diy solar

diy solar

Sitting in the "Dark" this morning. My Sol-Ark is down due to a supposed "low battery" but is not low.

Sun_Dried_Toad

Sun_Dried_Toad

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Joined
Sep 6, 2020
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83
I've already contacted Sol-Ark. They are updating the firmware. I took some battery readings, and shared the info with them.

My low battery alarm is set to 47.5v
ShutDown voltage set to 46.0v
Restart set to 52.0v

moments before the shutdown, I just happened to look at my PV Pro app, and all was fine.Battery was at 80% and charging. showed 50.9 volts.

I just so happened to be on the phone with my wife when it went down. mid conversation, she says "ummm... the solar just went off". I checked PV Pro. no alarms logged, but there was a voltage drop, but only to 48.4v well above any alarm or shutoff point. still no alarms or faults logged in PV Pro. I drove home to check things in person, and further discuss with Sol-Ark. by the time I arrived, it showed 8% battery, at 52.6V. well above the restart setting of 52.0v. Still no faults logged, even when looking in the actual Sol-Ark menu on the controller.

I checked each battery in my bank. average voltage was 13.18 per battery. checked combined voltage 50.6v

Strange. I'm sure it will get resolved, but it is concerning while I sit here with no power to my freezers, refrigerators, and half of the house.
 
"Average" = bad word.

4 * 13.18 = 52.72V

Yet you measured 50.6V total... a 2.1V difference - this is horrifying.

Average battery voltage means nothing. Spread means everything. If you have one single 12V at 0% SoC, then it could easily drop below the 46.0V.

If your 12V batteries are more than about 0.05 different, you likely have a problem.

What were ALL of your voltage readings when you measured "average" of 13.18?
 
Sorry, I mis-typed. collective voltage was 52.6V

readings were all 13.18, 13.19, 13.17 with one outlier at 13.26


About 3 minute after first post, power came back on after update completed. instantly, the Sol-Ark was reading 87% SOC 52.9V

currently at 52v with all loads running normal.

761w PV
399w total load
291w charging batt

Sol-Ark guy suggested I change my "Batt Empty" to be the Lowest value on my menu of charging. it was at 48.5 the exact voltage at shutdown. now reset to 47.3 just below my "low volt alarm"setting of 47.5
 
Sun_Dried_Toad said:
I've already contacted Sol-Ark. They are updating the firmware. I took some battery readings, and shared the info with them.

My low battery alarm is set to 47.5v
ShutDown voltage set to 46.0v
Restart set to 52.0v

moments before the shutdown, I just happened to look at my PV Pro app, and all was fine.Battery was at 80% and charging. showed 50.9 volts.

I just so happened to be on the phone with my wife when it went down. mid conversation, she says "ummm... the solar just went off". I checked PV Pro. no alarms logged, but there was a voltage drop, but only to 48.4v well above any alarm or shutoff point. still no alarms or faults logged in PV Pro. I drove home to check things in person, and further discuss with Sol-Ark. by the time I arrived, it showed 8% battery, at 52.6V. well above the restart setting of 52.0v. Still no faults logged, even when looking in the actual Sol-Ark menu on the controller.

I checked each battery in my bank. average voltage was 13.18 per battery. checked combined voltage 50.6v

Strange. I'm sure it will get resolved, but it is concerning while I sit here with no power to my freezers, refrigerators, and half of the house.
Click to expand...
When was the last time you had the Firmware updated?

What level was it at prior ?

I have mine updated every time they reach a stable version. No Betas..
 
Biasjo said:
When was the last time you had the Firmware updated?

What level was it at prior ?

I have mine updated every time they reach a stable version. No Betas.
Click to expand...
Unit was just installed 35 days ago. I guess it was never updated prior to now.

I do not know what version was running before today.

I thought they would track and advise about necessary updates. I started it up while on on the phone with them, so I assumed all was current.

I still understand that they will contact me when an update is advised. guess I will learn more as I go.
 
Sun_Dried_Toad said:
Sorry, I mis-typed. collective voltage was 52.6V

readings were all 13.18, 13.19, 13.17 with one outlier at 13.26


About 3 minute after first post, power came back on after update completed. instantly, the Sol-Ark was reading 87% SOC 52.9V

currently at 52v with all loads running normal.

761w PV
399w total load
291w charging batt

Sol-Ark guy suggested I change my "Batt Empty" to be the Lowest value on my menu of charging. it was at 48.5 the exact voltage at shutdown. now reset to 47.3 just below my "low volt alarm"setting of 47.5
Click to expand...

.08V spread. I'd keep an eye on that high one. Also consider installing this or similar to keep your 4X 12V all at the same voltage:

KiloVault Battery Balancers

KiloVault Battery Balancers help extend the life of a battery bank in your solar power system. 24V and 48V versions are used to maintain battery voltages across a series connection of batteries.
www.altestore.com www.altestore.com

Also ensure that all 12V are the same voltage during absorption, shortly before dropping to float.
 
sunshine_eggo said:
.08V spread. I'd keep an eye on that high one. Also consider installing this or similar to keep your 4X 12V all at the same voltage:

KiloVault Battery Balancers

KiloVault Battery Balancers help extend the life of a battery bank in your solar power system. 24V and 48V versions are used to maintain battery voltages across a series connection of batteries.
www.altestore.com www.altestore.com

Also ensure that all 12V are the same voltage during absorption, shortly before dropping to float.
Click to expand...
how many do I need?

I see there is a 24v or 48v version. SOL-ARK is 48v, so that part is clear.

I have 8 FLA Trojan T-1275 (12v) batteries. obviously, that means 4s2p bank.

do I just buy one for all 8, or two, one for each parallel bank, or 8, one for each battery?

just by looking at the wires I see on the photo, I would assume I need two, one for each 48v battery?


Should i manually "balance charge" each battery first, prior to installing the balancer, or just install it, and let it balance them?
 
Sun_Dried_Toad said:
how many do I need?

I see there is a 24v or 48v version. SOL-ARK is 48v, so that part is clear.

I have 8 FLA Trojan T-1275 (12v) batteries. obviously, that means 4s2p bank.
Click to expand...

Have the same config and brand of batteries.

You would need 1 for each string, so 2. One unit connects to four 12V in series.

Sun_Dried_Toad said:
Should i manually "balance charge" each battery first, prior to installing the balancer, or just install it, and let it balance them?
Click to expand...

If they're all pretty close to 14.82V @ peak absorption, prior to float, no need to balance charge them. The balancers work to keep them balanced all the time, so even if they're a bit off, they will bring them in.
 
Sun_Dried_Toad said:
Sorry, I mis-typed. collective voltage was 52.6V

readings were all 13.18, 13.19, 13.17 with one outlier at 13.26


About 3 minute after first post, power came back on after update completed. instantly, the Sol-Ark was reading 87% SOC 52.9V

currently at 52v with all loads running normal.

761w PV
399w total load
291w charging batt

Sol-Ark guy suggested I change my "Batt Empty" to be the Lowest value on my menu of charging. it was at 48.5 the exact voltage at shutdown. now reset to 47.3 just below my "low volt alarm"setting of 47.5
Click to expand...
Eh, .2 v doesn't seem like much headroom between alarm and cutoff. Did they explain why they suggested changing those numbers?
 
DerpsyDoodler said:
Eh, .2 v doesn't seem like much headroom between alarm and cutoff. Did they explain why they suggested changing those numbers?
Click to expand...
this is what I actually settled on, before leaving and returning to work:

20220422_121503.jpg47.5 low battery alarm
47.0 shutdown
46.9 battery empty
47.9 restart

if these voltages seem low for FLA, I agree. however, I called and spoke to Trojan several times. each time they assured be that you can discharge to 80% DOD.

I don't buy that, even when from the manufacturer. I do have the voltages set lower than 50% DOD (Normal safe DOD for FLA) but nowhere near the 80% mark.

I also have never even been that low (50%) today was the lowest I have ever been, at 48.5v which based on my battery configurations in the menus, which PV pro was showing as 80%. that makes even less sense about this whole deal of the shutdown, because I have seen it at 78% a few times, but I do not recall what the voltage shown at 78% was.

EDIT: ignore the percent values in the photo. only look at the voltage values. for some reason, the Sol-Ark does not automatically adjust them to synchronize and correlate to one another. you have to manually select whether you want to use voltage or percentage, and when you chose, and adjust one, the other does not change to match.
 
Last edited:
If you have a relatively low steady load and are using a coulomb meter (shunt) to measure SoC, then I understand how that could happen.
 
DerpsyDoodler said:
If you have a relatively low steady load and are using a coulomb meter (shunt) to measure SoC, then I understand how that could happen.
Click to expand...
SOC is monitored by the Sol-Ark I do not have a separate shunt installed.

we do have a relatively low steady load. generally between 80w to 350w with an occasional spike to 800 (HVAC blower fan) or 1700w (dish washer)
 
The question I have is are you running it in Batt-V mode or Batt-% mode?
If your running it in Batt% mode then those values are going to screw you up every time. They are just to close!
In Batt-% mode you need at least 10% difference between Low Bat and Shutdown.
 
robby said:
The question I have is are you running it in Batt-V mode or Batt-% mode?
If your running it in Batt% mode then those values are going to screw you up every time. They are just to close!
In Batt-% mode you need at least 10% difference between Low Bat and Shutdown.
Click to expand...
I was running in % mode.
I have switched to Volt mode.

I will have to do a bit of math to figure out the 10% difference you suggest. I will adjust as needed.

(I was just editing my above comment to reflect the volt/percent issue, but you had posted before my edit was complete)
 
Also your voltages are way to low and don't correspond to actual SOC values.
Here is a chart of Voltage to SOC and keep in mind the Sol-Ark has a re calibration subroutine that chips in the minute you change any of the values in Batt-% mode. It takes three days after a change before it is fully calibrated, and that assumes your recharging to 100% SOC on some of those days. So when the settings are changed give it three days to settle down and do it's calculations.

I use Batt-% mode and it works very well so long as you understand that the way it calibrates and secondly that it has a hard time with small value differences. Keep everything at 10% increments and it works great.

Removed Table it for LFP and the OP has FLA.
 
Last edited:
Sun_Dried_Toad said:
I was running in % mode.
I have switched to Volt mode.

I will have to do a bit of math to figure out the 10% difference you suggest. I will adjust as needed.

(I was just editing my above comment to reflect the volt/percent issue, but you had posted before my edit was complete)
Click to expand...
Yea if you don’t use Batt- V mode or connect to a BMS the SOC percentage is not to good on those.

At least I never had any luck running Batt%.

I always use Batt-V.
 
robby said:
Also your voltages are way to low and don't correspond to actual SOC values.
Here is a chart of Voltage to SOC and keep in mind the Sol-Ark has a re calibration subroutine that chips in the minute you change any of the values in Batt-% mode. It takes three days after a change before it is fully calibrated, and that assumes your recharging to 100% SOC on some of those days. So when the settings are changed give it three days to settle down and do it's calculations.

I use Batt-% mode and it works very well so long as you understand that the way it calibrates and secondly that it has a hard time with small value differences. Keep everything at 10% increments and it works great.

View attachment 92216

BTW forget 58.4V at the top. Consider 55V to be 100% charged
Click to expand...
according to Trojan, they say I can discharge the T-1275 FLA to 80% DOD, which they say is 46.0v

as stated above, I'm not trying to discharge to 80% DOD. having said that, by your chart it looks like I may be discharging to 93% DOD.

I also thought that 48v was 50% DOD.

I much to learn. I am trying to research and take in as much as I can, as fast as I can.
 
robby said:
Also your voltages are way to low and don't correspond to actual SOC values.
Here is a chart of Voltage to SOC and keep in mind the Sol-Ark has a re calibration subroutine that chips in the minute you change any of the values in Batt-% mode. It takes three days after a change before it is fully calibrated, and that assumes your recharging to 100% SOC on some of those days. So when the settings are changed give it three days to settle down and do it's calculations.

I use Batt-% mode and it works very well so long as you understand that the way it calibrates and secondly that it has a hard time with small value differences. Keep everything at 10% increments and it works great.

View attachment 92216

BTW forget 58.4V at the top. Consider 55V to be 100% charged
Click to expand...
This seems very high for FLA.
 
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