diy solar

diy solar

Seems MPP dropped a new inverter...a split phase 10KW

Zwy said:
I would not dismiss Voltronic just yet. Tech moved and things changed, features added on any newer competitive units. Whether they adjust and engineer something with added bells and whistles remains to be seen. I would consider Voltronic again but the changes around the time of the EG4 version left a bad taste. The low PV voltage LV6548's I use in the house have worked flawlessly, dependable, no issues like the EG4 versions. The 6500EX hurt Voltronic, maybe it was all their own fault but EG4 should have tested more before release.

This latest release might be an excellent product for AC coupling with the 15Kw output. That's 30Kw with a pair. At the price point, it might be a good option. Even if these last only 5 years, as tech advances on solar systems and more products come out, it might be a good option to allow updating equipment to the latest tech and features economically. Think of the changes just in the last 3 years.
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While I did enjoy the reliability of my LV6548's like you, the EG4 phase did hurt them.

I vaguely remember, so correct me if i'm wrong, but didn't Voltronic doing funny stuff with firmware (or was it hardware?) changes though, and not telling EG4 about it, which caused many of the problems to begin with.
 
Zwy said:
I would not dismiss Voltronic just yet. Tech moved and things changed, features added on any newer competitive units. Whether they adjust and engineer something with added bells and whistles remains to be seen. I would consider Voltronic again but the changes around the time of the EG4 version left a bad taste. The low PV voltage LV6548's I use in the house have worked flawlessly, dependable, no issues like the EG4 versions. The 6500EX hurt Voltronic, maybe it was all their own fault but EG4 should have tested more before release.

This latest release might be an excellent product for AC coupling with the 15Kw output. That's 30Kw with a pair. At the price point, it might be a good option. Even if these last only 5 years, as tech advances on solar systems and more products come out, it might be a good option to allow updating equipment to the latest tech and features economically. Think of the changes just in the last 3 years.
Click to expand...
I agree totally with your last statement. Inverters are advancing dramatically every year. Having something that last at least 5 years, then re-sell and get a newer model has been my plan. I had an eg4 6000ex and decided to upgrade to two 6000xps. The difference is night to day. I could have gone with an 18k, but the price difference was substantial and I'm not grid tied. For my way of thinking the 6000xps made more sense. If everything goes to plan in 5 years maybe Lux has gone to a newer / more efficient 6000xp. The quality I've seen on this budget inverter is very impressive.
 
Zwy said:
I would not dismiss Voltronic just yet. Tech moved and things changed, features added on any newer competitive units. Whether they adjust and engineer something with added bells and whistles remains to be seen. I would consider Voltronic again but the changes around the time of the EG4 version left a bad taste. The low PV voltage LV6548's I use in the house have worked flawlessly, dependable, no issues like the EG4 versions. The 6500EX hurt Voltronic, maybe it was all their own fault but EG4 should have tested more before release.

This latest release might be an excellent product for AC coupling with the 15Kw output. That's 30Kw with a pair. At the price point, it might be a good option. Even if these last only 5 years, as tech advances on solar systems and more products come out, it might be a good option to allow updating equipment to the latest tech and features economically. Think of the changes just in the last 3 years.
Click to expand...
No the big issue with voltronic is that they got worse over time. The hardware and software. They did things without telling signature solar. and even their new releases had issues. They are not very competitive and in the last few years their products got worse while everyone got substantially better.

Especially for their price point. Idle consumption went up, board components swapped without telling anyone, defective unit rate went up etc. That is why people like the older models still and they work fine. The company has gone down hill, in my opinion.
 
Lt.Dan said:
While I did enjoy the reliability of my LV6548's like you, the EG4 phase did hurt them.

I vaguely remember, so correct me if i'm wrong, but didn't Voltronic doing funny stuff with firmware (or was it hardware?) changes though, and not telling EG4 about it, which caused many of the problems to begin with.
Click to expand...
Hardware substitution is what I think occurred. One can use a scope on the 6500EX output compared to the LV6548 and it is night and day difference. The transition of the H bridge on the 6500EX is horrible, that is why the lights flickered and it suffered voltage fluctuations. It also seems the DC converter had issues as you would see a hump in the sine traveling up and down the sine. The LV6548 output is rock solid, no fluctuations, no glitch at the H bridge transition. No hump traveling down the sine.

Why did this occur with the EG4 version? Don't know but I do speculate that it might have been the Walmart model of supply chains where Wallyworld tells a supplier they want X number of units and willing to pay X dollars for for it. So the manufacturer substitutes certain things to meet the price point. Another factor was covid shutting down supply chains and thus substitutions were put in place. I still think the price point was a major factor.

My scope videos on these units is in the forums clearly showing the faults with the 6500EX.
 
Also, MPP is hard to work with. Ask any distributor, not just signature solar. If you ever go to a solar conference, talk to the guys at luxpower. Or hell even megarevo. They are more attentive and receptive to new ideas and fixing problems. MPP is a joke compared to them. Ask anyone in the industry and they will tell you stories. I hear them all the time.
 
Will Prowse said:
No the big issue with voltronic is that they got worse over time. The hardware and software. They did things without telling signature solar. and even their new releases had issues. They are not very competitive and in the last few years their products got worse while everyone got substantially better.
Click to expand...

I don't know all the details on how these deals were structured but one has to wonder how a company could have a really good product, then introduce it under a different house brand and it suffers from so many problems.

I think several factors played into it, not just one single thing. I don't think they are competitive at this point in time, the older products are no longer available and they certainly have not improved the LV6548 with the V version.


Will Prowse said:
Especially for their price point. Idle consumption went up, board components swapped without telling anyone, defective unit rate went up etc. That is why people like the older models still and they work fine. The company has gone down hill, in my opinion.
Click to expand...
The older models manufactured before 2022 were very good units, I run a pair of them. What Voltronic should have done was leave that product alone and redesigned and tooled up for a new product that was on par with other units. This might be a good unit, but I'm not playing that game. The 6500EX ruined the experience for me, I would not buy another Voltronic unit at this time until I was to see others have good results with it. Too many other choices out there.
 
Will Prowse said:
Also, MPP is hard to work with. Ask any distributor, not just signature solar. If you ever go to a solar conference, talk to the guys at luxpower. Or hell even megarevo. They are more attentive and receptive to new ideas and fixing problems. MPP is a joke compared to them. Ask anyone in the industry and they will tell you stories. I hear them all the time.
Click to expand...
The deal with MPP is the company decided it was more profitable to screw over their dealers and distributors by selling direct. Ian gave up because he kept getting calls for support from users that did not buy from him. I don't blame him.

If I had to replace the LV6548's today with new units, most likely it would be EG4 6000XP's or SRNE 5Kw version that can be stacked.
 
Luxpower / Megarevo does not compete with their distributors either. MPP Solar does. They have every platform like Ebay, Amazon, etc. listed.

Why would I invest a quarter-million dollars on a container of their inverters when they are going to do their best to convince customers to buy directly?

No manufacturer should sell to customers directly if they want to have a distributor network investing in their company's stock (inventory).
 
Zwy said:
I would not buy another Voltronic unit at this time until I was to see others have good results with it. Too many other choices out there.
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I think this is all the masses are suggesting. We harp on voltronics because we were around to visualize the disaster.
It does upset some voltronics owners, but it’s objectively clear based on user experience that it’s almost as if voltronics success is based in two different timelines.
 
Zwy said:
I don't know all the details on how these deals were structured but one has to wonder how a company could have a really good product, then introduce it under a different house brand and it suffers from so many problems.

I think several factors played into it, not just one single thing. I don't think they are competitive at this point in time, the older products are no longer available and they certainly have not improved the LV6548 with the V version.



The older models manufactured before 2022 were very good units, I run a pair of them. What Voltronic should have done was leave that product alone and redesigned and tooled up for a new product that was on par with other units. This might be a good unit, but I'm not playing that game. The 6500EX ruined the experience for me, I would not buy another Voltronic unit at this time until I was to see others have good results with it. Too many other choices out there.
Click to expand...
When did I say that it was a single thing? I listed out multiple reasons and you're saying that I said a singular reason? Can you please explain your logic on this response. I don't understand
 
People speak of the older gen MPP Solar being of better quality. Does anyone know of a way to tell which hardware is considered the earlier gen equipment? Like based on serial number or something. Mine are LV6548s...
 
Voltronix moved their manufacturing and support from Taiwan to China and lost good engineers during the transition, that's why their product range went to hell, coincidentally during the cough cough illness time.
Unfortunately signature solar got caught right in the middle of it.
 
Many of the issues that the distributors were blamed for were entirely not their fault. MPP made many mistakes. If you were a distributor, would you continue to carry their products? Some of the posts on the forum drive me nuts because there is enough information for everyone to know what happened, but people still try to blame the wrong parties. And then people are confused when distributors switch suppliers. Nothing I've seen recently is a surprise at all. It makes perfect sense.
 
Will Prowse said:
Also look at how many firmware updates we get from luxpower and all the others. MPP takes months to fix things. Or they don't get fixed at all. Or they get worse. Or we get hardware surprises later on after a failure.
Click to expand...
In all fairness the reliable MPP models that have been mentioned previously never needed any firmware updates out of the box that I am aware, whereas the others needed necessary updates to make them function as designed.
I wouldn't hesitate to power up my TP6048 / LVX6048 with years old firmware and run my house if my ASF were to fail (it also has no firmware updates installed with close to 2.75MWh pv through it.
 
42OhmsPA said:
In all fairness the reliable MPP models that have been mentioned previously never needed any firmware updates out of the box that I am aware, whereas the others needed necessary updates to make them function as designed.
I wouldn't hesitate to power up my TP6048 / LVX6048 with years old firmware and run my house if my ASF were to fail (it also has no firmware updates installed with close to 2.75MWh pv through it.
Click to expand...
This further contributes to the complaints by many about new products and frequent firmware revisions.
It’s becoming obvious that many times it’s for benefit, and not every oem does them for the same reason. But there’s still this black eye from when it seemed as though those updates were to mask other issues or fix things that should not have ever been an issue.
 
42OhmsPA said:
In all fairness the reliable MPP models that have been mentioned previously never needed any firmware updates out of the box that I am aware, whereas the others needed necessary updates to make them function as designed.
I wouldn't hesitate to power up my TP6048 / LVX6048 with years old firmware and run my house if my ASF were to fail (it also has no firmware updates installed with close to 2.75MWh pv through it.
Click to expand...
Yes agreed and you can't buy them anymore. Are you going to buy the new models?
 
And none of the luxpower models firmware updates are required to make them work as advertised. Unless someone can show me an example of that.

But at the end of the day, would you risk buying millions of dollars of MPP inverters given what's happened? I don't know why people are surprised by this. It's very straightforward and logical
 
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