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Repairs on House inverter SMA Sunny boy 2500
Yes our Sunny Boy decided to die on the weekend. It has correct DC power going on the main board (tested it) and has AC on the board but its dead. Funny thing is the LCD is showing nothing, the 3 LEDs are off like having this inverter in a box when you buy it, its totally dead.
What do you think, Any repairers that you know that can fix it.
Thanks
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Fixed now. it was the Gray transformer (11 pin) in the middle of the Board that was dead that's available in OZ. By the way no one fixes them in QLD but on the internet there are plenty that say on there front page THEY FIX INVERTERS ..........RUBBISH!!! They come out, dont even go to the Inverter and want to quote you a new system. BUNCH OF LIES!!!! Now I'm a expert on pulling the sunny Boy apart.Originally Posted by 5GRUBBISH
gulliver (15-11-23),Uncle Fester (15-11-23)
...and an expert at fixing one, well done
How did you identify the grey transformer as the fault?
Just asking as I have a similar model, still working after almost 15 years but I always like to be prepared.
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...
Softek2 (16-11-23)
Sniffing around forums and this range of SMA Sunnyboy inverters are indestructible but I had two that said that this transformer does go so it was a good guess. Still running fine with spare board as this morning....and an expert at fixing one, well done
How did you identify the grey transformer as the fault?
Just asking as I have a similar model, still working after almost 15 years but I always like to be prepared.
Last edited by Mr 672A; 19-11-23 at 01:42 PM.
Uncle Fester (21-11-23)
I swapped out the board and after this I found out the grey transformer was the issue so now getting a spare 11 pin grey transformer I will have a spare as I will be able to test it after this. Remember my board was 100% dead, not even the LCD was not working...and an expert at fixing one, well done
How did you identify the grey transformer as the fault?
Just asking as I have a similar model, still working after almost 15 years but I always like to be prepared.
The Issue I had is unclipping those black and blue wires and the brown and blue wires and its tricky and pain in the ars.e as you need the correct size screwdriver or allan key and put in in the adjacent slot and go back and forth whilst pulling the wire. Now after you get the wires out STUDY what makes the jaws open and remember the process. The wires itself have a crimp lug so it solid and when you go to put the wire in open the jaws with a correct screwdriver or small allan key ( find the one that suits) and put the wire in and let go of the allan or screw driver and the wire is clamped there.
To put the board back in The the video showed after he put new heat sink compound (did not show this) I use the MIDDLE screw on the heat sink not the one on the right. Yes I had the correct magnetic screwdriver and the attachment for the TORZ screw.
I noticed in the video it did not have the PCB where the negative go. His one had the Negative go direct into the board itself
LOOK where the Negatives are on the left (BLUE). You can see a separate PBC there.
Uncle Fester (21-11-23)
LOOK at.
Photo of the tranny
Uncle Fester (21-11-23)
Good stuff
German made SMA inverters => repairable
Chinese made today's inverters => land fill but still expensive, inflation I guess.
Victron are somewhat like the old German SMA but damn are they hard to repair. I have fixed 3 of them but needed to reverse engineer 2 which can take 50 hours for the basics and still not got it right but some of their circuitry makes no sense.
The last one was a Multi Plus but the old model where you can still see the tracks on the dual layer PCB(unlike the quad layer on my newer 3kVA Phoenix).
Was a simple transistor that showed up fine on any transistor tester but caused sometimes digital oscillations between a MAX 483 chip and the MCU.
Victron has a nasty policy of not being helpful at all. No schematics, no spare parts or boards. They claim their stuff can only be repaired by them in Holland because of calibration => massive freight cost not covered by warranty, which is BS because I can read out the calibration data from the MCU myself and program the MCU's Eeprom on a new board. It is about matching the board to the huge toriod tranny they use.
If it got a wee bit of corrosion inside => no warranty,
If there was a chance of a nearby (indirect) lighting strike => no warranty and that after you paid the horrendous freight cost for them to decide you are NOT covered by warranty.
So I screw warranty unless it was still fairly new and fix em myself.
I am not doing this for others though.
I will hand out a tip in case your Victon might play up one day.
Disconnect it and discharge it's capacitors completely, use the resistor to initially deplete them over it's battery terminals, then hard short them over night.
Hopefully all the caps including on the PCB have fully discharged. A voltage of less than 0.2V can still hold garbage in the volatile RAM section of the MCU and there are voltage regulators in between.
Beware, any attempt to figure out where Vdd is and short it on the MCU by lifting the extremely tight glued sticker so you can look it up on the data sheet will void the warranty. They will see you tampered with it.
Last edited by Uncle Fester; 21-11-23 at 09:34 PM.
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...
Hope the Victron inverter last many years. same as our Solar Controllers. By the way I have 8 X 100 AH Batteries now Works good especially on a few days of poor weather like this week in Brisbane.
Regarding the Grey Transformer. Most issue on the early Transformer inverter models like ours mainly the grey Transformer dies that when it does go the Inverters is Completely DEAD like if it went to the Sleep mode and forgot to wake up.
I have been told but I would like to have a diagram of this the 11 pins when it tranny blows you can unsolder the 11 pins take it out and uses you multi meter to see a open circuit or high resistance on it. Like to find out what pins go HR or Open Circuit.
Ohming out transformers closed in resin is not always that straight forward. Some pins may not have connection at all, while in Germany it was common in transformers with mains connected primary winding to have a separate coil layer between primary and secondary that had one pin only and the other side left open circuit. This usually(not always) was earthed. However if that is the case you can test that pin for continuity to earth.
It seems likely this is a mains transformer that provides low voltage power to the logic of the board, therefore everything seemed dead.
The primary would have most likely failed which can be traced to the 240V terminals and then ohmed out, even without desoldering. There might be a relay in between though.
I might look into ordering this transformer myself before they become unavailable.
Good on you with that 9.6kWh of battery storage.
I see from your controllers that you only use about 50% (max) of your daylight panel power to charge them.
You have come a long way from that little UPS concept you wanted to start out with
If you have solar hot water and cook with gas (and all the kids have moved out) you could probably go off grid(if you are daring) and screw those profiteering and inflation driving energy retailers that continue to charge so much despite wholesale prices coming down 50% since a year ago.
Your system is already designed with redundancy using two controllers with separate PV circuits and so many individually fused separate batteries. You would need a backup inverter though.
You might already have an old genny lying around for emergencies and La Nina weather.
Last edited by Uncle Fester; 25-11-23 at 11:01 AM.
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...
Turns out I have a Sunny Boy 1700 which is a generation older than yours.
I was a very early adopter for the grid tie systems.
Back then we got 60c/kWh feedback and that paid off my system in less than 3 years.
The only known common fault I could find on the net is a Varistor which is cheap and easy to replace, luckily because I saw your transformer for US$130 on Ebay.
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...
Yes I got Greedy and I'm very surprised how good the System works. The Lowest Voltage as it stands is 12.59 Volts during the poor days we had in Brisbane last week. I have tested it when I had 4 Batteries I shut off the two strings and let them drain just about cut off I let them go to 10.50 Volts then turned both string on and it took under 2 days to charge them up to Absorbance then Float.
You have come a long way from that little UPS concept you wanted to start out with
I was on the 60 cents per Kw for a while but AGL took me off it so I back to 42 Cents until July the 1st 2028.
I spoke to a Guy in Europe that had the German SMA 2500 and he told me this Inverter only fails with 3 faults and one of them being completely DEAD and that is always the grey transformer has a open circuit.
WHAT?!!!
The highest feed in rate I can find from AGL is 15c.
Last edited by Uncle Fester; 29-11-23 at 08:05 PM.
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...
I wish! 6c is the best I get.
I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...
Finally my original board works, if it light up on the LCD Screen it must work as before it was 100% dead. To test used my viable power supply, then to a Bridge Rectify, and if the LCD Turns on and the 3 LEDS light up for a second its fixed. Dont leave it on more than 5 seconds.It was a simple job as only 11 pins to unsolder then pull the tranny out.
I have had similar experiences when it comes to my system. My Delta inverter was hooked up to pannels on the two sides of my house. the inverter was about 10 years old. when the new panels where put on the roof for the new system installed along side they had 4 panels that could not be put on the new inverter so they put it on the delta instead, found they caused an error so disconnected them on the roof.
I called out electricians to have a look they charged $800 for the work they quoted $200 for and didn't actually fix the issue. and instead quoted me on stripping both systems out and the brand new battery (about $35k worth of equipment) and replace the lot.
I said to them "are you sure the issue is not just that the delta inverter was a single mttp inverter with panels facing in opposite directions. he then tried to boggle me with math that in turn was wrong to get me to agree to his plan.
then i replaced the delta with a duel mttp inverter (direct swap), magically the issue was fixed.
The Lot of them are F.U.C.KED. There are nothing but Scammers with a license. You had two set of panels facing in opposite directions which is a NO NO on a single mttp so to start it 10 years ago you should have had a any inverter with 2 mttp.
Anyhow I glad you got it fixed, Did you have to pay $800 ?
I dont talk to anyone but the wife does and she told me at least 3 people in our area (Woman Group that bitch on on Face Ache) that had solar for 10-12 years had issues and the lot of them called a Electrician out and in all cases nothing was fixed but got a huge bill for this.
The issue is getting worst and worst. God help anyone that does not understand what on their house.
As off today i'm still at 44 Cents Per KW with AGL. After July 2028 it will go to just about nothing so I will bleed them now and If I'm still alive either from WAR or Sickness I will decide on what to do.
gulliver (05-02-24)
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