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6500EX vs 6000XP. Should I do the upgrade program?

bakada

New Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2023
Messages
10
Location
Netherlands
Hi all,

I am considering the Signature Solar/EG4 upgrade program to upgrade my 2 EG4 6500EX and get 2 6000XP. I am curious if anyone has done this and what are your experiences?

I have 6 EG4 LL v2 batteries.

For me, personally, the only issue I have experienced with the 6500EX is the light flickering problem. Besides that, it hasn't given me much problems. I have read that the Luxpower inverters are much better built, but trying to see if the extra $1500 total is worthwhile.

From comparing the spec sheets, idle consumption is a bit less on the 6000XP. How did this pan out in real life?

I also set up SolarAssistant for my current system. Wondering if it will be easy to switch over to the new inverters so if anyone can share their experience, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Hi all,

I am considering the Signature Solar/EG4 upgrade program to upgrade my 2 EG4 6500EX and get 2 6000XP. I am curious if anyone has done this and what are your experiences?

I have 6 EG4 LL v2 batteries.

For me, personally, the only issue I have experienced with the 6500EX is the light flickering problem. Besides that, it hasn't given me much problems. I have read that the Luxpower inverters are much better built, but trying to see if the extra $1500 total is worthwhile.

From comparing the spec sheets, idle consumption is a bit less on the 6000XP. How did this pan out in real life?

I also set up SolarAssistant for my current system. Wondering if it will be easy to switch over to the new inverters so if anyone can share their experience, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Any case is different. I've bought my six EG4-6500EX in December 2022. Shortly after I finally completed the installation in Q1 2024, production of the EG4-6500EX was discontinued. I also thought (at least for a moment) about using the upgrade program but exchanging 6 nearly new units would still cost a lot. All in all I'm not unhappy with the 6500EX and they are running without any issues since 10 month like a Swiss watch - no reason for changing anything.

What type of "light flickering" do you have? There may be different effects and different environments may influence this problem.

  • I'm sure you know, if large loads (specially inductive large loads) will cause a short "blip" with the lights, but just once. This will be the same for nearly all off-grid inverters.
  • Be aware that some users also see flickering with the 6000XP.
  • I only had a "LED pulsing problem" when the inverter runs on low load (<150W per unit). Only some types of (cheap?) LED's showed this problem, others not. I found (thanks @Adam De Lay for this hint) that one specific consumer/load in our house brought the 6500EX to produce dirty output which caused this flickering problem for some LED's when under low load. In my case it was an old Vegas style slot machine which is permanently powered on. At the end I've solved it by completely decoupling the slot machine with a small DIY online conversion UPS (a small 375VA Victron 12V inverter, a 18AH 12V LFP battery and a AC battery charger). Sometimes my 3D printer, when in use, also causes this problem. Others found e.g. some AC power supply for a MacBook, etc.
    • You can try to find a load in your house which causes the inverters to let some LED's pulsing by switching off breaker by breaker, room by room until your flickering is gone to isolate and find the load.
    • You also should check, if you have installed the bonding screws inside both of your 6500EX.
    • You should run the newest firmware (DSP: 79.71 and MCU: 61.13).
    • Depending on your AC wiring (common neutral or not), the setting 42 must be taken into account. In case of using common neutral setup, option 42 should be enabled (ENA) - this will disable the internal N-G-bonding relays!).
Maybe you will be able to solve your problem with one of these information.
 
Last edited:
Any case is different. I've bought my six EG4-6500EX in December 2022. Shortly after I finally completed the installation in Q1 2024, production of the EG4-6500EX was discontinued. I also thought (at least for a moment) about using the upgrade program but exchanging 6 nearly new units would still cost a lot. All in all I'm not unhappy with the 6500EX and they are running without any issues since 10 month like a Swiss watch - no reason for changing anything.

What type of "light flickering" do you have? There may be different effects and different environments may influence this problem.

  • I'm sure you know, if large loads (specially inductive large loads) will cause a short "blip" with the lights, but just once. This will be the same for nearly all off-grid inverters.
  • Be aware that some users also see flickering with the 6000XP.
  • I only had a "LED pulsing problem" when the inverter runs on low load (<150W per unit). Only some types of (cheap?) LED's showed this problem, others not. I found (thanks @Adam De Lay for this hint) that one specific consumer/load in our house brought the 6500EX to produce dirty output which caused this flickering problem for some LED's when under low load. In my case it was an old Vegas style slot machine which is permanently powered on. At the end I've solved it by completely decoupling the slot machine with a small DIY online conversion UPS (a small 375VA Victron 12V inverter, a 18AH 12V LFP battery and a AC battery charger). Sometimes my 3D printer, when in use, also causes this problem. Others found e.g. some AC power supply for a MacBook, etc.
    • You can try to find a load in your house which causes the inverters to let some LED's pulsing by switching off breaker by breaker, room by room until your flickering is gone to isolate and find the load.
    • You also should check, if you have installed the bonding screws inside both of your 6500EX.
    • You should run the newest firmware (DSP: 79.71 and MCU: 61.13).
    • Depending on your AC wiring (common neutral or not), the setting 42 must be taken into account. In case of using common neutral setup, option 42 should be enabled (ENA) - this will disable the internal N-G-bonding relays!).
Maybe you will be able to solve your problem with one of these information.
I'm finally getting my 6500EX up and running. Been buying them one at a time for a few years along with all the other stuff. Now I need to do teh firmware upgrades. Where can I find those? thanks
 
Hi all,

I am considering the Signature Solar/EG4 upgrade program to upgrade my 2 EG4 6500EX and get 2 6000XP. I am curious if anyone has done this and what are your experiences?

I have 6 EG4 LL v2 batteries.

For me, personally, the only issue I have experienced with the 6500EX is the light flickering problem. Besides that, it hasn't given me much problems. I have read that the Luxpower inverters are much better built, but trying to see if the extra $1500 total is worthwhile.

From comparing the spec sheets, idle consumption is a bit less on the 6000XP. How did this pan out in real life?

I also set up SolarAssistant for my current system. Wondering if it will be easy to switch over to the new inverters so if anyone can share their experience, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
The 6000xp is night and day different compared to the 6500ex.

You can easily switch SA over to the 6000xp in just a few clicks.
 
I'm finally getting my 6500EX up and running. Been buying them one at a time for a few years along with all the other stuff. Now I need to do teh firmware upgrades. Where can I find those? thanks
I don’t know if EG4 still has them on their website or not but I did save off the most recent one and loaded it on my site for folks to use.
 
Any case is different. I've bought my six EG4-6500EX in December 2022. Shortly after I finally completed the installation in Q1 2024, production of the EG4-6500EX was discontinued. I also thought (at least for a moment) about using the upgrade program but exchanging 6 nearly new units would still cost a lot. All in all I'm not unhappy with the 6500EX and they are running without any issues since 10 month like a Swiss watch - no reason for changing anything.

What type of "light flickering" do you have? There may be different effects and different environments may influence this problem.

  • I'm sure you know, if large loads (specially inductive large loads) will cause a short "blip" with the lights, but just once. This will be the same for nearly all off-grid inverters.
  • Be aware that some users also see flickering with the 6000XP.
  • I only had a "LED pulsing problem" when the inverter runs on low load (<150W per unit). Only some types of (cheap?) LED's showed this problem, others not. I found (thanks @Adam De Lay for this hint) that one specific consumer/load in our house brought the 6500EX to produce dirty output which caused this flickering problem for some LED's when under low load. In my case it was an old Vegas style slot machine which is permanently powered on. At the end I've solved it by completely decoupling the slot machine with a small DIY online conversion UPS (a small 375VA Victron 12V inverter, a 18AH 12V LFP battery and a AC battery charger). Sometimes my 3D printer, when in use, also causes this problem. Others found e.g. some AC power supply for a MacBook, etc.
    • You can try to find a load in your house which causes the inverters to let some LED's pulsing by switching off breaker by breaker, room by room until your flickering is gone to isolate and find the load.
    • You also should check, if you have installed the bonding screws inside both of your 6500EX.
    • You should run the newest firmware (DSP: 79.71 and MCU: 61.13).
    • Depending on your AC wiring (common neutral or not), the setting 42 must be taken into account. In case of using common neutral setup, option 42 should be enabled (ENA) - this will disable the internal N-G-bonding relays!).
Maybe you will be able to solve your problem with one of these information.
The light flickering issue is well documented in the main thread, but yes like you said, it is some cheap LED lights that are showing this issue. My very old microwave with a halogen bulb also flickers. All minor issues to me because these lights are not my everyday lights. Thanks for your response!

The 6000xp is night and day different compared to the 6500ex.

You can easily switch SA over to the 6000xp in just a few clicks.
Thanks Adam. When you say night and day different, do you mean it is a much better inverter compared to the 6500ex?
 
Thanks Adam. When you say night and day different, do you mean it is a much better inverter compared to the 6500ex?
Yes. The design, functionality and feature-set seem to be much better than that of the 6500ex. The only real downside I've seen in comparing two 6500EXs vs 2 6000XPs is that you have 1kW less of output potential on a pair of 6000XPs.
 

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