Firmware upgrade - warning!
A couple of years ago I had an 8kW Sunsynk hybrid inverter installed. I was wondering if I should get a firmware upgrade in case this gave me more facilities.
I couldn't find information about versions and changelogs to see if it was worth doing - disappointing.
Decided to put a ticket in to get an upgrade since there had not been an upgrade since new (2 years). Gave the requested details.
A few days later I was sitting at my computer (1 pm) and suddenly all the power went off. I thought there must be a grid failure but then wondered why a) my grid failure alarm didn't go off and b) why the batteries didn't kick in to supply the power via the load port, despite being fully charged.
A couple of minutes later the power came back on again. Strange. I have two NAS boxes (Network attached storage) that had gone off without warning, as well as two computers. One of the reasons for choosing Sunsynk inverters is that there should be failover of the load circuit to batteries - UPS.
While still puzzling over this, I got an email at 1:40pm to say that the firmware had been upgraded!! Ah - why didn't I think of that?! The firmware had been upgraded and the system rebooted, which caused the power failure!
I had been sent an automatic acknowledgement of my ticket requesting the firmware upgrade but I was not told whether it would be done or not, and if so, when it would be done. The next communication I had (it was 4 days after my request) - was to tell me it had been done.
When I politely complained about the problems this had caused I was told "In future, I would request you to initiate a chat whenever you wish the upgrade to be conducted to avoid the hassle that you experienced." I replied that I needed to know that before the upgrade, not after, but did not receive a reply!
In fact, everyone needs to know this! Hence this warning to all users!! It needs to be in the documentation about how to get a firmware upgrade.
To save unnecessary requests for firmware upgrades, we need to know a) what version of firmware is on the inverter b) what the latest version of the firmware is (id and date) and c) what changes have been implemented with each firmware version. Surely this should be standard practice for a company like Sunsynk? Otherwise, how do we know when to request a firmware upgrade?
I had an upgrade because the clock on the inverter was running 30min fast over 4 days
The upgrade corrected the fault and like you my power went off which was confusing as I have battery back up with a grid failure. It only went off for 5 min and when I emailed SS to see if the upgrade had caused the issue, they said "could be". As you said it would be nice if SS informed one before the event but my biggest issue is that I have to go around resetting all my timers and computers on the Essential fuse boards but I now have a check list of which appliances to reset
If it turns out to be my biggest problem I will be content