Crossy

Luckily it's the export model, the China version is still going strong. It's still under warranty so it's being replaced. These things happen, it's annoying but not the end of the world, not yet anyway.

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) 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!

As others have noted, the inverter will do what you program it to do (some are rather more programmable than others). One point, most (maybe all now) hybrids no longer actually "switch" to grid power, they use the grid to top up what's coming from the solar in which event the batteries neither charge nor discharge.

Great minds think alike! Beat me by 60 seconds

Assuming you actually had a tabien-baan (blue book) when you bought the place Task-A would be to go to the local cop shop and make a police report that it's been lost.

@SophonFound blanking plates, two sources. Similar prices. https://www.lazada.co.th/products/6-wnj-abb-tz-bp6-i4063253602-s15839843066.html https://shopee.co.th/product/696648702/16254635396?smtt=0.186278822-1663763191.4

You can use any "valid" Thai ID number (I used the wife's), but there are a couple of apps that will create random Thai IDs with the correct check digit (nothing is checked by the PEA system). But don't lose or forget the ID number you used.

Spock will be along shortly.

Not new, but who cares? Hello?” “Hi honey this is Daddy. Is Mommy near the phone?” “No Daddy. She’s upstairs in the bedroom with Uncle Paul.” After a brief pause, Daddy says, “But honey, you haven’t got an Uncle Paul.” “Oh yes I do, and he’s upstairs in the room with Mommy, right now.” Brief Pause. “Uh, okay then, this is what I want you to do. Put the phone down on the table, run upstairs and knock on the bedroom door and shout to Mommy that Daddy’s car just pulled into the driveway.” “Okay Daddy, just a minute.” A few minutes later the little girl comes back to the phone. “I did it Daddy.” “And what happened honey?” he asked. “Well, Mommy got all scared, jumped out of bed with no clothes on and ran around screaming. Then she tripped over the rug, hit her head on the dresser and now she isn’t moving at all!” “Oh my God!!! What about your Uncle Paul?” “He jumped out of the bed with no clothes on, too. He was all scared and he jumped out of the back window and into the swimming pool. But I guess he didn’t know that you took out the water last week to clean it. He hit the bottom of the pool and I he isn’t moving either.” Long Pause Longer Pause Even Longer Pause Then Daddy says, “Swimming pool? Is this 486-5731?”

*BREAKING NEWS* There was a Fire in a Brothel. Some came out Running. Some ran out Coming!! Fetching my coat!

Not really much happening on the river level front. Down slightly, now 112cm below "Worry".

These are the chaps I have, unfortunately that's all I have left, so I'm hunting for more (they are grey, blue tinge is a camera artifact). The ABB part number may aid in our quest. EDIT OK it's called a "6 way DB Blank" now to find a local supplier ????

Yes, I suppose you are going to ask where you get them. I'll check with my man, the last lot came in a big bag as "surplus" on a major project

OK not CM but northern BKK. Our annual village fees are 350Baht, includes garbage, street lighting, Puyai Baan speaker announcements etc.

Yup, on the lowest resistance range you have. If it looks like a short circuit you're good.

Officially, you should bond the panels together and then to the support structure and ground. In reality, what you are suggesting will be more than adequately grounded. You can always verify with your meter is worried.

Yup, we got a -ve entry under the FT figure too, under 300kWh used, similar discount.

The Uc is the maximum operating voltage (RMS or DC), Littelfuse recommend that it is at least 110% of the maximum expected voltage. 275V would be right on the line in Bangkok (MEA is nominally 230V). Choosing a Uc that's too low would mean that the device triggers more readily which really isn't the best idea because they do wear out. All our AC ones are actually 385V which seem to be doing their job adequately. The kA rating is an indication of the amount of surge energy the beast can absorb, generally the higher the better. BUT The bigger devices tend to have a higher clamping voltage (Up) so it's advisable to employ smaller ones on your branch circuits (or plug-in ones) to mop-up any remaining dregs that the big chap has missed.

How long did it take to get the new PP?

Yeah, agree. Ours get incorporated into Madam's soil improvement programme, keeping her plants (and herself) happy.

Holding steady at 96cm below "Worry".

Must have been taken in Korea

Father in Law = Pay as much as you feel comfortable with!