EG4 LifePower 4 Alarm and failure

I'm running 2 6500EX inverters and 9 EG4 Life Power 4 batteries. I've now in the past 3 weeks had 2 out of nine batteries alarm and shut down. The first was at 55.5V and the second now is at 55.8V. Neither will run, they go through the boot cycle straight to alarm. My computer is an apple and I've not been able to get the BMS test software to read them. Don't know that they can be read anyway as they don't turn on.
Anyone have any ideas on this one? Everything's been working flawlessly for months and we've been fully off grid for months as well. I'm concerned more failures are ahead if I don't get to the bottom of this. Thanks in advance!
Dave Z

One more Question? How to do a reset?

Here are some resources that could assist in getting the BMS Test to run successfully on macOS. Identifying the issue is challenging without knowing the existing alarm. However, sharing a few pictures of the system and the battery bank might provide some clues. Also, do you notice a burnt electronics smell with the batteries that are alarming?

Thank you for sharing this, however I have been through all of that and even downloaded the tools several times attempting success. No clue why it won't work. Techs at SS aren't familiar with MAC and couldn't help. Would like to get this working but so far no go. I was able to get an old WIN 10 PC running and read the #7 battery alarm yesterday. It was a MOS failure. Quite concerning! (by the way -no smell and bats and system has been balanced and great). Cleared the alarm with SS tech, awaiting stack voltage to match battery voltage to re-engage battery and see if all is well. Cell voltages were within .017 max differential (that seems rather good to me? Troubling to me why this occurred? SS tech says phantom alarms can happen? Thanks again for your response!!
By the way... What is the Max cell voltage? Failure was at a very sunny days end, BMS should control that however OV cell makes sense to me.

Attached Photos

Update:
Re-engaged #7 battery today. So far all OK (1 hour). I was home mid day today to actually monitor mid day, system full charge voltages. In the past I remember the stack voltage running around 53.5V and modulating up to 58.1V for a moment and then back down to the 30V range. (Since I installed the last 3 batteries and updated the existing batteries, prior to the update they stayed closer to 58V). This process would consistently take place all day when full solar available and after complete battery charge. Sometimes as early as 11:30 AM to 6:00 PM or so.
Today around 3:00 PM I observed stack voltage hanging around 56-57V bumping up to 58.1V. I'm concerned this may be the problem but not sure what is causing it. I proceeded to turn off 1 IMO switch eliminating 50% solar input which soon brought voltages back to the 30V range. Nothing has been changed in many months. Could an inverter setting have changed or is there an inverter setting to protect the batteries from extended high voltage? or is this a battery BMS issue?.......
Thanks again for engaging this situation, I have a pair of 6000XP inverters I was going to upgrade with but all the bugs have been worked out of the 6500EX's and I've been so pleased with them I hesitate to change them out. I'm also planning a second complete system in another building so I really need to know I have the available support when necessary.

Request:
I appreciate your consideration of Apple Computers to interact with your products. It would be great however if there was a way to actually use this as a viable troubleshooting tool. My battery #5 was troubleshot using my MAC with no success and was a virtual nightmare from attempting to get software to work, all the way to no viable communication with SS tech support at all levels. I mean night and day difference when I came up with a tired old PC that I got working! Someone needs to know what to do with the Apple products. I'm no Apple guru by any means, but I'm really terrible with PC products and haven't used them since the old Win 10 that finally bailed us out.
Thank You!

DaveZ Solar said:

Troubling to me why this occurred? SS tech says phantom alarms can happen? Thanks again for your response!!
By the way... What is the Max cell voltage? Failure was at a very sunny days end, BMS should control that however OV cell makes sense to me.

Click to expand...

The max cell voltage would be 3.625v. However, an overvoltage protection warning will occur once a cell hits 3.5v. I believe this phantom alarm has been addressed in the latest firmware for the LifePower4 for version v3.40.

DaveZ Solar said:

Update:
Re-engaged #7 battery today. So far all OK (1 hour). I was home mid day today to actually monitor mid day, system full charge voltages. In the past I remember the stack voltage running around 53.5V and modulating up to 58.1V for a moment and then back down to the 30V range. (Since I installed the last 3 batteries and updated the existing batteries, prior to the update they stayed closer to 58V). This process would consistently take place all day when full solar available and after complete battery charge. Sometimes as early as 11:30 AM to 6:00 PM or so.
Today around 3:00 PM I observed stack voltage hanging around 56-57V bumping up to 58.1V. I'm concerned this may be the problem but not sure what is causing it. I proceeded to turn off 1 IMO switch eliminating 50% solar input which soon brought voltages back to the 30V range. Nothing has been changed in many months. Could an inverter setting have changed or is there an inverter setting to protect the batteries from extended high voltage? or is this a battery BMS issue?.......
Thanks again for engaging this situation, I have a pair of 6000XP inverters I was going to upgrade with but all the bugs have been worked out of the 6500EX's and I've been so pleased with them I hesitate to change them out. I'm also planning a second complete system in another building so I really need to know I have the available support when necessary.

Click to expand...

I believe this would be due to the improved charging logic for paralleled batteries in parallel.

DaveZ Solar said:

Request:
I appreciate your consideration of Apple Computers to interact with your products. It would be great however if there was a way to actually use this as a viable troubleshooting tool. My battery #5 was troubleshot using my MAC with no success and was a virtual nightmare from attempting to get software to work, all the way to no viable communication with SS tech support at all levels. I mean night and day difference when I came up with a tired old PC that I got working! Someone needs to know what to do with the Apple products. I'm no Apple guru by any means, but I'm really terrible with PC products and haven't used them since the old Win 10 that finally bailed us out.
Thank You!

Click to expand...

I will be sending this over to our team to review the BMS Test and Tools for macOS.

Thank You,
What is still unclear to me presently is what should the charge sequence look like after full charge is reached? Today I came in after full charge and the stack voltage was steady at 56V. I was concerned that may be a problem so I once again shut down 50% solar input until 53.1V was reached. Is a sustained 56+ voltage OK?

I just did the math and steady 56V would alarm the batteries at 3.5V per cell? It seems I have a problem? OR does it rest at 56V momentarily to balance cells? Guess I need some technical input, not sure if all is well or not.
Thank You!

Try bulking to 55.6V and floating at 54.8V.
I bet your problems go away and your batteries still charge all the way.

I was typing this when @42OhmsPA posted #10.

Have you installed firmware version 3.40?

Verify one battery address is 0 and all others are sequentially 1 thru 8. Two or more batteries with the same address will mess things up.

Verify that both inverters are correctly set up for parallel operations.

By the picture it does appear that both inverters are connected to the same whole battery bank (which is right). Verify that the BMS, if using closed loop is connected to the Master Inverter (the master shares the BMS data with the slave inverter) and both will provide charging to the batteries.

Are you using closed loop (Master battery BMS connected to inverter) or open loop?

What is menu item 5 "Battery Type" set to?
What is menu item 26 "Bulk Charge Voltage" set to?
What is menu item 27 "Float Charge Voltage" set to?

If you are using closed loop, note the above menu item settings (26 and 27), disconnect the BMS cable, wait a moment then note the above settings again. Most inverters will set these values as requested by the "Master BMS" and when BMS communications is lost they will revert to predefined or manually set values. In my experience the EG4 LifePower4 batteries in closed loop will set these values to 57.2 vdc. Even the EG4 Communications Hub sets these values to 57.2 vdc.

The manual states "If using EG4 batteries you will use this battery type for BMS communications. If this battery type is selected settings 2,26, 27 will be configured by the BMS. "

I have seen in closed loop, the inverter charge process is mostly driven by BMS reported SOC. If the SOC is off (i.e. significant cell imbalance causing the actual SOC to be under reported to the inverter), the inverter will charge the batteries and keep charging them even though an individual battery BMS stops the charge by opening the Charging MOSFETS. By then you will have both a Cell Over Voltage Alarm and a Cell Over Voltage Protection fault. Once a cell reaches OVP (default is 3.6 vdc) the Charging MOSFETS will open stopping the charge. The cells will settle down to some lesser voltage, possibly less than 3.4 vdc which is the OVA and OVP turnoff voltages.

Normally at 56.0 vdc charging voltage, assuming no runners (cell that charges faster than others) the cells will hopefully balance and in balancing the higher voltage cells excess voltage will be used to charge the cells with lower voltage. Cells start to balance at 3.45 vdc and the Cell Differential Voltage exceeds 20 millivolts (you can view this on the "ParamSettings" tab of the BMS_Test software). Once cells start to balance the BMS will reset SOC to 100%. If this happens on all your batteries the the SOC reported by the "Master BMS" should be 100% (the master BMS reports the average SOC of all BMS's it is collecting data from). If one BMS is under reporting SOC then the "Master BMS" will be reporting less that 100% SOC and more than likely the inverter will continue to charge the batteries, thus forcing individual battery BMS's to stop the charge of it's battery.

Unfortunately the BMS used in the LifePower4 batteries (Narada) appears to only balance the first six cells that reach and/or exceed 3.45 vdc. It does not continuously balance the top six cells but continues to balance the first six even if one of the not first six cells reaches a voltage that exceeds that of the lowest of the first six. I have monitored the batteries while charging and even observed the cells that were supposedly being balanced continue to increase in voltage. If a cell, where it's voltage exceeds that of the lowest voltage "BAL" cell the BMS does not drop balancing on the lowest and pick up the new cell unless the BMS is reset. When the BMS is restarted it will then start balancing the top six cells which may not be the original ones before the reset/restart

You can monitor all batteries at the same time with the BMS_Test software (only in open loop as the inverter is connected to the same RS485 bus as your PC). On the "BatInfo" tab select the number of batteries (9 ??) with the "Pack Number" dropdown and select 0 for the "Start Adr" then click the "Add address to sequence" button. Select the "BatIffo" -> "MultiPacks" tab and the columns should populate with all the batteries.
In "open loop" you can monitor the charging process.

As stated by @42OhmsPA, do not use closed loop and set the bulk and float as advised.

It's a learning process, don't get frustrated. Learn the equipment, it's good side and faults. You will get the system to work as you want/expect