SMA Tripower Core1 Arc Faults

ggunn said:
Simply that problems with RS devices in general can be a result of inverter - RSD incompatibility.
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That, and I have some experience with crosstalk issues in multi-inverter PV systems with SMA inverters and RSDs.
 
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ggunn said:
A couple of things...

One is that what you speak of is not the only possible effect of crosstalk. In one system we installed with two SMA inverters, when we started one inverter it came up and worked fine, but when we turned on the second inverter, about half of the strings on the first inverter went into shutdown. We had run some of the DC conductors for both inverters in the same cable tray and the keep alive signals from the inverters were not in sync, so some cancellation occurred and some of the RS boxes lost the signal.
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First time I have heard of this complaint. Everyone I have heard from talking about crosstalk it's that they can't get just one inverter's array to shutdown while the other are up.

ggunn said:
The other is that (as in what you said) one inspector failed an inspection of ours because when he turned off the breaker to one of the ten SMA inverters, not all of its strings went into shutdown because of crosstalk from the others. I pointed out to him that the code only requires a singe RS initiator (in this case the PV disco on the whole system), but he was having none of it. In order for us to satisfy him we had to not only separate the DC conductors to the array to each inverter from the others, but we also had to air gap the racking for each inverter's modules and ground them separately. It was a laborious and expensive PITA.
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You have a way of finding inspectors who just don't seem to care what the NEC says if it does not agree with their personal beliefs. It's quite a knack. :)
 
pv_n00b said:
You have a way of finding inspectors who just don't seem to care what the NEC says if it does not agree with their personal beliefs. It's quite a knack. :)
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Mostly it has been just a few of them whom I have repeatedly encountered.
 
Coincidentally, just today I found out one of my inverters in my home system, a SB 7.0 with no RSD, was not working. The event was series arc string A, and also an 8206 electric arc detected. SMA helped me reset it and it seems to be fine now. I inspected the wiring but did not see any issues . I'll have to keep up closer eye on it and see if it happens again.
 
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