EG4 18kPV Q+A general thread

[timselectric]

"18kpv"

 

[Watts Happening]

Update: Installed inverter last week and hit a dead end with user registration. Gilbert reached out to me with what appears to be an incorrect registration code. Then Travis from Signature Solar messaged with another code and asked for my contact info, to which I immediately responded. Within an hour I received an email from Sean:



To which I quickly responded minutes later with all pertinent information.

And here we are Monday and I've heard absolutely nothing back from anyone.

I'm REALLY trying to remain positive, and not bash anyone here, but seriously guys, this is testing my limits quickly. Spending many thousands of dollars on a piece of equipment to then have zero ability to use it with something as basic as user registration. Then to be told "they will do it for me", which absolutely should not be required in any way, and to not hear back for days on end to the point that I use a forum to hopefully get a response??

I've literally had MORE communication from members reaching out to me via private messages than I have from the company, I'm really beginning to feel like taking a chance and saving a bit of money on the EG4 was a mistake over a Sol-Ark at this point. Saving money sounds great, but at some point you have to question these things.

 

[Markus_EG4]

Update: Installed inverter last week and hit a dead end with user registration. Gilbert reached out to me with what appears to be an incorrect registration code. Then Travis from Signature Solar messaged with another code and asked for my contact info, to which I immediately responded. Within an hour I received an email from Sean:

View attachment 159142

To which I quickly responded minutes later with all pertinent information.

And here we are Monday and I've heard absolutely nothing back from anyone.

I'm REALLY trying to remain positive, and not bash anyone here, but seriously guys, this is testing my limits quickly. Spending many thousands of dollars on a piece of equipment to then have zero ability to use it with something as basic as user registration. Then to be told "they will do it for me", which absolutely should not be required in any way, and to not hear back for days on end to the point that I use a forum to hopefully get a response??

I've literally had MORE communication from members reaching out to me via private messages than I have from the company, I'm really beginning to feel like taking a chance and saving a bit of money on the EG4 was a mistake over a Sol-Ark at this point. Saving money sounds great, but at some point you have to question these things.

Let me know and I can help you. Send me a personal message please

 

[Gavin Stone]

Update: Installed inverter last week and hit a dead end with user registration. Gilbert reached out to me with what appears to be an incorrect registration code. Then Travis from Signature Solar messaged with another code and asked for my contact info, to which I immediately responded. Within an hour I received an email from Sean:

View attachment 159142

To which I quickly responded minutes later with all pertinent information.

And here we are Monday and I've heard absolutely nothing back from anyone.

I'm REALLY trying to remain positive, and not bash anyone here, but seriously guys, this is testing my limits quickly. Spending many thousands of dollars on a piece of equipment to then have zero ability to use it with something as basic as user registration. Then to be told "they will do it for me", which absolutely should not be required in any way, and to not hear back for days on end to the point that I use a forum to hopefully get a response??

I've literally had MORE communication from members reaching out to me via private messages than I have from the company, I'm really beginning to feel like taking a chance and saving a bit of money on the EG4 was a mistake over a Sol-Ark at this point. Saving money sounds great, but at some point you have to question these things.

Might be an issue with the dongle itself. That sounds odd though. I think you should definitely be able to do everything yourself. They gave me the registration code “signature”.

Is the inverter itself not working? You mentioned not being able to use it.

 

[timselectric]

Being a beta tester, is no walk in the park.

 

[Markus_EG4]

Update: Installed inverter last week and hit a dead end with user registration. Gilbert reached out to me with what appears to be an incorrect registration code. Then Travis from Signature Solar messaged with another code and asked for my contact info, to which I immediately responded. Within an hour I received an email from Sean:

View attachment 159142

To which I quickly responded minutes later with all pertinent information.

And here we are Monday and I've heard absolutely nothing back from anyone.

I'm REALLY trying to remain positive, and not bash anyone here, but seriously guys, this is testing my limits quickly. Spending many thousands of dollars on a piece of equipment to then have zero ability to use it with something as basic as user registration. Then to be told "they will do it for me", which absolutely should not be required in any way, and to not hear back for days on end to the point that I use a forum to hopefully get a response??

I've literally had MORE communication from members reaching out to me via private messages than I have from the company, I'm really beginning to feel like taking a chance and saving a bit of money on the EG4 was a mistake over a Sol-Ark at this point. Saving money sounds great, but at some point you have to question these things.

I hope you are taken care of now. Let me know if you have further issues or questions

 

[ksmithaz1]

I asked this once before, but I'm circling back on it. I'm on a transfer switch, and my HVAC sometimes does not like the phase shift if it's running when the transfer occurs. Is there a relatively simple way to synchronize the inverter with the grid, without tying it? The inverter probably uses a sense line with a PLL to get in sync. It would seem relatively simple to tap the grid ac with a 100K resistor or something and tie it into the sense line that taps off the grid input. The other option is to use the dry contact when the inverter goes down to shut down the A/C for 30 seconds or something.

 

[Markus_EG4]

I asked this once before, but I'm circling back on it. I'm on a transfer switch, and my HVAC sometimes does not like the phase shift if it's running when the transfer occurs. Is there a relatively simple way to synchronize the inverter with the grid, without tying it? The inverter probably uses a sense line with a PLL to get in sync. It would seem relatively simple to tap the grid ac with a 100K resistor or something and tie it into the sense line that taps off the grid input. The other option is to use the dry contact when the inverter goes down to shut down the A/C for 30 seconds or something.

What if you use the smart load option for your hvac

 

[Watts Happening]

I hope you are taken care of now. Let me know if you have further issues or questions

Making progress. From my perspective it appears the WiFi dongle was not correctly registered on the back end, whether that be Luxpower or EG4/SS somehow not having it set up on their server, it wouldn't register until it was manually done on the back end. I saw a "dongle not registered" error when attempting registration. If I changed the last digit of my dongle, it would disappear and tell me I had the wrong PIN code (as you'd expect).

Sean helped get the basics going, I asked him to ensure ZERO backfeed to the grid, but last night it certainly backed the grid. We'll see what my power company says about that. I can tell both from graphs and from waking up to a partially drained battery that has no loads connected.

Gilbert is doing what he can to help, so I'm sincerely hoping that does not happen again or it defeats the main purpose of my installation. I really hope to find confidence in these things.

Additionally, Gilbert told me to reach out to you (Signature Solar or EG4) in regards to enabling a deeper level of menu options for me. It's a real struggle to set up, understand and maintain a system when I have what appears to be a very handicapped version of the settings. I'd really appreciate having full access to everything. As a system administrator and contractor in the tech space, it's something that I'm quite used to and feel is necessary to attain reliability. It was quite clear when Sean was working on the system that we had very different web interface options.

What if you use the smart load option for your hvac

I too may consider something like this with a charger for my Tesla, I'm not sure "exactly" how to configure that to not make the electronics mad with constant "on/off" scenarios, it may or may not be a good idea. Maybe something more simple makes sense, as most would refer to a water heater or something like that. Unfortunately I have an on demand gas water heater so I'm trying to think creatively.


I appreciate hearing back and look forward to getting this thing online and going reliably.

 

[Zapper77]

Additionally, Gilbert told me to reach out to you (Signature Solar or EG4) in regards to enabling a deeper level of menu options for me.

It was quite clear when Sean was working on the system that we had very different web interface options.


I too may consider something like this with a charger for my Tesla, I'm not sure "exactly" how to configure that to not make the electronics mad with constant "on/off" scenarios, it may or may not be a good idea. Maybe something more simple makes sense, as most would refer to a water heater or something like that. .

Full access to all the settings would be nice.

I'm thinking about using the smart load for a water heater. I would be concerned about off and on power cycling but you could set the criteria low enough to avoid that. I would only do that if I had a decent sized battery bank.

 

[rhino]

Additionally, Gilbert told me to reach out to you (Signature Solar or EG4) in regards to enabling a deeper level of menu options for me. It's a real struggle to set up, understand and maintain a system when I have what appears to be a very handicapped version of the settings. I'd really appreciate having full access to everything. As a system administrator and contractor in the tech space, it's something that I'm quite used to and feel is necessary to attain reliability. It was quite clear when Sean was working on the system that we had very different web interface options.

Can others just request this? This will annoy the crap out of me. I understand wanting to prevent people who don't know what they are doing messing things up but to be entirely locked out of actually configuring your system and relying on someone else to do it is a big red flag for users who at least have some sense of knowing what is what.

 

[Watts Happening]

Can others just request this? This will annoy the crap out of me. I understand wanting to prevent people who don't know what they are doing messing things up but to be entirely locked out of actually configuring your system and relying on someone else to do it is a big red flag for users who at least have some sense of knowing what is what.

I couldn’t agree more. “At your own risk” is fine by me

 

[sburcham]

I was really tempted to take advantage of the credit available I have the quote from SS looking at me but these issues still make me apprehensive to jump. My 6500's for all intents and purposes work despite an occasional flicker that I almost don't notice anymore ( still on original firmware also). Just don't know at a discount if its still worth it.

 

[Watts Happening]

I was really tempted to take advantage of the credit available I have the quote from SS looking at me but these issues still make me apprehensive to jump. My 6500's for all intents and purposes work despite an occasional flicker that I almost don't notice anymore ( still on original firmware also). Just don't know at a discount if its still worth it.

I’ll let you know in the coming days. I was in the same situation, with even better pricing available than most for a Sol-Ark.

Hoping to see the kinks work out QUICK. Full access to settings is key. I don’t want a product I’m locked out of, which certainly wasn’t how it was marketed.

 

[Markus_EG4]

Making progress. From my perspective it appears the WiFi dongle was not correctly registered on the back end, whether that be Luxpower or EG4/SS somehow not having it set up on their server, it wouldn't register until it was manually done on the back end. I saw a "dongle not registered" error when attempting registration. If I changed the last digit of my dongle, it would disappear and tell me I had the wrong PIN code (as you'd expect).

Sean helped get the basics going, I asked him to ensure ZERO backfeed to the grid, but last night it certainly backed the grid. We'll see what my power company says about that. I can tell both from graphs and from waking up to a partially drained battery that has no loads connected.

Gilbert is doing what he can to help, so I'm sincerely hoping that does not happen again or it defeats the main purpose of my installation. I really hope to find confidence in these things.

Additionally, Gilbert told me to reach out to you (Signature Solar or EG4) in regards to enabling a deeper level of menu options for me. It's a real struggle to set up, understand and maintain a system when I have what appears to be a very handicapped version of the settings. I'd really appreciate having full access to everything. As a system administrator and contractor in the tech space, it's something that I'm quite used to and feel is necessary to attain reliability. It was quite clear when Sean was working on the system that we had very different web interface options.


I too may consider something like this with a charger for my Tesla, I'm not sure "exactly" how to configure that to not make the electronics mad with constant "on/off" scenarios, it may or may not be a good idea. Maybe something more simple makes sense, as most would refer to a water heater or something like that. Unfortunately I have an on demand gas water heater so I'm trying to think creatively.


I appreciate hearing back and look forward to getting this thing online and going reliably.

You have all the settings you need access to on your screen the display of the inverter. The rest of the settings you don't have access to are not meant for the consumer. you could set your inverter up completely without anyone remoting in with the settings you have available on your inverter display. The password is 00000 when you are asked for this.

Here is a settings guide that is being added to the manual currently.

 

[Watts Happening]

You have all the settings you need access to on your screen the display of the inverter. The rest of the settings you don't have access to are not meant for the consumer. you could set your inverter up completely without anyone remoting in with the settings you have available on your inverter display. The password is 00000 when you are asked for this.

Here is a settings guide that is being added to the manual currently.

I understand and appreciate that, but is there a logical reason we wouldn’t have access to everything via the web interface?

If we ultimately “can do whatever we want” at the inverter, why limit it via the web? I can’t be the only one who doesn’t want to do it all via a 3” screen, right?

I’m merely trying to understand. I would think this is a very sought after feature by nearly all forum members, I can’t speak to those outside the forum but it sure seems like a reasonable request. I can’t imagine it’s more than changing user level access on the back end, the same as you’d expect with any computer/Wordpress site/network installation.

 

[G00SE]

I’m somewhat curious if the change/direction of the remoting in for assistance is partially in effort to decrease user error/dissatisfaction rates.
It seems many failures in other inverters on the eg4 site can be attributed to user error.
There’s a handful in here that consistently praise a competing company’s methods of tech support. It would almost make sense for this new direction, despite frustration it also causes by other users

 

[Markus_EG4]

I understand and appreciate that, but is there a logical reason we wouldn’t have access to everything via the web interface?

If we ultimately “can do whatever we want” at the inverter, why limit it via the web? I can’t be the only one who doesn’t want to do it all via a 3” screen, right?

I’m merely trying to understand. I would think this is a very sought after feature by nearly all forum members, I can’t speak to those outside the forum but it sure seems like a reasonable request. I can’t imagine it’s more than changing user level access on the back end, the same as you’d expect with any computer/Wordpress site/network installation.

A lot of these settings that you don't have on the app are advanced settings you can either only set while you are in standby or while the inverter is not running so you don't cause any issues. We are talking in house and also with installers on added certain settings for the end user don't get me wrong but there is no way to add all of them to the app or web monitoring system.

We are looking for feedback on what customers would like to have access to so is Luxpower.

Thank you

 

[Quattrohead]

For example you can only change the battery type from the on unit display and not remotely, it's 100 freaking degrees in my garage. And every time you change the battery type and hit OK the inverter resets itself, that is superbly annoying.

 

[Markus_EG4]

For example you can only change the battery type from the on unit display and not remotely, it's 100 freaking degrees in my garage. And every time you change the battery type and hit OK the inverter resets itself, that is superbly annoying.

That's a advanced setting the inverter has to be in standby for to set. If we do it remotely we have to put the inverter in standby.

 

[rhino]

A lot of these settings that you don't have on the app are advanced settings you can either only set while you are in standby or while the inverter i not running so you don't cause any issues. We are talking in house and also with installers on added certain settings for the end user don't get me wrong but there is no way to add all of them to the app.

Okay.. just to clarify, there is another interface for connecting to the device ( I assume a web based interface) that end-users do not have access to but does have all the settings available. I would understand it being difficult to pile everything into a mobile app.

 

[Zapper77]

I understand and appreciate that, but is there a logical reason we wouldn’t have access to everything via the web interface?

If we ultimately “can do whatever we want” at the inverter, why limit it via the web? I can’t be the only one who doesn’t want to do it all via a 3” screen, right?

I’m merely trying to understand. I would think this is a very sought after feature by nearly all forum members, I can’t speak to those outside the forum but it sure seems like a reasonable request. I can’t imagine it’s more than changing user level access on the back end, the same as you’d expect with any computer/Wordpress site/network installation.

Have you tried connecting directly to the dongle Hotspot and changing the settings that way? When connected directly to the dongle you have additional settings.

 

[Zapper77]

For example you can only change the battery type from the on unit display and not remotely, it's 100 freaking degrees in my garage. And every time you change the battery type and hit OK the inverter resets itself, that is superbly annoying.

How many time do you need to change the battery type? I hope only once.

 

[Watts Happening]

That's an advanced setting the inverter has to be in standby for to set. If we do it remotely we have to put the inverter in standby.

I’d like to clarify:

I don’t particularly care how deep the level of settings is via the app. I appreciate having an app, and it’s much better than having to be at the inverter, but, I’ll be making my “big changes” via the web interface.

I see no reason from a technological perspective that an end user such as myself, couldn’t look at the EXACT same screen as your technicians. Thus eliminating any further development or changes required on your end.

For example, the in house level 1 technician that helped me named Sean clearly had elevated permissions in comparison to me. Someone had to set him up as a user and select his user role. I imagine the “head honcho” over at Signature Solar would be “admin”. That person would grant your technicians a “level 1”, “level 2” or “level 3” permission set, each of which has different levels of access (maybe they’re all the same, I’m making assumptions).

When an end user such as myself registers, or in my case when my account is registered by you guys, clearly I have an “end user” version of access with many things missing.

Here’s the simple solution for everyone involved. On a “request” basis, simply elevate our access level to a higher level enabling the same access as the technicians.

If there are permissions that you feel could legitimately cause a problem, just copy that user permission set from “level 1 technician” to a new role called “advanced homeowner”, then disable whatever we shouldn’t have. You now have a simple solution that can be applied to anyone that requests it.

I imagine this would be a 5 minute process to set up, probably easier than me explaining it on an iPhone in a Costco parking lot. I also expect it would cut down on your customer service workload.

As an additional idea: create preconfigured firmware/settings packages that people can install. IE the “I don’t want to back feed the grid” firmware.

I haven’t got to the point of looking to see if system backups are possible either, but absolutely would be something I’d expect to be a big part of this. Any electronics without a backup are a nightmare waiting to happen.

 

[Markus_EG4]

Okay.. just to clarify, there is another interface for connecting to the device ( I assume a web based interface) that end-users do not have access to but does have all the settings available. I would understand it being difficult to pile everything into a mobile app.

Please post what settings you would like to have access to that you would have with other inverter as a end user. We are looking for feedback on this 100%