I have spent hours on the phone with tech support about this issue. I was a little fuzzy on the reason for all the communications issues, but it might have been something about there being a windows system update that was causing it. They have been working on new firmware for the -40's and the -22's to fix it.
On the -40's some inverters screen will lock up entirely needing a trip out to site to install new firmware. Some others will just not update the graphs correctly. On the -22's, I am seeing many sites where the inverter (or one of the inverters on site) will not update the graphs at all, even though on the main page it will show the current power. I was told that they would push the new beta firmware (2.02.12 for the -40's and 2.65.03 for the -22's) onto the sites that I was having issues with. This was about a month ago, and it still has not happened... They also said that the new -40 firmware was going to be pushed globally, but that still has not happened either. At least SMA knows of the issue and it is on their end, not the customers end. Unfortunately that does not look particularly good for us installers, but there is not a whole lot you can do about it, other than visit each site and manually update the firmware. I have not yet done this, so I cannot verify whether it is actually fixing the problem or not. It would be nice if SMA (and other manufacturers) would publish a list of known issues like this somewhere on their website so that we can check it before we all waste hours on the phone with tech support and on site tracking down issues that simply cannot be fixed by us. Cheers, Dave *--* *Dave Tedeyan* *Project Engineer* *Taitem Engineering, PC* 109 S. Albany Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 Voice: (607) 277-1118 x121 www.taitem.com On Wed, Dec 14, 2016 at 3:23 PM, Peter Giroux <pgir...@mindspring.com> wrote: > Kirpal > > So glad to see you are not sugar coating it. New tech always means new > challenges. There is always Fr-----. > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Kirpal Khalsa <solarwo...@gmail.com> > *To:* RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> > *Sent:* Wednesday, December 14, 2016 3:17 PM > *Subject:* [RE-wrenches] sma -40 monitoring and tech support > > Friends! > We have been installing the SMA-40 inverters lately. We like the physical > layout of the inverters. They have built in wifi capabilities. On paper > this sounds good. In practice this part of the inverters have been working > like crap. We have multiple sites that are experiencing on going > connectivity issues even with excellent wifi signals. > We have upgraded to the latest firmware 3 times in the last 3 weeks for > inverters manufactured in late October. Clearly they see they have issues, > due to the frequency of firmware updates. Even the latest firmware is > proving useless. Anyone else having trouble with these inverters? We feel > like we are their experimentation lab and doing their R&D on our dime. > Their tech support is minimum an hour wait on hold. We have spent more > time trying to resolve the communications issues than the actual > installation of the whole solar system took, not just the inverters. In > fact I am typing this email as I am on hold. > Any one else having issues with this part of the inverters? Advice on how > to deal with SMA or resolve the issues with out resorting to their useless > tech support? > Thanks! > > Sunny Regards, > Kirpal Khalsa > Oregon LRT#25 > NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional > Oregon Solarworks LLC > www.oregonsolarworks.com > 541-299-0402 <(541)%20299-0402> > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches. > org/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches. > org/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > > >
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