glitch in Power One 3.6 OUTD power reporting?

[SibertSolar]

I'm going to look into this and see what I can discover, will report back

 

[IronLiver]

After much badgering and general losing of tempers, Power One did eventually send out a replacement inverter to our customer as they did not have any engineers that they could send out to carry out the firmware update. It was a replacement for the 3.0 OUTD that was giving incorrect yield totals, so the error is not limited to just the 3.6 inverters. The dodgy one was then whisked away by a courier for destruction by controlled explosion!

 

[Gavin A]

update... the update apparently does work, but only for the readings from that point forward. Though the customer has reported that it now seems to be doing something else odd, but I'm not sure what.

 

[SibertSolar]

I think you're right about the update working Gavin, but that Field-Service resources are limited due to ongoing installation commitments. Here's the gist of the feedback I have received, probably pretty much along the lines of what you guys know already:

"...a relatively small qty of PVI units (mainly the 3.6 model) built in 2011 have a glitch that records as an impossible power reading, thus throwing out the energy total. It is frustrating for those who are closely analyzing the data but the core function of the inverter remains intact and the issue does not affect warranty at all. Our solution is to support a field upgrade in the near future. These inverters need a secure laptop and P1 Service Engineer to update..."

I'll try to find out if it's possible for ourselves and/or yourselves to perform the field update but I suspect it needs to fall under P1 Service Dept. remit.

 

[Gavin A]

the problem with that statement is that they emailed our customers directly with a firmware update for the display unit, and then emailed them to tell them that they were now closing their file because the problem was fixed.

and last I heard it there were at least 600 of these problems logged on their system, as they failed to rectify the problem after it was spotted in the first batch of inverters, despite telling us it had been fixed, this resulted in the problem going from only affecting a couple of hundred systems to over 600.

Why they insist on dealing direct with the customers rather than via the installers baffles me, it keeps us entirely out of the loop and peeves the customers off.

 

[SibertSolar]

Hmm, yes - they definitely should work through the installer base, rather than directly with end customers Gavin, would be a lot better I agree.