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seamas avatar image
seamas asked

Smartsolar 100-30 lost Bluetooth connectivity

I bought and installed 2 x 100-30 Smartsolar mppt controllers around 8 months ago. I could see both in the V Connect app and changed the pins and names on both. All good until around 1 month ago one of them was no longer visible in the app. Having consulted this website I disconnected the subject controller from the panel and batteries and waited around 15 minutes. Reconnected and no change. I then purchased a VE Direct cable and connected to my laptop. The controller was visible but had lost the unique name I had assigned to it. It seemed to be charging correctly and was pretty much mirroring what the other one was doing. I went to the Product Info section but it was just a cropped version of what I could see from the other controller – specifically the BT on/off toggle was missing as was the Smartsolar Bluetooth Interface section was also missing. When this problem arose both controllers were running firmware V1.59 and I thought if I waited for an update the problem might resolve itself. Today I saw V1.61 was available and I updated both. No change on either. One has full BT functionality and the BT settings are not visible on the other.

If anyone can offer help I’d be very grateful.

MPPT Controllers
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7 Answers
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kevgermany answered ·

Sounds like a hardware problem. You need to contact your dealer for a fix under warranty.

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Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image
Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) answered ·

Hi @Seamas

As already said by @kevgermany, this indeed looks like a hardware problem. But out of curiosity, did you also have the SmartSolars connected via VE.Smart networking? If so, cna please check whether the other SmartSolar is still visible in the VE.Smart networking menu of the one with the working bluetooth? I would expect that it will not show up there and that the internal bluetooth dongle of is broken on the one SmartSolar.

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

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seamas answered ·

Thank you both. Unfortunately I didn't have smart networking. I'll contact the dealer.

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Sarah avatar image
Sarah answered ·

Hi @Seamas i have experienced similar issues. Try disconnecting the controller from both the battery and the PV array, leave it off for a few minutes and then reconnect the battery first let it restart and then connect the PV array. Good luck Sarah.

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seamas answered ·

Thanks @Sarah. If you read my first post you will see disconnecting/reconnecting was the first fix attempt I made.

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Sarah avatar image Sarah commented ·
Hi @Seamas - yes I did read your earlier post - the order of restoring the power is important. Battery first then solar. If this is what you have done previously then please ignore my suggestion. In my situation it worked.
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seamas avatar image
seamas answered ·

@Sarah Thanks again. That's what I did - twice actually. As I understand it this process resets the BT toggle to On but the expert view seems to be that my BT hardware is faulty.

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seamas answered ·

In December I sent my controller back to the dealer in Ankara where I bought it. It was early January before I got a response. They said they'd tested it and everything was OK including the Bluetooth connectivity. I asked them to send a screenshot from Victron Connect showing this as i was certainit wasn'tworking. They didn't send it and after more delays and messing they said the Bluetooth was only working intermittently and they'd send it back to the Victron distributor. More weeks have gone by and they're now saying they don't know when I'll get a replacement because the distributor is in Adana which is one of the areas affected by this weeks earthquakes. The problem with my controller is really small beer compared to the unimaginable suffering from the earthquakes and if I could believe this was the real reason for the delay I'd accept it but with all the messing gone on to date I don't believe them. Can anyone guide me on how to contact Victron directly about this.

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