Solis solar grid inverter repair, initialising but no start

A brief investigation and fix of this no start solis inverter. Reveals a familiar problem and reveals the fault with Aurora inverter relays. If this helps you fix your inverter: donate: www.paypal.com...

[@andyhunter1208]

Hi Andy I am so glad I came across your video as its saved money and down time. My Solis a 3.6 Kw had arced a terminal on one of the relays and two other relays looked a little suspect, resulting in a tripped MCB and continuously trying to initialise. After cleaning and resoldiering all went well and it works fine, your video instruction was spot on! The cost saving versus a new Solis was between £400 for a DIY fit or £1200 to have it replaced professionally, and what a waste that would have been! Very happy and sincere thanks. 🙂

[@TheInfoworks]

It takes quite some time for the investigation and video, pleased it's kept another unit working, please subscribe Etc, cheers

[@zemyew1550]

A great video; saved me hours trying to figure out my Solis Inverter would not get past initialization.

[@TheInfoworks]

That's great news, I hope you have seen the other videos in this series and are a subscriber, cheers

[@dingnextstop]

I always look forward to any new fix’s on here, I love problem solving on my Narrowboat 👍

[@TheInfoworks]

Andrew, thanks for the comment. This fix was helped with experiences with Aurora inverters. Up soon the relay fix video and part 4 of the Lister PK, cheers

[@RandyV2max]

You just saved me some money man! Many thanks! Tip from me: unscrew all bottom screws aswell and you can move the front cover away after disconnecting 1 data tape from the screen. Regards!

[@TheInfoworks]

That's grand and part of the plan, another saved from scrap. I do hope you have subscribed, cheers

[@RandyV2max]

@@TheInfoworks Ofcourse I have subscribed!

[@TheInfoworks]

@@RandyV2max Splendid

[@charles99958]

Thanks for the video, I bought a relay £6- 8 US dollars. Just fitted it and it works p, my friend is very happy. He was quoted £1200- 1422 US dollars. These “engineers” are only fitters, he looked at it and said yes it’s faulty I have a new one in my van

[@TheInfoworks]

That's grand, another saved, hope you have subscribed and get your friend P to look at my Paypal link, cheers

[@arlaman9208]

Aboslulty brilliant thanks guys just saved my sister 800 pounds and this lee is very happy

[@TheInfoworks]

That's grand, there's several ways to support more videos, cheers

[@rav3n925]

Hi Andy, Great channel!, I Have a question i can't find much information on and maybe you could help? I have a solis inverter that is coming up with a Grid-Intf error or when generating only generating about 78w! but if i gently thud the unit the Wattage increases to normal then alarms to the grid error again, I have opened the unit up to inspect and from what i can see there are 4 panasonic relays ive tried tapping them the recreate the issue but doesnt seem to be them, If i tap the blue film capacitor it seems cause the issue though, Have you come across anything like this before? Thanks for your time

[@TheInfoworks]

Well done on your investigation, you can get earth faults caused by faulty capacitors, sounds like you may have found a possible faulty unit or solder joint. I will be interested to hear the results, cheers

[@rav3n925]

@@TheInfoworks pulled the unit apart over the weekend, found two relays had a melted solder joint! Have new relays as well as a film capacitor on their way, hopefully will sort the issue out! Cheers

[@TheInfoworks]

@@rav3n925 Now that's what I call progress, cheers

[@rav3n925]

@TheInfoworks update time!!! Unit has been successfully repaired, replaced the 4 relays and we are back to full load! Very easy job to complete, I changed the film capacitor as well, but I believe it was one of the relays

[@TheInfoworks]

Splendid news, another saved, cheers@@rav3n925

[@drut12000]

Hello again Andy, it's mithering Brian here again with another problem, the Solis inverters are working perfectly when its dry weather but as soon as there is rain sometimes they are tripping the RCD in the house consumer unit, sometimes after resetting it they will work fine even if it carries on raining all day, other times it will just keep tripping to the point I have to disconnect them from all power and leave them till its a dry day again, I've checked all the MC4 connectors and they are all ok, the rcd in the house consumer unit is a 30ma one but Solis recommend a 100ma /300ma one, have you ever had this problem and if so how did you rectify it, Thanks Brian

[@TheInfoworks]

Brian, it's probably a collective leak to earth. Either upgrade the RCD or put in a separate fuse box, just for the solar, cheers

[@drut12000]

@@TheInfoworks Thanks Andy, I’ll try a 100ma rcd, I’ve no room to add another CU my thinking was because our CU is a split one, one side with the 30ma rcd can be the house and the side with the 100ma rcd can supply power to my sheds were the inverters are, I think if I have a junction box then split the wire so one side is for the inverters only and the other side is connected to the small CU I have in there with a 30ma rcd then my sockets will be protected then by the 30ma, does sound right or am I wrong, thanks again Andy, Brian

[@bootsowen]

The video made sense to me, not disjointed. It is frustrating that a pcb will reach the end of its life because of one component. I wonder would the manufacturer recommend a repair or just a new board? With washing machines the fault finding tends check some mechanical components based on a symptom, then if the mechanical component is ok just replace the PCB and see if that works. I guess that is fine if it is under warranty, but I suspect that very little soldering is done under warranty. I learned a bit from the video and a good bit about relays form the comments too! Maybe the trick to getting these relays to last longer is to keep the solar PV panels out of the sun?!

[@TheInfoworks]

Owen, I suppose many of the clips felt that way as I was editing and there are a few bits that I would like to have added but didn't have the footage. Such is the problem of one shot only experimenting. Yes I have a stack of panels that are not doing any harm awaiting inspiration. Some of my repaired inverters have been running for 5 /6 years with no problems but I have made sure they are in ideal conditions and would probably see me out. On the other Aurora fix videos there are plenty of comments on changing the relays but industry would not do such a thing, it's that whole cost and time thing, hence one of the drivers for me making videos. In some small way having an effect on waste and promoting self reliance. Cheers

[@bootsowen]

@@TheInfoworks I am editing my solis test video and I thought to google the fault again and this time it brought me to this video, no memory of watching it (11 months ago!) but looks like it might be the issue. Repeatedly initialising and then OV-BUS error. There's definitely another video in it!

[@TheInfoworks]

@@bootsowen If you can do referencing that would great, it's taken many days of fiddling to get to this stage of adjusting, cheers

[@mattikhan5478]

Sir most of the grid tie inverter may come which fault

[@JouniSalminen-lx6ce]

YNice video. one question? How many fuses are inside the inverter?

[@TheInfoworks]

Just the one, some don't have any, cheers

[@JouniSalminen-lx6ce]

@@TheInfoworks I have a Solis-3P5K-4G inverter. It still works fine. Anyway, I'm studying for the future if something goes wrong. Any information on the matter is of interest. Best regards, Jouni Salminen Finland

[@TheInfoworks]

@@JouniSalminen-lx6ce Hi, best thing to tell you is to watch my video on extending inverter life. It's in the solar inverter playlist. Beyond that buy a second hand unit and keep it "just in case", cheers

[@ianhelsbyservices]

I got around to initially testing 3 of my inverters yesterday. The Omnik 2KW had the a cable detached from the square component, then relay fault on startup. The Mastervolt with the card air channels has a missing Littelfuse 1Amp 600V fuse, only the lcd initiallises with no other activity. Both those units had intact QC stickers. Do you know what the large unit is within an inverter. Aluminium case, potted circuit board and has two sets of large red and black wires coming out of it. The last unit I tested sounded like damaged contacts on at least one relay, heavy arcing sound.

[@TheInfoworks]

Ian, well done, sounds like you can fix the Omnik, the Mastervolt are not worth messing with, and the last one would need some more investigation, what is it? The large potted Ali case would probably be a capacitor. Hope you enjoyed the investigation, and hope to hear more soon, cheers

[@ianhelsbyservices]

@@TheInfoworks Hi Andy, It's a Saj Sununo. It's relays seem to be beefy enough: Panasonic ALFG2PF12, 31A 277VAC I took a video at the time which I've just stitched together into some form of coherency: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZWrZmVogLaiZsk

[@Equiluxe1]

The reason the relay pins are burning is down to the relay contacts arcing and producing enough heat to melt the solder. You really need to replace the realays as the contacts most likely wont last much longer after being cleaned, they looked like there was not much of the contacts left in any case. It is also a good idea to check the coil driver voltage and current in case the relays are not closing with enough force due trouble there.Also check any capacitors that may be across the contacts as if these fail it can lead to excess arcing.

[@TheInfoworks]

You are exactly right, the reason for the heat is the arcing. I think the reason for the arcing is insufficient side pressure. The moving arm butts up to the solenoid core before the full contact pressure is created. I have fixed this sort of problem before with a slight adjustment to the flat spring part of the moving contact arm. I will put the next video up quite soon, cheers

[@mekuranda]

@@TheInfoworks Looking forward to the next one....and agree that cleaning contacts is a temporary fix at best and a good confirmation of a problem and solution. These relays appear to be a unique design and I thought Zetler were a good brand....are there better alternatives? I also wonder why Solid state relays are not used in this application?

[@TheInfoworks]

@@mekuranda Hi, thanks for the comment, I assume relays are used as a cost consideration and they are fine as they would operate morning and evening in very low current situations. The problems occur when inverters are pushed to the limit and shut off in high current times. I may be old school but I think a repair well thought out is good. The Solar River relay contact fix has been working continuously since that day with no problems. No need for the parts cannon. Cheers

[@mekuranda]

@@TheInfoworks Makes perfect sense....I did not think about the normal switching point being at low power levels as you explain....and thought SSRs could be as cheap as beefy relays to a big manufacturer ...Thank you for the reply ...learning from you every video...cheers from Aus

[@TheInfoworks]

@@mekuranda I've just started editing the relay repair video, it will be a couple of weeks but there's something different next week, cheers

[@sim6699]

12v car relays don't last long term from cleaning contacts, more of a temporary fix until a new relay is sourced. Is there not high quality relays available?

[@TheInfoworks]

Hi, just proving a point with the original factory items, cheers

[@drut12000]

Hello Andy, firstly I have just bought your book, wind and solar electricity, and I have to say, from the little time I've had to read some of it, its a belter, I have just recently been InTouch with boots owen on here and asked him for some advice, would it be possible for you to give me your opinion on what to do with my solar set up ? I have just copied the same questions I have asked him on his channel. I have 2 Solis inverters, 1 is a 1Kw and the other is 3Kw, at the moment I have the 1 kw inverter connected to the grid via a 13amp plug, it has 4 / 250w old solar panels connected which give me a maximum ( on a clear day ) of about 650w/700w from the inverter which is ok as I don't want to push the inverter to its maximum, the other 3Kw inverter will have 8 /250w panels attached to it, I have installed a separate consumer unit in my workshop purely for both inverters to connect to it, each inverter will be on a separate 16Amp MCB, so doing it this way would I need to connect a rotary AC cut off switch to each inverter or would it be ok to cut the power to them from the consumer unit which is placed directly underneath both inverters ? also the inverters have a built in DC disconnect so do I really need to install a rotary switch for both of them also ? Really sorry for the long post but I'm itching to get it all sorted, Thanks Brian

[@TheInfoworks]

Brian, all good there in my opinion, under powering the inverters, mounted in a cool airy place and you have already got methods of AC and DC disconnect, no problems. Comments about the book would be welcomed, if there is anything missing, cheers

[@drut12000]

@@TheInfoworks Thanks for the reply Andy, the book is perfect, as is, I have installed both inverters and connected them to the separate consumer unit and everything is running smoothly ( touch wood ). this is another big question I would like to ask you ( sorry ). Before I got the grid tie inverters I had been using a hybrid inverter which I bought off e bay, the AC side of it worked a treat but it had one big drawback which was if it rained heavily it would trip the RCD to the house sockets which it was connected to. I tried everything to stop it but to no avail so in the end I just unplugged it from the mains and used the solar to charge the batteries and run the inverter for the AC, I have 12. 12v leisure batteries wired in series/ parallel to give me 24 volts. so what I have done to make sure I am using the batteries now that they are not being charged by the hybrid inverter because I am using the solar panels for the grid tie inverters, is buy a 10amp, 24v smart battery charger, at the moment I am just turning the charger on when the grid tie inverters kick in but I also have a load on the batteries of about 40w at the same time, so once the batteries get to 29.4 charge they stay there till I turn off the charger, the charger uses about 300w and if I plug anything else in the solar sockets it draws the power from the charger and not the batteries, what I would like to do is use the batteries to power 2 large freezers we have on a night, my question is if I do this and the charger is on, that is rated at 10amps, would the draw from the freezers blow the 10 amp fuse in the battery charger ?. Really sorry for the long post, its at times like this a phone call makes things a lot more simpler. Thanks Brian

[@TheInfoworks]

@@drut12000 . Brian, I imagine that those batteries would run both freezers overnight and then charge them up again during the day. If they draw 200w each but for 15 minutes per hour. 200 watt at 24v = 8amps . so in 4 hours both freezers would draw 16 amp hours, so over night that may be 50 AH. Your charger would need to be on for at least 10 hours to catch up. There's only one way to find out how this performs over a month, cheers

[@drut12000]

@@TheInfoworks Thanks Andy, I’ll give it a try, I’m going to run it during the day tho when I’m at home so I can keep a close eye on it, just to make sure the charger doesn’t fail when the freezer’s kick in if it’s still charging the batteries at the same time, I’ll remember to change over the freezer’s from battery power to ring mains power but others in my house may not.😁😁👍👍

[@TheInfoworks]

@@drut12000 Leave it all connected and feed the charger through a plug in timer so during the day they are running on charger and batteries. If you add a plug in watt meter then you can see what is happening, cheers

[@mattikhan5478]

Sir can you tell me the faults of coming grid tie inverter with me

[@TheInfoworks]

Strange messages, see the video for fault analysis, cheers