RegGuheert
Well-known member
Great information! Thanks! Interestingly, after reading your post I just walked in there and did a communication check and it now shows three bars. That probably explains why it worked yesterday afternoon but not yesterday morning. (I would test charging it right now, but I let my son use the LEAF today since it was fully charged.)drees said:2 bars is low. Enphase recommends that you install the Envoy in a location where you receive 3 bars or higher. I initially had my Envoy installed in a location with 2 bars. Worked fine for months. But then started randomly dropping out. Relocated to where it gets 5 bars and have only had one instance where comms dropped out - coincidentally it was around 8am-10am one morning.
That actually makes a lot of sense to me! It is quite rural here and we are quite close to the end of a stub, so I'm sure the impedance of the grid is fairly high, meaning noisy loads should have some significant impact on voltage noise. Assuming the bars represent signal-to-noise ratio (which they should) rather than signal amplitude, my communications readings match your theory. (Of course, they also match the theory that the signal is now greater.)drees said:I really doubt it's related to the amount of power the PV system is generating. In residential areas, the grid will be noisiest in the mornings and evenings when everyone is home and running their appliances. I think it's more likely that the additional noise generated by charging simply puts your system over the edge.
I will do number 1 right now! That's super easy to do! Frankly, I had forgotten that the thing had a communications check until Wayne mentioned it since the Envoy has worked flawlessly for so long.drees said:If it were me, I'd do these 2 things:
1. Relocate the Envoy where it gets at least 3 bars during a comm check.
2. Install a ferrite bead on each line for the EVSE - the ones Herm linked to earlier cost $5 from Radio Shack.
If I cannot find an existing outlet that gets me at least the three bars I need in the morning hours then I can certainly drop a dedicated circuit off the PV subpanel as mrradon suggested:
mrradon said:After trial and error, the only way I could get the Envoy-Inverter communication to work reliably was to install an outlet off my solar array sub panel and connect the Envoy directly to it, I had to run a CAT5 (internet) cable to the Envoy.
mrradon said:Try moving the location of the Envoy.
When I installed my sisters system, the Envoy didn't work either unless I plugged it into an outlet off the Sub-Panel.