I am troubling shooting an issue with Bluetti support regarding unstable AC Grid input when charging using a 1000W pure sine wave inverter. They pushed a firmware V4031.22 to me and suggested I update to it (I currently have V4031.16). However, I didn’t get specific change on what this firmware would do, and I am always somewhat afraid of upgrading firmware. Do anyone have used DSP V4031.22 before? How you got it? What issues did it address? What issues did it cause?
1 Like
Hi @snowstorm
unfortunately there is no official changelog for updates. If you have a problem with you powerstation, i would try the update. If nothing wrong with it, leave it at the current version.
In your case, where the bluetti team pushed a firmware to your machine only, i would check it out because they might adjust the firmware just for you special problem.
greetings
Erik
@snowstorm If the generator or power grid is weak and the output voltage is unstable, the input voltage will be lowered for a moment when charging the AC300 or loading the AC300 in bypass mode. If the input voltage is lower than the input voltage range of our machine, it will not be able to input normally. This firmware can lower the input voltage. But after the upgrade, UPS switching time cannot be guaranteed to be within 20ms.
Thank you for the explanation. It is uncommon for companies to offer customized firmware to address customer problem, you guys are really going the extra mile.
If this firmware doesn’t address my issue and the switching time becomes too long, is there a way for me to revert to the original firmware?
As a suggestion, instead of making a hard coded change to the behavior with the new firmware, it would be good if the new firmware introduce this as an option that can be configured in the machine to turn on or off (e.g. Extended Grid voltage range)
@snowstorm Thanks for your understanding. If the firmware does not address your issue, we can arrange to revert to the original firmware.
For your suggestion, the new model AC180 has a Grid enhancement mode. But there is no such option on old models.
So is this firmware like turning “grid enhancement mode” on for AC300?
I have successfully updated to DSP v4031.22 from v4031.16
Here is my observations:
This appeared to resolve the problem with grid input drop out, at least for the EB70.
While the AC300 is supplying 2000w AC to a connected microwave oven and some small networking load, I can plug and remove the EB70 AC and have the AC300 draw 5A (~550w) from the EB70. Previously, under this situation, the AC300 grid input would fail and complain that the grid voltage is high and grid voltage is low. I have yet to test it with my 1100w inverter, but things are looking hopeful so far.
I did notice a side effect. When disconnecting the AC, the AC300’s AC output seems to drop in voltage for a second before recovering. This isn’t enough to stop connected device from working, but I can see the temporary reduction in power/noise from the microwave oven.
High power AC300 2000w - tested 5 times
EB70 connection and disconnection OK
When disconnecting, temporary AC300 power level drop, but connected devices (including network router) didn’t suffer any issues
Low power Ac300 100w - tested 5 times
EB70 connection and disconnection OK (was OK before as well)
When disconnecting, no obvious effect
I did notice once when I wasn’t testing it that when I unplugged the AC input from the AC300, the AC output seemed to have totally dropped out and then resumed 3 seconds later, causing all connected device to loose power. But I’ve only seen this once in the 15 times or so that I’ve tested AC disconnection.
I’ve also tested this using my 1100w inverter connected to the 12V DC output of my electric car - It works.
I’ve noticed that when the AC300 AC output load increase a lot, it would temporary reduce or greatly reduce the power it draws from the grid for a few seconds, then proceed to ramp back up to the previous value. I have it set to 7A so about 800w. With the previous DSP firmware v4031.16, it would cut out the AC grid input and throw an alarm. It seems that the v4031.22 update made this much more tolerant of grid fluctuation, where any slight hiccup in the past would cause it to disconnect from the grid.
The downside here is that when the grid is disconnected, the AC output seems to be less stable before it transfer back to inverter output power. I’ve done that AC grid disconnect under load many times, maybe 20x, and only once did it completely drop out for 3-4 seconds before resuming, causing connected device to loose power and reboot. The other 19x, it seems to temporary reduce power on AC output and then resume <1 sec, none of my devices (microwave oven, network router) cut out.
Thank you Bluetti for caring!
It would be great if you can make this a setting option so I can turn this on/off without having to do firmware update.
1 Like
This sounds like it could be a solution for my issue.
Usage is in a camper. With the generator in eco mode, and large output demanded, the AC300 gets a “input voltage low” fault and I lose all AC output.
The unit does fine if I limit current to 6A as my gas generator can put that out at low idle.
If I keep it in high idle it works fine but I burn more fuel when it’s not needed.
This is exciting to me because I’m a nerd about such things.
You should contact Bluetti care to see if they can push this to you.
From my experience, this firmware is more tolerant of grid input fluctuations, but may results in longer switch over time to internal battery when the grid is disconnected. If that happens, the devices connected to AC300’s AC output may loose power for a moment when grid input is disconnected. In my testing, it happened about 1 in 20 disconnects, which is an acceptable consequence for me for allowing my AC input to work.