EG4 Batteries (Alarm)

[dmkjr]

I have a 6500ex that was set to charge the batteries below a certain SOC through Solar Assistant. However, I had the max AC current set too high and it tripped the breaker that I was feeding the inverter with. When I woke up this morning the batteries were showing 1% SOC but the inverter was still on and running.

I quickly reset the breaker, set to 30a Max AC charge and switched from SBU to SUB mode. The inverter shows that its charging, but all of my EG4 batteries are flashing a red light on the Alarm indicator but the SOC does not show charging on the batteries.

I've contact Signature Solar this morning and they told me to cut off the inverter and let it reset and then turn it back on. Anyone else experienced this issue?

Thanks in advance!

 

[dmkjr]

Well it turns out I just needed to remove the load from the inverter and it started charging normally. Weird. It may have just been in some weird state.

Secondly -- Signature Solar told me today that Solar Assistant isn't recommended and that we should remove it from the system as they have reports of it sending 12v back to the board and damaging the EG4 6500ex's. Anyone heard of this before?

 

[houseofancients]

Well it turns out I just needed to remove the load from the inverter and it started charging normally. Weird. It may have just been in some weird state.

Secondly -- Signature Solar told me today that Solar Assistant isn't recommended and that we should remove it from the system as they have reports of it sending 12v back to the board and damaging the EG4 6500ex's. Anyone heard of this before?

this would be unique for eg4 inverters.
have seen 100's of mpp solar, voltronics( the OEM for the eg4 6500 and 6548 inverter, not to mention many, many other brands that use solar assistant, and besides the raspi being broken , i call this a bullcrap story

 

[dmkjr]

this would be unique for eg4 inverters.
have seen 100's of mpp solar, voltronics( the OEM for the eg4 6500 and 6548 inverter, not to mention many, many other brands that use solar assistant, and besides the raspi being broken , i call this a bullcrap story

Sounded a little odd to me, too. Its quite weird to not recommend the sole reason I purchased EG4 to begin with. I would have went with Victron or another high-end (lower power usage) inverter. WatchPower leaves some to be desired.

 

[houseofancients]

Sounded a little odd to me, too. Its quite weird to not recommend the sole reason I purchased EG4 to begin with. I would have went with Victron or another high-end (lower power usage) inverter. WatchPower leaves some to be desired.

some is an understatement

 

[Zapper77]

If you turn off the inverter with the SA usb cable plugged in to the 6500 screen, does the 6500 screen turn off?

 

[dmkjr]

If you turn off the inverter with the SA usb cable plugged in to the 6500 screen, does the 6500 screen turn off?

It does.

 

[Zapper77]

It does.

So SA Assistant is backfeedind power to the screen.

 

[houseofancients]

So SA Assistant is backfeedind power to the screen.

no it is not..
when the display is off, there is not power send.
when i first heard this none sense , it tested it with one of my old 8000 max's and a raspi , there is not power of any kind , not on the serial, and not on the usb to serial

 

[Zapper77]

no it is not..
when the display is off, there is not power send.
when i first heard this none sense , it tested it with one of my old 8000 max's and a raspi , there is not power of any kind , not on the serial, and not on the usb to serial

Not the case during my testing.

I Powered off my 6500ex while still connected via the USB cables to my SA Pi and the screen stays on. Obviously the screen is receiving power from something and magically when you unplug the USB cable the screen turns off.

 

[houseofancients]

Not the case during my testing.

I Powered off my 6500ex while still connected via the USB cables to my SA Pi and the screen stays on. Obviously the screen is receiving power from something and magically when you unplug the USB cable the screen turns off.

must be specific to the 6500 then..
wow they really pulled a number with these

 

[dmkjr]

Not the case during my testing.

I Powered off my 6500ex while still connected via the USB cables to my SA Pi and the screen stays on. Obviously the screen is receiving power from something and magically when you unplug the USB cable the screen turns off.

You are correct. Same mileage for me.

Not saying it’s an issue, but when inverter is completely powered off, screen stays on and appears to be active when Micro USB is plugged in.

 

[400bird]

Good thing there's not 12 volts on any pins in micro-usb cable and that the raspberry pi doesn't run on 12 volts, or this backfeed 12v might actually be possible.

 

[Zapper77]

Good thing there's not 12 volts on any pins in micro-usb cable and that the raspberry pi doesn't run on 12 volts, or this backfeed 12v might actually be possible.

USB in that style is typically 5v.

 

[400bird]

USB in that style is typically 5v.

That's my point, there isn't anything 12v to backfeed from the Pi

 

[dmkjr]

A little curious why Signature Solar would say that? I have it in an email from them as well. This cannot seriously be a "solution" to stop using the single product that everyone uses with their inverters.

 

[K2mannn]

Wow, not good if Signature Solar Tech Support is telling you this. Can we confirm that this is SS's real solution, or is this one guy in Tech Support saying this? I'm thinking of buying some EG4 equipment from SS. I'd like to know what the real issue is here.

 

[adobopr]

The backfeeding of the USB is actually somewhat of a problem but won't damage anything. It's also easy to fix by putting some electrical tape on the power pins of the USB A side. In my case, if I don't tape those, the PI won't boot up if connected to the inverters. Everytime I did a hard reboot I would have to unplug both inverters and then replug them in. I'll see if I can get a picture of my taped up USB A but it's literally just a super thin piece of electrical tape.

EDIT: Here's the pic.

 

[parkerd]

must be specific to the 6500 then..
wow they really pulled a number with these

6000 ex also

 

[dmkjr]

I recently purchased a $6 part from Amazon to block power pins.

PortaPow USB Power Blocker -... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094FYL9QT?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share