The 45,000 Baht (about $1,200) brick :(

[crossy]

Not actually any smoke but a bit of a tale of woe.

Our 5kW Sofar HYD5000 hybrid inverter is just over a year old and has generally performed as expected.

Over the past few months we've been getting the occasional "unrecoverBusOVP" error (bus over-voltage), it would go weeks with none and then do it two or three times in a day. The problem is that in order to recover you have to power down the inverter, wait a minute or so, then power up. Not an issue if I'm home but a bind (and lost generation) if I'm not.

I tried telling it that it lived in a 230V country (Australia - Thailand outside Bangkok is 220V) in case the country parameters changed the bus voltage limits, no real difference.

So I contacted Sofar Service by email and got a very nice lady "Sherry". She monitored the inverter over the net and determined that, as a first step, the firmware should be updated from the existing V2.5 to the latest V3.51.

At this point things started to go awry

Sherry attempted to do an OTA (Over The Air) update, unfortunately this failed and left the inverter in a non-working state "Software Error"

She then sent me the firmware with instructions on how to do the update locally. Pretty simple, load the files on to a micro-SD card, insert in the inverter and push a few buttons.

After a false start with a duff SD card the firmware update started.

And then stopped!

After 30 minutes of inaction I asked her how long it should take, "not 30 minutes" was the response, "turn it off and try again".

So I did, but the beast refused to do anything other than put on the LCD backlight

A couple of re-tries and back to Sherry. She tried to contact it over the net "Can you hear me, Major Tom???"

So, in less than 24 hours we've gone from a working inverter with an annoying quirk to a 45,000 Baht brick hanging on the wall

Bu99er!

Sofar inverters have a 5 year warranty. If there's no local repair facility it's an exchange warranty, they ship you a refurb or new unit and you ship the dead one back. At least they're not asking to ship the dead unit back first!

So a new unit will be on its way soon (2 weeks delivery apparently). I'm not sure if I will end up paying for shipping the dead one back but I'm pretty sure I will end up paying duty/VAT on the replacement unit.

Until it arrives, we are running at 60% of our total solar capacity (this is why I often recommend using two smaller units rather than one big one be it inverters or aircons).

What to take away from this?
Not much other than the fact that any firmware update, be it your phone, router or inverter does stand the chance of bricking the unit, go in with eyes open!

 

[chess-equality]

If you are producing a product that has a firmware update feature, it must have at least TWO (flash) ROMS, one master and one backup. If the master gets screwed up during the update process, the system can just simply restore from the backup.

It's how it's done in the IoT and computer industries. Ever wonder how IoT devices get updated in the thousands in the field? Well, these solar manufacturers seem to be amateurs in this area (or just simply cutting costs).

So the customer doesn't need multiple units for redundancy just to mitigate your crappy firmware update process. TWO ROMS are a win-win for all.

 

[crossy]

If the master gets screwed up during the update process, the system can just simply restore from the backup.

Yup, but there are an incredible number of devices which don't implement this on the grounds of cost. I must admit I'm amazed that a device which is definitely less than cheap can be bricked so easily.

I wonder how many other inverters are in the same boat.

Such is life and we are where we are.

 

[chess-equality]

https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/d/dualbios.htm

 

[chess-equality]

Yup, but there are an incredible number of devices which don't implement this on the grounds of cost. I must admit I'm amazed that a device which is definitely less than cheap can be bricked so easily.

I wonder how many other inverters are in the same boat.

Such is life and we are where we are.

IMHO, bricking just by firmware update should be a thing of the past.

 

[crossy]

IMHO, bricking just by firmware update should be a thing of the past.

"Should" (and shouldn't) are big words sometimes when the bean-counters are in operation.

On a positive note, Sofar were:-
a. Contactable,
b. Tried to help and
c. Are shipping a replacement unit

So many far-eastern manufacturers are in the "not very contactable" list.

 

[chess-equality]

"Should" (and shouldn't) are big words sometimes when the bean-counters are in operation.

Well, for beans as expensive as inverters they should be (must be)

On a positive note, Sofar were:-
a. Contactable,
b. Tried to help and
c. Are shipping a replacement unit

So many far-eastern manufacturers are in the "not very contactable" list.

 

[chess-equality]

Unfortunately if it's bricked there's really no way of bringing it back from your end. A technician would be connecting a hardware interface to it and overwrite the flash ROM.

But it's good if they're sending a replacement.

 

[crossy]

The replacement unit is on its way via DHL

 

[curiouscarbon]

sorry to hear of the firmware update failure.

glad to hear of the replacement en route!

unfortunate of brick, hoping functioning returns 100% soon

 

[crossy]

New inverter was delivered this morning after being held by Thai Customs, it seems that "free warranty replacement" causes brain failure in customs officers (Actually they disputed the declared value).

Anyway, it was delivered with nothing to pay

 

[Bud Martin]

So do you have to pay any duty or tax in general when you order stuff out off Thailand, I.E. from China?

 

[crossy]

So do you have to pay any duty or tax in general when you order stuff out off Thailand, I.E. from China?

It depends, there is a Free Trade Agreement with China and solar inverters are zero rated for duty anyway, but there's always 7% VAT on the CIF value.

Low value stuff sent via the regular mail system often gets through with no fees at all. Evidently, it's just too much hassle to collect minimal amounts.

Stuff that comes by courier (DHL, FedEx etc.) usually has a bulk-clearance deal but something indicated as "free" invariably attracts the attention of The Man in a "random" inspection.

 

[ghostwriter66]

funniest part - and something I can totally relate to:

" (and lost generation) "

 

[crossy]

Just to close this out the replacement inverter is in and running fine, all we need now is some sunshine.

Our current problem is flooding, we are very near the Chao Praya River and we have not been helped by the tail end of typhoon Noru dumping a lot of water on the northern part of the country last week. It takes several days for the run-off to reach us here and the river was already high due to the seasonal rains. Unfortunately, there's been more rain "up north" recently and there's still significant flooding there too

I was rather surprised there was no DHL paperwork at all with the beast, it would have been nice to know what the revised customs value was, but I'm not about to poke any hornet's nests.

I did ask about sending the dead one back. The response wasn't a direct "no" but "shipping is very expensive and we have no way of recycling it" which in my mind is pretty close to a "no". I shall do nothing** until they actually ask for it back.

** Apart from search on the web and the various user groups to see if anyone has actually de-bricked a Sofar unit after a failed firmware update