Signature Solar refuses to honor a warranty for a defective product! (And Solar Assistant Discussion)

[houseofancients]

If I were a distributor I wouldn't offer a warranty if people were using SA.

I'm surprised SS or anyone else would. But if they are seeing 60V on that port when they shouldn't, and that's before using SA, it's defective.

I don't think SS should offer any support for SA either.

Very much beg to differ .
SA is nothing but a data gathering device running on a mini computer.
Would be the same as a distri telling everyone "we wont support you if you hookup a PC"...
That , and the fact that I literally have 1000's of pi as IOT devices out at seriously big food production clients and I yet to hear the non sense Signature Solar is spewing...

Something ain't right there

 

[theoriginalgiga]

Very much beg to differ .
SA is nothing but a data gathering device running on a mini computer.
Would be the same as a distri telling everyone "we wont support you if you hookup a PC"...
That , and the fact that I literally have 1000's of pi as IOT devices out at seriously big food production clients and I yet to hear the non sense Signature Solar is spewing...

Something ain't right there

I'm curious, do your pis connect to the devices for serial access? Because first off cool. I also agree with you on a pi can't cause damage as said it's doing. I have yet to hear any definitive answer other than anecdotal user plugged in a SA 3 times and fried 3 dataplanes. It would be cool if SS could unbox an eg4 and test. They got to have a pi floating around and I bet dollars to doughnuts that SA would happily give them a license or 10 for testing. Maybe the user used a standard usb to rj45 for serial connection and that fried it? Without any other input on other theories that's what I'm going with. Improper circuit protection with nonstandard port wiring.

At this point I'm super curious what could have caused it. If it wouldn't void warranty I'd pop open the eg4 and take pics of the dataplanes to start tracing out lol.

 

[Crowz]

To say that certain usb to serial adapters kill x unit is believable. The pi is an innocent bystander on the other side of the usb to serial converter. Pi's do not have serial ports. So the pi cannot be attached via serial without the adapter since the orange pi 3 lts doesn't have a serial port to plug into.

Oh and they work great with Sungold units

 

[houseofancients]

I'm curious, do your pis connect to the devices for serial access? Because first off cool. I also agree with you on a pi can't cause damage as said it's doing. I have yet to hear any definitive answer other than anecdotal user plugged in a SA 3 times and fried 3 dataplanes. It would be cool if SS could unbox an eg4 and test. They got to have a pi floating around and I bet dollars to doughnuts that SA would happily give them a license or 10 for testing. Maybe the user used a standard usb to rj45 for serial connection and that fried it? Without any other input on other theories that's what I'm going with. Improper circuit protection with nonstandard port wiring.

At this point I'm super curious what could have caused it. If it wouldn't void warranty I'd pop open the eg4 and take pics of the dataplanes to start tracing out lol.

Depends on the machine they are connected to..
Some serial, some usb, some throught a rs485 board, some specialized though a custom developed add-on board connected on the header.

 

[houseofancients]

To say that certain usb to serial adapters kill x unit is believable. The pi is an innocent bystander on the other side of the usb to serial converter. Pi's do not have serial ports. So the pi cannot be attached via serial without the adapter since the orange pi 3 lts doesn't have a serial port to plug into.

Oh and they work great with Sungold units

Actually they do, but it is on the header

Example

Learn how to handle Raspberry Pi Serial Reading and Writing

All you need to know about serial reading and writing on the Raspberry Pi.

pimylifeup.com

If using usb stuff, out company ( and I personally) only uses waveshare devices, so cannot comment on others

 

[Crowz]

Actually they do, but it is on the header

Example

Learn how to handle Raspberry Pi Serial Reading and Writing

All you need to know about serial reading and writing on the Raspberry Pi.

pimylifeup.com

If using usb stuff, out company ( and I personally) only uses waveshare devices, so cannot comment on others

Oh I thought of that as I was typing but its not a plug in jack or accessible if you put it in a case like SA ships theirs in so I wasn't going to mention it

 

[Will Prowse]

Very much beg to differ .
SA is nothing but a data gathering device running on a mini computer.
Would be the same as a distri telling everyone "we wont support you if you hookup a PC"...
That , and the fact that I literally have 1000's of pi as IOT devices out at seriously big food production clients and I yet to hear the non sense Signature Solar is spewing...

Something ain't right there

I thought it had automated control processes that turn the inverter on and off. Am I not understanding it correctly? If it's just data gathering, that's different. I thought it was controlling the inverter with sensors and other means. Does it only control the loads? I'm pretty ignorant to solar assistant because I've never needed it.

The hardware is defective though so my statement has nothing to do with the original concern mentioned in this thread. They need a new unit. Plain and simple.

 

[Will Prowse]

Just hopped on their website and it looks like it does control the inverter:

Am I missing something here? Doesn't seem like it's just for gathering data.

 

[Tulex]

What it can and can't do is irrelevant. No one has ever had this issue with it being on dozens of different inverters and batteries. IF there is an issue with it cooking the port, it's most likely being caused by the inverter.

 

[Will Prowse]

What it can and can't do is irrelevant. No one has ever had this issue with it being on dozens of different inverters and batteries. IF there is an issue with it cooking the port, it's most likely being caused by the inverter.

I started every message here stating that the device is defective.

And if I was running a solar equipment distribution business, I would not want to spend money on customer support for a software product that I have no control over. And that can control the inverter. I don't care how many devices it works on.

 

[Crowz]

I thought it had automated control processes that turn the inverter on and off. Am I not understanding it correctly? If it's just data gathering, that's different. I thought it was controlling the inverter with sensors and other means. Does it only control the loads? I'm pretty ignorant to solar assistant because I've never needed it.

The hardware is defective though so my statement has nothing to do with the original concern mentioned in this thread. They need a new unit. Plain and simple.

If the inverter supports it in protocol it can flip the inverter between Solar/Utility/Battery and Solar/Battery/Utility modes. That's about it.

Its just a monitoring solution that reads the stream put out by the inverter and can talk to the inverter if it supports it to change modes. All of which is nothing more than what a laptop could do with the right software.

SS is claiming it electrically fries stuff which would happen even in the Solar Assistant wasn't running. They are claiming the Pi computer is whats actually killing the units which I don't buy.

 

[Tulex]

I started every message here stating that the device is defective.

And if I was running a solar equipment distribution business, I would not want to spend money on customer support for a software product that I have no control over. And that can control the inverter. I don't care how many devices it works on.

There are probably 100 different car scanners that you can plug in to evaluate your car. Car companies don't support them, but they don't void the warranty. We run Fagor controls and drivers on many of our CNCs at work. It's common to plug in a laptop to a driver to evaluate an issue. Fagor doesn't void the warranty when we do this. Connecting devises to some sort of control is common. Creating an issue by doing so isn't.

SS/EG4 doesn't have to support it, but they also shouldn't be blaming it/banning it.

 

[houseofancients]

Just hopped on their website and it looks like it does control the inverter:
View attachment 168049
Am I missing something here? Doesn't seem like it's just for gathering data.

It can do exactly the same as the PC software.
Again my statement " if you hookup a computer we wont support you"

This has -0- to do with what computer is being used ( could be a raspberry pi), or what software ( could be solar assistant or the watchpower software) it is running.

This is Signature Solar seeking a way out for inverter uart chips ( internal communication) being fried on that series of inverters, a serie that has been plagued by "little issues"

On a side note, this setup ( SA + mpp/voltronics inverter ) has been running on many many many locations, and only eg4's get fried .. curious to say the least

 

[Will Prowse]

It can do exactly the same as the PC software.
Again my statement " if you hookup a computer we wont support you"

This has -0- to do with what computer is being used ( could be a raspberry pi), or what software ( could be solar assistant or the watchpower software) it is running.

This is Signature Solar seeking a way out for inverter uart chips ( internal communication) being fried on that series of inverters, a serie that has been plagued by "little issues"

On a side note, this setup ( SA + mpp/voltronics inverter ) has been running on many many many locations, and only eg4's get fried .. curious to say the least

The small inverter has less problems than anything else they've ever sold. It's the only one that functioned perfectly on my video too on the first try. What other problems are you referring to with that inverter. It's not made by the same company that's making all the other inverters that they sell.

And as I've said multiple times the product is defective. Never has that been questioned or denied. I don't care what signature solar thinks or their policies.

 

[Will Prowse]

Yeah it's a straight up defective unit. End of story. They need to refund you or send out a new one in less than a day. In my opinion

This was the conclusion that I posted multiple pages ago. I don't know how much more clear I can be right here.

If signature Solar doesn't give them a new unit without paying shipping, then it will make them look bad. Very straightforward process. I don't need to have an opinion on that.

 

[Tulex]

This was the conclusion that I posted multiple pages ago. I don't know how much more clear I can be right here.

If signature Solar doesn't give them a new unit without paying shipping, then it will make them look bad. Very straightforward process. I don't need to have an opinion on that.

Umm, they already look bad for how they've handled this one, at least one other one, and who knows how many more. At this point, I don't think people are ignoring that you've said the unit is bad, but are more focused on the fact that SS is taking the approach they are. Frankly, I would think you too would find it a bigger concern than you appear to be. Maybe I've missed that part.

 

[Will Prowse]

Umm, they already look bad for how they've handled this one, at least one other one, and who knows how many more. At this point, I don't think people are ignoring that you've said the unit is bad, but are more focused on the fact that SS is taking the approach they are. Frankly, I would think you too would find it a bigger concern than you appear to be. Maybe I've missed that part.

Yes absolutely. And yes they did a bad job in my opinion. I think that's obvious. When they do a bad job, it means I can sell more stuff with other distributors. The decision is on the customer. And the opinions I have has nothing to do with these distributors. The market will decide if signature solar will stay around. Not me. I just want the information to be present online for all to see. That's my job.

Sma is started so I figured the thread is done in that regard. If they screw up again then we will hear about it in a new thread for us all to see. Not sure why someone would hide that news deep in a thread. I just want to know about solar assistant

 

[Will Prowse]

And for all of my videos moving forward I will just have more stuff to talk about. I will simply state that if you get a defective unit it is very hard sometimes to get signature solar to return it.

And then another distributor will fulfill that vacuum in the market

 

[Will Prowse]

I actually wish someone could do a solar equipment business that did not offer support, but did offer fast returns on defective units. Having all of these companies support all of these customers cost a lot of money and we all have to pay for it with higher equipment prices. It would be nice for DIY type people to have an option that's cheaper if they do it on their own. I know that's unrealistic but I would love it personally ?

 

[HighTechLab]

I noticed @HighTechLab advertises this splitter to add functionality for SA. I wonder if CC is seeing any of these claimed SA failures with the MPP or any other inverters they sell.

This is mainly for Sol-Ark, since battery comms use the CAN pins and SA uses the RS485 pins, that are on the same RJ45 port.

wish someone could do a solar equipment business that did not offer support, but did offer fast returns on defective units.

How do you make sure a unit is defective without troubleshooting/support? What do you do with all the non-defective return units if you have no technical support to figure out what happened with the first owner?