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  • SMA 7.7 restarts

    This is my first post so bear with me. I have a 4 month old grid tied 10.22 kW system; 28 qty LG 365 Watt Neon R, SMA Sunnyboy 7.7 inverter in three strings.

    The system works fine except, every 140 to 144 hrs, the SMA inverter performs a system restart. The last several times, the inverter restarted at 144 hrs almost to the exact second.

    This is the same type of system restart that happens with you shutoff AC and DC, then turn them back on.

    I am working with our installer and SMA technical support regarding the issue, but wanted to throw this issue out to this forum to see if anybody else has seen (and resolved) this problem.

    Thanks in advance,

    Phil

  • #2
    With the latest fix from SMA, I have gone 5 days without daily automatic software updates and 144 hours without a system reset. Knock on wood, I think the problem might be fixed.

    Problem description:

    Even though Device, Update, Automatic Update was set to NO, the SB 7.7 inverter would continue to go out to the mothership everyday to load the latest software update. Every 144 hrs, the system would completely shutdown and reboot.

    Solution

    SB 7.7 never completed initial firmware installation. Received latest firmware from SMA Level 3 tech, installed firmware, and set Automatic Updates to NO.

    Details

    The system reboot every 144 hrs problem had been going on ever since the install, but I didn't notice the problem until the reboots happened during the day. Daytime system reboots make a big hole in daily power production.

    After spending hours on hold with SMA technical support and weeks of waiting for an answer, it was determined that my system never completed the first automatic firmware update. The system has been performing flawlessly since I performed a complete firmware upgrade.

    Nuggets of knowledge from my conversations

    1. Set Automatic Update to NO before connection to the internet. The SB 7.7 is set by default to Automatic Update Yes. While I can't prove it, I believe the incomplete firmware install happened right after system power up and connection to the internet. There is a lot of turning the inverter on and off cycling during the initial install timeframe. Firmware installs require uninterrupted power during the entire install.

    2. If you are generating power without issues, then firmware updates are not required.

    3. The latest firmware was sent to me by the Level 3 SMA tech. This version matches the version that is posted on the SMA-America website.


    Comment


    • #3
      OK, I spoke too soon. It is restarting on its own at 162 hours.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by oregon_phil View Post
        OK, I spoke too soon. It is restarting on its own at 162 hours.
        Does SMA know that ?

        Comment


        • #5
          I just gave the new data to my installer and the Level 3 SMA tech.

          Comment


          • #6
            Here's what I found out.

            The latest firmware for the SMA 7.7 will perform a restart every 7 days (168 hours) to refresh connections. My original firmware did not complete a firmware update correctly, that's why restarts happened before the 168 hour time limit and during the middle of the day. Restarts during the day are frustrating since they can happen during peak generating times.

            On day zero, my current firmware appears to break connections to the SMA mothership at 2am, then reestablishes connections during a system reboot at first daylight when DC is available. On day 7 the same thing happens and so on.

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