Older SB7000 Bad Display

[jschner]

Bought a house with solar already installed. It has an older 2009ish SB7000 with 33 ~225W panels. I believe they are installed in three sets of 11 in parallel. Problem is the display on the unit has never worked, possibly the Arizona sun being right on it. And I have not figured out a way to get serial data from it for monitoring. The system works because my bill is greatly reduced each month and the meter spins backwards when the sun is out, just can't tell how well it works without manually monitoring it.

I took the cover off and the glass does have a weird beige tint to it. I rubbed and cleaned it as best i could but still beige, tough to see through. I pulled the display board to see if I could source it somewhere, but no luck. PC1602B6-2A or SBLCD-01 Vers E2. Funny thing is the actual LCD display itself is a simple 16x2 display, those are like $4, but it is glued on some risers that connect to the circuit board and that looks like trouble to try to replace. You ever try to get a calculator back together after remove the display?

Some of my options:
- I can replace the inverter but that would be a huge cost for no real net gain when the unit is actually working.
- I have thought about buying a 1602 display and wiring it in to see if I actually get anything, but there are so many versions and styles, I don't want to cross some wires and break the whole unit.
- I thought about getting one of those home monitor kits, but the install would be a real challenge to fit the clamps. Require conduit runs and again AZ sun is tough on things.
- Rather than a display, I'd prefer to upload the data to some place like PVOutput, but the monitoring communications has me stumped. I do have the RS485 module board, but then what?
- Last option, maybe someone has some old waste SB 7000/8000 inverter somewhere for either monitoring or the display parts?

Any ideas? Or ignore it and go have fun with something else?

display resized.jpg

[oregon_phil]

Display: There's one on fleabay for $175 no guarantees.

Communication: Do you actually want to control the inverter or do you want to know if it is working?

If just working, doesn't your inverter have an AC run back to the breaker box with its own double breaker? If yes, and you have a spare breaker spot, you could add something like a Shelly EM in the breaker box to monitor AC.

[jschner]

Dang! I had been searching for the display board part number off and on for a long time and here you found one right away. Nice! Kind of worried about changing out the whole large board if it needs anything special or settings? It would have to be plug and play if i can not communicate to anything. But that display board is probably swappable. I'll try offering him something for it. It shows the small communication board already plugged in too.

I don't need to control the inverter, just want to read the data and possibly find a way to monitor it.

My solar has it's own meter, but I got tired of remembering to go read it. I guess I could get a routine going again, but not a fan of doing that daily, weekly or even monthly. No breaker positions and my panel is ultra narrow, no room in that thing. I'd have to run conduit and wires and mount a another panel or box somewhere.

You got my wheels spinning again, thanks!

[azdave]

...possibly the Arizona sun being right on it. ...

Are you with SRP or APS? SRP provides me with all I need to know for free in a simple graphic display each morning. Everything is exportable if I wish to worry about the details years from now (I don't). I wasted $400 for a monitiring system when I did my install not knowing SRP would gave me the same info at no charge. Live and learn.

[PNPmacnab]

Have you tried a hair drier? That will sometimes get a weak LCD to work for a short while. Does pressing on it do anything? The more adventurous can remove the display and reseat the rubber zebra strip. Some have changed the capacitor of the scan have to a lower value on weak displays. Looks like a stanard display. Does anyone know if this was dot matrix?

[jschner]

Good point about the power company. I forgot about that. I'm on APS and the last time I dove into their stats it gave stats about the main meter but not the solar meter. I will have to double check that. Thanks!

I can take the display apart. I have already taken the display board off and put it back on. Problem is if I remove the actual display module and replace just that, I worry I won't get the correct LCD module and won't be able to get the zebra strips back together. I suppose if that happens, no real loss as it currently does not work. If I take it apart, I might be able to source the actual LCD. I will think about that.

[jschner]

Update on things.
1) My APS bill does provide daily total production which is great. Thanks for reminding me of that.
2) I took the display board out of the inverter, tried to figure out the wiring, hooked it up to an ESP32 and it seems to work. Maybe not hooked up right, but I got a straight line of squares, but they were very faint. With the cover sight being frosted over on the inverter, there is no way to see it. I'm too chicken to run the inverter without the cover on, but the cover is not see through any way. I might have to Dremel it out and insert something else there. That has me thinking of a few things.
3) Lastly, I was able to find documentation on the RS232 serial board, installed it in the inverter. Ran some network cable to my old phone lines below the inverter which got the serial connection into my house. Then searched and downloaded the Sunny Data Control software and found it communicates at 1200 baud no flow control. Had to use alligator clips from phone connector to a serial/USB device on a very old and flakey HP Mini laptop to get it to talk. Once I started polling data into files, I was able to get PVOutput Integrated Service to upload live data every 5 minutes online. It was a lot of hoops for all this old equipment, but live data now works!

https://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=116779&sid=101680&dt=20231011

All that is left to do is clean it all up, fix the power plug in the laptop, battery is dead so no backup yet. Then make sure it uploads correctly each day.
Thanks all for your help and letting me bounce things off you all.