Eg 6500's shutting down again

[kurts]

I bought my system 10 months ago, since then both inverters were replaced since they stopped working after 2 months. The new inverters did not work so they sent me new display units which worked but I had to move out of my house for 6 weeks waiting for parts. Had a friend update firmware for the flickering lights but she moved to Europe. Now the inverters are turning off and on again, 4 times in the last 3 days. I am off grid and can not have this issue. I only have Apple computers so I can not update firmware. Anyone else having this issue? I am not willing to buy a new computer and try to learn how to use it. Firmware should be done over the internet and I do not have $4000 more to upgrade to the 18k after just spending $20,000 for this system. Very frustrated.

 

[Quattrohead]

Go over the basics first, check all connections and look in the history of the inverter and the BMS to see if there are any clues there. Is there any particular situation where the inverters turn off, low battery, full battery, just when the sun comes up etc
Are the inverters wired for split phase, is there any battery communications.

 

[Adam De Lay]

I agree with @Quattrohead.

Do you happen to know the firmware version you're currently on? It is possible to upgrade the firmware using a mac.

 

[Dinobot248]

Updating the firmware is the default answer to keep you busy and occupied and off their backs.


Realize that the firmware you currently have was once the most current firmware and it was working at some level of functionality.


Prepare to spend many hours working through your issues


My approach is to simplify your setup to minimize unknown variables.

Not sure what you have, but sounds like you have two inverters probably in split phase. If you spend 29k, you probably have a battery bank of 6 batteries.

Get at least one inverter somewhat stable in single phase 120v so you can have a baseline and some electricity. Use only one battery while trouble shoot and more when it is stable.

Then, on that second inverter, try to get that working as well in a similar fashion.






I would recommend setting the battery to USE (user defined) and go change 22, 26, 27 (IIRC) to their defaults. It's counter intuitive but you do have to go manually change the settings to their default. It will take two iterations as some settings won't depend on other settings. THIS REALLY HELPED ME.




Can you explain the shut offs. Is the duration 10 minutes, 1 minute, 1 second? Hear anything, see anything, smell anything?


My random shutdowns were in the 1 second range about 10 to 20 times a day. Still working through the issue but it is much more stable now with the battery setting = USE.

 

[kurts]

My system seems to work fine normally with no smells or faults, the last three days it shut down during the morning but today it shut down twice with once being at 4:43 in the afternoon. I sent all the pictures to Signature and waiting to hear back. After my first inverters fried they replaced them (after moving out of my house for 6 weeks) and then it worked for a couple of months then the blinking lights issue followed by my system shutting down for a second and rebooting like it is now. I paid someone to update the firmware over the summer but she now lives in Europe.

It's worked since early summer but now it has shut down 5 times in 3 days. By the time I get to the system there are no faults showing. Batteries were fully charged the last time it shut down. I live off grid and can no longer have my firmware go bad, one would think that once firmware is updated it would stay working. Has the 18k been more reliable? I see posts where people have to update firmware on the EG4 battlers to make it work. I just need a system that works. My outback inverter has ran non stop on the beach in Mexico since 2007 and my Outback inverter at my cabin has been running non stop for 7 years.

I need split phase to run my house here in Phoenix. The outage is random so I can't just run one inverter or my homes A/C will not work, most appliances are 220v. My guess is there is clearly an issue with the 6500 which is why they offered to trade up to the 18k unit which voided the 6500 warranty. I paid 20k for this and had hoped to get more than 7 months of use out of it...

 

[Samsonite801]

My system seems to work fine normally with no smells or faults, the last three days it shut down during the morning but today it shut down twice with once being at 4:43 in the afternoon. I sent all the pictures to Signature and waiting to hear back. After my first inverters fried they replaced them (after moving out of my house for 6 weeks) and then it worked for a couple of months then the blinking lights issue followed by my system shutting down for a second and rebooting like it is now. I paid someone to update the firmware over the summer but she now lives in Europe.

It's worked since early summer but now it has shut down 5 times in 3 days. By the time I get to the system there are no faults showing. Batteries were fully charged the last time it shut down. I live off grid and can no longer have my firmware go bad, one would think that once firmware is updated it would stay working. Has the 18k been more reliable? I see posts where people have to update firmware on the EG4 battlers to make it work. I just need a system that works. My outback inverter has ran non stop on the beach in Mexico since 2007 and my Outback inverter at my cabin has been running non stop for 7 years.

I need split phase to run my house here in Phoenix. The outage is random so I can't just run one inverter or my homes A/C will not work, most appliances are 220v. My guess is there is clearly an issue with the 6500 which is why they offered to trade up to the 18k unit which voided the 6500 warranty. I paid 20k for this and had hoped to get more than 7 months of use out of it...

There is a setting (I can't remember if it is only one or more than one for different conditions possible), but a setting for when inverter shuts down, will it wait in fault state until user resets it, or will it auto-reset without user intervention.

Just curious what that setting is set to. And you also mentioned no alarms are present. I think there might also be a setting in there somewhere to enable logging (set up wifi and connect the inverters to Watchpower software)...

With logging, I would wonder if there are any messages that could give any clues, since you say that no alarms (faults) are present when you see the display after one of these shutdowns.

Also, could it be switching from grid bypass to inverter and back or something, because of dirty power or something? What is your power order priority set to, like USB, SUB, or SBU?

Also, read the manual sections on the settings to see about the above questions relating to auto-recover after fault, I know I thought I saw them there on my friend's inverters, and the one about to enable logging. I don't know if the logging was only for logging solar activity, or if it had to do with event logging too or anything. I don't have time to check the manual myself right now since I need to go to bed now...

Also, do you know if both inverters are shutting down or only one?

And what versions of firmware are you on (seen on one of the screens in the display)...

Might say something like:
79
61

...or something to that effect.

 

[Dinobot248]

A couple of comments in no specific order

Good luck with signature solar support. Response time can range from 2 weeks to 999 years.

Stay away from the 18kpv. Not worth it throw money away TWICE. Many issues with the 6500 and at the end of the day, the seller is responsible. There are no excuses.

One reasonable option is to walk away and call it a $2600 loss for the two 6500s. Many don't tell you that is part of the reality of buying lower tier products. Save your time and frustration, and don't look back.

Another option that appears reasonable but will inevitably be unreasonable, is to work with what you have, troubleshoot it, diligent person and even fight back. In the end, you may end up spending 50, 100, or more hours and endure considerable frustration / stress. You will need to decide what it is worth.

 

[Dinobot248]

Also, when you link inverters together in parallel or split phase, when one inverter goes down, the system go down.

In other words, your system has more points of failure.

 

[Samsonite801]

Also, when you link inverters together in parallel or split phase, when one inverter goes down, the system go down.

In other words, your system has more points of failure.

Hold on, before you go trying to scare this dude, please allow me to say a couple things here.

My direct neighbor who has two of these 6500EX has had a few issues, but at the end of the day we got all the issues resolved and he really likes these 6500EX's still, even after all the bit of drama (the part about: 'you may end up spending 50, 100, or more hours and endure considerable frustration / stress') trying to get them all updated, configured properly, etc. In a weird and twisted sort of way, it was kind of fun to get through all that, he learned a lot about his system, and so did I.

The second thing I'll mention, is that recently he had an issue with the F90 error problem (turned out to be more of a Voltronic/Axpert issue, not so much EG4 issue), affecting only one inverter, but he was very happy to have two inverters there, because all we had to do in the meantime, was to set the working inverter back to SiG mode in the settings, and the one good inverter worked to provide 120v for a couple days until we were able to fix the error on the broken one.

Show me a single inverter that can still provide you with at least some power when there is an inverter failure.

Especially if one were to stack 4 of these 6500EX together, you could lose 1 or 2 and still have 2 more left over and still have 240/120v available (which is the way I'm setting up my four LV6548s, in a series/parallel stacking configuration).

And at the end of the day, don't forget to also have your generator wired in too, in case everything becomes dead in the water (so you have more points of success).

But the stacking rule also works for even the split-phase-in-a-single-inverter environment. Can stack 2 of the 18kpv, or 6000EX or any brand really, and if one fails, just change the settings to make it run single again (which allows 240/120v, only the loss in current handling), it is still better than having only a single inverter in your system, which has absolutely zero redundancy..

 

[DIYPV]

My system seems to work fine normally with no smells or faults, the last three days it shut down during the morning but today it shut down twice with once being at 4:43 in the afternoon. I sent all the pictures to Signature and waiting to hear back. After my first inverters fried they replaced them (after moving out of my house for 6 weeks) and then it worked for a couple of months then the blinking lights issue followed by my system shutting down for a second and rebooting like it is now. I paid someone to update the firmware over the summer but she now lives in Europe.

It's worked since early summer but now it has shut down 5 times in 3 days. By the time I get to the system there are no faults showing. Batteries were fully charged the last time it shut down. I live off grid and can no longer have my firmware go bad, one would think that once firmware is updated it would stay working. Has the 18k been more reliable? I see posts where people have to update firmware on the EG4 battlers to make it work. I just need a system that works. My outback inverter has ran non stop on the beach in Mexico since 2007 and my Outback inverter at my cabin has been running non stop for 7 years.

I need split phase to run my house here in Phoenix. The outage is random so I can't just run one inverter or my homes A/C will not work, most appliances are 220v. My guess is there is clearly an issue with the 6500 which is why they offered to trade up to the 18k unit which voided the 6500 warranty. I paid 20k for this and had hoped to get more than 7 months of use out of it...

You probably should provide specific figures if so people can help troubleshoot.

How many watts from the array around “4:43” or other times when it shuts down? How much load on the system? What’s the charge current at time of error? Do you have an logs from solar assistant or similar software?

 

[kurts]

I do not have solar assist because I have read it's not good to work with. And I am aware of SS customer service, I had to move out of my home for 6 weeks when my first inverters went down.... When it shut down in the morning I was getting around 6000 watts from 4 strings and no string was over 400v. At 4:43 I did not check but only one string gets sun and it's minimal at that time of day. I rarely use over 10% of my inverters, only two 3/4 ton mini splits, fridge, and a heat pump water heater. I fully believe its the firmware causing this like it did over the summer, same shutting down and powering up. One would think that once firmware is updated it would continue to work but they must have glitched or something? I do not have a PC and will not be buying one to keep these inverters running. I have 4 homes with solar and this is the only one I have ever had to work on after I installed the systems (one is grid tie). What other inverters are recommended? I went this route due to the all in one features and being able to connect so many panels with ease. Will Prowse was highly recommending the EG4 so I took a chance. I was hoping the 18k was the way to go!

 

[Samsonite801]

I do not have solar assist because I have read it's not good to work with. And I am aware of SS customer service, I had to move out of my home for 6 weeks when my first inverters went down.... When it shut down in the morning I was getting around 6000 watts from 4 strings and no string was over 400v. At 4:43 I did not check but only one string gets sun and it's minimal at that time of day. I rarely use over 10% of my inverters, only two 3/4 ton mini splits, fridge, and a heat pump water heater. I fully believe its the firmware causing this like it did over the summer, same shutting down and powering up. One would think that once firmware is updated it would continue to work but they must have glitched or something? I do not have a PC and will not be buying one to keep these inverters running. I have 4 homes with solar and this is the only one I have ever had to work on after I installed the systems (one is grid tie). What other inverters are recommended? I went this route due to the all in one features and being able to connect so many panels with ease. Will Prowse was highly recommending the EG4 so I took a chance. I was hoping the 18k was the way to go!

At times, I had some curiosity in trying out the Schneider XW Pro's (a pair of them), as they seem super robust (based on reviews, no personal experience with them). Unfortunately I already purchased my MPP Solar a couple years ago, so will wait until next decade or something. I think they do require separate solar charge controllers.

The Victron Quattros were another option I kind of liked to entertain to some extent (a neighbor has a pair of these), they do also require separate solar charge controllers though..

 

[Dinobot248]

To the Op, you have a couple bad options ahead. It's good to know what you are up against.

Pay with time (try to fix it) or pay with money (buy new equipment) or some combination.

We on this forum can only provide a small amount of well intentioned support. Response times are relatively good compared to other places.

You seem to be aware of SS support options so no need to go there.

Higher tier equipment like a victron 10kw setup start at $6500 through current connected. I think the Quattros kit start at $8k. It's missing a SCC but you may be able to salvage a 6500 and use it as a SCC.


In regards to fault codes, you can view them using the Watch Power app. It can be difficult to get the app working. Took me a few hours to finally come to a solution with direct help from the forum here and rig up an old router that would work with the inverter and app. If you ever get this far, Go to the top right corner in the app, click on the bell.


A new cheap Windows laptop cost $500, around $300 if you catch it on sale or live near a microcenter.

Good luck!

 

[#40Fan]

Some Win laptops on Amazon right now for under $200.

 

[kurts]

Thanks everyone, after watching Will Prowse gush over the 18k I thought that was where I was going. That's why I am on here to find real world reviews of inverters. I am an Apple guy and have zero desire to spend my time "fixing" inferior equipment every few months. My brother bought the same system the same day as me and has had zero issues with his EG4, we installed them together. Ben from SS mentioned earlier in the year that they had and issue with the manufacturer and sent someone to Taiwan I think to straighten it out. Wonder if I got the bad version, again. I am leaning toward going with Current Connected as I hear good things about them. I need to figure this out as I am going to be buying an even bigger system for my cabin next spring. Thanks again.

On a good note, after turning off 5 times in 3 days it did not power off today. Yet...