EG4 6500EX upgrade to 6000XP gen 2 - will it fix these flickering lights?

[bgh]

Hi all,

I have had an off-grid install of an EG4 6500XP for about 2.5 years with two LL batteries. I had a few teething issues but it's been reliable the last couple of years. One annoyance however has been that lights flicker. It's especially noticeable when the microwave is turned on/off, but we've been adding new LED lights and converting old fluorescent lights to Lutron-switched and/or dimmed LED lights and it's starting to drive us crazy.

I recently read a few threads here about the 6500 and flickering lights and also became aware of the "upgrade" program and I'm wondering if this would resolve my issue?

For background, we have very low electricity usage in our off-grid cabin. Most of the time we are running sub-500w. Turning on the microwave or a coffee maker is the biggest thing we do and those each use around 1100-1200watts. When we turned the coffee maker on this past weekend, the lights started strobing like an EDM festival. I tried to take a video but it was the same frequency as the shutter so the phone didn't show anything!

Luckily, I did get videos that demonstrate the issue when there is no change in load and a change in load (e.g. turning on/off microwave), and for LED and fluorescent fixtures. We only have 4 items permanently plugged in: Starlink, Fridge, Ecowitt weather station, and hot water heater. I believe I have unplugged or turned everything off at the breakers to see if there is a dirty load but it did not change the behavior. Here's what it looks like:

• microwave turned on/off causes visual "pops" in lighting
• led lights flickering constantly
• different fixture/led bulbs flickering constantly
• fluorescent fixture flickering

There are no large inductive loads and this is a single-phase install. The only thing that might count would be our small refrigerator compressor? The lights do flicker when it turns on/off like the microwave.

Also worth noting is that we used a multimeter in min/max mode and found that the voltage is fluctuating as low as 115.8v and as high as 124.5 so about 3.5% (which seems within spec, but still might be part of the problem?)

I haven't contacted Signature Solar/EG4 about this yet as I wanted to get some feedback from folks who have considered or done the upgrade first.

Thanks!

 

[SignatureSolarJess]

Please don't hesitate to reach out! We're here to help! 903-441-2090 Option 3!

 

[TM48]

Check your ground/neutral wiring first. Be sure all connections are clean and tight. Verify there is only one ground to neutral bond which typically is in the main load center. Make sure there is not one enabled in the inverter either in software or a physical screw.

 

[Adam De Lay]

Hi all,

I have had an off-grid install of an EG4 6500XP for about 2.5 years with two LL batteries. I had a few teething issues but it's been reliable the last couple of years. One annoyance however has been that lights flicker. It's especially noticeable when the microwave is turned on/off, but we've been adding new LED lights and converting old fluorescent lights to Lutron-switched and/or dimmed LED lights and it's starting to drive us crazy.

I recently read a few threads here about the 6500 and flickering lights and also became aware of the "upgrade" program and I'm wondering if this would resolve my issue?

For background, we have very low electricity usage in our off-grid cabin. Most of the time we are running sub-500w. Turning on the microwave or a coffee maker is the biggest thing we do and those each use around 1100-1200watts. When we turned the coffee maker on this past weekend, the lights started strobing like an EDM festival. I tried to take a video but it was the same frequency as the shutter so the phone didn't show anything!

Luckily, I did get videos that demonstrate the issue when there is no change in load and a change in load (e.g. turning on/off microwave), and for LED and fluorescent fixtures. We only have 4 items permanently plugged in: Starlink, Fridge, Ecowitt weather station, and hot water heater. I believe I have unplugged or turned everything off at the breakers to see if there is a dirty load but it did not change the behavior. Here's what it looks like:

• microwave turned on/off causes visual "pops" in lighting
• led lights flickering constantly
• different fixture/led bulbs flickering constantly
• fluorescent fixture flickering

There are no large inductive loads and this is a single-phase install. The only thing that might count would be our small refrigerator compressor? The lights do flicker when it turns on/off like the microwave.

Also worth noting is that we used a multimeter in min/max mode and found that the voltage is fluctuating as low as 115.8v and as high as 124.5 so about 3.5% (which seems within spec, but still might be part of the problem?)

I haven't contacted Signature Solar/EG4 about this yet as I wanted to get some feedback from folks who have considered or done the upgrade first.

Thanks!

Your example videos are all set to private so they cannot be viewed by anyone other than yourself.

Out of curiosity, what firmware version are you running on the 6500s. There were quite a few updates made after their initial release, some related to flickering lights: https://diysolarforum.com/resources/eg4-6500-firmware-changelog.319/

Check your ground/neutral wiring first. Be sure all connections are clean and tight. Verify there is only one ground to neutral bond which typically is in the main load center. Make sure there is not one enabled in the inverter either in software or a physical screw.

This is another good place to take a look.

 

[Adam De Lay]

Oh yeah, I didn't do the upgrade program but I used to have the 6500EX inverters and I did purchase a 6000XP. They're night and day apart. The 6000XP is a much more solid inverter with a lot more features than the 6500EX. Really the only "down-side" that I can see is that you lose 500W of output power, but you gain a lot more features.

 

[EPicTony]

"There were quite a few updates made after their initial release, some related to flickering lights:"
Unfortunately none of the updates actually fixed the flickering. The fix for EG4-6500EX flickering is EG4-6000XP.

 

[bgh]

Check your ground/neutral wiring first. Be sure all connections are clean and tight. Verify there is only one ground to neutral bond which typically is in the main load center. Make sure there is not one enabled in the inverter either in software or a physical screw.

I'll do this on my next visit. I know I have just a single N-G bond. I removed the screw in the 6500EX and have it in my panel. I'll put a scewdriver to all of the connections in all of the panels.

Your example videos are all set to private so they cannot be viewed by anyone other than yourself.

D'oh! Fixed!

Out of curiosity, what firmware version are you running on the 6500s. There were quite a few updates made after their initial release, some related to flickering lights: https://diysolarforum.com/resources/eg4-6500-firmware-changelog.319/

I don't think I'm running the very latest but I have updated a few times; the last of which might have been ~1 year ago. I'll pull the version on my next visit.

"There were quite a few updates made after their initial release, some related to flickering lights:"
Unfortunately none of the updates actually fixed the flickering. The fix for EG4-6500EX flickering is EG4-6000XP.

This is what I'm hoping, but I see other threads about flickering with the 6000XP too? I can't imagine anyone is living with the constant 24/7 flickering like we have in our lights (videos now accessible for visual).

 

[TM48]

I'll do this on my next visit. I know I have just a single N-G bond. I removed the screw in the 6500EX and have it in my panel. I'll put a scewdriver to all of the connections in all of the panels.



D'oh! Fixed!



I don't think I'm running the very latest but I have updated a few times; the last of which might have been ~1 year ago. I'll pull the version on my next visit.



This is what I'm hoping, but I see other threads about flickering with the 6000XP too? I can't imagine anyone is living with the constant 24/7 flickering like we have in our lights (videos now accessible for visual).

I have two 6000xps and have no flickering issues. The issues involving 6000s have been installation problems or LED issues as far as I'm aware.

 

[Adam De Lay]

I had several products that caused flickering on any light connected to the same phase when I was running off the 6500s. I didn't have any of those issues with the 6000XP.

 

[Adam De Lay]

The "blink" that you see with the microwave is somewhat common when larger loads instantly kick on. I believe it's due to the quick voltage drop and recovery. Usually you see it more with inductive loads as opposed to resistive. It even happens with the grid sometimes. Hard to tell from the video how dramatic it is though.

The other videos seem exactly like what others were experiencing with that inverter. Sometimes replacing with a higher quality LED bulb fixed the issue, sometimes it didn't. I know even in my case, I had to remove a dimmer in my kitchen because when it was inline, the lights were blinking like crazy.

Personally, I would pursue the upgrade program. It's not worth the time or frustration of going down the rabbit hole and trying to fix all the little possible causes of the flickering (I spent HOURS trying to figure it out).

 

[bgh]

@Adam De Lay thank you - you're making me feel positive about the upgrade. Question - is the physical layout of the 6000 the same as the 6500? What I mean is, will all of the wires plug back into the same locations so there will be no issues with lengths/curves/etc?

 

[Adam De Lay]

@Adam De Lay thank you - you're making me feel positive about the upgrade. Question - is the physical layout of the 6000 the same as the 6500? What I mean is, will all of the wires plug back into the same locations so there will be no issues with lengths/curves/etc?

Unfortunately they’re made by different manufacturers so the knockouts and connection points are in different locations between the inverters. You “may” be able to reuse some cables, depending on how things are currently wired, but I wouldn’t plan on it for all of the connection points.