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Question Can EG4 provide feedback about flickering on the 18Kpv?

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(@caesarv)
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Joined: 4 months ago

My wife is getting very annoyed with the flickering of LED bulbs when the 18Kpv is running off of battery or solar.  It is fine when running from the grid.  I have installed Philips "flicker free" bulbs which help somewhat, but they do not eliminate the flicker.  I believe this started with firmware 1E1E, but supposedly I cannot go back to a previous version.  I really need EG4 to comment on this.  Do they know about this issue? Are they working on it? Can it be fixed in firmware? Can they provide a method to go back to a previous version of firmware in the meantime...assuming this actually is a firmware issue? 

I love my 18Kpv except for this problem, but I cannot recommend it to anyone unless this can be fixed...presumably with a firmware update.  If they know about this issue and are working on it, then I can patiently wait, but it would be nice to know that they are doing something about this.  I would not even mind being a beta tester for new firmware.

 

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Eric
Posts: 73
 Eric
(@eric)
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Good morning! We have not had any reports of people having this issue with the new firmware.

Can you please share more information about your system?
How many batteries do you have and which ones?

Was this issue or any type of flickering present when the inverter was on the previous firmware?

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Posts: 40
Topic starter
(@caesarv)
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Joined: 4 months ago

First, thank you for the reply.
Many of my LED bulbs flicker constantly when running from the battery or solar.  I have seen other posts that mention something similar.  Here is one example, complete with video: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/eg4-18k-massive-off-grid-problems.95282/   My LEDs flicker exactly the same way.  There are several other posts describing the same thing...such as: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/18kpv-refrigerator-causing-light-flickering.83193/

There is no flicker when doing a quick charge or other times when powered off the grid. 
I looked at the sine wave output with an oscilloscope and can see some instability, but I can't fully describe it due to my very-limited o-scope.

I was using a 314Ah battery that is connected via 2ft 2/0 cables; see picture.  I have since added another 314Ah battery; but no difference in flickering.  I have two strings of solar panels that total 6kW, but that should not matter as the flicker problem also happens at night.  I did not notice this issue with previous firmware, but I could be mistaken. I would love to go back to a previous version of firmware to verify this, but was told this was not possible due to new memory mapping.  Any ideas?

system sml

 

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Posts: 40
Topic starter
(@caesarv)
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Joined: 4 months ago

P.S.  As the flickering is worse sometimes, and very minimal at others, I will see if I can isolate the cause to some device...such as my fridge, mini-split, or something else.

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(@jlankford)
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Joined: 4 months ago

@eric

You might note in that first linked thread that EG4TechSolutionsTeam acknowledged this flickering issue on 2 Dec 2024, post #34.

For some 18K users, myself included, this issue is one reason to not upgrade to the 1E1E firmware, as we've been waiting to see a resolution.

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(@caesarv)
Joined: 4 months ago

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@jlankford
I don't see where they actually acknowledged the flickering in that post.

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(@jlankford)
Joined: 4 months ago

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Posts: 135

Posted by: @caesarv

@jlankford
I don't see where they actually acknowledged the flickering in that post.

EG4TechSolutionsTeam:

"After reviewing the first remote set, I noticed that the LCD version is still on 12/1/1. Has it been updated to 18/1/1, as this version is needed for the 1E1E update? If so, did the update fix the flickering lights issue?"

Acknowledged in the sense that they were aware that someone was complaining about a flickering issue. Perhaps not acknowledging that it was a known problem they are trying to fix. I was responding to the comment above from Eric that EG4 is unaware that anyone has reported a flickering problem. Perhaps no one has opened a support ticket for it, but they should be aware from their activity in that DIY forum. They clearly monitor / filter for "EG4" and/or other keywords there.

 

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