Calibration stuck

I can't see that anyone has had this particular problem in previous posts so I'll ask directly.

I have an AC3 inverter running firmware D0.210-A0.210 and 2x 5.2kWh batteries each running 3020.

I noticed some odd behaviour yesterday and discovered through the Rubikcube Inverter app that it was doing a calibration (not one that I had asked for) and was at stage 1. There were no notifications to tell me such.

I let it run and it went down to minimum voltage and up to maximum voltage as expected. But it seems now to be stuck at calibration stage 6 which is - Write Battery capacity flag Ah. I can see that the capacity flags have indeed been updated but now the battery will not run in ECO mode presumably because the calibration hasn't actually finished even though the battery is at 100%. I can do a forced discharge and a forced charge and are able to use the battery but no matter how the ECO flag is set it will not directly meet the needs of the house.

I have done an Inverter restart through the portal. I have not yet set off a manual calibration (in case it makes things worse). I have not yet done a complete power off for the same reasons.

There have been no changes to clamps or software versions for many months; just this spontaneous calibration (which I've had before on different software versions but this is the first one that hasn't completed).

I will contact GE for help but maybe someone has already dealt with this problem?

Windy Miller I think when others have had calibration stuck in the wrong state then the fixes are either to start a new calibration or to get Givenergy support to intervene and change the status. If you have givtcp you may be able to change the calibration status manually.

As for why it has randomly calibrated, there have been occasional other reports of random calibrations, suspected to be a corrupted register write. Local control has in some cases been blamed for this but there have been others who don’t do any local control so can only have been a portal to inverter corruption.

If you have the premium version of my app, you can just go into controls and press STOP CALIBRATION. This option only appears when a calibration is in progress (i.e. stage not zero).

Random unscheduled calibrations are a known issue with older kit. The problem seems to have been fixed on the newer products.

Rubikcube Thank-you for your suggestion. I paid the premium and unstuck the inverter straight away. Why it got stuck I'll never know but agree that comms. problems probably set it off in the first place.

Hi all, been stuck in calibration mode 6 for a week and a half with no help from GivEnergy beyond a case number.
No idea what caused it, nothing obvious in logs.
Luckily found this post, downloaded the app, paid my £10 and pressed the STOP CALIBRATION button.
All sorted - what a brilliant community we have.
Many thanks.

c2ushe2 send the invoice for £10 support resolution to GivEnergy 😉

c2ushe2 I'm glad you found this thread and for the resolution. Do you also have an AC3.0 by any chance?

I had another spontaneous calibration start yesterday. It looks like the inverter mis-interpreted a WonderWatt command sequence (corrupted on receipt not sent incorrectly which is surprising as they use the API and do not directly write to registers). I noticed within an hour and used the app to stop the calibration before it dumped all the charge back into the grid. Saved me a fair bit as I'm on Agile and the re-import charges are high at the moment.

It's the upward blip below which I then had to recharge before the evening slots at over 40p per kWh.

I think the corruption must be happening on the modbus between the dongle and the inverter not in transmission? The portal sent the right commands over the API.

Yes, AC3.0 & 2x 5.2

c2ushe2 Exactly my configuration. Do you also have a SolarEdge solar inverter (plus 17 panels)?

Windy Miller I also have AC3, and use WonderWatt, and also had a spontaneous calibration kick off this morning. Martin on the FB group stopped it, and said the reason was probably too many changes sent to the inverter by third party software. He turned on Real Time Control for me, which he said would prevent this happening in the future.

ChrisRowe Thanks for that. I will look for this control.

In my log above the 6 instructions were all sent with a second or so between them. It's pretty naff if a system has the colliwobbles with as fast as a command a second! I suppose it depends on the baud rate on the modbus and the time for the inverter to acknowledge each command to the dongle that it can receive the next command. That is assuming there is some sort of handshake otherwise it is a case of buffer overflow corrupting the commands.

From Memory (long time since I was a control engineer) RS485 had a speed restriction of 10⁸ bits/ms. For example a 100m RS485 cable is limited to 1Mbit/s to prevent data corruption, in factory use where lengths could be kms we often went down to 19200 baud to ensure things stayed correct. I think MODBus has a limit of 115200baud. For GE kit then length ex ethernet should be trivial and it will be more about the hardware speed.

ChrisRowe I guess it's this one...

Any downside to turning this on?

Windy Miller Wonderwatt Admin commented on my query in the WW forum and thought that it should make it work better, potentially preventing the Inverter from going into calibration mode.

I find it odd that the Givenergy API let's 3rd parties even fire commands that fast to the inverters when it's known to do this kind of thing but hey...

Windy Miller
Yes to the Solar edge, too.
Using Predbat to make best use of the Intelligent Octopus Go slots when they pop up in the day as have heat pump.

c2ushe2 Virtually identical systems - was it specced by Eon? Using WonderWatt and Agile tariff. No EV nor heat pump.

I have had the following issues in the last 2.5 years...

1. SolarEdge inverter lifts the voltage high enough on very sunny days that the GE inverter shuts down. Better since I put newer firmware on the GE but still manages to shutdown around 258v. Nominally 248v so below the threshold where DNO will do anything.

2. DC breaker tripped a few times on maximum discharge. Fixed by tightening the screws holding the cables in the breaker.

3. SOC problems fixed by 210/3020 firmware.

4. One instance of grid stuck at 0 and all export showing as house load. Fixed by restarting the inverter.

5. Spontaneous calibration starts - mitigated by using the Inverter app but going to try the real time control setting.

6. Twenty nesting pigeon pairs under the panels. Had the panels all off, cleared out then re-fitted with wire skirts all round. Wiped out the first 2 years of savings!

7. Perhaps 10% drop in usable battery capacity. Most of the drop was the more conservative charge and discharge limits in the firmware rather than actual battery loss. Did get 8.3kWh usable, now nearer 7.5kWh.

No problems with SE inverter at all.

PaDav6 Givenergy - 9600 baud only.

Windy Miller Any downside to turning this on?

Turning on real time registers moves a number of inverter registers that change frequently into volatile memory. Things like charge/discharge rate, charge/discharge start/end time, charge to target, etc.

The reason for this option was concern that remote control applications such as predbat, wonderwatt, etc that regularly fire commands to the inverter could cause the inverter to fail because the registers have a finite limit of number of writes. This all blew up about a year ago. In practice it is unlikely for most people that this issue will ever be breached, EXCEPT if you are using automation to try to balance two or more inverters and are making writes to the inverter every X seconds.

I’ve not heard the suggestion before that turning on real time control (i.e. moving the registers to volatile memory) would reduce the risk of accidental calibration due to register corruption. I suppose it’s possible.

For most people the only impact of turning real time registers on is that if your inverter loses power it will lose details of its last charging & discharging settings. Things like the inverter clock are saved still, but pretty much all; the other settings will be lost.
Personally I haven’t felt the need to turn this option on. I am averaging about 50 writes per inverter per day with predbat which is well below worrying levels.

Windy Miller SolarEdge inverter lifts the voltage high enough on very sunny days that the GE inverter shuts down. Better since I put newer firmware on the GE but still manages to shutdown around 258v. Nominally 248v so below the threshold where DNO will do anything.

i have the same problem with my GivEnergy hybrid inverters on sunny days. With having hybrid inverters I can at least mitigate this by trickle charging the batteries through the day to take the peak off the grid export. It is still an issue though. Am thinking about approaching the DNO to reduce my grid supply but since its self inflicted from my inverters I fear they would just cap my export instead

Windy Miller
No, local supplier, GreenGen, in Cornwall.
Added second battery after a year when heat pump was looking imminent.
Only problem was a failed update on the SolarEdge, where it thought it had lost its WiFi and needed an engineer to complete.