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Ok, finally woke up enough and drew out what I had originally meant: Dream becomes reality: So making 'nested' or hierarchical sets of strings and series just collapses down to a single string, so that was just some dream nonsense.

Ah yes, I forgot to specify that the 8 panels are in series, a single string, though I guess you got that. 😁

Just keeping their existing Midnite Classic 250. It's pretty beat up at this point, hums like crazy and the screen craps out all the time, but I think I'd like make that a separate project and avoid upgrading multiple things at once.

I've been using it to run AC loads and charge at the same time? Not sure if I'm misunderstanding, as I am fully off grid. But we have been using the gen boost feature for a week or two with no issues. The gen boost feature requires updating the firmware.

The software issues I had: Firmware doesn't allow charging above 59v which makes this impossible to equalize with older 48v lead acid batteries. They cited NEC for the reason. The Android app 100% does not yet support it yet. No idea on the timeline. The iOS app works. The WiFi dongle broke...

I have a 300' of mostly black flexible 3" irrigation pipe that currently has two 4 gauge wires that I want to add two new 10 gauge wires too (smaller gauge due to higher volts). The 300' comes with a good amount of elevation as well. My plan is to go to the bottom, dig up the conduit so I can...

Yes, this was totally it. In the end, I called EG4, and we fixed the problem by switching from the Android phone (which didn't show the download firmware option for 12000XP) to an iPhone which DID show 12000XP in the firmware drop down, then using the iPhone's bluetooth local connect to update...

I have the 12000xp off grid on a bad little portable Honda generator. We can use genboost to power the house and charge the batteries. We ended up ordering a chargeverter since the likely dirty THD of the portable generator is much higher than the inverter wants. My issue with the 12000xp has...

Actually, one more thing to add: despite being billed as an off grid inverter, I don't really think the EG4 ecosystem was used to actual offgrid. Case in point the 12000XP generator assumed use case is backup power in case of grid failure. Still it's worked ok for us so far.

Grew up off grid. House is a converted two story three bed barn that is quite nice, but my parents claim much or the work was done after permits were issued in the late 80s. They added additional windows as well, the house had a lot of windows, some or which were not permitted. So we want to...

Ok, I went ahead and tightened it up worked perfectly.

Thanks for adding in the Amps and Voltages there, that helped a lot!

For the breakers in a combiner box then I'd want to multiply by 1.25 right? So the 12.68 x 1.25 = 15.85A. That could maybe work with 15A breakers but to be safe I should upsize to a 20A breaker? So in this example, the combiner box should have 2x 20A breakers and the wire leaving rated for 40A.

Curious why you said "you can't have 3 series strings of mixed panel types" from what I've seen I can mix panel types, as long as the resulting voltages are near enough. The voltage will drop to the lower of the strings' voltage though, which I accounted for in my calculations by assuming amps...

Yeah? I saw that they say it's ~60 decibels, and played around with a decibel app on my phone, but it wasn't very productive. Do you feel like they're pretty noisy?

The wires are buried in a large maybe 3" flexible PVC, like the ones used for water irrigation, the parts above ground are in electrical conduit.

Ah, I believe I was just wrong about what the 120/240v meant, and I indeed must have both L1/L2. Found better info here: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/eg4-6000xp-120v-ac-grid-connection-to-120-240v-l1-and-l2-input.83220/

Thanks. Just contacted them via their form on their site. Just curious, were you saying that the Android (in my situation) app has a different set of settings than it should? Or were you looking at the "ceaa-0402" firmware version on the inverter and thinking that was wrong?

s Well then that is just luck, I never knew about that being an issue, I thought the only thing I needed to line up was the total Voltage for each string type.

I love the newer charge controllers with high input voltages, multiple trackers and high input amps like the Midnite Barcelona or the EG4 Flexboss Hybrid Inverter. Are there any new ones coming out that fit these?

Similar to another thread I just posted, I'm realizing I made some assumptions and am now learning some new things: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/can-a-120v-generator-be-plugged-in-to-the-l1-port-of-eg4-12000xp.96967/ The house has 120V ONLY, there is no 240v. Is it OK to connect my AC...

That does look great, and like my current MidNite Classic 250v MPPT, it doesn't even mention max input amps or watts in their spec sheets, seeming to imply that there is no issue with extreme over paneling? Is it just that MidNite solar is better designed than Victron/Morningstar? Or maybe...

That's awesome thank you!!

Hope this helps! The Neutral bus bar is on far bottom left. It appears to be a single solid piece.

I also seem to have hit this same issue using the 12000XP. My flow: 1) Turn on inverter 2) Mostly seems to be working 3) Get dongle setup, good also working 4) Can't find gen boost setting, despite manual, decide I need firmware update 5) Update firmware via website ... 6) Inverter restarts...

Yeah, definitely have completely turned it off / on at all breakers multiple times. Been using the manual to follow their exact order as well incase that was part of it. The one thing that the inverter settings show the mode set to "Normal" but the inverter home screen shows "Standby"

I have panels that at a maximum would be max 67amps and 80amps including bifacial. The Ampacity chart shows that 80 is a bit close to 75c. Additionally, my calculation is that I would see 10.09v 8% voltage loss across the 300 feet from panels to Midnite Solar Classic 250 MPPT charge...

Thanks, You were correct that 8 in series VOC would go over the max VOC for Midnite Classic 250. Likely will stick with the inefficient 4 panels in series for now until other parts of the setup can be fixed.

Was going about hooking up the new inverter and realized there was a neutral lug already loose (most are fully tightened when empty). Further inspection found the thick black wire (with a bit of white tape) coming from up in the box. It had a nice square ferrule on the end, hadn't been squished...

Yep I see all that too. Also, double checked those do not appear in the "Application" settings on the inverter itself.

Well, finally finished getting the new inverter setup,. Family clamoring for AC power, time to turn it on. Seems like it's working at first, just no generator charging with "gen boost" setting, which needs updated firmware. Update the firmware then it's stuck in standby mode. Standby mode...

The screenshots earlier were from the Android app while connected to Bluetooth. I also checked though and the same issue of those settings appears in an iPhone which had not previously been connected as well.

Thanks, didn't realized I missed adding that, will add it above as well. Name Strings Series Panel Count VMPP Volts From Panels old panels 2 4 8 36.5 146 new panels 4 4 16 34.71 138.84

Woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this, had trouble searching for my idea and ChatGPT seemed to think it was ok/possible (whatever that is worth). My original plan was 2 strings of 8 panels, which equates to 12a and 278v. In mornings there is a passing tree shadow that falls...

Source: https://support.rollsbattery.com/en/support/solutions/articles/237882-calculating-proper-charge-settings-for-rolls-flooded-lead-acid-batteries Yeah? This is the manual I was looking at. Same manufacturer of our cells.

Right, currently both are in groups of 4 and I would also prefer to increase the voltage. The first logical reason I had trouble with that 4 of the old panels are up on a tall pole mount, my uneducated assumption was that with 4 up in a group, I couldn't include those 4 in a series with other...

Couldn't help coming back to this one more time. My brain keeps thinking about this while I'm sleeping, so I had to draw out the version that would get to the desired 280v: I also found this Reddit thread discussing it as well: A comment from there, though the person cautions they are...

Also, here's another older manual. Seems there were definitely a couple of them that had equalization above 60.

Thank you so much.

AWG 4, and I think THW or THWN-2/THHN. Since I wasn't sure which, I was assuming it's the lower THW for rating.

I've also been asking on Midnite forums about it, and user boB there said something similar for exceeding PV input for the Classics:

Yeah, I like the look of the Victron 450/100 too, also looks like their external measuring ecosystem (like apps, exporting data etc) is good too. You mentioned that you have 20 AMPS each, but when I was looking at their spec sheet, I thought I should be using the 18 A per tracker based on "Max...

I've heard this before in other threads. How does reverse polarity happen? Just literally plugging in the negative and to positive?

I'm upgrading my parents old system which used an epanel and a DC-DC 48v-12v converter to manage all the 12 lights in the house. How can I hook this into the 12000XP? Previously our epanels DC Input side has the load coming off that. The only thing I see on the 12000XP is the two DC...

It's pretty tempting to just choose this one, I don't know why they don't list the max input Amps or Watts but it feels like it's OK versus the other three (EG4/Morningstar/Victron) that make it seem like going +30% is a line that shouldn't be crossed.

All three of you have the same recommendation, voltage up and amperage down. Is it possible to do with 4 panels on the pole mount and the remaining 20 in 3 strings of 8 in series nearby? The issue is that one string would have 4 panels on the pole mount, 30' wires, then the rest of the 4 in series.

Sorry, I keep not understanding those abbreviations. Does that mean 2 panels in series in parallel for 4 panels total?

Thank you, I didn't know to check the ISC is under the 22A max input amps, but I'm confused because I thought I could over panel long as the max Voltage is respected. For example this user from another thread...

I'm OK with brand, and they seem to have similar specs, but just confused about whether I can safely overpanel over the 22 max short circuit input amps or if that is dangerous. Given that my current panels are 12.88 ISC each, it would seem I could only ever have 1 string as any more would go...

Thanks, I opened one here. Reading this thread felt it seemed so similar. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/12000xp-firmware-update-caused-stuck-in-standby-mode.97020/

My current plan is based on the two mentioned threads: "He can exit standby if the grid input is powered even momentarily" So today I'll try to get the generator hooked up for 120/240v then connect it to the grid side and try rebooting to see if I can exit standby.

Looking closer at the specs for Victron and EG4 they both mention that the danger is if the polarity is reversed: So I guess having a higher PV input Amperage is OK as long as I don't ever mix up the polarity?

Thanks, that sounds good.

Just curious, what would be the service panel? Would that be the main breaker box where the AC Out goes? There we seem to have a single column of breakers. The black line going to the second from the top is from AC Out (80% sure right now), and there is a little connection between the 1st and...

What did you end up doing with you generator? I just started using EG4 12000XP and we feel like it's not pulling as much energy from our generator as it should. Did you try the idea of putting the generator in the grid side? Sounds a bit strange, but curious if you had tried that.

What do you mean "magnasine prewired panels", were those panels manufactured under the Magnasine name? We recently switched from the Magnasine Inverter to EG4 12000XP, I haven't seen any issues like that, but want to make sure I didn't miss anything. The old panels are still there as well...

Thank you, that Growatt SPH looks great, and I hadn't seen it before, but at a glance it looks like it matches most of what we need. Honestly, didn't even know some inverters could be outside in the snow and rain, so I'll definitely need to look into that more.

One more pic with some context, the large flat connectors going off to the left were put in decades ago when there was some hope that there would ever be municipal power, which never happened. So the box on the left is just empty / unused.

Thanks, that's a good idea, so I just went ahead and did that. It also does not seem to recommend any over paneling. Basically just a maximum of 1 string. It doesn't even try to estimate for 3 strings. The dark color for 10 modules + says:

Thank you, appreciate that, the double possibilities for s (series / strings) and p (panels / parallel) was what was tripping me up.

Thanks for your help, one more question: Wouldn't your final "parallel (2p)" have only increased the amps and not the voltage? Unless you mean that you wired them in series, negative to positive which would increase the voltage?

I am trying to calculate the max amps for breakers and for wire guage estimates, but I realized the way I was calculating it for bifacial lead to some questions. First, is it correct to calculate max amps leaving panels as watts/voltage? While this makes sense for the rated 440W, for the...

Relying on their remote software.

I have 16 panels that I can arrange on a single large array. There are several tree shadows that are present in the Winter during the morning until 11AM. The panels are facing south, and the shadows pass from the left to the right, with some shadows only touching the right. Given this, which of...

Yes, this works 100%. We even ran it a few times off a portable generator with >10% THD with no issues, though we've since bought the chargeverter as we read the THD being high could potentially damage the inverter.

Dunno, as both the current and previous lead acid 48v battery systems (Trojan and Rolls) had that high of charging and of course higher equalizing. I made a specific thread about that with some documentation of the Trojan and Rolls manuals...

I thought maybe I should fully check the complexity, so I did a new drawing plus real picture to visualize. The panels in question are the 8 blue panels. I redid the drawing, showing that there end up being 3 breakers. One per set of 4 blue panels and the final one in the combiner box. The...

It's midway through intersolar but I don't really have any way of following the news. Any good coverage of it? I'm looking forward to hearing if there are any new products or releases. So far I've seen this...

Apologies, I'm not currently at my parents home where this is going to be done, so can't get a more straight forward pic. Panels in field, dog for scale ;). Combiner box in middle of panels goes to where picture is taken from, buried 4 AWG. This is the current setup. Currently there are 8...

A bit confused for how our EG4 12000XP is handling "float". The current settings are for charting at 59V and float at 54V. As you can see, while the 48v lead acid battery does get charged up to 59, or mostly 58.9, it ends up hovering there the whole day. In the past we would usually charge like...

Mostly my own data logging and dashboard. Happy with basics like battery voltage and daily plots for charge and discharge. Is yours open source? Would love to check it out. By the way, what is SA and HA?

Thanks, you're right I missed some stuff: Batteries 48v Lead Acid Battery Bank ~700AH. The state of charge was pretty good yesterday, but by today they're quite low as I am unable to charge them and the house's 12v lights are hooked directly into them. WiFi Dongle / App The dongle seems stuck...

Thank you a lot for that help, it was right at a crucial time and I appreciate it. The red wire maybe looks worse than it is, I couldn't find any breaks in the casing, I think what you saw in the picture is just the outside casing peeling off. Obviously all pretty bad, but at least it's not...

Ah, I didn't explain well, there were just two options there, the 2S8P in two rows or 2S8P in two 'squares'. Then the other two pictures were visualizing the shadows are various times. Since any amount of shade on any panels kills it then I guess more bunched together is better.

Yeah, you're right. The ground there goes down a few feet to the main ground rod in the ground. I'm thinking that I'll replace this at some point. It's so rusted and messy it's a bit scary. thanks for your help!

Actually, I went a bit quick above the 3 series of 8 is in fact too high of voltage for the current Midnite Classic 250 MPPT Charge Controller, though I could do several strings of 6: Name Strings Series Count VMPP Volts From Panels Watts Max Watts Amps by Lowest Voltage old panels 1 6 6...

Just curious if anyone else knows much about self hosting or gathering data from EG4 products? I did find this project: https://github.com/gonzalop/wombatt But curious if there are others?

Yeah, tightening it up was no problem. If the EG4 QA team looks into this, that was not "loose" it was simply never connected: 1) The bolt was nearly fully unscrewed. 2) As you can see in the first pic, the ferrule was still in the original square shape with a crisp corner, so it hadn't even...

Trying to complete an upgrade for my parents setup. I put most of it in about 10 years ago, and recently I about quadrupled the PV for them but now need to upgrade the solar charge controller from Midnite Classic 250 to a charge controller(s) at higher voltages. My constraint, other than money...

Borrow an iPhone for setup. Also, you might need a new dongle afterwards. After updating the firmware I couldn't get the WiFi dongle working again and they decided to send a new one.

Do you have a link for that?

I had trouble following that, so I tried again and came up with this, which does allow some type of nesting, but I'm not sure if it is right? I guess it's still different from your idea since it ends up at 140v instead of the 270v/280v (no worries about the rounding difference).

ECO Mode is not enabled on the inverter settings. The app shows this these settings. Correct, there is nothing connected to the grid terminals yet and there is no official grid connection.

I will have 3 strings of 4 panels. 1 string has a total voltage of 138.84V (link) and 2 older strings have a voltage of 146V. Likely all three will come together in a combiner box. Either in a DIY style or maybe something more presentable like this...

Previously I thought the issue was just some settings, but after calling Signature Solar they told me that 59v is a hard limit set by NEC standards. This causes an issue because the 48v lead acid battery manufacturer states the default absorb charge should be 60 and more importantly the...

Where did you get those Yep, those are the right numbers from the EG4 docs. Unfortunately the space only has 26" so short 3 or 4 for the exhaust side.

Yeah, unfortunately working with what we have. The pole can be adjusted a bit when I get to that to point a similar ish direction, though I was going to run some tests to see how it goes. We have tons of sun in the afternoon and evening but are often lacking in the early winter mornings, hence...

The existing 48v to 12v DC to DC converter is for 400w ( 33 amps?).

No worries. I started an issue with the wombatt one above. He said first step is to get the protocol docs from EG4 so I've reached out to them about that. Self hosting stuff is definitely pretty fun, so wouldn't mind making a hobby project our of it.

Perovskite Breakthrough https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/06/21/gcl-says-perovskite-solar-module-passes-silicon-degradation-tests/

Does the above pic look like 2x 120v or just 120v?

I'm looking for a new charge controller that can handle max VOC > 470V. So far I've found these two models, but they have a very different set of prices, so I'm not sure if I'm missing something that the Morningstar has that the EG4 does not. $989 - 600V - Morningstar Tristar DB TR GFPD Comes...

I have a 20 foot (3 meter) gap between two sets of 4 panels. Does it matter where I put the outgoing box?

Wow, how did you see the App screenshots indicate 12000kpv? I have 12000XP. App The login page of the app has a button "Download Firmware" which leads to a firmware download/installation page which says "select device type" and the options are: "18KPV-12LV" and "6000XP". I haven't clicked...

I'm looking at hooking up an existing generator to a new EG4 12000XP which I believe (I hope I was not mistaken about this!) that it supports 120v OR 240v, though after reading a bit more, I'm unsure now. When looking at the 12000XP generator hookups we have: L1, L2 Neutral and Ground. The...

This is true, but I wonder about the software side. That's the part that seems the most buggy, do the oems build that too or is that a separate party?

Ah, I see. I was confused thinking you meant solar panels. Yeah, the epanel, as ours was called, was wired as you said. I always thought that was interesting but didn't understand it. I removed the epanel as well so they are not hybridized.

I do, for some reason I thought that was another issue, directly connecting them as a load the battery bank, but that now sounds like a bad assumption.

Thank you! Thinking about it for a bit longer and you're right it sounds solved! Appreciate the help!

Awesome, glad you recognized the setup. :geek: So, remove the jumper wire from top breaker to second from the top, then add a new wire from inverter to the top most breaker. Is there a difference between the top and bottom, is one of them supposed to specifically be L1 or L2 or is it...