Advice for Signature Solar

[clintified]

I have spent tons of money with them over the last few years and have seen the support system crumble as they continue to grow. I have a 5000ES I've had issue with since about a week after I installed it. It took 3 weeks of back and forth with pics, info etc... before I finally made it to a "resolution specialist" who then basically told me there wasn't anything wrong with the unit. I've since had other issues with the same unit only to find myself having to go through the same time consuming ridiculousness I did before. I am so tired of this poor service from a company that I have poured so ,much of my hard earned money into. I only wish they would take your advice.

 

[Crowz]

Will's running a poll on SS opinions.

Poll: How was your experience with signature solar?

Cast your vote above ? you cannot see the results till you vote. One vote per individual.

diysolarforum.com

 

[franklinR]

Their batteries seem to be high quality, but every time I send them an email with 3 questions, they answer the first poorly and ignore the second and third.

Last week, I asked for a quote for a complete Victron system and they ignored it completely.... wtf?

They could at least set up a system where they text 10 minutes prior and call the customer back.

Seems SOK is the only way to go

 

[Texas-Mark]

I had way, way more clients to deal with than Signature Solar...

How do you know how many clients/sales they have?

I am not defending SS, but I have seen this same thing on other forums (gripes about certain companies). In those cases, the gripes were about companies I had done business with and had zero issues. Typically on hobby specific forums (i.e. car, gun, etc.) you will see a lot of griping about certain companies. However, IMO while some of the gripes may be valid, I believe it is just a small sample of that companies overall business. Usually the companies involved are high volume ones, so there are bound to be unhappy customers. And when the same bad experience story gets thrown all over the internet, and then repeated by others, it makes the issue look worse than it really is.

People don't typically join a forum just to praise a vendor, but come instead when they are having issues. Example: I have owned Nissan vehicles since they were called Datsun, and rarely had any issues. However, my last new truck had to go back to the dealership like 6 times for a code it kept throwing. Needless to say, I was not happy. I joined the Nissan forum to try and get some insight to the issue and also to vent some of my frustrations. Point being, my one time rant-a-thon on that forum does not really reflect the overall experience I have had with Nissan, nor does it in any way prove they are a bad company or have poor service. Note: They did fix the issue and it has been fine for the last 3 years. And yes, I would still buy another one despite being extremely aggravated over the problem.

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

Their batteries seem to be high quality, but every time I send them an email with 3 questions, they answer the first poorly and ignore the second and third.

Last week, I asked for a quote for a complete Victron system and they ignored it completely.... wtf?

They could at least set up a system where they text 10 minutes prior and call the customer back.

Seems SOK is the only way to go

Would you mind DMing me your email address? I'd like to run down why this got missed

 

[Zwy]

I did receive my replacement MPPT controller from Signature Solar. It took over 3 weeks to get the RMA but once I sent it back it was replaced quickly. Only had to wait for shipping.

You must be the exception because mine were received on Thursday, May 11 at 11:43 A.M. at Receiver according to UPS and have not heard a single thing from Signature Solar since May 2nd when I received the shipping email.

From May 1st email, "Once we receive the defective inverter, we will ship the replacement right away!"

I guess their definition of "right away" must be different than mine.............

 

[vriosiii]

SS received my broken 6500 on Monday and it's replacement was sent out on Wednesday, scheduled to arrive on Friday. Pretty good service so far.

 

[Zwy]

SS received my broken 6500 on Monday and it's replacement was sent out on Wednesday, scheduled to arrive on Friday. Pretty good service so far.

Makes my case even more intriguing.

I'm currently running on a pair of LV6548's with PV array at half power. I'm done collecting data for comparison from the LV6548's compared to the original 6500EX's and anxious to get replacemnt 6500EX's installed and collect data from those.

 

[Quattrohead]

Makes my case even more intriguing.

I'm currently running on a pair of LV6548's with PV array at half power. I'm done collecting data for comparison from the LV6548's compared to the original 6500EX's and anxious to get replacemnt 6500EX's installed and collect data from those.

You might be anxious too but apparently they are not LOL

 

[Zwy]

You might be anxious too but apparently they are not LOL

Have to start making it a "running joke".

Did get some scope videos of the LV6548's with PV today. Thinking of putting together a compilation of the whole series titled Former EG4 6500EX vs the MPP LV6548

then:

MPP Solar LV6548 vs the NEW and Possibly Improved EG4 6500EX

Missing one important part for the second video in the series.

They must have Markus in the back room testing every 6500EX with a scope trying to find units that don't have glitches in the waveform? LOL

Followed by James asking Markus, "You tested 500 units and can't find any that don't have glitches?"

 

[gsell]

Well, I was moaning and groaning on an earlier post about Signature Solar..... I ended up ordering a pallet of panels from them just due to the price (because I am a cheap B@#$$%d) and I cannot believe how fast they got to the house....... Well packaged and zero damage. I am thinking they are just overloaded and I was impatient ........ Going to order my inverter/inverters from them in the next couple of months.

 

[Bluedog225]

One for the win column.

They can ship a fragile pallet of affordable panels without breaking them.

As a fellow cheap bast@rd, I hope they get more wins.

Waiting for the 10% discount for diy solar power forum members flash sale.

 

[Markus_EG4]

Have to start making it a "running joke".

Did get some scope videos of the LV6548's with PV today. Thinking of putting together a compilation of the whole series titled Former EG4 6500EX vs the MPP LV6548

then:

MPP Solar LV6548 vs the NEW and Possibly Improved EG4 6500EX

Missing one important part for the second video in the series.

They must have Markus in the back room testing every 6500EX with a scope trying to find units that don't have glitches in the waveform? LOL

Followed by James asking Markus, "You tested 500 units and can't find any that don't have glitches?"

That’s funny

 

[42OhmsPA]

That’s funny

What's not funny is the fact he is still waiting for a replacement when another member has seen a turn around time of 5 days.
It's also discouraging his LV6548s are not creating any issues when no other changes were made to the existing wiring except reducing the PV input power to meet the MPP specs.
Could you elaborate on what the cause for this is?
I'm sure plenty of people are following this that are on the fence about purchasing from SS or going with another vendor, myself included.

 

[Markus_EG4]

What's not funny is the fact he is still waiting for a replacement when another member has seen a turn around time of 5 days.
It's also discouraging his LV6548s are not creating any issues when no other changes were made to the existing wiring except reducing the PV input power to meet the MPP specs.
Could you elaborate on what the cause for this is?
I'm sure plenty of people are following this that are on the fence about purchasing from SS or going with another vendor, myself included.

There was a software glitch that affected the hardware is what was found. Since the new firmware has been out this has seemed to fix the majority of problems and cleaned the sine wave up. I think we have been working really hard to resolve these issues. It’s not easy to get a fix for a problem the manufacture is unable to see. There have been many sleepless night for a bunch of us that are dealing with these problems personally with the manufacture. I hope this answers your question Sir.

 

[Zwy]

That’s funny

It was meant to be some ribbing, glad you found it funny.

I'm still waiting for your scope capture at the 2ms division and a single leg with sampling at 1Gs/s in, asked for here. I would like to compare to what I had for the 6500EX. I do have the LV6548 sine waveforms, if you dig around you can find it. The LV6548 scope waveforms are not as exciting as the 6500EX waveforms, it just shows a perfect sine without any glitches. Pretty boring to say the least. Only thing changed in the system was the inverters and I had to go to 4S to meet the inverter max VOC.

I'm sure you are well aware I will be testing any 6500EX replacements if they ever arrive here and posting results.

 

[Markus_EG4]

It was meant to be some ribbing, glad you found it funny.

I'm still waiting for your scope capture at the 2ms division and a single leg with sampling at 1Gs/s in, asked for here. I would like to compare to what I had for the 6500EX. I do have the LV6548 sine waveforms, if you dig around you can find it. The LV6548 scope waveforms are not as exciting as the 6500EX waveforms, it just shows a perfect sine without any glitches. Pretty boring to say the least. Only thing changed in the system was the inverters and I had to go to 4S to meet the inverter max VOC.

I'm sure you are well aware I will be testing any 6500EX replacements if they ever arrive here and posting results.

I know how to use a scope sir. I went to school and learned this. The oscilloscope I was using has a auto set function that will automatically calibrate its self according to the signal it senses to get the best measurement. You might be using one that doesn’t have these features and have to use yours different. But I did learn some other things from the video you shared last time.

 

[Zwy]

I know how to use a scope sir. I went to school and learned this. The oscilloscope I was using has a auto set function that will automatically calibrate its self according to the signal it senses to get the best measurement. You might be using one that doesn’t have these features and have to use yours different.

Auto set is for novices/beginners to get a waveform on the screen, it is up to the operator to then adjust the scope to get the needed data.

My scope has it. I can also tell you when using the auto trigger on the 6500EX, the trigger had to constantly adjust which leads to a waveform that is jumpy. If you look at my videos, you will see I had to manually adjust the trigger to get stability. Was not an issue on the LV6548, the auto trigger worked fine.

The reason why auto trigger would cause the trigger to be jumpy is due to the spikes at the midpoint switching on the 6500EX H bridge. Each time the spike would occur, it created either a falling/rising edge and this created a trigger point. The LV6548 does not have these spikes at the midpoint switching, thus the waveform is fine using auto trigger.

But I did learn some other things from the video you shared last time.

Once you learn how a scope operates and how to adjust it, then it becomes all a matter of practice. I've had plenty of practice, about 25 years experience using a scope. Play with the scope, it is when you find those glitches that makes it fun.

 

[Markus_EG4]

Auto set is for novices/beginners to get a waveform on the screen, it is up to the operator to then adjust the scope to get the needed data.

My scope has it. I can also tell you when using the auto trigger on the 6500EX, the trigger had to constantly adjust which leads to a waveform that is jumpy. If you look at my videos, you will see I had to manually adjust the trigger to get stability. Was not an issue on the LV6548, the auto trigger worked fine.

The reason why auto trigger would cause the trigger to be jumpy is due to the spikes at the midpoint switching on the 6500EX H bridge. Each time the spike would occur, it created either a falling/rising edge and this created a trigger point. The LV6548 does not have these spikes at the midpoint switching, thus the waveform is fine using auto trigger.


Once you learn how a scope operates and how to adjust it, then it becomes all a matter of practice. I've had plenty of practice, about 25 years experience using a scope. Play with the scope, it is when you find those glitches that makes it fun.

Thanks for the info. Appreciate it much. I will do some more learning on this. But we still made the proper adjustments after the auto trigger function to dial it in we just never messed with the other functions you brought up in previous conversation. We were able to find the glitches before by not doing this. I am understanding there is better information I can get from the scope and I will look into it for sure. Thank you very much for the clarification.

 

[Zwy]

What's not funny is the fact he is still waiting for a replacement when another member has seen a turn around time of 5 days.
It's also discouraging his LV6548s are not creating any issues when no other changes were made to the existing wiring except reducing the PV input power to meet the MPP specs.
Could you elaborate on what the cause for this is?
I'm sure plenty of people are following this that are on the fence about purchasing from SS or going with another vendor, myself included.

Currently considering leaving the LV6548's in place and adding a pair of high voltage SCC's and not using the SCC's in the LV6548's. I've tested the LV6548's and they have been flawless on the sine wave and no voltage fluctuations. The only problem is the 250VOC limit. I'm seeing some wattage loss with greater PV voltage drop due to the 420 feet distance from PV to inverters.

Have not heard anything from Signature Solar regarding the RMA. Units were at Signature Solar in the AM on the 11th.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

Currently considering leaving the LV6548's in place and adding a pair of high voltage SCC's and not using the SCC's in the LV6548's. I've tested the LV6548's and they have been flawless on the sine wave and no voltage fluctuations. The only problem is the 250VOC limit. I'm seeing some wattage loss with greater PV voltage drop due to the 420 feet distance from PV to inverters.

Have not heard anything from Signature Solar regarding the RMA. Units were at Signature Solar in the AM on the 11th.

I've encountered the same issue and I'm not running nearly that far, but I do have panels in series at 20a so I get some clipping. That said, I do still don't get as much voltage as I expected. The separate SCC's is an interesting idea. I'm not sure how you go about making that work but I'm pretty sure you do and I could learn from that.

I'm kicking around the idea of just riding what I have for another year then looking at the 18kvp as an upgrade. Two of them actually, is what I'm thinking. But that's down the road and this industry changes quickly so we'll see.

 

[Quattrohead]

You all need to get off your low horse and buy a Solark LOL

 

[Zwy]

I've encountered the same issue and I'm not running nearly that far, but I do have panels in series at 20a so I get some clipping. That said, I do still don't get as much voltage as I expected. The separate SCC's is an interesting idea. I'm not sure how you go about making that work but I'm pretty sure you do and I could learn from that.

Just use the LV6548's as inverters, just don't use them for charging. Similar to charging off grid and running the LV6548's as inverters.

The SCC's would put the power on the 48V DC bus and the inverters can pull off that.

I'm kicking around the idea of just riding what I have for another year then looking at the 18kvp as an upgrade. Two of them actually, is what I'm thinking. But that's down the road and this industry changes quickly so we'll see.

I have found the LV6548's sine to be perfect, unlike the 6500EX.

I do know of a member that lived close to SS and had the 6500EX's replaced just last week (drove there) and the strobe is much worse. His LCD TV has now died too.

Weighing options here, have not heard from SS and they seem to be dragging their feet. I started a thread about the https://signaturesolar.com/eg4-solar-charge-controller-mppt-500voc-100a-mppt100-48hv/ but watched the video on Youtube for this SCC and in the comments a person commented without battery communication the unit would shut down often.

Looking at something like this instead. https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Datasheet-SmartSolar-MPPT-RS-EN-.pdf

 

[Zwy]

You all need to get off your low horse and buy a Solark LOL

Tempting but the LV6548's work well other than not having the higher VOC rating. I'm not seeing the problems I saw with the 6500EX's and that includes fans that ran on high with moderate loads or full PV coming in.

Clean sine wave on output for the LV6548.

I have seen reports other than on here of Solark strobing lights, even Victron had that problem. I only need a higher VOC rated SCC and I'm good to go.

If it came down to it and SS does send replacements and they suffer the same issues as the ones I returned, I have a few options. One, sell the 6500EX's and buy higher VOC rated SCC's. Or two, use the 6500EX's as SCC's only and would be available if a LV6548 were to fail.

 

[Quattrohead]

I actually have some flickering light issues with a solark 12K but I suspect mainly due to builder grade cheap and nasty LEDs. I am running my sp6548 like you want to as my solark is doing all of the charging.
In your situation you need to crunch the numbers on running extra wires and splitting down your panels so that the lv6548 can handle them over the purchase cost of a high voltage mppt.