occurs? Has no one on these forums fried one of these all in one's with too much voltage and saw what happend?

 

[AleksK]

I belive it does a power cycle to switch from no battery to battery connected.

Both the battery and pv go through the high voltage bus to connect to inverter. Maybe the f55 error indicates a damaged high voltage bus. Maybe they exceeded voltage with panels.

Try turning on with no grid and connected to battery only (no pv).

I believe I tried that, I think it still turned on the screen but kept the Inverter board off. Which is weird since it means it is capable of pulling power from battery atleast enough to power itself. I think even PV only had the screen working but staying off otherwise