Balcony power plants: Automatic Deye firmware update can paralyze production
Deye inverters have been receiving automatic updates since last week. In some cases, the devices are no longer producing electricity.
(Image: heise online / dmk)
Deye is distributing the firmware update to version MW3_16U_5408_5.0C-S to its own inverters. The update takes place automatically, even if owners have blocked a specific IP address in the firewall. As a result, some systems with Deye inverters no longer feed in electricity.
In a photovoltaic forum, there are complaints from owners of Deye inverters that the systems no longer feed in electricity after the update. This seems to particularly affect those who have not connected an external relay box. This became necessary because Deye had omitted a safety relay in the mass production of some micro inverters, which is necessary to comply with the VDE standard VDE-AR-N 4105 and thus for an operating license in Germany.
No power supply after update
With updated firmware versions, which Deye released last year, the company is forcing the use of the relay box. The introduction of this solution already led to frustration there, as a firmware update required for operation was sometimes only installed automatically with a slight delay, meaning that the systems were down for a long time.
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As a result, some users blocked the IP addresses for the update servers in their routers and did not install the free relay box. The firmware updates are now apparently delivered from other IP addresses and thus also installed on such isolated systems. As the relay is missing, these no longer feed in power after the update in accordance with the standard. In the above-mentioned forum, those affected are making do by, among other things, installing the previously uninstalled external relay. This ensures – in some cases only on the following day – that power is fed back in by the inverter.
Anyone operating a balcony power plant with a Deye inverter should therefore check whether the system is generating and feeding in electricity. Although this is currently only a small amount due to the season, balcony power plants can still contribute a few watts to household consumption. Anyone who has not yet installed the external relay box should do so now.
(dmk)
