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EG4 Lifepower4 48V Top Balancing Firmware.

akitawpo said:
To be honest, I do not understand why everybody is so focused on the different voltages. I understand that consistency would be ideal and necessary as the manufacturer should have specific instructions. At 56v (3.5v per cell) is close to / less than 1% difference in total charge than the same battery at 58v. This is shown on a couple of videos from solar enthusiasts. Currently, my 6000EXs with LLs are in close loop. They are charging 5 batteries up to 56v. AT 55v batteries are already showing 100% charge.
Click to expand...

I don't know that we (or at least I) necessarily care about that 1% difference in capacity, but more: if my system is set to prioritize battery charging, and not sell to the grid until the battery is 100%, and the lower voltages never let it get to 100%.. then, that is a fair amount of solar production that is curtailed forever. So it's less about the battery capacity, and MUCH more about how "it gets stuck at 99%" affects how the system behaves overall.
 
n2aws said:
I don't know that we (or at least I) necessarily care about that 1% difference in capacity, but more: if my system is set to prioritize battery charging, and not sell to the grid until the battery is 100%, and the lower voltages never let it get to 100%.. then, that is a fair amount of solar production that is curtailed forever. So it's less about the battery capacity, and MUCH more about how "it gets stuck at 99%" affects how the system behaves overall.
Click to expand...
Well, I could understand your specific situation towards hitting "100%" in order to start selling to the grid. That being said, is there a way to change the percentage of when to start selling?
 
akitawpo said:
To be honest, I do not understand why everybody is so focused on the different voltages. I understand that consistency would be ideal and necessary as the manufacturer should have specific instructions. At 56v (3.5v per cell) is close to / less than 1% difference in total charge than the same battery at 58v. This is shown on a couple of videos from solar enthusiasts. Currently, my 6000EXs with LLs are in close loop. They are charging 5 batteries up to 56v. AT 55v batteries are already showing 100% charge.
Click to expand...
It's because the cell balancing only kicks in at higher voltages. So it's not that people are trying to get to 100% necessarily, but trying to avoid a cell inbalance situation.
 
Brucey said:
It's because the cell balancing only kicks in at higher voltages. So it's not that people are trying to get to 100% necessarily, but trying to avoid a cell inbalance situation.
Click to expand...
From what I've seen my cell balance starts at 3.4v per cell or 54.4v. Good balancing happens over a couple of cycles. So, for me I would prefer to have 56v as total change which is still 100% and I would still get balanced. But there are cases like n2aws who need the "100" in order to sell to the grid.
 
akitawpo said:
Well, I could understand your specific situation towards hitting "100%" in order to start selling to the grid. That being said, is there a way to change the percentage of when to start selling?
Click to expand...

Sure, I had mine set to sell at 70% as a workaround until I could consistently get the battery to show 100%. But, that sidesteps the root problem, which again is just the inconsistent messaging and configuration advice which impacts how the product is used. :)

It's one thing to change your recommendation (ie, as you learn more about the battery, you change your recommendations. ) That happens. But when you get conflicting information, it makes it even more convoluted. And then people start communicating and they have some assumptions.. ie, that we're both using the same "recommendations" only to discuss over time.. and then find out we're on 2 different pages.. it's just frustrating.

TL;DR, there are workarounds for everything. But some things are legitimately simple enough to fix, that the "workarounds" are actually more effort than it'd take to resolve the underlying problem. It'd take someone an hour to update the PDF document, and shoot an internal email to staff with the new recommendations. How many hours has SS spent on these forums alone trying to help people troubleshoot cell balancing/SOC issues/questions. (not even factoring in emails and phone calls to them that we have no insight into).
 
BMS logs from my LP4 batteries that are running 3.26 show that SOC will flip to 100% SOC at 56.5v
 
Last edited:
I downloaded the Lifepower4 firmware update and placed an order for the USB cable but I keep getting "Get boot information failed!" message.

Is this the correct cable?
1695495725269.png
 
Thanks. After watching that video, I made my own cable to match the wiring and pinouts and it is still returning the same error message. I can read all the battery parameters and I can write the system time to the BMS, but for some reason the firmware update page can't connect. I have tried two different batteries with two different addresses (0 and 1). Same error.
 
Browse said:
Thanks. After watching that video, I made my own cable to match the wiring and pinouts and it is still returning the same error message. I can read all the battery parameters and I can write the system time to the BMS, but for some reason the firmware update page can't connect. I have tried two different batteries with two different addresses (0 and 1). Same error.
Click to expand...

Make sure there is no current flowing in or out of the battery. If there is any current, the BMS will not allow a firmware update to start. The battery cannot be charging or discharging.

If that doesn't work, flip the breaker off and back on and try again.
 
Browse said:
Thanks. After watching that video, I made my own cable to match the wiring and pinouts and it is still returning the same error message. I can read all the battery parameters and I can write the system time to the BMS, but for some reason the firmware update page can't connect. I have tried two different batteries with two different addresses (0 and 1). Same error.
Click to expand...
No current flow or it will also fail.
 
I have 4 of these batteries in an EG4 rack, connected to the busbars. For this procedure, only a single battery was turned on at a time with the inverter and Chargeverter off (no current flowing in either direction). The voltages on the cells are all stable with no charge or discharge indicated on the bank.

I have noticed that when I turn my entire system off including the battery breakers, I can still measure voltage on the busbars for hours. Not sure if this is residual voltage from the inverter capacitors or something. I wonder what else I can try...
 
Download a prolific driver on your pc or laptop. I have seen this work for a last resort. Or use a different laptop.

make sure all dip switches are down
 
Thanks!

The prolific drivers wouldn't load. It's a Windows 7 machine. All dip switches are down. Weird that I can write the system time and read all the batteries.
 
Browse said:
Thanks!

The prolific drivers wouldn't load. It's a Windows 7 machine. All dip switches are down. Weird that I can write the system time and read all the batteries.
Click to expand...
Are you at 0 battery current? I had the same issue and it was because there was current flowing in/out of the battery at a detectable rate. In my case I could also do system time on the batteries but could not write to batteries.

I also had issues with drivers on my m1 mac but after manually downloading a driver it worked out.
 
adobopr said:
Are you at 0 battery current? I had the same issue and it was because there was current flowing in/out of the battery at a detectable rate. In my case I could also do system time on the batteries but could not write to batteries.

I also had issues with drivers on my m1 mac but after manually downloading a driver it worked out.
Click to expand...
I'll try disconnecting the battery leads from the busbars and see if that makes any difference.
 
Well, disconnecting the battery didn't work either. The fact that this isn't a simple or consistent procedure makes me question the whole firmware upgrade process. What if it crapped out in the middle of the rewrite...I'd likely be looking at a 100lb brick in a rack.
 
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