Solar Assistant Suddenly Won't Change 6500EX Settings

[Teseract]

I had Solar Assistant working fine, now suddenly it's not allowing me to change any inverter settings. If I try to it says "saving, please wait" then never changes the setting. If I go into the "Power" tab it shows the "Inverter is currently set to ."



Rebooting it has no effect. Changing it from Home Assistant via MQTT also does not change any settings. I can change settings fine from Watchpower or from the inverter itself. I even powered down the entire inverter thinking it might be a "glitch" on the inverter but the issue seems to be in SA not in the inverter.

All the data is crossing from the inverter fine, so all the graphs are correct, the current state of charge and PV input are all accurate and showing fine, I just can't change any settings. This is pretty annoying as I have it set to switch to Solar/Utility/Battery if the SOC gets too low, and currently and this isn't working either.

Anyone run into this issue? I seem to be getting bad luck with SA in general...

 

[timselectric]

I have had this happen before. But it's just been a lost connection. A reboot solved it.
You should contact support for assistance.

 

[Teseract]

Yeah I even joined the Beta to see if doing an update would fix it... even after going from a build date in February to one from this month and of course a reboot to apply the changes didn't fix the issue.

I had an issue with a GFI outlet tripping due to noise from the 6500EX and my temporary grid connection that caused it to lose power a few times. I'm wondering if something got corrupted.

 

[timselectric]

Yeah I even joined the Beta to see if doing an update would fix it... even after going from a build date in February to one from this month and of course a reboot to apply the changes didn't fix the issue.

I had an issue with a GFI outlet tripping due to noise from the 6500EX and my temporary grid connection that caused it to lose power a few times. I'm wondering if something got corrupted.

I can definitely confirm that stray voltage on the ground will definitely cause issues.
Do you have a bypass transfer switch to connect your loads to the grid ? (around the inverter/s)
If yes, switch it to grid and try a reboot.

 

[Teseract]

The system is still being slowly put together, soon it will have a critical loads panel with a Reliance transfer switch but for right now it just has an extension cord plugged into an outlet. Originally it was on a circuit that was protected by a GFI. It didn't have any issues until I connected solar to it and then suddenly it started tripping. It took me a couple of resets before I realized what was up. Then I plugged it into a non-GFI protected circuit and no issues since other than SA deciding to break.

I did completely shut down the inverter, by disconnecting the grid, battery and solar inputs (I have breakers for all of the above), and then powered it back up again and rebooting SA but this didn't fix it.

I ordered a "high endurance" SD card recently as I read that SA likes to assassinate normal SD cards due to the high read/write rate so I'll just reinstall SA on that when it gets here and see if that fixes it. If not I'll reach out to support for the third time this month.

 

[timselectric]

The system is still being slowly put together, soon it will have a critical loads panel with a Reliance transfer switch but for right now it just has an extension cord plugged into an outlet. Originally it was on a circuit that was protected by a GFI. It didn't have any issues until I connected solar to it and then suddenly it started tripping. It took me a couple of resets before I realized what was up. Then I plugged it into a non-GFI protected circuit and no issues since other than SA deciding to break.

I did completely shut down the inverter, by disconnecting the grid, battery and solar inputs (I have breakers for all of the above), and then powered it back up again and rebooting SA but this didn't fix it.

I ordered a "high endurance" SD card recently as I read that SA likes to assassinate normal SD cards due to the high read/write rate so I'll just reinstall SA on that when it gets here and see if that fixes it. If not I'll reach out to support for the third time this month.

I would try a reboot. With grid and loads disconnected.
Your issue with the GFCI points to a possible ground issue.

 

[Teseract]

Fixed it... apparently the Pi or SA decided it didn't like the USB extension cable that worked fine for weeks and then suddenly didn't.

 

[timselectric]

Glad that you got it working.

 

[Zwy]

Fixed it... apparently the Pi or SA decided it didn't like the USB extension cable that worked fine for weeks and then suddenly didn't.

Get the RS 232 cable and forget the USB cable.

My very first thoughts after reading it still didn't work after reboot was the cable.

 

[Teseract]

Get the RS 232 cable and forget the USB cable.

My very first thoughts after reading it still didn't work after reboot was the cable.

This was the RS232 to USB cable provided by Signature Solar with the inverter, not the direct microUSB one.

The issue actually came back a few hours later... now I have it direct connected with a microUSB cable and it's working again.

The one that came with the inverter is the old style USB to DB9 to RJ45 one, I ordered the straight USB to RJ45 one from Signature Solar last night.

The Orange Pi and Solar Assistant are really picky about USB cables and USB Hubs. If I didn't want the HDMI out I'd just put it on a normal Pi and get rid of the ancient Orange Pi 3LTS.

 

[Zwy]

This was the RS232 to USB cable provided by Signature Solar with the inverter, not the direct microUSB one.

If I recall, there were some problems using that cable.

The issue actually came back a few hours later... now I have it direct connected with a microUSB cable and it's working again.

The one that came with the inverter is the old style USB to DB9 to RJ45 one, I ordered the straight USB to RJ45 one from Signature Solar last night.

The Orange Pi and Solar Assistant are really picky about USB cables and USB Hubs. If I didn't want the HDMI out I'd just put it on a normal Pi and get rid of the ancient Orange Pi 3LTS.

The RS232 cable from Solar Assistant does work and I haven't read of problems using it. It is what I used, I purchased it direct from Solar Assistant.