[RE-wrenches] Getting "GFDI Open" Message When It's Not

[Hans Frederickson]

Greetings wrenches,

This is my first post. I ran into this with an SB3000 back in June. I called
SMA tech support and spoke to Jake, who was familiar with the problem. His
explanation was that there was a series of boards that got some excess
lacquer sprayed on them at the factory. This lacquer coats the pins, so the
jumper doesn't make a good electrical connection. Jake recommended removing
the jumper and scratching off the outer layer of the pins with a razor blade
before replacing the jumper. I went gently at first and it worked for a
while and then failed again the next time I disconnected the system. Then I
went after the pins with gusto on all four sides, removing some metal, and
the inverter has been working fine since June. I would recommend having your
customers keep an eye out for the "GFDI OPEN" disturbance if you've only
fiddled with the jumper, since that connection would probably be fairly
susceptible to failure, assuming the problem is with the lacquer coating. 

 

As an aside, I found the SMA tech support line to be very friendly,
knowledgeable, and expedient.

 

-Hans

 

Hans Frederickson

Frederickson Electric

Port Townsend, WA

www.fredelectric.com

 

  _____  

From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Kelly
Keilwitz, Whidbey Sun & Wind
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 9:37 PM
To: RE Wrenches listserve
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Getting "GFDI Open" Message When It's Not

 

Hi All,
We've seen this on 2 SMA SB's (one a 3000; can't recall the other) this
year. In both cases we got it to work by fiddling with the jumper. Another
installer recommended that trick.
-Kelly

Kelly Keilwitz, P.E.
Whidbey Sun & Wind, LLC
Renewable Energy Systems
NABCEP Certified PV Installer
987 Wanamaker Rd, 
Coupeville, WA 98239 
PH & FAX 360-678-7131
sunwind at whidbeysunwind.com


On 9/22/08 4:08 AM, "design" <design at elementalenergy.com> wrote:

I have also seen this GFDI OPEN message on a few SB3000US units.  I have
managed to get the unit to boot properly by switching it off, pulling the
GFDI fuse out, slightly crimping the fuse clips to make them tighter, then
putting fuse back in and switching it on.  This may have actually had an
affect, or it may have simply been the restart that did it.  In any case it
seems like this may be a more common occurrence than SMA knows. Two units
required one restart, one unit took three before it finally booted
correctly.

 

Jim Grundy

NABCEP Certified Solar PV InstallerT

Vermont Solar Specialist Plumber PS-279

Elemental Energy, Inc.

1750 Clark Rd

E. Montpelier, VT   05651

802-476-3441 (p)

802-476-5680 (f )

802-272-8933 (c)











-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20080923/ec896624/attachment-0004.html>