Two weeks ago I bought an EG4 6000EX0HV, and TWO EGL4 LL V2 batteries. I had everything hooked up and running. I resolved the dreaded error 61, and even ran some light 120V loads via a power strip. However, today, when went to power up the system, and pushed the “on” button, my #1 battery did NOTHING. NO status lights, and NO LED screen. I did flip on the #1 breaker, and had 55-56 volts at the connectors per multimeter. #2 battery powered up totally fine with all lights and screen. Inverter “sees” battery #1, and confirms good voltage, but no combination of hitting “reset”, or even disconnecting and reconnecting all wires can bring my status lights or screen back to life. Interestingly, #1 battery by itself WILL power the inverter, even though no lights or screen. I am now also back to getting the incessant error 61 beep. The manual is worthless. ??? Has anyone else had this problem, and if so, was there a solution???? I have sent an email to Sig Solar, but with it being Sunday, am not expecting any response today. Any help or suggestions would certainly be greatly appreciated. I am very disappointed to have had this kind of problem with a two week old system. Thanks, Tom
EG4 LL 48V V2 - no lights and no screen
- Thread starter TomH fwtx
- Start date
sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
Any ideas @BenFromSignatureSolar ?
Update: I totally disconnected battery #2 from my system, leaving #1 as my only battery. I then went into “settings” using solar only, and verified that setting 14 WAS set to EG4. I tried to reset, and reboot. Still NO lights and NO screen, with voltage in the 55-56 range, but battery did power the inverter by itself. Interestingly, on the screen of the inverter, it showed my only battery as “USER”, even though I had just verified that it is correctly set as EG4. SOOOOO: I decided that for some reason, the communications are NOT working correctly, and the EG4 battery setting is not sticking, so I intentionally put a load on the inverter, and pulled the voltage down to like 53. I then did a complete shutdown, pressed the reset switch on Batt #1, and brought the system back on line, using ONLY Batt #1. I HAD LIGHTS!!!!!! OMG!!!! Right now I have re-energized the solar input, and am trying to get battery #1 charged back up to the same 55.25 as Batt 2 (which is still disconnected). It is also interesting that I no longer have the error 61. Once I get B1 up to 55.25, I am going to shut down, reconnect B2, and see what happens. This seems to me to be a configuration or settings issue, where the EG4 setting is not sticking correctly, so the BMS thought that the “user” battery had gone into overvoltage, and disabled the BMS to protect the system. If this happens again, I am going to look at manually entering the settings for charging voltages. I am just glad this is not some catastrophic failure of a 2 week old battery. I will keep y’all advised. I can NOT be the only person who has had this problem.
BenFromSignatureSolar
Solar Addict
When you switched to the EG4 setting, did you power cycle the system? That needs to be done to get the settings to hold. My initial thought was that there was a bad connection with the screen or a bad screen. I will get with the R&D team tomorrow to see if they've seen the issue with nothing lighting up on the battery. DM me your email address and I will find your email tomorrow and get in touch.
Thank you Ben. “Power cycling” is not defined in the manual, but I did a complete shut down and power up after making the setting. Interestingly, when I press and hold enter, and go into settings, it SHOWS EG4 there, but then shows “USER” on the display screen of the Inverter. Good news is that when I equalized the batteries, reconnected #2, and powered everything up at 55.25 volts on both B1 and B2, everything worked! So for now I quit while I was ahead and powered it all down. I will PM you. My info is in your system. Thanks again.
I just wanted to post an interim update. SS has been in communication, and I have a Tier II Tech Support with whom I am communicating. I have provided additional information, and we have troubleshooted and thinktanked over the phone. Tonight I decided to attach a Windows laptop computer running SS BMS software for these exact V2 batteries directly to each of my 2 batteries. B1 would never even properly load the front status page, and hung on an error message which would not stay cleared. However, B2 loaded properly, and told me everything I could want to know about B2. Therefore, I now believe that the BMS in B1 has failed, and have sent SS Tech Support pics that I took of my computer screen. I hope to hear from the Tech tomorrow. The battery works, but it’s BMS is apparently not. Tom
DIYMike1000
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2022
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Please keep us posted on this issue. I was going to buy some of the V2s tonight until I saw this post.
Ongoing updates. First of all, Signature Solar (SS) has been engaged in ongoing communications with me, as we discuss and try various things. Latest is that I WAS able to get the SS BMS software to talk to B1. I had to set all 4 DIP switches on B1 to down position. So, the BMS is reachable, and is displaying all B1 cell voltages as being very close to each other, and NO high voltage or any other "alarms". Having reset my 6000EX to show the batteries as "USER", and having manually entered the various charge settings as instructed by SS, I then ran a small load last night, and let it solar charge back up. Both B1 and B2 stopped charging at 54V, as manually set. My instructions are to now try to do several deep discharges and recharges, but that is going to have to wait until early next week. My working hypothesis is still that the battery charge settings in the 6000EX and the V2 batteries were not consistent for when the batteries were set to EG4 under setting 14. If that is true, it may be a firmware issue that will reappear when I put setting 14 of my 6000EX back to EG4. At least for now B1 seems to be working, and I am not "locked out" of it. Tom
Would it be a safe assumption that both batteries need to be at the same voltage before putting them in parallel? I think I saw a video on youtube which mentioned that additionally of getting the batteries they also acquired a SS battery charger which would charge the batteries to the same voltage as required by SS.
SS never seems to have in stock the 48V charger that I would like to have gotten . It is frequently recommended that the battery voltages be very close before you connect them. However, mine were within .01 of each other, so I connected them, and charged them with solar several times before the apparent over voltage episode.
Well. I have my EG4 6000 ready and I'm wafting for my LLs v2 to arrive. Hopefully everything goes smoothly. Thank you for sharing. Any advice for anybody like myself who is installing basically the same system?
I have been waiting to do the deep discharge, because the 48v charger that I ordered last week has still not even shipped (?????). However, based upon my experience of last week, where B1 seemed to be working again, I spent 3 hours tonight building a subpanel, and outlet boxes, to be ready to do my discharge cycles. Unfortunately, when I then hit the power buttons to energize the batteries and inverter to test my electrical subpanel, B1 was DEAD AGAIN. Once again, NO startup lights, and NO lcd screen. Total blackness. The Inverter sees it, but something is BAD wrong with the on/off switch or BMS. I have sent an email to SS tech support advising of this disappointing development, and will be asking that the 3 week old battery be replaced. This is ridiculous.
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After numerous further communications with Ben and others at SS (thanks Ben), I was authorized and instructed to remove the entire faceplate of B1, and "check" all of the wiring and connections. I did so. I carefully removed the faceplate. I did NOT see any dangling wires or disconnected connectors. I physically touched, pressed on, and/or unclipped and re-clipped every connector that I could see I took pics, which I sent to SS. The good news is that when I put it all back together, and pressed the "on" button, I did in fact get lights, and the lcd screen. So, it is now "working" again. I am not sure that it is "fixed", but I hope to spend time working on my system this weekend, and will know more then. Tom
The lights and LCD screen have been working for a couple of weeks now. I have been discharging and charging with normal use with NO issues EXCEPT for now the dreaded error 61 is back. I have seen references to firmware updates for other devices. I still think that a firmware update will fix the error 61, and the fact that the Inverter and battery BMS are calling for different charging settings.
BenFromSignatureSolar
Solar Addict
You can find the firmware update for the 6000EX and the 6500EX on the eg4electronics.com site. However, before running the firmware update, it would be a good idea to double check your dipswitch settings. If they aren't exactly right you will get error 61. The firmware for the 6000EX is for intermittent error 61. If it is static, it is not a firmware issue. A lot of times people just have the comms cable backwards.
Take these steps for your 6000EX for 61 fix before firmware update.
- Ensure that the host battery has the correct dip switch setting. If you have to change this setting, power cycle the battery. (Lifepower4 = down, down, down, down / EG4-LL = down, down, down, up)
- All other batteries must have non-matching dip switch settings.
- Use the provided communications cable to connect the host battery to the host inverter. Pins 1& 2 go to the battery and pins 3 & 5 go to the inverter. Then use the short patch communications cable to interconnect the remaining batteries.
- Set the host inverter program setting 14 to EG4. If there are slave inverters, set them to USE.
- Go back to the main display screen. It may take a minute for the system to recognize the change. If the status does not change, Reset the system.
Hi Ben: I have my LL #1 and LL #2 dip switches set exactly as specified in the manual. My inverter setting 14 is for EG4. The error 61 occurs, with some beeping and the red error light, and then seems to go away for seconds or even minutes, but comes back. Is that what you are referring to as intermittent? I do notice that the tiny lights where the battery to battery cable connects to B1 flashes really fast, almost constantly, while those same lights on B2 are very methodical and regular. I did not get error 61 when I had changed inverter setting 14 to "user" - only since I have changed it back to EG4.
BenFromSignatureSolar
Solar Addict
You wouldn't see error 61 when in user. That error code only pops up if the unit is trying to close loop communicate. You don't lose any functionality when in use but it does limit your ability to see percentages rather than the voltage numbers. The firmware update will fix that. We would need to get you the appropriate cable to do so. If you want to resolve that issue, just email your order number and describe the steps you've taken in the email to tech@signaturesolar.com I'll talk to the guys to make sure they look for it and get you fixed up.
BenFromSignatureSolar
Solar Addict
I see it, they are pretty busy today but should be no later than lunchtime tomorrow.
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