Schneider XW Pro LED Flicker

[Offthewall]

So I just switched out my trusty pair of XW/XW+ for a trio of XW Pro’s. The first thing I noticed is the Pro’s were louder than their older brothers. A firmware upgrade to the latest seems to have fixed that for the most part.

However, I never had LED flicker before and at first my lights were terrible! The voltage output was low on the master so load was imbalanced across the 3. I did a calculation and the output is a lot better but I still have some flickering. Not nearly as bad as before but still noticeable. Wife has not said anything yet… but I know it’s just a matter of time.

One thing I did notice when doing the calibration is the voltage output is a little low at 237v. Could this be a contributing factor in the flicker??

 

[BKY2003]

If you turn both slave inverters off, and run just the master, does it still flicker?

 

[Offthewall]

If you turn both slave inverters off, and run just the master, does it still flicker?

Not sure, I’ll test that tomorrow when everyone is gone and I can control the loads.

 

[Offthewall]

Well got to test it tonight. Cutting the 2 slaves off does not eliminate flickering, it in fact makes it worse.

 

[BKY2003]

If you turn off the grid power and run off batteries, does that change anything? Just throwing this out there in hopes it will push it back to the top and maybe others have a better idea.

 

[Offthewall]

This is running off grid.

 

[BKY2003]

Funny how the AI fixes to the problem comes back to the diy forum.

 

[jgrobelny]

I have 2 XW pro's Master/Slave off grid no problem with flicker at all. All of my lights are LED with many of them being Phillips HUE. I don't even get a blink when the well 240v well pump kicks on.

 

[Offthewall]

I did recalibrate the outputs and bumped the output up to 242v and that seems to have helped. The inverters are 250’ from the house so there are some voltage drops from that.

 

[Koyaanisqatsi]

When you say "LED flicker" are you talking about LED lights in your house or LED indicators on the inverters?

If it's lights in your house, that can happen even when connected to the grid. It's a problem with the LED bulbs, not the power supply. My sister in-law has the flicker problem between a couple LED bulbs over her kitchen counter. Unscrewing one of the bulbs fixes the other - doesn't matter which one. And it gets worse if those LED bulbs are the only lights on in the kitchen.

 

[Offthewall]

I have 2 XW pro's Master/Slave off grid no problem with flicker at all. All of my lights are LED with many of them being Phillips HUE. I don't even get a blink when the well 240v well pump kicks on.

I didnt either on my XW/XW+ setup… thats why I was surprised by the flickering on the XW Pro’s.

 

[BKY2003]

 

[Koyaanisqatsi]

It seems to be more of a problem with the "vintage" style bulbs that are made to look like an old-skool filament bulb.

 

[BKY2003]

If mine was flickering, I would try reinstalling the firmware and reset the factory settings.

 

[jgrobelny]

I agree with BKY2003 I would check you panel box also for Neutral Ground bonding. I may not need to say this but the first panel after the Inverters needs to bonded everything else after that should be unbonded.

 

[Quattrohead]

Funny how the AI fixes to the problem comes back to the diy forum.

I wonder if we can create a thread that will fuck AI up so hard we can send into an eternal brain fart.

 

[CMDRZOD]

This right here. All of my LEDs are flicker free, except for the filament style LEDs I put in my dining fixture.

 

[RadioChief]

I have two XW Pro's running my shop building. The high bay side of the shop uses LED corn cob lights in reflectors. I experienced LED flicker only one time and could not repeat the problem ever again. The office side of the shop has all LED puck lights flush in the ceiling each with a small power supply. I think the screw in LED bulbs are nothing more than a capacitive dropping circuit and a rectifier. Still I'm surprised the XW would be doing this. I am off grid and have my AC voltage set to 243 volts. I feel it is better to run the voltage a little on the high side.

I also have a 120 volt Ninja convection oven that I have seen the control panel flicker when the heating element kicks in. The XW Pro buzz grows louder and I sometimes notice my computer's UPS activate for a few seconds. I assume the heating coils inside the quartz tubes are a very inductive load and causing the output voltage to drop, but still it is surprising to see this on a transformer based inverter dealing with such a small load.

 

[Offthewall]

Yea Im starting to question if something is wrong with these inverters. The Master (primary) one’s hum sounds like the XW/XW+ but the other 2 slaves (secondary) sound awful. They go from a hum to an almost arcing sound. I think Im going to try each one completely individually tomorrow and see if its tied to those units or what.

 

[BKY2003]

Sound like this?

 

[BKY2003]

I did change the grid code from RULE21 to IEEE 1547-2003 if my memory serves me correctly.

 

[400bird]

Did you do the factory reset after the firmware update? Might it make a difference, but it's a step that is easily missed (I know that I did)

 

[dougbert]

Sound like this?

mine have done that at times, not always, have tried to determine root cause - no joy
and it was when I was grid connected

I run 99% or more OFF grid now - screw the grid.
I charge via Chargeverters from either grid or generator - always

 

[BKY2003]

This is how my sound started

 

[Offthewall]

Sound like this?

Similar but I dont hear the popping (crackling) mine makes.