[RE-wrenches] Firmware, Firmware, Firmaware was Outback Programming Ghost

[Wayne Irwin]

Very strange that all the programming is scrambled.


Recently we had a FXR system which had been working fine for nearly six months come up with an incompatibility error with the slave inverter even though the firmware was the most recent and the same for both inverters. After several failed attempts to re-upgrade the inverter firmware, we took a shot at upgrading the Mate 3 firmware which did work. We then again tried the inverters and it worked. System is now working again (for now) and the programming is all still valid.



Wayne Irwin,
President
License #CVC56695
State Licensed Solar Contractor
Pure Energy Solar International Inc.
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________________________________
From: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org> on behalf of William Miller <william at millersolar.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2016 11:26 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Outback Programming Ghost

Ray:

I have no reason to believe anyone has been meddling. No one knows the password. It does look like some serious glitch.

William

On Nov 10, 2016, at 6:25 PM, Ray Walters <ray at solarray.com<mailto:ray at solarray.com>> wrote:

It almost sounds like someone got in there and tried to reprogram stuff themselves.  Have you installed the proper anti-Gremlin devices?

R.Ray Walters
CTO, Solarray, Inc
Nabcep Certified PV Installer,
Licensed Master Electrician
Solar Design Engineer
303 505-8760

On 11/10/2016 12:34 PM, William Miller wrote:
Colleagues:

I maintain an off-grid, 8 stack FX Outback system with 3 charge controllers.  The system has been on line for about 6 years.  It got upgraded about 7 months ago with 2 Mate3s.

About a week ago the system shutdown, leaving the customer without power.  A maintenance worker started a generator and power was restored.  I did not hear about the situation for several days.

A maintenance supervisor was dispatched yesterday to work with me over the telephone to see if we could restart the system.  The system would only run if the inverter output breakers were all off.

I examined the system via Optics.  I was very surprised to see that the system programming was absolutely scrambled.  This was so much so that even the stacking settings were wrong.  For example, inverter 2 was set as a Master, which we all know will crash any system.  Other settings were also found with very random values.

This system was running prior to last Friday, so the stacking at least must have been right prior to the outage.  I am completely mystified as to how this could have happened.

I am in conversation with Outback who is taking this seriously.  I have not heard back from them yet but I am curious if anyone else has experienced this or anything similar.  I'd like to broaden my knowledge on this situation to enhance my understanding and to share any findings with the group.

Thank you in advance for any input.

William Miller



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