MaikaiLife
Solar Enthusiast
FYI this is both directions discharging and charging amperage needs to be over 2.2-2.4 for the battery to show anything on the comm hub.
EG4 Lifepower4 48V Top Balancing Firmware.
- Thread starter Markus_EG4
- Start date
MaikaiLife
Solar Enthusiast
@Markus_SignatureSolar how did your testing go this morning?
Markus_EG4
I am from Germany. Don't mean to come off rude
We found the exact same problem. It has been brought up to engineering.
MaikaiLife
Solar Enthusiast
Well, I'm glad you can re-create the problem, I'm super happy ya'll see it so we can figure out how to fix it. Thanks so much for testing and finding this, I really want these LifePo4 batteries to work perfectly and this is basically my only remaining issue to complete my full system pre-assemble/load/analytics test.
n2aws
Solar Addict
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Great find.
I have 6 Lifepower4's, and noticed that as I'm charging or discharging under around 600w, my system doesn't show the batteries charging or discharging. I never even thought to look deeper into it. Using your 2.2a cutoff, thatd be 633-673w depending on my battery voltages at the time, which seems to line right up with my observations.
Markus_EG4
I am from Germany. Don't mean to come off rude
Thank you for bringing it up
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
Thank you.
Might want to mention this in the update notes. It was my next step, Since I was able to read date/time and Cell level SOC and all, it seemed rather odd and then I was like "What is different from last time?" The latest document you have is pretty straightforward, I guess it assumes you are not actively using the thing, might just want to add that before step 1. "Make sure the battery is completely disconnected from any chargers/loads before you start". I'll shut it all down after 2000 tonite and try again. The AIO's get excited if you unplug the comm cables.
I might note the last time I was able to walk the 6 units one at a time by ID. I think I had to reset the serial port in between, I don't remember. Thus it would seem you don't have to use id zero(0), although if I were writing the guide, I'd probably say the same thing for sanity sake. The 96% thing really bugs me
! I doubt it's going to make a practical difference, but we'll find out what difference if any it makes. Anything that might improve the reliability and life of the battery should be a good thing.
MaikaiLife
Solar Enthusiast
@Markus_SignatureSolar Question, now that the issue has been reported and confirmed, what is the expectation for a solution? Are we talking about a few weeks or a few months?
I've not had any experience with reporting issues with EG4 equipment and I'm just trying to get a feel for what urgency EG4 places on its obligation to get fixes and updates into production.
Any sort of overview of how this typically works would be greatly appreciated so that I can communicate with my downstream clients what they can expect.
Thank you
I've not had any experience with reporting issues with EG4 equipment and I'm just trying to get a feel for what urgency EG4 places on its obligation to get fixes and updates into production.
Any sort of overview of how this typically works would be greatly appreciated so that I can communicate with my downstream clients what they can expect.
Thank you
Last edited:
MaikaiLife
Solar Enthusiast
Just checking back, @Markus_SignatureSolar , can you give me any type of process timeline for the issue I reported to get placed into production on the EG4 LifePo4 batteries? Even if it's like a few weeks, or months, just trying to understand what this looks like. It also occurred to me, that should I open a support ticket, Is there a formal way that I need to communicate this to SS/EG4 outside of communicating with you in the forums?
Zapper77
Renaissance Man
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I always "assumed" the 2 amp reporting was a hardware limitation.
Edit to say I recall In a few youtube videos that other server racks had a similar limitation.
MaikaiLife
Solar Enthusiast
Hi @Zapper77, if you look back in the thread, @Markus_SignatureSolar said he spoke with the Engineers, who I assume are the people that build the product at EG4 and they told him the amp draw should be reported if it's over 500ma.
EG4 Lifepower4 48V Top Balancing Firmware.
The new stationary firmware. Only plugged into 2p1 not 2p2
diysolarforum.com
Given this information it's safe to assume the batteries are not performing as per the Engineering team's reported specifications.
Zapper77
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I saw that....that's exactly why I chimed in that the 2amp limit has been around for a while.Hi @Zapper77, if you look back in the thread, @Markus_SignatureSolar said he spoke with the Engineers, who I assume are the people that build the product at EG4 and they told him the amp draw should be reported if it's over 500ma.
EG4 Lifepower4 48V Top Balancing Firmware.
The new stationary firmware. Only plugged into 2p1 not 2p2
Given this information it's safe to assume the batteries are not performing as per the Engineering team's reported specifications.
MaikaiLife
Solar Enthusiast
FYI, reading this thread, and I know it's a different product, but it seems to imply this amp draw under 2.3 amps is configurable in the BMS.
Daly Smart BMS not registering small loads
My Daly Smart BMS 4S (200A) is not registering small loads? I have a parasitic draw around 1.1A/h in my travel trailer. The Daly BMS show 0. My Victron shunt shows 1.1 A. As the Daly BMS does not show small loads it also stop calculate SOC. So big difference in calculated SOC between Victron...
diysolarforum.com
I've looked through the testing tool and I don't see a value to adjust, I'm guessing if it's there it's behind one of the advanced sections.
Zapper77
Renaissance Man
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It would be nice to have 0.5 amps reflected by the BMS.FYI, reading this thread, and I know it's a different product, but it seems to imply this amp draw under 2.3 amps is configurable in the BMS.
Daly Smart BMS not registering small loads
My Daly Smart BMS 4S (200A) is not registering small loads? I have a parasitic draw around 1.1A/h in my travel trailer. The Daly BMS show 0. My Victron shunt shows 1.1 A. As the Daly BMS does not show small loads it also stop calculate SOC. So big difference in calculated SOC between Victron...
I've looked through the testing tool and I don't see a value to adjust, I'm guessing if it's there it's behind one of the advanced sections.
How sure are you about not being able to get boot info? I've been struggling to get this update going and I think that might be why, but I think I was misled by the video linked earlier where he was able to get boot info but then shows a current of 6 amps going (his solar did also kick in right there).
Could it be that because they have 12 batteries they were under 2 amps discharge and that BMS bug made it think it was 0 and let it through?
Some extra info from my end. While I also have the issue where currents under 2 amps are not shown, my SOC% still updates. I wonder if maybe the BMS is actually sensitive up to 500ma but the reporting is not providing the info between 500 and 2000 mA.
Also for mine it was exactly 2.0amps where it would last report and not go under. This gave me the immediate thought that maybe there's some error somewhere where 12v = 500mA, and it gets multiplied so the 24v battery reports after 1amp and the 48V after 2 amps. This is just a gut feeling but if someone has a 24v battery that they could test this hypothesis on, it might lead to finding a fix faster.
Zapper77
Renaissance Man
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Yes, I used the under 2 amp "feature" ? when I updated the battery firmware.
Interesting idea with the .5 12v, 1 24v and 2 48v.
shopman
Solar Enthusiast
The only way to accurately measure current flow in the milliamp range is with a shunt. Unless the BMS uses a shunt to measure current flow, which I highly doubt it does, there is nothing to fix and the BMS is most likely operating at its maximum resolution.
MaikaiLife
Solar Enthusiast
Some BMS' use a shunt to do their calculations of what is going in & out of the battery pack. Most FET based BMS' use an internal coulomb counter or sensors to do a similar job. Either way, they're measuring the current in/out and that measurement as indicated in other forums on other BMS products is typically configurable, most likely in the firmware layer.
MaikaiLife
Solar Enthusiast
@Markus_SignatureSolar has stated in this thread #223 that the expected current reporting threshold is anything above 500ma. Perhaps you're correct and the engineers gave him the 12v amount rather than the 48v. If you step up the voltage behavior does seem to align with a possibility of 2 amps being the result of that 500ma increase from a 12v to 48v battery.
Currently, I have batteries reporting a 92% SOC, which fuzzy math means that a 100a battery has about 92a remaining, so theoretically I should only be able to put about 8-10 amps into the battery. I only have an active current meter so I'll have to find a way to count/verify the input amps, if the battery took say 20 amps, then I would know the SOC is significantly out of alignment with the battery's actual SOC.
The reason this is so important to me is because everything I want to do with my Sol-Ark, and many other automations through Solar/Home Assistant rely on this SOC being accurate to take action at certain levels. If it's off by 5% not a big problem, but if it's off by as much as 20%, that's the difference between having a battery that is either giving me a low SOC warning or simply shutting down because it's empty.
In an off-grid situation, I simply cannot rely on a SOC value that is significantly inaccurate.
Currently, I have batteries reporting a 92% SOC, which fuzzy math means that a 100a battery has about 92a remaining, so theoretically I should only be able to put about 8-10 amps into the battery. I only have an active current meter so I'll have to find a way to count/verify the input amps, if the battery took say 20 amps, then I would know the SOC is significantly out of alignment with the battery's actual SOC.
The reason this is so important to me is because everything I want to do with my Sol-Ark, and many other automations through Solar/Home Assistant rely on this SOC being accurate to take action at certain levels. If it's off by 5% not a big problem, but if it's off by as much as 20%, that's the difference between having a battery that is either giving me a low SOC warning or simply shutting down because it's empty.
In an off-grid situation, I simply cannot rely on a SOC value that is significantly inaccurate.
Unless the current of the pack is measured per cell, then I don't see why it would scale with voltage. And I did see me SoC move on mine so it is detecting current changes, buy maybe it gets measure differently. Not sure.
I also confirmed you don't get boot info if the BMS detects current, and was now able to upgrade all 6 of my batteries. I now have 2 which are severely out of balance and one which is not charging anymore but saying it's at 49%. Is this a bad battery or should I do a full discharge and recharge first?
I also confirmed you don't get boot info if the BMS detects current, and was now able to upgrade all 6 of my batteries. I now have 2 which are severely out of balance and one which is not charging anymore but saying it's at 49%. Is this a bad battery or should I do a full discharge and recharge first?
Zapper77
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Do a full discharge and discharge..the SOC will reset to full at 56.5v
ChillnGrill
Solar Enthusiast
I have the 18kpv and the batteries never get too 100% only 99%. The voltage will only go to 55.3v. Is this normal?
Zapper77
Renaissance Man
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Are you using the battery communication hub? Which battery firmware version?
ChillnGrill
Solar Enthusiast
Yes and latest update
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