EG4-6500EX Multiple Problems Unable to reach Signature Solar for Support for over 6 weeks

[TurbineTester]

Well still getting a constant error and loud alarm "61" on the 2p2 inverter. @BenFromSignatureSolar Shouldn't these two inverters communicate with each other so that if the batteries are connected to 2p1, then 2p2 will get the same information and not alarm all the time?

 

[PreppenWolf]

Are you trying to parallel or 120/240 spilt phase them?

If split phase, do you have 2P2 set to 180°?

 

[TurbineTester]

Are you trying to parallel or 120/240 spilt phase them?

If split phase, do you have 2P2 set to 180°?

They are set to split phase, 180

 

[TurbineTester]

Still getting wild voltage fluctuations after the firmware update. See picture but the range is from 107v-133v.

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

Still getting wild voltage fluctuations after the firmware update. See picture but the range is from 107v-133v.

Could you dm me your info? This is a bit strange and I would like to get uppity in touch with our tech team to work through this.

 

[Robert Simpson]

I have been trying to reach tech support for almost 6 weeks, using various contact methods. First issue, my inverters are outputting fluctuating voltages rangine from 105-133 v causing lights to flicker and other wierd things. Second, i think one of my inverters may have a faulty MPPT as it is not shoing up in solar assistant when monitoring. I have solar assistant data for about 5 days showing what i am talking about. It's been very difficult and extremely frustrating trying to reach someone there for technical support with these inverters. I have filled otu two "contact us" forms, two+ weeks ago and today. I have called multiple times and been on hold for over an hour with no answer on the tech support line. I have attempted multiple times to "keep my place in the que and receive a call back" and that hasn't worked, as the call either disconnects before confirming my number or i don't get a call back. I try to answer any calls that appear to come from a 903 area code, but other calls may go to voicemail as i get MANY spam calls each day, but if they are calling and not reaching me i would expect them to at least leave a voicemail. I have not received any voicemails from Signature Solar. I received one email from a person named Travis at Signature Solar on the 4th November about the error 61 battery communication problem on my inverter and his suggested fixes didn't work. When i emailed him back stating such i never got a reply. Then i tried to also get his support through email for the output voltage problem. I have not received resolution to any of these issues and have not received any email reply from Travis since his initial email on November 4, despite emailing him back TWICE trying to get help. I have also called the sales line, spoke with a very nice lady there who said she would "hand deliver a message for someone in Tech support to call me back that day" and i STILL have not received a call back. What else can i do to try and contact Signature Solar to get the help i need? I'm running out of options other than complaining on public forums and very much prefer to just get the system i paid for working correctly. Below is a sample of one of the voltage spike/drop periods from the 2p1/2p2 inverter setup i have.View attachment 125661

Additionally, for some reason Solar Assistant is only showing inverter one on the MPPT2 graphs. I assume this is a problem because I am assuming each inverter have two MPPT controllers, and that solar assistant is capable of monitoring both. I can see both voltage a current on both PV inputs on both inverters on the LED control panel, so either solar assistant just isn't picking up the second PV string on inverter two, or the MPPT is not actually doing anything. *note these graphs are a different time period from the output voltage graph.
View attachment 125667
View attachment 125668
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I can see where it does correctly dial back almost all PV power once the batteries are charged but why is inverter 2 not showing on MPPT 2 graphs?

Thank you for any help you can provide.

For what it is worth, I have had similar experience with Sig Solar's tech support. It is basically non-existent. I understand that they (like everyone else) are having trouble finding bodies, but the ones they have found seem to be just that, warm bodies, and not much else. I suspect that your issues are FAR beyond the abilities of the tech support folks I've talked to. There may be someone there who can help you, but you probably have a better chance of winning the lottery than of getting hold of that person. I just gave up and don't even bother to contact them any more, since they rarely even respond and when they do, it is not with anything helpful.

 

[PreppenWolf]

If you run one inverter at a time as a standalone unit, do both fluctuate voltage or only one?

 

[TurbineTester]

For what it's worth, now that i have them engaged, they are following up wtih me regularly, getting more data and reaching out. They seem both knowledgable and willing to help. I just had a really hard time getting them to get engaged after my initial conversations.

 

[ClydeSolar]

I have the same issues with flickering lights and Inverter 2 not showing up for MPPT2.

The lights flicker when a large load kicks in like the water tank element. My system is a stand alone system with no grid power and is set for SBU.

All 4 of my solar arrays use to show up in Solar Assistant until I did the latest update for the solar assistant software (software version 2022-10-30).

Both of my EG4 inverters are connected to the solar assistant orange PI via a RS232 to USB cable (one cable per inverter connected to the PI).

Conclusion: the latest solar assistant software update caused inverter 2 for MPPT2 not to show up. This is a solar assistant issue that needs to be fixed.

 

[ClydeSolar]

I emailed SolarAssitant and this was the response:The SoC is determined by the inverter. You can try using the "Emulated BMS" in SolarAssistant to see if it provides a more accurate SoC:
Let SolarAssistant perform it's own state of charge (SoC) calculation by counting power flowing in and out of the battery. This is a good fallback option for anyone who can't get a real BMS reading. It's less accurate than a Victron BMS but much more accurate than the standard voltage based readings of an inverter.

That means i'm back to the original problem that the inverters are not communicating with the Batteries correctly because if i leave the battery setting on EG4 i was getting the error 61. Now that i have the updated firmware i'll try the EG4 setting to see if they will correctly communicate the battery SoC.

EG4 i was getting the error 61.

this error is from the battery to inverter cable, flip the connections around to solve the problem.

 

[Quattrohead]

The lights flicker when a large load kicks in like the water tank element

This is quite understandable and can happen with mains power too. More of a concern is when the lights are generally flickering, twitching, nervous, jumpy whatever you want to call it.

 

[ClydeSolar]

Solar Assistant provided solution to fix inverter 2 not displaying for MPPT2

SOLUTION:
"On the configuration page, click disconnect, then select both, then click connect."

make sure both inverters are highlighted in the configuration section then connect again. This worked for me.

 

[TurbineTester]

Yes i have had both displaying properly, i forgot to update that here.

 

[ClydeSolar]

This is quite understandable and can happen with mains power too. More of a concern is when the lights are generally flickering, twitching, nervous, jumpy whatever you want to call it.

So far I'm not really impressed with the EG4 inverters.

I keep getting electrical brown outs when ever i introduce a load to my system.

The other day I was using my dewalt hand held circular saw that plugs into the wall and every time I puled the trigger to cut wood the lights and everything connected would fade and almost black out.

The EG4 inverters can't even handle a circular saw without causing a brown out electrical effect.

Anyone else having this kind of a problem?

Is there a fix?

 

[kromc5]

So far I'm not really impressed with the EG4 inverters.

I keep getting electrical brown outs when ever i introduce a load to my system.

The other day I was using my dewalt hand held circular saw that plugs into the wall and every time I puled the trigger to cut wood the lights and everything connected would fade and almost black out.

The EG4 inverters can't even handle a circular saw without causing a brown out electrical effect.

Anyone else having this kind of a problem?

Is there a fix?

I have run my circular and miter saw with no issues, I would definably investigate more or contact support. Are the loads balanced decently on the two units?

 

[PreppenWolf]

So far I'm not really impressed with the EG4 inverters.

I keep getting electrical brown outs when ever i introduce a load to my system.

The other day I was using my dewalt hand held circular saw that plugs into the wall and every time I puled the trigger to cut wood the lights and everything connected would fade and almost black out.

The EG4 inverters can't even handle a circular saw without causing a brown out electrical effect.

Anyone else having this kind of a problem?

Is there a fix?

I have no issues running any of my big power tools.

What mode was the unit in when this happened?

What is your solar and battery setup?

 

[PreppenWolf]

Also pic of the saw you're using? 3 prong or 2 prong plug?

 

[Zz1049]

You're reading all this information through solar Assistant- I have mpp solar lv1012, nothing fancy just 306whr batteries (sok) no comms other than Bluetooth.

What I have learned from I having solar Assistant since 7/1/22 is that the information may be off based on what it reads from your inverter it may not keep all the data in the right time format, it may exclude data and it is very particular about how it is wired ie I had to contact just like you did my supplier Watts247 (great support) provided replacement communications components because SA would not communicate correctly over the USB protocol

Take all the data with a grain of salt until verified as with my solution my load power is always off from the grid power and PV power by 10 seconds. I could fight with either the supplier or SA but it's not even worth the fight because of the end of the day the numbers work out to the same thing it's just garbage support for garbage software and hardware.

 

[TurbineTester]

I've started having another strange problem with one of my electrical circuits in the house. My hallway bathroom GFCI keeps tripping. It seems to happen when there is a change in the load, eitehr rapidly going up or going down. I'm trying to track the exact times and compare with SA data, but regardless, why would a GFCI trip, and not all of them? I've repalced the GFCI outlet and it's still doing it once or twice a day.

 

[Zz1049]

I would expect replacement units at this point

 

[PreppenWolf]

I've started having another strange problem with one of my electrical circuits in the house. My hallway bathroom GFCI keeps tripping. It seems to happen when there is a change in the load, eitehr rapidly going up or going down. I'm trying to track the exact times and compare with SA data, but regardless, why would a GFCI trip, and not all of them? I've repalced the GFCI outlet and it's still doing it once or twice a day.

Yeah that's not good. You gotta get with SS and have all your setup details for them.

 

[nc73]

I've started having another strange problem with one of my electrical circuits in the house. My hallway bathroom GFCI keeps tripping. It seems to happen when there is a change in the load, eitehr rapidly going up or going down. I'm trying to track the exact times and compare with SA data, but regardless, why would a GFCI trip, and not all of them? I've repalced the GFCI outlet and it's still doing it once or twice a day.

Get rid of your GFCI. I find that you have to make compromises with these inverters. Some are extreme but no other choice because SS or the manufacturer can't fix anything I've thrown at them. I've only thrown one thing at them btw.

 

[TurbineTester]

So to add further issues to the long list here...I've noted that when we are running from battery only my lights are flickering about once per second for several hours per day. When we are running from battery AND solar, or on GRID bypass, the lights do not flicker. And to reiterate, a couple of times a day I have a GFCI outlet trip in my bathroom and that circuit also has a timer on it so I know exactly when it looses power, which happens to coincide with either a load coming online or the inverter switching from all battery to all GRID. And last week a $180 coffee maker fried in our kitchen. Last Friday went to turn off the water heater breaker and the dryer breaker right next to it was hot. And I mean hot to the touch where I couldn’t hold my finger on it longer than a second. I removed the breaker and the sides of it were even hotter and the bus bar connection underneath was discolored from heat. I replaced it and made sure I put anti-oxidant on the connection. Since then I have checked it several times and it doesn't seem to be getting hot. It may have simply been a 30 year old faulty breaker, and the dryer breaker may be unrelated to the issue but somehow I’m beginning to doubt it. My Solar assistant only logs in 10 sec intervals and I dont have anything monitoring voltage on a circuit by circuit basis other than a couple of UPS power supplies for computer and networking equipment. When i checked one of the UPS today i could see in it's log that it has had 255 events where the UPS kicked in. After further experiements, the UPS kicks in everytime the inverter switchs from GRID/BATTERY or the opposite. The UPS also engages for a few seconds when the inverters are on battery and one of two laser printers plugged into the same circuit as the UPS kicks on to print. The UPS does not engage when printing if the inverters are on grid power. And now that i recall i had to replace a UPS on this same circuit last month. And as of the writing of this post we have now fried a second $180 coffee pot. Bottom line is that I’m having a lot of electrical issues all of a sudden, fried two coffee pots and one UPS totaling over $500, dryer breaker so hot it discolored (but does not appear to have physically damaged) the busbar connection and I never had any of these issues simply using grid power. I emailed Signature Solar Tier 2 about 24 hours ago and didn't get a response, and that delay in response is why i'm posting here @BenFromSignatureSolar. Hate to be a complainer but i do expect a little more than what i've been getting so far from SS.
Question: Is there any way to reduce or alter the automatic transfer switing cycle time when the inverter switches from Battery/Solar to Grid so that my lights don't flicker and my UPS systems don't engage? I see that setting 3 is for INPUT voltage setting between appliance and UPS conditions, but does that affect the actual transfer time when it's not an input voltage problem?

 

[TurbineTester]

Yeah that's not good. You gotta get with SS and have all your setup details for them.

They already have detailed pictures of everything from the panel locations, directions, wiring, panels and subpanels...and have had that for months now.

 

[TurbineTester]

Get rid of your GFCI. I find that you have to make compromises with these inverters. Some are extreme but no other choice because SS or the manufacturer can't fix anything I've thrown at them. I've only thrown one thing at them btw.

I honestly can't see why this should be necessary...it's only one single GFCI circuit that is having this problem, and only when running from the inverters. I don't think i should be taking my home electrical wiring out of code compliance for these inverters...