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diy solar

EG4 6500EX-48 Expansive lesson learned!

Sadow said:
i haven’t even looked into solark how do they compare reliability wise/issue wise and importantly can they do proper AC coupling along with frequency shifting to curtail the solar panels output during grid outage when I want to create my tiny isolated black start island ?.
edited to say: @Adam De Lay can you do a video on the sol ark honestly I prefer your videos over other people you do an actual honest videos and go into details others might not
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Appreciate that. I enjoy testing things, especially inverters. I would love to test the 18kPV, Sol-Ark, Schneider, etc but they all have the same problem...they're expensive (maybe I have the problem of no money...). No one wants to send me any to play with ?.
 
This is
Adam De Lay said:
Appreciate that. I enjoy testing things, especially inverters. I would love to test the 18kPV, Sol-Ark, Schneider, etc but they all have the same problem...they're expensive (maybe I have the problem of no money...). No one wants to send me any to play with ?.
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that is the boat I’m in right now money problem. I’m almost tempted to chance getting a Chinese brand inverter over these EG4 products at this point, they cost half of EG4 or sol ark quick googling shows sol ark 8K around same price as 18Kpv.
 
Sadow said:
This is

that is the boat I’m in right now money problem. I’m almost tempted to chance getting a Chinese brand inverter over these EG4 products at this point, they cost half of EG4 or sol ark quick googling shows sol ark 8K around same price as 18Kpv.
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This is more comparable to the 18Kpv, it has 12K continous output. https://watts247.com/product/sol-ark-sa-12k-pre-wired-hybrid-solar-inverter-system/

Another choice is the LV6548. I've noticed Ian must be closing out MPP as the warranty has changed. https://watts247.com/product/sol-ark-sa-12k-pre-wired-hybrid-solar-inverter-system/ I do not know if later versions had changes from the original designs. I had purchased my LV6548's before the 6500EX came out. Considering Ian must be dropping MPP Solar, it might be later versions did suffer from same issues as the 6500EX.

While I am happy with the LV6548's I have, if I was to start over, I'd seriously consider Sol Ark.
 
Sadow said:
Just tried is no change in voltage and also lights are still flickering. I turn one of them off the other stayed at 111v. What's weird is for now 2P2 is at 111 and 2P1 is at 119-120 but randomly they will swap low voltage output without any changes and it only happens when it’s battery fed. When they are in bypass mode no problems with voltage of flickering lights. Makes me really wonder if the transformer is the issue it’s not properly insulated.
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I don't know if it's the same thing in your case, but I saw the exact same issue (flickering and 120V/110V) w/ MPP 6548s.

Here's what I found: the dummy that hooked it up (me) didn't catch the distinction between split phase and parallel. For two units in split phase, the red and black pair of paralleling wires are NOT connected. ONLY the multi-pin communication cables should be connected. The parallel wires are to be used between units on the SAME phase.
 
istl said:
I don't know if it's the same thing in your case, but I saw the exact same issue (flickering and 120V/110V) w/ MPP 6548s.

Here's what I found: the dummy that hooked it up (me) didn't catch the distinction between split phase and parallel. For two units in split phase, the red and black pair of paralleling wires are NOT connected. ONLY the multi-pin communication cables should be connected. The parallel wires are to be used between units on the SAME phase.
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You sir are a TRUE genius!!!! that was it! I unhooked the paralleling cable and no more voltage fluctuations and the led lights arnt blinking either!! Oh man this saved me a lot of headaches and having to spend another 5k on another inverter!!!

Edit: I also was able to upgrade the MCU firmware one of the usb-Ethernet cable SS sent was bad but I had to reopen the PDP move the RS-485 to the 2P2 unit and now I do have option 42 available and in disabled condition N-G are bonded on battery power, once I switch to Grid they are not bonded I can confirm that I also checked amperage and voltage on N-G it is residual very minimal current .18A in N and .03A in G.
 
Sadow said:
You sir are a TRUE genius!!!! that was it! I unhooked the paralleling cable and no more voltage fluctuations and the led lights arnt blinking either!! Oh man this saved me a lot of headaches and having to spend another 5k on another inverter!!!
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You had the current sharing cable connected while running two 6500ex in splitphase?

Edit - "Current Sharing cables" not parallel
 
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Sadow said:
Yup I am a huge dummy!! I just saw the photo on the manual and connected it without thinking I’m running single phase 240 and NOT single phase 120 sharing current mode.
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See edit above.

Current Sharing or Parallel cables?

Screenshot_20230914_124914_Acrobat for Samsung.jpg
 
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Yeah it's not confusing at all is it? Parallel cables used for communication between inverters and current sharing cables are only used between parallel connections...

Grey (parallel) cables are always used when you have more than 1 inverter. Red/black (current sharing) are only used when paralleling inverters to increase 120v single phase capacity.

@Sadow you're lucky. There's a warning in the manual that connecting the current sharing cables can actually damage the inverter when they're connected and shouldn't be.
 
Zapper77 said:
See edit above.

Current Sharing or Parallel cables?
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The black and red twisted pair din rail green plug cable the com gray serial are still connected. I will do a through test once sun goes down to see if truly the LED have Indeed stopped flickering. Only cables I have connect are two serial gray com cables and one Ethernet to Battery and one Ethernet - USB to 2P1 hanging in clear waiting for solar assistant to show up so I can connect it without having to take screws off of the PDP.
 
Sadow said:
You sir are a TRUE genius!!!! that was it! I unhooked the paralleling cable and no more voltage fluctuations and the led lights arnt blinking either!! Oh man this saved me a lot of headaches and having to spend another 5k on another inverter!!!
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Nope, just a voice of experience from making mistakes!
 
Adam De Lay said:
Yeah it's not confusing at all is it? Parallel cables used for communication between inverters and current sharing cables are only used between parallel connections...

Grey (parallel) cables are always used when you have more than 1 inverter. Red/black (current sharing) are only used when paralleling inverters to increase 120v single phase capacity.

@Sadow you're lucky. There's a warning in the manual that connecting the current sharing cables can actually damage the inverter when they're connected and shouldn't be.
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I guess I skimmed passed that warning ?. It would have damaged it had it pushed lots of load through the inverters luckily it was minimal light and fan load I think that’s how I got lucky. It would had created circulating current between the inverters and probably fried the component.
 
Wow that is great news if indeed that has cured your voltage fluctuations. I wonder how many other people are suffering with this?
 
Quattrohead said:
Wow that is great news if indeed that has cured your voltage fluctuations. I wonder how many other people are suffering with this?
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Indeed, I can defiantly can say I was one of the dummies to not have read the manual thoroughly and just skimmed it.
Adam De Lay said:
Right. Now I wish I would have asked for pictures earlier. Might have saved us all some back and forth...
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hahah! probably wouldn’t have been a bad idea. Thank you everyone, I’m sorry to have wasted everyone’s time over my oversight!.
 
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