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EB3A "Overload" When Used as Uninterruptible Power Supply

Wow, im glad to have come across this. I don't have any medical devices or even any 'real' need for a UPS but i have considered buying one of these just because the price is honestly good enough that it falls into my 'discretionary spending' range of not really having to have a bulletproof reason for buying it. It just seems cool! But im not willing to swallow much 'hassle' from a device i don't need to begin with, so.. i'll be watching this issue now!

It does sound like something having to do with its AC input and how it uses or reacts to that. And if so, considering that the issue seems to be irrespective of loading on the AC output, it would just come down to poor design as far as how the device handles 'inconsistencies' on the AC input side. It's a device marketed largely on UPS-type functionalities, so being intolerant of 'dirty power' on the ac input is just.. bad planning and bad design!!

So that raises the followup question... since the EB3A can accept a 12-28v dc input, and the output load that needs to be powered in OP's case is small.. is it worth testing that a small DC power supply which is at least capable of supplying the CPAP's power requirement plus preferably a little extra, such as a laptop charger or several varieties of ~$20-30 bench PSUs, might totally bypass this crappy side-effect of the ac input? It would force the unit to operate in true 'double conversion' where it would be more isolated from any weirdness on the local grid.

You know, like it's supposed to be in the first place. :cautious:

Bluetti should still fix this, even if a low cost low effort solution IS found. Because it shouldn't be doing this in the first place. And as a possible 'loss leader' product that is probably supposed to getting a bunch of new customers on the Bluetti hook, it would be especially ironic if they lost money on it AND it had the opposite effect on their 'brand'.
 
Wow, im glad to have come across this. I don't have any medical devices or even any 'real' need for a UPS but i have considered buying one of these just because the price is honestly good enough that it falls into my 'discretionary spending' range of not really having to have a bulletproof reason for buying it. It just seems cool! But im not willing to swallow much 'hassle' from a device i don't need to begin with, so.. i'll be watching this issue now!

It does sound like something having to do with its AC input and how it uses or reacts to that. And if so, considering that the issue seems to be irrespective of loading on the AC output, it would just come down to poor design as far as how the device handles 'inconsistencies' on the AC input side. It's a device marketed largely on UPS-type functionalities, so being intolerant of 'dirty power' on the ac input is just.. bad planning and bad design!!

So that raises the followup question... since the EB3A can accept a 12-28v dc input, and the output load that needs to be powered in OP's case is small.. is it worth testing that a small DC power supply which is at least capable of supplying the CPAP's power requirement plus preferably a little extra, such as a laptop charger or several varieties of ~$20-30 bench PSUs, might totally bypass this crappy side-effect of the ac input? It would force the unit to operate in true 'double conversion' where it would be more isolated from any weirdness on the local grid.

You know, like it's supposed to be in the first place. :cautious:

Bluetti should still fix this, even if a low cost low effort solution IS found. Because it shouldn't be doing this in the first place. And as a possible 'loss leader' product that is probably supposed to getting a bunch of new customers on the Bluetti hook, it would be especially ironic if they lost money on it AND it had the opposite effect on their 'brand'.
If you search through the forums, you will see others who were using only solar as the power input, and they also got the overload error. It's a real shame, because in theory this model is a great idea. But I don't think a firmware upgrade can fix this. I believe it's due to lack of input filtering hardware. (Filter caps, etc.) Design flaw at the board level, not in the firmware. I hope that's not the case, but I believe it is.
 
others who were using only solar as the power input, and they also got the overload error
Welp. That's lame.

So what about NO power input? Does it do this when operating entirely on battery power? Because if so the thing is definitely 'broken' on a design level and not something you can 'work around' without voiding your warranty and opening it up.

But i do think a firmware update could likely fix it just by making the thing less sensitive. For example, if you look at the software updates manufacturers have put out to address a lot of the emissions DTCs and 'limp mode' and 'de-rate' issues on diesel pickup trucks, it basically amounts to... we made it less sensitive. Humans understand the value of not making your problems 'everyone elses problem all the time' intrinsically because of social pressures, but a mouthy machine must be programmed to shut up through software updates. :ROFLMAO:

I seriously doubt the things are sitting there actually killing themselves doing 40w and crying about overloads. They probably just need to be reprogrammed to ignore some of the prior parameters and be less sensitive and stop crying about little things.
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Mine is still working great, no issues going on 4 months now. Solar, UPS mode, DC/AC. Very pleased with this unit.
 
Do any of you have issues to connect to the power station?
I have to click like 5 times to connect to the Bluetooth and sometimes it won't connect.
Also I just received one and with the new app I can not update to the newest Firmware. I understood current firmware is version 57 or so and I still have 53.
So many bugs to be fixed, I want to return it out of disappointment.
 
Nope, no bugs at all. Never had any serious issues with any Bluetti products yet.
 
Ordered one of these on a recent 'sale', which may or may not have actually been much of a discount, but the overloads are still occurring on new units with latest firmware. I also see power glitches on the AC that are sufficient to reset a connected PC when the unit is charging from DC.

Waiting for first contact from Bluetti support after sending them email today. BTW, I don't know if it's a recent change in the app (I'm new to Bluetti), but firmware updates to the device only seem to be available if you create an account.
 
Ordered one of these on a recent 'sale', which may or may not have actually been much of a discount, but the overloads are still occurring on new units with latest firmware. I also see power glitches on the AC that are sufficient to reset a connected PC when the unit is charging from DC.

Waiting for first contact from Bluetti support after sending them email today. BTW, I don't know if it's a recent change in the app (I'm new to Bluetti), but firmware updates to the device only seem to be available if you create an account.
For me the firmware settings are completely unavailable. I can maybe see the old firmware but there is no update possibility. Accumulating a lot of disappointment about this unit.
 
For me the firmware settings are completely unavailable. I can maybe see the old firmware but there is no update possibility. Accumulating a lot of disappointment about this unit.

IIRC, the app did not even show the Firmware Upgrade panel in the Settings menu until I created an account and bound the EB3A to the account. If there are no updates available it only lists the "Current Version", which are v2057.11 for the ARM fw and v2056.10 for the DSP according to my app.
 
IIRC, the app did not even show the Firmware Upgrade panel in the Settings menu until I created an account and bound the EB3A to the account. If there are no updates available it only lists the "Current Version", which are v2057.11 for the ARM fw and v2056.10 for the DSP according to my app.
Well, that is why I am disappointed. I have ARM 2053.07 and DSP 2052.04 and no possibility to update. I can see the firmware but there is no update button. In the old app I think it was but it got updated before I went through the updates.
 
Well, that is why I am disappointed. I have ARM 2053.07 and DSP 2052.04 and no possibility to update. I can see the firmware but there is no update button. In the old app I think it was but it got updated before I went through the updates.
FYI, mine shows ARM version v2062.03 and DSP version v2056.10. Mine was delivered five days ago.
 
I received my EB3A just before Thanksgiving, and it has v2057.11 / ARM and v2056.10 / DSP.
I've been using it as a computer UPS for the past 5 days, everything works with no sign of dropout.
However, every 35min or so when battery SOC drops to 99% and it starts re-charging, it makes obnoxious buzzing sounds and then the jet-blower-like fan turns on for several minutes. I have "silent" mode set in the charging profile, but seems like that does not work given the fan behavior.
Why it has to full-throttle recharge the last 1% of energy is baffling...

Even when logged into the Bluetti app, I don't see any way to update the FW code.
 
Bluetti EB3A was not designed correctly and the company should stop selling it. I have noticed in the UPS mode, when the battery level drops below 100% and the EB3A starts to recharge its battery, during that period of time, the unit generates too much harmonics on the 120-volt AC line that messes up my PC's monitor (located next to EB3A but not plugged into it). I originally had my PC & its monitor plugged into the EB3A (UPS mode) and noticed the monitor is acting funny, and then I unplugged my PC & its monitor and plugged them into a regular 120-volt outlet. Troubleshooting indicated that my monitor starts to act funny at the same time the Bluetti EB3A is trying to recharge its battery back to 100% in the UPS mode and when the EB3A is fully charged, my monitor behaves normally. I never had any issue with my monitor until I got the Bluetti EB3A.
 
Man, those are both really odd behaviors. I'm guessing you can't dictate charge limits, like 10-90% soc? I'd be ok with some workarounds given the price but if there are no easy workarounds... it's not THAT cheap to justify all the annoying behaviours.
 
So I grabbed an EB3A and updated the firmware. Tried it for a few days on my computer as a UPS. ~90 watts. Absolutely no issues. During the last wet heavy snowfall, I put it on my CPAP in UPS mode. The grid didn't go down, but my CPAP turned off on me during the night. So the UPS range where this happens is definitely around the 50 watt mark. I thought I got a good deal when I purchased it (Lightning deal -$80 plus a -$80 coupon for a total of $140), however it doesn't really work for what I intended it to do.
I wonder if it would work if I mounted an external fan to push air through when the unit is in UPS mode.
When I was using it on the computer, I had the digital noise that others had described. I think it is a low level PWM to the fan and the fan can barely start.
 
I think it is a low level PWM to the fan and the fan can barely start.
THAT is an interesting thought! So you think it is an overheat issue and might be caused by the 'minimum' fan level being unreliable because it's too susceptible to slight differences in fan resistance (to turning) and under some conditions might just be vibrating the fan a bit but not actually spinning it? Wouldn't it just try giving the fan more juice before it had an overheat fault?

For $140 i would have tried it too, can't fault you for that!!
 
For what it's worth... A couple weeks ago a friend suggested to me that I should try the EB3A again, but this time using a surge suppressor in the wall-power feed into the EB3A. I did so (this time using a fan as a test-load instead of a medical device) and it ran for many hours without indicating an overload, something it could never manage before. So I hooked it back up to my CPAP (along with a loud plug-in power-failure alarm device, just in case), and it worked well for several days. Then, while I wasn't using it and was sitting in the next room, the utility power blinked. It was off for perhaps thirty seconds, then "flickered" erratically for ten seconds maybe five minutes later. I listened carefully for the alarm I'd set and, not hearing it, at first thought the EB3A had passed the test with flying colors. But about an hour later, when I went to bed, I discovered that the unit was very warm to the touch-- much more so than usual-- and the fan was running like a jet engine despite my having set it to the slowest charge mode available and the fact that the indicator showed a 100% charge. (Please note that I haven't updated the firmware since immediately after the initial purchase simply because no updates have shown as available.)

I find it ironic that most of my friends warned me back when I bought the EB3A that I'd not like it because it was far too small. I already owned an EB70S, however (which by the way is a solid, much-loved, and utterly reliable if less sophisticated unit), and based on my experience with it was pretty sure that if I was careful and worked at finding alternative ways to perform a couple of my more-demanding tasks the EB3A would be both more portable (I'm getting old and weight matters) and at least adequate in terms of output and capacity. This has proven to be the case, and if Bluetti had stopped at the point of simply making a better small portable power station at a fantastic price I'd be a very satisfied customer. But instead they had to make it not only a dangerously nonfunctional UPS, but then keep right on selling the things in an unmodified form (based on what I see above) to large numbers of vulnerable customers knowing full well they were defective. On top of that (I just checked while typing this) they _still_ are promoting the EB3A on Amazon for medical device (CPAP) backup. I can't see this as anything but utterly irresponsible behavior, and they've therefore managed to transform a happy customer who was previously word-of-mouth telling his friends how great Bluetii's stuff was into someone doing just the opposite.
 
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I just had this issue when operating in UPS mode, with no loads as I turned my ham radio off, and three computers. The AC that feeds it comes from my solar array. Very discouraging after the 2nd night in use. Prior nights I left the computers on with about 120w load but didn't experience the overload. Is there a firmware update for this issue?
 
Not that I'm aware of. My personal early-production EB3A had two initial firmware updates when I first bought it and then none since-- I just checked last week. It may be that other EB3A's are getting them, but my personal unit is not.
 
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