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Not that you're trying to pull the wool over the inspector's eyes, as a knowledgeable individual would certainly know what the full voltage of an LFP battery is, but nominally it is a 48-volt system, after all, and I would recommend speaking of it as such. When dealing with inspectors (building...

This is just a side-note, perhaps, but personal experience seems to support two possible philosophies with respect to grounding. They are incompatible with each other, and most choose to ground the entire system. The opposite philosophy says it's best to ground nothing. I spent some years in...

From one noob to another (the blind leading the blind), I would suggest that it might be possible for the batteries to have sufficiently discharged that the BMS has taken them offline. If that is the case, you might need to charge them manually until they are above the low-voltage threshhold...

I believe this may be accurate for Deye, Sunsynk, and Sol-Ark. However, with LVTOPSUN, the firmware is definitely not the same--at least, the GUI/interface is rather different. The LVTOPSUN, for example, has no option of setting battery-usage times, as I understand the Deye to have, and the...

As can be seen by the comments so far, most here expect that people will need and/or be able to engineer their own system, which begins with some basic math to calculate one's needs. But for a total newbie, even this math can be daunting. It is a little complicated, but I think it's not so...

Well, take this with a grain of salt. I'm in Thailand, and good information here is scarce. What's more, it is against the law here to post negative information online about anyone or any company, punishable by jail times, which exacerbates the information gap. But here is the information I...

If I weren't in Thailand, I'd take you up on this. I've done a lot of construction work (in multiple countries), including roofing and electrical/house wiring type work, and am quite comfortable with such work. I've also done satellite dish installations on roofs. BUT....I'm on the other side...

Well....supposedly, LVTOPSUN doesn't either. Just the same, I have one.

If I'm seeing it correctly, it does look like an odd connection as illustrated by the pictures in the manual. It appears to limit the contact surface area to a small ring. If that center insulated bus bar is flexible enough to allow a flat (parallel, not bent or angled) connection on the...

I'm not sure what material your climbing rope is made of, but if it has any kind of polyester fiber, which most of the cheap ropes do, I would highly discourage this plan. The ropes will work fine for a few months. After this, the polyester will have deteriorated enough in the sunlight to...

The way I reason it is this: Imagine each "string" of panels as exerting a pulling force on a "rope", tug-of-war style. If all strings are working the same amount, and on the same side, they pull together, and move together--like horses harnessed together. Now, supposing someone has four...

In my own mind, I compare to various sizes of resistors. One can have a small 32-Ohm resistor, or a rather large one...and what is the difference? the amperage it can handle. (Just google for images of 32 Ohm resistors and compare the various sizes.) The photovoltaic panels have their own...

I'm still trying to reconcile this statement with your tagline: "I don't want to know why you can't. I want to know how you can!" I have never heard of LiFePO4 batteries becoming bombs. Do they? I used to have FLA batteries in my bedroom--never had any major troubles, but I did notice some...

I'm thankful to see this. I haven't built yet, but was looking at that Apexium, and now I'm getting the benefit of learning more from others' mistakes. So thank you for posting this! I may not have made this mistake, but I might have, too, as I wasn't realizing the importance of keeping...

Yes, seriously. If you really wish to look into this, you may download an English translation of the Thai "Commission of Computer Related Offences Act" from the United Nations server HERE. The law specifically applies to internet activities, including "defamation" (which still applies here...

Thank you for responding. But this would seem to address damage to the battery, not to the controller. The documentation says somewhere, IIRC, that the controller won't be damaged by being hooked up to the PV panels without the battery; however, the battery should be connected first so that it...

Did those arrive on time and were you satisfied with your transaction? I'm looking at buying from Docan as well, the Apexium and 16 of their new-style terminal 304Ah cells for a 48V system. I think with the Seplos BMS there are more features than the JK BMSes, and I understand the Apexium to...

Thanks for chiming in. I'd sure appreciate some documentation to back this up, if you or anyone else has the details. And would 5-volts on an RS485 port be expected to cause damage?

I think I would have followed that photo the same as you did. It does appear to have an in-current-path washer on each side of that connection, and I would have thought, looking at the photo, that the washer was suggested there to raise the bar above the level of the adjacent insulating...

No one seems to have mentioned the Seplos BMS yet. I haven't quite figured out if it is its own brand, or just a model of the JK BMS, but it seems to be featureful and well recommended from what I've heard. I've been considering it myself, based on what I have access to in my location. The...

This is something I've been struggling with. The record cold for Thailand is officially about -2 Celsius, and unofficially about -5 Celsius up on the tallest mountain (Doi Inthanon). How often this might occur is debatable--we just had a 60-year low sweep through the entire region about seven...

I guess it's not as necessary as I had previously understood to have communication between the inverter and the battery. The seller of the battery had insisted, however, that there be such communication in order to provide me a one-year warranty on the battery. Presumably, the battery might...

Finding a low-frequency (toroidal) inverter that meets my needs given the models locally available to me in Thailand has been extremely difficult, and I'm beginning to feel it may be impossible. I've been searching/researching for days, and have considered many models, only to be disappointed...

Yes, I already have the controllers. They were the best quality, as far as I am aware, that I could find in my location for a charge controller. At least, they were about the only name brand with good online reviews in English. In Thailand, Victron is nowhere on the market, and having had a...

That depends on which angle one is trying to accommodate. If it's a matter of converting the roof's pitch to better reflect one's latitude, shading might be uninvolved. But if one is trying to mitigate against conditions where the roof slope is not south-facing, then you do have a point. Is...

The crimper itself has worked great. I like it. I think the problem may be that the lugs here are thinner than they should be, which leaves the finished crimp looser than it was designed to be. It's hard to get good quality products here. It is also possible that the cable itself is not...

I don't believe that is entirely correct. The "temporary" part has something to do with actual clock time, and once the time passes, it expires. Beyond that one might think of it as a "backdoor," but a backdoor that is only open for 15 minutes/1 hour/whatever is awfully hard to crack. Once...

I'm quite certain he means for the one labeled "C" in your image to be removed. You want the increased surface area of the contact between the bars, without the added resistance of the washer itself, which is not designed to be an especially good conductor.

I sure hope it isn't rubbish--I just ordered two of them for a new install I've been designing. I guess I'll learn the truth soon enough. I'm less worried about tracking efficiency and more worried about the units' longevity and ability to cooperate with a LiFePO4 battery. I'm still trying to...

How do "toroidal" inverters have such great surge capability? A toroidal inverter can surge at 3 times the rated capacity, whereas the typical HF inverters only can do double. Is a toroid transformer different in some meaningful way in terms of surge than a standard square-type transformer? I...