Sunny boy not connected to network, date messed up

Status
Not open for further replies.
electrofelon

electrofelon

Senior Member
Location
Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
Occupation
Electrician
This may be long shot. SMA tech support has been so awful lately I'm not even going to bother calling them about this issue just thought I would ask here.

We have some systems with SMA sunnyboys that are not connected to a network. The date keeps getting messed up and will not stay correct. I have tried it both with and without the auto time synchronization feature selected. Every time I go to the system the date & time is messed up and every time I fix it but it doesn't stick. Anyone ever come across this or have any ideas?
 
electrofelon said:
This may be long shot. SMA tech support has been so awful lately I'm not even going to bother calling them about this issue just thought I would ask here.

We have some systems with SMA sunnyboys that are not connected to a network. The date keeps getting messed up and will not stay correct. I have tried it both with and without the auto time synchronization feature selected. Every time I go to the system the date & time is messed up and every time I fix it but it doesn't stick. Anyone ever come across this or have any ideas?
Click to expand...
If it were a fire alarm panel, I'd think that the panel was losing power with bad backup batteries. Is there a possibility that whatever is supposed to keep the date is losing power?
 
SMA inverters using a Bluetooth® connection via SMA Bluetooth® Piggy-Back offer a unique feature. These inverters terminate their connection to the communication product when they are no longer in feed-in operation. For this reason, you need to connect the inverter to a communication product at least once a day in order to have the correct system time.

Another good bit of advice: The connection between the inverter and the communication product needs to be re-established if the AC and DC power supply has been interrupted for two or more days.

Service Tip #1: Setting the System Time - Sunny. SMA Corporate Blog

We would like to support your daily work. Therefore, we start a new series: Service Tips. Amongst others, we give...
www.sma-sunny.com www.sma-sunny.com
 
Thanks guys. The inverter must have non volatile memory because the accumulated kilowatt hours never goes away not to mention all the settings. It just seems bizarre that they left the time out of the non volatile memory section and require a connection to a communication product to keep the time. When the time gets off, it gets WAY off we're not just talking a few minutes here we're talking weeks.
 
electrofelon said:
Thanks guys. The inverter must have non volatile memory because the accumulated kilowatt hours never goes away not to mention all the settings. It just seems bizarre that they left the time out of the non volatile memory section and require a connection to a communication product to keep the time. When the time gets off, it gets WAY off we're not just talking a few minutes here we're talking weeks.
Click to expand...
It wouldn't be in non volatile RAM, else it would stop updating the time at night when the inverter shuts down. Maybe it has the equivalent of a quartz digital clock somewhere in it that has a dead battery.
 
ggunn said:
It wouldn't be in non volatile RAM, else it would stop updating the time at night when the inverter shuts down. Maybe it has the equivalent of a quartz digital clock somewhere in it that has a dead battery.
Click to expand...
Based on the article Hv posted, and I did get thru to SMA and seem to get someone who knew stuff,. It does seem like the inverter will not keep date and time without being connected to a network. Seems like a silly design oversight to me. Actually most of the systems I do are not connected to a network as it would be somewhat of a hassle and the client doesn't care. Perhaps internet over power would work.
 
electrofelon said:
Based on the article Hv posted, and I did get thru to SMA and seem to get someone who knew stuff,. It does seem like the inverter will not keep date and time without being connected to a network. Seems like a silly design oversight to me. Actually most of the systems I do are not connected to a network as it would be somewhat of a hassle and the client doesn't care. Perhaps internet over power would work.
Click to expand...
It probably uses NTP or PTP (not sure how precise you need to be) for data timing and reporting. The designers probably never thought or cared about an internal clock for installations like yours where the customer doesn’t care.
 
Hv&Lv said:
It probably uses NTP or PTP (not sure how precise you need to be) for data timing and reporting. The designers probably never thought or cared about an internal clock for installations like yours where the customer doesn’t care.
Click to expand...
The one thing that makes it annoying is if you have a problem and go into the event logs, the date and time of the events are of course not correct.
 
electrofelon said:
The one thing that makes it annoying is if you have a problem and go into the event logs, the date and time of the events are of course not correct.
Click to expand...
And that time synchronization via network is what helps sunnyboy techs diagnose(?) any problems
For our SCADA systems and station relays we use a satellite synchronized clock.
Could that possibly be an option?

Hey, @tallgirl is looking for something to design…
 
Hv&Lv said:
And that time synchronization via network is what helps sunnyboy techs diagnose(?) any problems
For our SCADA systems and station relays we use a satellite synchronized clock.
Could that possibly be an option?

Hey, @tallgirl is looking for something to design…
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if SMA tech logs into the inverter remotely or not, I haven't had to cross that bridge.

Yes, tallgirl, please come straighten this out!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top