Avoid the EG4 6500ex 79.71 firmware!

[vladkgb]

I have 2x 6500ex in split phase, wired with a common neutral, screws removed from the factory. They've been running flawlessly since March. I RMA'd one of the inverters after i found an issue with one of it's MPPT controllers, and received a new inverter from SS. I installed the new one 2 weeks ago, but it was running on old firmware, so i went ahead and upgraded it to the latest 79.71 firmware with the bonding setting 42, and upgraded my other inverter to the same firmware. I set the setting 42 to "enabled" and tested the common neutral on both inverters for continuity to verify and then switched my CL panel over. The inverters ran fine for 2 weeks, then 2 days ago, I noticed they were stuck in bypass even though i had 100% SOC, and the LED screen was dimmed even though i never disabled that setting. I checked the settings and they were reset! Setting 42 was "disabled", the LED backlight was disabled, setting 12 was set to 100% which is why it was stuck in bypass mode, and my 2p2 inverter's setting 05 was "AGM" mode instead of "USE"! Thank god it was in bypass mode or else it could have fried circuits in my house and maybe even caused a fire!

I've fallen back to the previous, 79.70 stationary firmware, with which I had 0 issues with. Luckily, I had that saved because EG4 downloads page doesn't have links for older firmware.

Lessons learned:

1. Don't be a guinea pig for latest EG4 firmware.
2. Save the firmware downloads so you can fall back if needed.
3. Verify continuity between neutrals and ensure there's no NG bond after all firmware upgrades going forward.

Attached is my wiring diagram.

If any future firmware upgrades will have option 42, I'll jumper the AC in neutral to AC out neutral to be safe.

 

[Adam De Lay]

That's crazy! I've heard of several different occasions where inverter settings are reset. Never heard any explanation as to why though.

@BenFromSignatureSolar any ideas?

 

[solarhombre]

That's crazy! I've heard of several different occasions where inverter settings are reset. Never heard any explanation as to why though.

@BenFromSignatureSolar any ideas?

It happened to me once when I was using the watchpower app: sent a few commands from the app, none of them was actually executed and every query was timing out. A few minutes later both EG4 6500s had *all* the configuration parameters reset. I haven't used the app since then and have blocked the wifi on the inverters.

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

I have 2x 6500ex in split phase, wired with a common neutral, screws removed from the factory. They've been running flawlessly since March. I RMA'd one of the inverters after i found an issue with one of it's MPPT controllers, and received a new inverter from SS. I installed the new one 2 weeks ago, but it was running on old firmware, so i went ahead and upgraded it to the latest 79.71 firmware with the bonding setting 42, and upgraded my other inverter to the same firmware. I set the setting 42 to "enabled" and tested the common neutral on both inverters for continuity to verify and then switched my CL panel over. The inverters ran fine for 2 weeks, then 2 days ago, I noticed they were stuck in bypass even though i had 100% SOC, and the LED screen was dimmed even though i never disabled that setting. I checked the settings and they were reset! Setting 42 was "disabled", the LED backlight was disabled, setting 12 was set to 100% which is why it was stuck in bypass mode, and my 2p2 inverter's setting 05 was "AGM" mode instead of "USE"! Thank god it was in bypass mode or else it could have fried circuits in my house and maybe even caused a fire!

I've fallen back to the previous, 79.70 stationary firmware, with which I had 0 issues with. Luckily, I had that saved because EG4 downloads page doesn't have links for older firmware.

Lessons learned:

1. Don't be a guinea pig for latest EG4 firmware.
2. Save the firmware downloads so you can fall back if needed.
3. Verify continuity between neutrals and ensure there's no NG bond after all firmware upgrades going forward.

Attached is my wiring diagram.

If any future firmware upgrades will have option 42, I'll jumper the AC in neutral to AC out neutral to be safe.

Do you know if the units may have powered down at any point before you noticed the settings reverted?

 

[solarhombre]

Do you know if the units may have powered down at any point before you noticed the settings reverted?

They both were on and had both battery and grid input. The output breaker was open.

Update: this was 2 firmware revisions ago.

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

They both were on and had both battery and grid input. The output breaker was open.

Update: this was 2 firmware revisions ago.

My initial thought was a possible eprom failure. I've seen this type of behavior in the past and it was typically the result of a faulty eprom chip but that would only be the case had the units lost power. I have not, however, noticed settings reverting from a FW update. Have you had the opportunity to get in touch with the tech support team regarding this?

 

[vladkgb]

Do you know if the units may have powered down at any point before you noticed the settings reverted?

Attached are screenshots from SA.


After about 7/7 at noon, the inverters went out of SBU mode and were just running in bypass mode. You can see my batteries were never discharged after that. This was when the "event" that reset the settings happened.

My settings were SBU, and #12 was 5% SOC, #13 was 30%, so it should have charged the batteries to 30% and went back to SBU had my settings been retained.

Looking at the load, there was a spike to about 10kw total during that time, maybe it caused an overload and the reset? I think we would have noticed if the inverters shutdown, because we were home at this time. I also had bypass on overload setting enabled if that helps.

 

[Adam De Lay]

I've actually noticed a significant number of "spikes" and situations where "bypass on overload" has been triggered since I upgraded to 79.71. I emailed SS almost 3 weeks ago with logs and data dumps. Still have yet to receive a response.

 

[solarhombre]

My initial thought was a possible eprom failure. I've seen this type of behavior in the past and it was typically the result of a faulty eprom chip but that would only be the case had the units lost power. I have not, however, noticed settings reverting from a FW update. Have you had the opportunity to get in touch with the tech support team regarding this?

I didn't reach out to the support team because it only happened once and everything has been working fine since I stopped using the app.