XW Pro Generator Issues or Inverter Issues?

5thJourneyOffGrid

Have been off grid with for the past three years using Schneider products.  Fired up the generator for the first time this season and the XW Pro 6848 Inverter started acting strange.  In the past it would only accept the running watts of the generator, around 4kw.  This time it tried to pull 6kw.  I'm not sure if the generator shut off or the Inverter killed the power but it tried three times then wouldn't connect again.

I disconnected generator power to clear the fault in the Inverter so I could try again.  I logged into the Gateway to look at the settings and things looked different then I remembered.  The layout had changed a little and there were new settings that I don't remember setting in the past.  I'm assuming the system upgraded.  I did to a firmware update but I believe that was before last winter.  I reset the generator parameters for the incoming power.  The Amps was changed to 30 when it was 20 in the past which is why I think it was trying to pull more power then before.

I started the generator again and watched the readings and noticed that the 120V legs coming from the generator were not equal.  One was lower and the other higher but the total was still 240V.   The difference was 10-15V.  I called Schneider and was told that this was the problem.  I then called Champion who makes the generator and was told to replace the bushings and voltage regulator.  They also sent me instructions to adjust the voltage and hertz.  I ordered the parts and made sure the Hertz was 60 and voltage was 240.  I then started the generator and checked the voltage per leg from the generator plug and at every stop between it and the Inverter.  All read 120V per leg so no issues there.

This told me that the Inverter was the problem.  I started the generator again and the voltage was still off per leg the same 10-15V.  I let the Inverter qualify the power and it did connect but had a electrical grinding noise so I killed the generator power.

I have two XW Pro 6848 Inverters. One has been disconnected for over a year because I could never get the two inverters to cooperate.  I was always getting errors, even Schneider and the company I purchased the system from couldn't figure it out.  Since never use more than the output of one inverter I disconnected the slave inverter and have been keeping it as a backup.

I tried to hook up the fire up the Slave inverter to change it to the Master inverter but ran into an ER66 Configuration Fault, one of the errors I had back when trying to run dual inverters.  Because of this I couldn't get into the settings to switch from Slave to Master.  I tried only having teh Slave on and having both the Slave and Master on but couldn't get in.

Next a loud beep went off and the system shut down giving an ER56 EEPROM Error (Strings Fail).  At that point I quit trying and unhooked the communication cables between the two inverters.  I restarted the Master and it was working fine.  We've had a whole week of clouds and rain so it's been a challenge. I've had to run the generator in bypass mode to run the house basically all day and let what little solar that came in to charge the batteries. 

We made it but during this time period the Master has given the same ER56 EEPROM Error (Strings Fail) everytime I switch back to inverter power for the night.  I'd turn off bypass and the inverter would start working as normal but then maybe 5-15 minutes in it would beep again, show the ER56 and shut off.  I'd turn it back on and it would then work fine all night but would not show up in the Gateway anymore.  I knew it was working because we had power and the Gateway showed the SOC and such but the inverter showed Off Line.

I've been emailing NAZ for a week not and they're not helping AT ALL...thanks for the let down.  Haven't heard anything from them, very very disappointing.  I'm been on hold with Schneider now for almost 90 minutes and decided to try some forums.  Any advice would be great.

Dave Angelini

What education have you done/taken to get up to speed? Wind and Sun NAZ can only do so much for DIY. They support their installers really well
and maybe you need one? Installing a Hybrid like XWP is not easy and is not entry level offgrid without due diligence.

A generator and bad configuration settings are a good way to damage any Inverter/Charger.

 If you take the time to post screenshots of configuration settings, list what you programmed the region code to, and take a picture of the installation it will be easier for others.

5thJourneyOffGrid

​UPDATE:

After spending several hours on the phone with Schneider they are warranting both inverters.  He thinks the inverters had signal interference from using the CAT5e communication cables which caused the EEPROM errors and said I need to upgrade to CAT7.  I was using the CAT5e cables that came with the system.  I don't think that's the case but he warrantied them anyway.  He said that I was outside the 3 year warranty period but within the 5 year warranty period IF I had registered the inverters on their website.  I was never made away that I had to register the inverters with Schneider and was told they had a 5 year warranty when I purchased them.  So note to anyone purchasing Schneider Equipment to register it.

Here is what I think happened.  While working through the system he said that the SCP is not longer supported after the last firmware update.  I was not made away of this and it was not disclosed when I updated the firmware to disconnect the SCP.  Remember in my original post that I stated the settings looked different when I logged into the Gateway to try and figure out the problem?  That was because the interface did change with the firmware update and it caused a conflict between the SCP and Gateway.  This is where I believe the EEPROM errors came from.  

Further evidence for this is that when I disconnected the SCP the system worked.  Then he had me factory reset the inverters, which resulted in more errors and the same EEPROM error.  At this point the SCP was disconnected so he had me hook it back up and disconnect the gateway and everything worked fine again.  This would be because now the Gateway has different firmware than the inverters but the SCP could now communicate with the inverters again.  

More evidence of this is that I was not using the slave inverter when the problem started, it had been fully disconnected for over a year.  But when he had me hooked it up the same errors popped up on it as the master inverter did.  If it the CAT5e cable was the issue it wouldn't have fried the slave inverter immediately like that.  Plus I never ran the generator through the slave inverter so I know it wasn't some issue with the generator like dirty power.  I had also ran fully through the generator and found that it was sending out a clean 60Hz and 120V per leg.  Only when it entered the inverter did the problem happen.  I'm 99% sure if was a software setting issue that happened because of the firmware update which only became known when the inverter tried to use the generators power and couldn't figure out what to do because of the conflict between the SCP and Gateway. 

Note that I have not tried to run the generator again though the inverters and don't plan too.  Instead I'm purchasing a Chargeinverter so I can charge the batteries outside of the inverters.  Right now I'm running the house off the slave inverter and the SCP.  Before installing the new inverters I plan to either update the inverters firmware again, disconnect the SCP, and start using the Gateway again.  If that doesn't work then I'm going to try rolling back the inverter and Gateway and see if that works.  I really want to be able to use the Gateway to see and monitor the system.  The SCP is very limited in what it can do when it comes to configuration of the system.   

If I can't get it to work and have to install the new inverters and I plan to also get rid of the Gateway and update to the newer version they have out.  I still plan to install the Chargeinverter regardless.   If I can get the old inverters to function then I'll keep using them until they crash and keep the warranties ones as spars. 

What are your thoughts?

5thJourneyOffGrid

Dave Angelini said:

What education have you done/taken to get up to speed? Wind and Sun NAZ can only do so much for DIY. They support their installers really well
and maybe you need one? Installing a Hybrid like XWP is not easy and is not entry level offgrid without due diligence.

A generator and bad configuration settings are a good way to damage any Inverter/Charger.

 If you take the time to post screenshots of configuration settings, list what you programmed the region code to, and take a picture of the installation it will be easier for others.

I appreciate your reply but I'm not some uneducated back roads hick that lives in the woods.  I've used their tech support for years but in the last 2 years their response time is getting longer and longer and the actual support received is less and less.  I honestly feel I'm being put on the back burner hoping that I'll just go away.  It isn't like I'm calling for tech support constantly either, maybe once a year if that.  If they only want to do tech support for installers then they shouldn't offer lifetime support for everyone.  

SteveK

Glad to hear your troubles will soon be over. Happy to hear Schneider stood by you. I was made aware of the 2 year warranty extension only when I went to the website to register our XW Pro. After having only one issue I found tech support to be good. I was assured in writing that if a replacement was required they would send one out to me directly. Any repairs would need to be done by their team at our home.

Was glad to hear all that seeing how I bought this at a deep discount from an inventory clearing house near me.

Am I understanding you correctly? They are sending you two new XW's and they don't want the old ones back?

Dave Angelini

You are new to the forum and might try searching here. Alot of this has been gone thru. Schneider and NAZ tech support is not for training and they do not have the resources to train you. There are 2 sides to every story. You do have the warranty wrong by the way. It does not matter who told you, it is your responsibility to know. Offgrid is all about being independent and being in the know.  Good Luck!