Signature solar horrible customer service

[D71]

The OPs system worked in USE and the 61 error is a known issue fixed by firmware. I'm not sure whatbelse you expect.

Its the user's responsibility to update the firmware before they even commission the system.

If you buy a computer/phone/tablet and don't update it, then it gets bricked by a known virus that was addressed in a update you didnt apply, it's your fault. Not the manufacturer or the store you bought it from.

I think the poster stated he updated software and that bricked one of the displays.
Sometimes when you do updates the software might hang and that screws it up. Dunno wasn't there but it is advertised to do a function out the gate so the box should be opened up and programmed by the manufacturer or the distributor to the latest and greatest ....before shipping.... that way if it doesn't take it is on them to resolve. Again I don't have a dog in this hunt except might be a potential customer or might not. The good thing - it was resolved....

 

[PreppenWolf]

If he had upgraded the firmware before commissioning the system there would be a lot less variables at play and he likely could have gotten a replacement easier/faster.

My son had a Samsung flagship phone brick itself 4 months ago doing an update. Shit happens.

 

[Alkaline]

Well if you want to see who can piss up the tree the highest, I got the sun gold power 6548 for under a grand shipped from the USA a couple weeks ago ?

me 2 ?

 

[D71]

me 2 ?

Let us know how it goes... is everything up and running? Did you get the new or the older version?

 

[Alkaline]

Older 250PV version so far I tested with some small drone batteries and it powers up I don't have enough to start my system up for real world test.

I sold my previous lv24 mpp solar setup with 3x 8s batts, got pennies on the dollar but that is how it goes. So first step is to get some batteries and solar panels and see how it goes, un like last time I'm going to take my time and build it slowly.

 

[Tony Scott]

It's irritating, I get it. Still may I offer that you are making an odd comparison?



You are in a mature industry with a (very) protected manufacture-distributor-contractor arrangement. EG: if someone wants to install or work on thier own HVAC they'd have a hard time finding and buying it and they'd better have some serious skills.



You've bought and installed a $1,200 inverter from what is essentially a start up company that is importing products directly from Chinese manufactures. You chose that inverter over a $6,000 or more inverter that you could have purchased from a dozen different online suppliers that have been around for a decade or more. Did you really think that you weren't making a trade to get that low price?

I have seen reports of people going through solar installers and having problems after pay 3-4x the price. Are you saying no one should deal with small companies? EG batteries and inverters are Signature Solar products and virtually all equipment comes from china, either it was built there or made by China.

 

[Tony Scott]

Man, people sure love to trash American small businesses ?

They teash them because of the poor customer service and lack of follow through. Had I known, I would have just purchased a Sol-Ark and called it a day.

 

[OzSolar]

Tony, would you mind editing your posts, so your response isn't trapped inside the quoted portion of the messages you're responding to? Thanks

edit to fix typos

 

[realpinochet]

 

[Gavin Stone]

That’s a video of my experience. As of Tuesday signature solar decided to fully refund me for those inverters.

 

[Browse]

This was a good video and the light strobing is absolutely not acceptable. You should not have had to pay out of pocket for being a beta tester. Your articulate commentary and video will likely cost them many more times the value in lost sales than a complete refund, but unfortunately that is the way some companies operate. My experience with SS was better than yours, but I was able to correct my rack issues myself by taking it apart and moving some brackets. So far, no problem with the Lifepower4 batteries or Growatt 12k inverter but I've only had them a month and don't use them daily.

 

[mvonw]

That’s a video of my experience. As of Tuesday signature solar decided to fully refund me for those inverters.

It really sucks anybody has to make and post a video to get to that point, if they acknowledge its an issue.

 

[Quattrohead]

Wow that slow on/off was not what I was expecting.
Something is very wrong and different with the EG4 units compared to the LV/SP units.
There could be differences based on hitting a lower price point and being made in China instead of Taiwan.
I would love to see a detailed investigation of the units side by side.

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

Wow that slow on/off was not what I was expecting.
Something is very wrong and different with the EG4 units compared to the LV/SP units.
There could be differences based on hitting a lower price point and being made in China instead of Taiwan.
I would love to see a detailed investigation of the units side by side.

The 6500 is made in Taiwan. We are working to get these issues resolved. We have a Director at their Taiwan facility right now trying to get to the bottom of some of these issues. They believe we have fixes for the majority of the problems we're seeing commonly posted here. Will know more at the beginning of next week.

 

[Browse]

Wow that slow on/off was not what I was expecting.
Something is very wrong and different with the EG4 units compared to the LV/SP units.
There could be differences based on hitting a lower price point and being made in China instead of Taiwan.
I would love to see a detailed investigation of the units side by side.

I wonder if the strobing happens with a single unit? It could be poor phase matching between units, causing one of the legs to become unstable in voltage or frequency. If I was SS, I'd be doing lots of testing with a focus on waveform analysis in parallel mode.

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

I wonder if the strobing happens with a single unit? It could be poor phase matching between units, causing one of the legs to become unstable in voltage or frequency. If I was SS, I'd be doing lots of testing with a focus on waveform analysis in parallel mode.

The issues with strobing seem to only happen in parallel. Single units are not seeing these issues. And it hasn't been due to waveform as we've ran them under scope and the sine waves look great. Thought is that we are having issues with current sharing. I should know more in the next two days.

 

[Hedges]

How is current sharing implemented?

I think Sunny Island does that by simulating output resistance - voltage sag in proportion to current.
That means no communication required (except synchronization, which can be infrequent). Wire lengths should be close to same.

If sine waves look great, don't think lights would be affected. You could try a deep enough scope memory capture to include the period when lights go out. A bit more difficult to trigger on dropout - maybe just hit "stop" button after observing the blink.

A detector circuit, RMS, or diode R C, would turn AC sine wave into analog indicator of amplitude, which could go to one channel for trigger.

There are power quality meters. Those should grade inverter output, but might not be as useful to understand root cause.

 

[Quattrohead]

If sine waves look great, don't think lights would be affected.

I'm thinking it looks fine, until one or both inverters get confused and drop the output for a second until they get themselves sorted again....rinse and repeat.
I have no idea what the current cable does....hang on, it's only used if you want to increase the output current of a single phase, not for a single pair connected to produce split phase.

See, this is why evidence collection, proving the issue, engineering a solution, proving the solution and finally issuing the fix takes time.
Testing and QC should have happened before general release but this is 2023....look at Will's Ford thingy.

 

[Mattb4]

I had not looked at Mr. Stone's video till just now (watched enough to see the inset video with the lights powering off and back on). I was thinking up til now that his use of the word strobe was that the lights pulsed. I see instead they go out entirely for a period before coming back on. That looks more like a periodic drop in voltage rather than a frequency issue.

One question I wonder is if this happens when there is no 240v loads or that it happens also when there are 240v loads? I had created a thread sometime back discussing the concept of the use of two 120v HF inverters that were connected (not in parallel!!) to create a simulated 240v split phase. This of course being different in that a real split phase 240v is the output from a center tapped transformer or a generator with poles and windings and was not 2 independently created phases set up to stay 180 degrees apart via electronics like the HF is.

Just a guess, but if these units are not maintaining the proper phase angle at all times (loaded on one leg or both legs) that this might be causing the lights going off and back on.

 

[Gavin Stone]

I had not looked at Mr. Stone's video till just now (watched enough to see the inset video with the lights powering off and back on). I was thinking up til now that his use of the word strobe was that the lights pulsed. I see instead they go out entirely for a period before coming back on. That looks more like a periodic drop in voltage rather than a frequency issue.

One question I wonder is if this happens when there is no 240v loads or that it happens also when there are 240v loads? I had created a thread sometime back discussing the concept of the use of two 120v HF inverters that were connected (not in parallel!!) to create a simulated 240v split phase. This of course being different in that a real split phase 240v is the output from a center tapped transformer or a generator with poles and windings and was not 2 independently created phases set up to stay 180 degrees apart via electronics like the HF is.

Just a guess, but if these units are not maintaining the proper phase angle at all times (loaded on one leg or both legs) that this might be causing the lights going off and back on.

Could be. In this case “strobing” was the best terminology I could come up with. Since “pulsing” or “shimmering” are often used to describe the more typical issues some people have with inverters and LED’s. It didn’t seem to matter whether the units were supplying loads or not. I tried both.

I do see what you’re saying about voltage. Which may seem to tie into what Ben has said about their being a voltage sharing issue. It may be extremely slight. But dimmer switches I believe are sensitive enough to react to those slight changes. Evidently we will know the answer soon enough.