Signature Solar EG4 200ah (24 volt) problems

[Sierra Nevada]

I purchased 3 eg4 200 ah 24 volt batteries from Signature Solar and installed them 2 weeks ago I run a old Trace SW4024 that works great.
I have to precharge the batteries with my solar before the inverter will come on. Also I am working with their tech. service to see why I cannot access the 3 batteries at the same time on my laptop. Other then that the batteries are great. George

 

[Solar Guy Richard]

Thanks for the update. James messaged you in the other forum, would love to see the set up!

 

[Sierra Nevada]

Thanks for the update. James messaged you in the other forum, would love to see the set up!

I sent 2 pictures to James. If they made an off grid inverter today with the features of my Trace sw4024, I would purchase one.
The batteries have cycled 10 times. My main problem is not being able to see all 3 batteries at the same time. I have tried everything, address
0 - 2 - 3 and only receive first battery. The problem is the program wanting to go to 0 - 1 - 2 - 3, even if I show having 4 batteries it will not work.
Thank you for your quick response. George

 

[Sierra Nevada]

I solved my communication problem with the 3 eg4 batteries. I set the address's to 11 - 13 - 15 and it monitors all 3 at the same time and updates them. Signature Solar could not figure it out but they were trying to help. Now let's see what they will do about the inverter start up problem. George

 

[jberger]

Oh that is an interesting solution!
How did you come up with using those addresses to make it work?

 

[Sierra Nevada]

I tried 11 12 13 but only 11 & 13 worked. I am retired so I had plenty of time. I tried a lot of combos, and finally got lucky. Signature kept telling me that 1 2 3 addresses would work, no go, address 1 is for inverter comm & I am sending the info to my laptop. Have a nice day. George

 

[Koldsimer]

I solved my communication problem with the 3 eg4 batteries. I set the address's to 11 - 13 - 15 and it monitors all 3 at the same time and updates them. Signature Solar could not figure it out but they were trying to help. Now let's see what they will do about the inverter start up problem. George

Have you made any progress on your inverter not starting with the lifepower batteries?

 

[Sierra Nevada]

Have you made any progress on your inverter not starting with the lifepower batteries?

The only way to start my inverter is with my solar feeding the batteries. Other then that the batteries are great. We are off grid and I have not experimented with the problem. George

 

[Koldsimer]

The only way to start my inverter is with my solar feeding the batteries. Other then that the batteries are great. We are off grid and I have not experimented with the problem. George

Just fyi, i found when i was having the same problem, the minimum amount of solar to start my inverter seemed to be about 1000w. I would guess your system may require more or less depending on your inverter. Good thing to be aware of in case you had to re-start under less than sunny conditions.

 

[Sierra Nevada]

Just fyi, i found when i was having the same problem, the minimum amount of solar to start my inverter seemed to be about 1000w. I would guess your system may require more or less depending on your inverter. Good thing to be aware of in case you had to re-start under less than sunny conditions.

koldsimer; with eg4 batteries that should supply at least 280 amps at startup of my inverter, I should not need to supply any solar to start the inverter. Signature Solar told me that supplying solar to the batteries before turning on inverter was the proper thing to do. I think they have a problem with the BMS program. I would suggest that eg4 batteries should not be sold by Signature Solar until the BMS problem is solved. Why are we not given the password so that we may try and solve the problem? Other then the start-up problem, the batteries are great. George

 

[SoCalKevin]

I would suggest that eg4 batteries should not be sold by Signature Solar until the BMS problem is solved. Why are we not given the password so that we may try and solve the problem? Other then the start-up problem, the batteries are great.

Agree 110%

Signature is a great company with kickass customer service, but the EG4 BMS issues continue to give a lot of folks very frustrating issues.

The build quality and such is awesome, so i hope they fix this and just use a different BMS with software that actually works.

 

[Sierra Nevada]

I solved my inverter startup problem. Installed a 50 watt 25 ohm resistor on a push button switch. If I lose inverter power, turn inverter breaker off, turn batteries back on, push button to charge capacitors for about 3 seconds, then flip inverter breaker on, it works. It would seem to me that the BMS on these batteries are not programmed properly or they are faulty. I suggest that anyone looking to buy batteries stay away from eg4 batteries, just my 2 cents worth. George

 

[Kornbread]

As more of these batteries get out in the wild, we see more of these eg4 bms threads.

 

[MTBioGuy]

I solved my own EG4 to 2,000w inverter problem using a single 25 Watt 20 Ohm resistor in a pre-charge by-pass circuit using a momentary switch. I press the switch for a few seconds until I hear a single beep from the inverter and then flip on the primary in-line switch leading to the inverter (while still holding down the momentary switch). The main, on-the-box, inverter switch is always on. @FilterGuy thinks I could even drop this down to a 25 Watt 15 Ohm resistor. That might eliminate the single start-up "error" beep but, as long as it's not doing any damage, I prefer the beep because I don't have to worry about timing how long I hold down the pre-charge switch.

The only other way to make this work was always to shut down the battery and open the primary in-line switch to the "On" position than flip on the the battery. It would go through the usual POST and, seemingly, employ it's own pre-charge procedure. The inverter starts up every time just fine using this method but I hate to shut down and restart everything in the RV just to heat some water in the microwave!

 

[FilterGuy]

That might eliminate the single start-up "error" beep but, as long as it's not doing any damage, I prefer the beep because I don't have to worry about timing how long I hold down the pre-charge switch.

The 'Error beep' is almost certainly a warning of low voltage. That is a good thing. It means it will not try to power the AC. ( You don't want the inverter to try to actually start powering the AC till you have the main switch on.)

 

[MTBioGuy]

Bad News... after all that (above) I have failed completely to get my EG4 - 24v battery to start my 2,000w 24v inverter.

I've tried using a parallel pre-charge circuit, with various sized resistors and a momentary switch, from battery to "+" In on the inverter. Sometimes it works... most of the time it fails. I've tried WITH the rest of the "house" circuit connected... and WITHOUT... both failed. I've tried with the inverters own, on-the-box, switch turned on and turned off... both failed. I've tried directly connecting the EG4 to the inverter and turning on the master EG4 switch... sometimes yes, mostly no. SS's only solution was to buy their 48v AC breaker... supposedly because it can "snap" quickly and prevent the arcing they think is causing my problem. I tried the breaker method... using the much faster DC version of the breaker... failed. In every case my BMS software throws a "Short Circuit" error message and instantly shuts down the system.

In all cases there is NO LOAD on the inverter... other than the pre-charge capacitors of course.

Oddly, sometimes the system resets after about 1 minute all on it's own and sometimes I have to manually reset the master breaker. What is happening that is different... I can't figure it out.

Has ANYONE been able to solve this problem? How can a battery this nice NOT be able to start up a tiny 2,000w inverter with NO load????
@RichardfromEG4 I've PM'd you about this problem... no reply... still out there?

 

[jberger]

If you need technical support, you should call SS and put in a ticket.

If you want us to try and help in the thread you need to at least tell us what inverter you are using and give a couple of photos or a wiring diagram. Sounds like inrush on the inverter is causing the BMS to think it's a dead short and turn off.

 

[Solar Guy Richard]

Bad News... after all that (above) I have failed completely to get my EG4 - 24v battery to start my 2,000w 24v inverter.

I've tried using a parallel pre-charge circuit, with various sized resistors and a momentary switch, from battery to "+" In on the inverter. Sometimes it works... most of the time it fails. I've tried WITH the rest of the "house" circuit connected... and WITHOUT... both failed. I've tried with the inverters own, on-the-box, switch turned on and turned off... both failed. I've tried directly connecting the EG4 to the inverter and turning on the master EG4 switch... sometimes yes, mostly no. SS's only solution was to buy their 48v AC breaker... supposedly because it can "snap" quickly and prevent the arcing they think is causing my problem. I tried the breaker method... using the much faster DC version of the breaker... failed. In every case my BMS software throws a "Short Circuit" error message and instantly shuts down the system.

In all cases there is NO LOAD on the inverter... other than the pre-charge capacitors of course.

Oddly, sometimes the system resets after about 1 minute all on it's own and sometimes I have to manually reset the master breaker. What is happening that is different... I can't figure it out.

Has ANYONE been able to solve this problem? How can a battery this nice NOT be able to start up a tiny 2,000w inverter with NO load????
@RichardfromEG4 I've PM'd you about this problem... no reply... still out there?

Sorry for no reply, I do my best to get back to everyone. Have you contact SS for tech support? We have 24v batteries on Growatt 3k's that start them without issues, so I doubt it's the size of the inverter unless it has an extremely high start up amp draw or something.

 

[Sierra Nevada]

I was informed 6 weeks ago by Signature Solar that an update was being made to straighten up the bms program on the eg4 batteries and I have not heard from them. I would like to know why the on line manual doesn't go into any detail on the startup procedure and why does it show a different bms program? You have to go to Signature Solar on YouTube to see a confusing video on how to startup the eg4 batteries. Have a happy 4th. George

 

[Solar Guy Richard]

I was informed 6 weeks ago by Signature Solar that an update was being made to straighten up the bms program on the eg4 batteries and I have not heard from them. I would like to know why the on line manual doesn't go into any detail on the startup procedure and why does it show a different bms program? You have to go to Signature Solar on YouTube to see a confusing video on how to startup the eg4 batteries. Have a happy 4th. George

Ya, unfortunately the documentation was lacking at the beginning and we are starting to straighten it out now. Making steps in the right direction every day. Promise that it's being worked on.