Failed to initialise communication with inverter on SB4000TL-20

[rossi42]

I tested SBFsport on a Raspberry Pi 3 using sbfspot-config. Everything works fine until in the final test SBFspot is run once to check if installation went well. Last lines look like this:

Configuring SBFspot... Done
Running SBFspot...
SBFspot V3.9.7
Yet another tool to read power production of SMA solar inverters
(c) 2012-2022, SBF (https://github.com/SBFspot/SBFspot)
Compiled for Linux (LE) 32 bit with SQLite support
Commandline Args: -v -ad0 -am0 -ae0 -sp0 -nocsv -nosql -finq -cfg/usr/local/bin/sbfspot.
Reading config '/usr/local/bin/sbfspot.3/SBFspot.cfg'
Tue Nov  7 15:44:10 2023: INFO: Starting...
sunrise: 07:14
sunset : 16:25
Connecting to 00:80:25:XX:XX:XX (1/10)
Initialising...
SUSyID: 125 - SessionID: 982473101
SMA netID=02
Tue Nov  7 15:44:11 2023: CRITICAL: Failed to initialise communication with inverter.
Tue Nov  7 15:44:11 2023: INFO: Done.
Installation aborted

SMA netID=02 shows the correct netID of my two inverters. Switching to the bluetooth address of the second inverter does not change anything.

Raspberry is running Raspbian 10 (buster) with 5.10.103-v7+ kernel:
uname -a Linux raspberrypi 5.10.103-v7+ #1529 SMP Tue Mar 8 12:21:37 GMT 2022 armv7l GNU/Linux

Inverter is SB4000TL-20 with very old firmware (bought 2008) which might be the problem? I currently use ist with Sunny Data Control and SDC says this:
Communication protocoll: SMAData V2, SMANet

I can start SBFsport manually after installation like this:
/usr/local/bin/sbfspot.3/SBFspot -v -ad0 -am0 -ae0 -sp0 -nocsv -nosql -finq -cfg/usr/local/bin/sbfspot.3/SBFspot.cfg

But get the same error as above.

[sbf-]

Can you provide a debug log?

/usr/local/bin/sbfspot.3/SBFspot -d5 -v5 -ad0 -am0 -ae0 -sp0 -nocsv -nosql -finq

Have you ever tried with SunnyExplorer (Windows)?

[sbf-]

It's indeed the old FW (If I'm correct, minimum version should be 1.71) That's also the reason why SunnyExplorer doesn't work.

When you configure MIS_Enabled=1 (to get info of the 2 inverters) you will see CRITICAL: Incompatible FW version detected.

A possible solution is to upgrade the FW

See also issue #535

I have the same inverter:

Device Type:      SB 4000TL-20
Software Version: 03.01.05.R

[SBFspot]

This thread is also related

[rossi42]

Thank you very much for the clarification. Then I guess I will have to let my electrician do an update on the inverters.

[sbf-]

Here is another issue where the FW upgrade helped.
The FW can be found in the Archive section

[rossi42]

Yeah but this definately needs to be done by an electrician - you need to disconnect ac and dc, open the case to insert sd card etc.