SolarBridge Power Manager SPM-103-ET Problem

[jchabalk]

I have a relatively small SolarBridge system:

• Grid connected
• 14 panels w/ micro-inverters
• SPM-103-ET manager
• It was professionally installed ~3.5 year ago and has generally worked fine since then

I keep a pretty close eye on power output and over the course of the first 2 years I had 2 micro-inverters fail. SolarBridge sent me replacements and i installed them.

About 2 weeks ago the SPM-103-ET showed error message: 0P-0013-10. From checking their portal it had last uploaded data about a week before that.

I rebooted it and it then showed 0P-0012-10 - which it has had since. After a reboot it appears to start normally, and gets all the way past "Applications starting." After few seconds after fully booting - instead of displaying power output - it displays the error message.

I got in touch with Solarbridge support. They initially said it was a fixable problem having to do with the some filesystem maintenance - no big deal. They called me back a few days later to say they wanted to replace the unit. It's warrantied for 3 years - and mine was slightly older than that - but they were going to replace it anyway (except they wouldn't pay for labor). I helped the installer (now changed businesses) with the initial install and am happy to install the replacement. They won't let me do it and will only ship to a local installer who naturally wants to be paid to do the work.

Long story short, i'm looking for troubleshooting / repair advice as i'm not keen on this thing failing after 3 years - and i'm assuming having a few more of these "fail" over the life of my solar infrastructure.

The unit appears to be in a mostly functional state:

• The on-board menu interface works fine
• It's connected to my home network but the web interface won't work (ssh access does work but i don't have a credential and the default one doesn't work).
  • UPDATE: The web interface does work, i tried it again last night and got it. It didn't have any real-time data but it was fully dark out.
• Solarbridge support confirms it connects to their portal and they can access it
  • It's not monitoring or sending energy data.

Through browsing the menus the only error I see is that the SD card isn't present. Today I removed the SD card from the unit and it's not recognizable by my computer either, i'm assuming it's corrupted and that that's likely the only problem with my power manager. It was a 2g SD card. The only one i had handy was a 1g. I FAT formatted it, put it in the unit and rebooted it. No change.

I have a feeling that with terminal access i could figure out what's going on with it. Is anyone familiar with troubleshooting these. I've been looking for the service manual but can only find the installation manual. I also can't get a description of the error messages. I've asked SolarBridge a number of times but they've failed to provide them.

If anyone has the service manual, and/or any advice on this unit i'd appreciate it.

[chufi]

Did you ever manage to get terminal access? The only thing I've thought of is to see if there is a keyboard / monitor port on the unit itself and reboot it and try to grab terminal access on startup. But I haven't managed to try that yet since it is under the house.

[LeeLewis]

I know this is old but I just found it and wanted to provide some answer for anyone else who finds this.

First, there is no such manual, only the developers know about this device and they will never share the information.
Second, it's an embedded and very old OS and there is no connection for keyboard/monitor, it's by ssh only.

So, the most common reason for the manager to look like it's working but never showing any results when you connect to it locally using a browser is that the storage is full.

When they shut down the remote monitoring services, the boxes would collect all this data but not be able to do anything with it. Since it could not be sent and the developers didn't consider this, the files end up remaining on the system until it fills it up.

The fact is that the manager is still running but it's not able to shed the files it would have been sending. When it runs out of space, it stops being able to generate the display as well and unfortunately, is also not able to update the second meter that the power company uses to keep track of your usage. This means it's running, generating power but it's 100% wasted.

I too know someone that was left hanging by this company and worse, the installer, PurSolar (Arizona) left them hanging with a messed up system.
More than half the inverters were software shut down by the tech who last visited. There was nothing wrong with the inverters, they continue working but they do not output the final power.

Sounds scammy, getting paid for support work by the manufacturer and getting a free replacement inverter they then sell to other customers.
I software re-enabled them and they were fine.

What an industry this is. Too many crooks.