SolarEdge Communication Setup

[macca499]

Guys,

Does anyone have experience of setting up communication on SolarEdge inverters?

We have just finished our first SolarEdge installation, the inverter and optimisers are generating perfectly but we can't get the inverter to communicate with the online portal. We connected the inverter to the customer's router via an Ethernet cable but the light at the connection is flashing orange rather than green.

Thanks in advance,

macca

 

[The Solar King]

If you are using a power line router make sure neither is plugged in to a multiple plug lead with surge protector.

Not done a solar edge, but had a problem with a different make setting the static IP address. Sometimes an address may show as something like 192.168.010.088. This will not be in the range and confuses. Needs to be in this example 192.168.1.88

The thing then worked and recognised the web server in the inverter.

 

[SibertSolar]

I would imagine that if the unit needs a static IP then you would either need to know the DHCP IP address range set in the router, and the default gateway address, or have access to the router's admin/config screen. I've not set these up before though so I'm only guessing

 

[BruceB]

I have set up a few of them. The are meant to be just plug and play and all the ones I have done have just worked, even with wireless links. No IP address setting should be required as they have a dhcp client built in. I suspect it is something on the local network.
Check the physical Ethernet or wireless connection is working.
Check the router or something on the network is set up to give it an IP address and DNS settings.
Check the router firewall is not preventing outgoing connections from unknown devices.

 

[macca499]

Thanks for the replies. We got it working, after trying all sorts of fiddling with the customer's router we called SolarEdge who were able to talk us through it. You are correct that the units are plug n play but we had to open the inverter and change the communication type to LAN manualy on this one. The result is one very happy customer - he is a retired gent who is very technologically minded, he has no shading issues and chose the SolarEdge system purely for the monitoring capabilities, safe to say that he is delighted with his new toy. He has 2 small south facing and 1 larger east facing roof and his brief was simply the highest possible output from the small space available. In the end we opted for the BenQ 330w panels with 500w optimisers.

Time will tell how efficient the solaredge system is but there is no denying that the support is great and the monitoring portal is a a great tool.

On this occassion we were lucky enough that the customer's router was only a short distance from the inverter so we just used an ethernet cable but I came across a post on another forum yesterday from a guy who has fitted stacks of these, he fits a separate 13a socket at the inverter then uses homeplugs to connect to the router.

Macca

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for the replies. We got it working, after trying all sorts of fiddling with the customer's router we called SolarEdge who were able to talk us through it. You are correct that the units are plug n play but we had to open the inverter and change the communication type to LAN manualy on this one. The result is one very happy customer - he is a retired gent who is very technologically minded, he has no shading issues and chose the SolarEdge system purely for the monitoring capabilities, safe to say that he is delighted with his new toy. He has 2 small south facing and 1 larger east facing roof and his brief was simply the highest possible output from the small space available. In the end we opted for the BenQ 330w panels with 500w optimisers.

Time will tell how efficient the solaredge system is but there is no denying that the support is great and the monitoring portal is a a great tool.

On this occassion we were lucky enough that the customer's router was only a short distance from the inverter so we just used an ethernet cable but I came across a post on another forum yesterday from a guy who has fitted stacks of these, he fits a separate 13a socket at the inverter then uses homeplugs to connect to the router.

Macca

 

[BruceB]

For a wireless connection I have found the netgear wnce2001 useful.

 

[SolarPro]

The result is one very happy customer - he is a retired gent who is very technologically minded, he has no shading issues and chose the SolarEdge system purely for the monitoring capabilities, safe to say that he is delighted with his new toy. He has 2 small south facing and 1 larger east facing roof and his brief was simply the highest possible output from the small space available. In the end we opted for the BenQ 330w panels with 500w optimisers.

Nice to read your experience with the SolarEdge power optimizers.
I have offered them to several clients. Most of them were interested because of the superior performance when there are shading issues.
But it's interesting to read that some clients have rather different arguments.

SolarPro
Netherlands