Sol-Ark will be doing Server Maintenance Jan 20 - 22

[robby]

I had issues prior to this update going back to September 2024 but the outcome is the same. My Sol-Ark for my system properly collects data however it cannot actually read or apply parameters. I verified this last year and this week that it presents a confirmation if I change a parameter (say as simple as TOU Time entry or grid sell limit) but it doesn't apply the change to my inverter. I have several fundamental issues with this, primarily that my inverter (15k) doesn't give me access to such things as limit "ranges" such as max solar power and so I can't update that even from the inverter and require My Sol-Ark to access it, which it has been unable to do. It seems I will again have to engage solark support to try to determine how to remedy this. I would like to get to a point where I can disconnect from the Solark servers altogether, but since they don't provide the same access to parameters (such as Max Solar Power) in the inverter software, this represents a huge problem and limitation for users desiring to go off grid and off My Sol-Ark.

Sorry to ask such a basic question but this one caused a lot of people to have the same issue when MySolArk fist came out. After you change a TOU slot are you scrolling all the way down to the bottom and pressing the [save] button?
On PVpro it was out in the open but on MySolArk it's way down at the bottom.

 

[hpeyerl]

ok. So my inverter started acting up around the time of this supposed update (that I didn't receive an email about, incidentally. Checked my spam/junk folders and mail logs, nothing.)

This morning, Jan 31, I'm trying to change my TOU slots and even after saving changes, it reverts in a minute or so. Ignoring the fact that I can't even click the save button because one of the fields has a '0' default value and the range is 500-32000W so if refuses to save unless I update the value to 500. Of course, the update to 500 is also not saved.

So according to this thread, everything should be back to normal?

Obviously, when I try to make changes in solar-assistant, it also reverts.

Guess I'll have to walk up the hill when I'm out of my PJ's and change settings on the LCD directly, like I would if I lived in Pennsylvania Dutch Country.

So did Solark push another update or something?

 

[Armorer266]

ok. So my inverter started acting up around the time of this supposed update (that I didn't receive an email about, incidentally. Checked my spam/junk folders and mail logs, nothing.)

This morning, Jan 31, I'm trying to change my TOU slots and even after saving changes, it reverts in a minute or so. Ignoring the fact that I can't even click the save button because one of the fields has a '0' default value and the range is 500-32000W so if refuses to save unless I update the value to 500. Of course, the update to 500 is also not saved.

So according to this thread, everything should be back to normal?

Obviously, when I try to make changes in solar-assistant, it also reverts.

Guess I'll have to walk up the hill when I'm out of my PJ's and change settings on the LCD directly, like I would if I lived in Pennsylvania Dutch Country.

So did Solark push another update or something?

Mine is back to normal, but honestly my event made me loose some crediability with them. While the support was great and immediate, it's like back in 2010 when Apple rolled out updates that screwed up phones, wait at least two weeks before doing the update.

My beef is that I wasn't notified of the update and I thought my system was screwed up. I felt like I had to fix it not knowing there was stuff I didn't look at like grid profiles the update screwed with.

Lesson learned, I still don't understand how the update got that FUBAR'd. As an engineer it's just unacceptable, but whoever wrote the firmware have a beer on me because without it it would have absolutely destroyed all the electrical in my house.

Note I also called them a week before the update as I just installed microinverters for the gen port and the App only tracks the generation daily and doesn't save the total production per day. So I thought that morning of the update someone at Solark had fixed my ticket but screwed up my profile for the batteries. There is still no way to see what the generation was between the DC PV and the AC PV, again WTF do i really need to do calculus to figure that out.

 

[hpeyerl]

Mine is back to normal, but honestly my event made me loose some crediability with them.

Yeah. This has really affected my trust in this thing. Mine is still unable to save TOU schedule changes. It claims to have changed settings but when I reload the page, all of my changes have reverted. I've never tried to get support from Sol-Ark so maybe I'll have to open that can of worms.

Edit: I tried submitting a support ticket to Sol-Ark and the form only allows 1000 characters. That's hardly enough room to accurately describe the problem and provide enough information for anyone to diagnose anything. Sigh.

 

[hpeyerl]

Edit: I tried submitting a support ticket to Sol-Ark and the form only allows 1000 characters. That's hardly enough room to accurately describe the problem and provide enough information for anyone to diagnose anything. Sigh.

Update in case someone is still interested. After paring my support ticket down to 982 characters, I submitted it. 3 days later received a call from Sol-Ark and the caller says "there's really not a lot of information in this ticket to work with". After regurgitating the many details I had to remove from the ticket, I'm told the firmware on my 'wifi dongle' is ancient (the unit is <11mos old) and needs upgrading. I upgrade the firmware and the dongle didn't reboot. I responded to the ticket with that information and was asked to measure voltages on the DB-9 connector because there were no active LEDs on the dongle. Turns out the Wifi board (that the dongle plugs into) didn't survive the firmware upgrade (!!) so now I'm waiting for a new wifi board to show up.

As someone who spent 35 years doing firmware and military/consumer product design, I can recognize a cluster-f*** when I see one.

 

[robby]

Update in case someone is still interested. After paring my support ticket down to 982 characters, I submitted it. 3 days later received a call from Sol-Ark and the caller says "there's really not a lot of information in this ticket to work with". After regurgitating the many details I had to remove from the ticket, I'm told the firmware on my 'wifi dongle' is ancient (the unit is <11mos old) and needs upgrading. I upgrade the firmware and the dongle didn't reboot. I responded to the ticket with that information and was asked to measure voltages on the DB-9 connector because there were no active LEDs on the dongle. Turns out the Wifi board (that the dongle plugs into) didn't survive the firmware upgrade (!!) so now I'm waiting for a new wifi board to show up.

As someone who spent 35 years doing firmware and military/consumer product design, I can recognize a cluster-f*** when I see one.

I made a post about this but I cannot remember what Thread it was in.

Here is the issue as told to me by a technician:
The original Dongles were made by some company connected to SolarMan (App).
There are two IPs in the Dongle. One is to the Data Server and the other is for login and control.
At the time Sol-Ark was using the Solarman App so everything was good. Then they switched the PvPro and evidently SolarMan redirected the Data to PvPro and everything worked but Sol-Ark never really got into the details as to how this was actually done.
The reason the Data was redirected is because SolarMan had hardwired their Data Servers IP into the dongles.
Something akin to using a PROM to do it. They only left the Control IP value changeable by the Inverter company using the dongles.

I think it was back when Sol-Ark was first starting to test moving the Data to their own servers that they found out that the IP was fixed and after a bit of a battling they ended up purchasing the Firmware from SolarMan or whoever is connected to them. After that they started to rewrite the Firmware and program the Dongles themselves so that Both IP's could be changed remotely and other things where also added ti the firmware.
A few people still have the dongles with the original firmware and this causes all sorts of crazy things to happen.

And just a note for future reference. The guy told me that this is a never ending problem for them because some people don't use the Dongle. They have it thrown in a drawer and then they pull it out years later and have issues because it's on old firmware.
Some people have their Inverters sitting in a box for 18 Months before it is installed and they also have the problem.

You should be fine once you get a new Dongle.
The existing problem you have was solved by another forum user by following Sol-Arks instructions (manually Disconnected from load and PV). Factory reset the Inverter. The Sol-Ark tech then went in and reprogrammed his system. Since you have no Dongle they cannot reprogram the Inverter, but if you are very familiar with the settings and confident that you can do it, then you can reprogram the Inverter using the LCD.

 

[hpeyerl]

I made a post about this but I cannot remember what Thread it was in.

You should be fine once you get a new Dongle.

That was helpful. Thanks. As far as I'm aware, they're not sending me a new dongle, but a new 'wifi board' which is the little blue board inside the barnacle on the side of the inverter that the dongle plugs into. It's not supplying power to the pins on the DB-9 and therefore the dongle is not powering up. Unless they're sending me one of each.

They should have been able to tell what firmware version was on my dongle to preempt this problem. I've been using it since the day I powered up the inverter last April (and I only ordered/received it a couple weeks prior to powering it up). But that's water under the bridge at this point.

The exisiting problem you have was solved by another forum user by following Sol-Arks instructions to Factory reset the Inverter (While manualy Disconnected from load and PV). The Sol-Ark tech then went in and reprogrammed his system. Since you have no Dongle they cannot reprogram the Inverter, but if you are very familiar with the settings and confident that you can do it, then you can using the LCD.

I could reprogram it if necessary. I'm tempted to wait until it's not -30C outside though.

 

[hpeyerl]

That was helpful. Thanks. As far as I'm aware, they're not sending me a new dongle, but a new 'wifi board' which is the little blue board inside the barnacle on the side of the inverter that the dongle plugs into. It's not supplying power to the pins on the DB-9 and therefore the dongle is not powering up. Unless they're sending me one of each.

Well, after 6 weeks, this issue still is not resolved. The many exchanges with the Sol-Ark support person, have been decidedly less than impressive. In short, the instructions I was given to measure the voltage at the pins was incorrect (given the wrong pin numbers) which led the support person down the wrong path of sending the wrong part.

I shudder to think where I'd be if some critical part failed and my inverter was down.