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EG4-6500 losing clock and MPPT issues

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Madco

Solar Enthusiast
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Jan 12, 2023
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262
Location
Northwest Arkansas
system is: two inverters configured split phase, each with 3.4kW of panels connected to PV1.

The 2P1 inverter loses about an hour per day on its clock, the 2P2 inverter does not.

The 2P1 inverter's MPPT input "idles" around 285W until I interrupt the input, then it instantly increases to match generation of the 2P2 inverter's MPPT input, around 2kW in this example. The 2P2 inverter has adjusted the panel voltage to around 315V while the 2P1 inverter is running at 90V until I interrupt the input, then it adjusts to a similar voltage, around 320V.

Anybody experiencing similar behavior?
 
Madco said:
system is: two inverters configured split phase, each with 3.4kW of panels connected to PV1.

The 2P1 inverter loses about an hour per day on its clock, the 2P2 inverter does not.

The 2P1 inverter's MPPT input "idles" around 285W until I interrupt the input, then it instantly increases to match generation of the 2P2 inverter's MPPT input, around 2kW in this example. The 2P2 inverter has adjusted the panel voltage to around 315V while the 2P1 inverter is running at 90V until I interrupt the input, then it adjusts to a similar voltage, around 320V.

Anybody experiencing similar behavior?
Click to expand...
I have the same inverter setup (2x EG4-6500EX, split phase) and have noticed the clock issue as well. The clock always run slower for which ever inverter is setup as 2P1.
 
My EG4 6000EX is experiencing a slow clock as well.

I recently discovered this today and found my time to be almost 2 hours off. I had to reboot the whole system (inverter and battery) before an adjusted time would hold. After adjusting this morning, the clock is currently 20 mins slow for an 8 hour time frame.

This variance in time will negatively affect the time dependent inverter settings (AC charger start & stop) which I am currently.

How can we get EG4 to address our issues?
 
UPDATE: It looks as if the slowing clock has something to do with EG4 being selected as the battery type. Going with USE (eliminating the RS485 communications) on the battery type selection mitigates the problem. Also had two occurances of a fault 71 (firmware mismatch) which has not happened again since removing the battery comms. Both times with the fault 71, the 2P2 inverter lost its settings.
 
That's an interesting software bug.

Can report with my (2) unit split phase setup and USE I have not experienced any lose of proper time in 3 months.
 
Madco said:
UPDATE: It looks as if the slowing clock has something to do with EG4 being selected as the battery type. Going with USE (eliminating the RS485 communications) on the battery type selection mitigates the problem. Also had two occurances of a fault 71 (firmware mismatch) which has not happened again since removing the battery comms. Both times with the fault 71, the 2P2 inverter lost its settings.
Click to expand...
Have you checked to make sure that the firmwares are the same on both units?
 
BenFromSignatureSolar said:
Have you checked to make sure that the firmwares are the same on both units?
Click to expand...
Both firmwares report U1 as 79.03 and U2 as 61.06. I have an open ticket on the issue. Tech support suggested I upgrade the firmware and am waiting on the cable to do so. BTW, the fault 71 issue is resolved as soon as I uplug the RS485 cable. Atleast at that point, I can restart both inverters and they gracefully resume operation, after I reset the lost parameters in 2P2.
 
PreppenWolf said:
That's an interesting software bug.

Can report with my (2) unit split phase setup and USE I have not experienced any lose of proper time in 3 months.
Click to expand...
Yea, it almost smells like noise on the 485 interface is nailed the MCU with interrupts. I have no idea if the clock is implemented in software, but if it is, a UART hammering the MCU with receive data full interrupts due to noise would be my first guess!
 
Madco said:
Yea, it almost smells like noise on the 485 interface is nailed the MCU with interrupts. I have no idea if the clock is implemented in software, but if it is, a UART hammering the MCU with receive data full interrupts due to noise would be my first guess!
Click to expand...
I'll hang a scope on the 485 interface and take a look
 
Do you have information suggesting that these specific issues are addressed in the revision? Since bricking a unit is always possible with a firmware upgrade, I don't want to do it if my specifics are not addressed.
 
Madco said:
UPDATE: It looks as if the slowing clock has something to do with EG4 being selected as the battery type. Going with USE (eliminating the RS485 communications) on the battery type selection mitigates the problem. Also had two occurances of a fault 71 (firmware mismatch) which has not happened again since removing the battery comms. Both times with the fault 71, the 2P2 inverter lost its settings.
Click to expand...
Both my 6500s are only on the USE battery setting and I’ve experienced the clock drift problem.
 
BenFromSignatureSolar said:
FW 79.60 is the newest version and should fix that issue and allow for solid comms
Click to expand...

I've noticed that my 6000EX sometimes freezes and won't register setting. After 5-10 minutes I'll try again and the setting will finally register.

I assume the clock stops ticking, and when the system recovers the clock will resume. A significant differential in time will be the result of multiple occurances of the inverter system freezing.
 
As a note I checked mine again tonight and my times are spot on for both units. I have not changed them since November.
 
PreppenWolf said:
As a note I checked mine again tonight and my times are spot on for both units. I have not changed them since November.
Click to expand...
After seeing your post, I had to go and check mine again since I reset them on Friday night.

Inverter 1 is a minute off.

In my case it’s not that big of a deal because I don’t use any of the inverter timer features, but still would be nice if it was able to maintain the proper time.
 
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