I really need some help with a Solax battery storage / inverter.
We have a new solar pv array on our roof plus Solax storage batteries. We have a Solax inverter x1-fit-5.0-w with a LAN dongle plugged into an ethernet port. The installer is unable to get the inverter operating consistently - it has never worked correctly for 2 days in a row. It has also never connected to the internet.
I am not at all technically minded at all and, to be honest , I should not be the one having to work out the problem, but Solax just say they need to view the inverter online in order to work out what is going on. They eventually said I needed to set up âport forwardingâ for the inverter and that my internet service provider could do this. My ISP sent me instructions to follow, but I canât do what is required as I have to choose the IP address for the inverter (or the dongle?) and I donât know what the IP address is - there are lots in the list to choose from but most have unidentifiable names. Also, when I disconnect the inverter from the ethernet port, there is no change in the list of connected devices, which suggests to me that either the dongle or the inverter is faulty or needs setting up in some way that I donât know about.
Thatâs the current stumbling block.
As for the inverter itself, we have set it to charge between 00:30hrs ans 04:30hrs, as we have cheap electricity between those times. However, we have not experienced it charging automatically between those times on two days in a row. Usually there will be a battery voltage fault - one of IE07 (usually), but something IE02 or IE19. I think itâs IE07 at the point when the battery fills up and maybe that then causes a problem for the next day.
Sometimes it wonât change from âself useâ to âmanualâ - it will switch back automatically to self-use. Even when it does stick on manual, it wonât stay on âforced chargeâ but will switch itself to âstop charge/dischargeâ. I tried changing this about 8 times yesterday before it worked.
Sonetimes it charges at less than 5kw, even as low as 1.5kw when it was colder (possibly 0 degrees C). Solax said on the phone to the installer that it may charge/discharge more slowly when cold, but this isnât in the information that they provide. However it did still seem to discharge at a reasonable speed.
I feel that this could all be sorted out between the installer and Solax on the phone together while the installer is standing in front of the inverter, but it is impossible to get him to do that - he just says Solax needs to look at it over the internet (which also doesnât work)!
If anyone can give me any helpful guidance I would be most appreciative.
Thanks
Iâm afraid I canât help you personally, but we have a very helpful and together a very knowledgeable community here, so I think thereâs a good chance that someone will be able to help you.
The only small suggestion I have is for your question about the IP address of the inverter - it should be either on a label, on the dongle or in the documentation. When you say
presumably youâre looking in your router? That would have been my other suggestion - and the safest bet.
Itâs always possible that Ethernet is optional - or hasnât been connected internally, although the resellerâs web page that I found seems to indicate itâs standard.
Note that there are two connection schemes for Ethernet cables - âAâ and âBâ. (see AT568A vs. BT568B Ethernet Cable Differences | StarTech.com) Most modern devices can sense the cable type and automatically configure themselves, so I very much doubt it is the problem, but if all else fails, it might pay to check and see if you have both types and can try the other one.
This is only relevant to âpassiveâ infrastructure not âactiveâ devices. Active need power, passive do not. i.e. the port on the wall of an office is connected to a patch panel in a room is passive. This can be wired either A or B (makes no difference as long as within the same infrastructure it is all the same). When you connect an active device at each end via a patch cable, it again makes no difference.
The point is, if itâs not an intelligent device, the twisted pairs in the âwrongâ cable wonât be paired correctly. As I wrote, âvery unlikelyâ, but over the years Iâve learned the hard way never, but never, discount something you believe and everyone else tells you is impossible. Because just occasionally, everybody is wrong - hence âif all else failsâ.
Hi, @Jobsworthy
have a look on the ethernet device hopefully it will give you a MAC address, you need to look in the routers DHCP table for this address and note the IP address that the router has allocated to this MAC this will be the IP (local) the router has allocated to the inverter. It will be in the format 192.168.x.x. Where are you located? If you need it am happy to try to help over the phone, just let me know. However this is something your installer should be doing though they may not be fully IT literate
If the dongle you have works similar to mine it will show on your router table as a set of digits the same as the serial number of the dongle. If you find an address that looks like this you could try to âpingâ it from your PC by putting a command like this into a command prompt. try ping 192.168.1.xxx -t this should produce a continuous response, to see if you have the correct address if you unplug the cable from the dongle the ping should fail and resume when you plug it in. You can terminate the ping by pressing ctrl c
@borpin
The problem is that, although I can see all the MAC and IP addresses via the router portal in my browser, I donât know which, if any, of them relates to the inverter, as it doesnât say.
The ethernet cable is plugged into the ethernet point in the wall. That, along with the other ethernet points in the house, are connected to a âswitchâ in the loft which, in turn, is connected to port 2 of the router. This means that all devices connected to the internet via the ethernet points in the house appear as being connected to port 2.
Also, when I disconnect the inverter from the ethernet socket, there is no change in the list of devices.
Does your router have, possibly under âAdvancedâ or similar, a page where it shows the traffic to each device? If so remove/delete all those showing no traffic, make a list of those that are left, then plug in the Inverter. With luck, it will re-appear on the list of devices.
