6 hours to get 2 x EG4-LifePower4 to talk to Solar-Assistant via RS485 to USB.

[thebaldgeek]

Bought two of these batteries and an EG4 6.5kw inverter from Signature Solar.
The batteries arrived first, thought I would take the time between the two shipments to get the batteries talking.
Battery 1. The On / Off markings on the switch are reversed. (Up is binary off).
Battery 2. The On / Off markings are correct. (Up is binary on).
Battery 1. The binary values for the switch are reversed. 1 is 1, 4 is 8. (Binary value is mirrored).
Battery 2. The binary values for the switch are correct. 1 is 8, 4 is 1. (Binary values are as per the manual).
The RS485 cable I ordered with the batteries was wired wrong. it had pins 7/8 connected, needed to be pins 1/2.
The BMS software on the battery download page on the SS web site does not pull any data (shows battery 'Off Line'), but it does show the raw hex data so I could use that to figure out the dip switch settings.
Solar Assistant needs the batteries to start at 2, not any other starting address, all batteries need to be in order after address 2.
Solar assistant does not mention that you must have an inverter configured before the battery configuration will 'take' and it will even try and talk to the batteries.



Looking forward to getting the inverter and seeing how it talks to the batteries next.

Cheers.

 

[Kornbread]

I have one basic eg4 with a mirrored dip switch and just let Solar Assistant talk with the growatt and pass along the battery information.

 

[thebaldgeek]

I have one basic eg4 with a mirrored dip switch and just let Solar Assistant talk with the growatt and pass along the battery information.

I did wonder if that is the better method.
I cant imagine the EG4 talking to the two batteries as well as Solar Assistant. Seems to be one or the other to me.
I also want to use the SA battery curve rather than the inverter one, so again, leaning on your approach. Thanks for letting me know how you set it up.
That said, I am disappointed in the limited info SA pulls from the battery. I'd love to get the full details they offer.

Thanks also for letting me know about your mirrored switch. My batteries must be from two different batches.
No wonder folks are having a hard time getting these things talking.

 

[Kornbread]

With the Growatt and eg4 communicating, SolarAssistant cannnot pull up the detailed battery information it can when the Growatt is not connected to the batteries, and Solar Assistant is. AFAIK, it is one or the other and I chose to let the inverter and battery make up their minds instead of me.

 

[CCBA]

Bought two of these batteries and an EG4 6.5kw inverter from Signature Solar.
The batteries arrived first, thought I would take the time between the two shipments to get the batteries talking.
Battery 1. The On / Off markings on the switch are reversed. (Up is binary off).
Battery 2. The On / Off markings are correct. (Up is binary on).
Battery 1. The binary values for the switch are reversed. 1 is 1, 4 is 8. (Binary value is mirrored).
Battery 2. The binary values for the switch are correct. 1 is 8, 4 is 1. (Binary values are as per the manual).
The RS485 cable I ordered with the batteries was wired wrong. it had pins 7/8 connected, needed to be pins 1/2.
The BMS software on the battery download page on the SS web site does not pull any data (shows battery 'Off Line'), but it does show the raw hex data so I could use that to figure out the dip switch settings.
Solar Assistant needs the batteries to start at 2, not any other starting address, all batteries need to be in order after address 2.
Solar assistant does not mention that you must have an inverter configured before the battery configuration will 'take' and it will even try and talk to the batteries.

View attachment 101719

Looking forward to getting the inverter and seeing how it talks to the batteries next.

Cheers.

Mine is backwards as well. Mickey Mouse bulsh@t. thanks , you saved me some time.

 

[thebaldgeek]

Glad it helped @CCBA
I am sooo soooo sooooooooo glad I stuck with SA and have it talking with the batteries. Its 'power' settings are a game changer for some systems vs what the inverter can do (ie, nothing).
The data is amazing and borderline critical in tuning / setting up / commissioning a marginal off-grid system like we have been building here.
I really should start a thread on all the ways SA data has saved the day here.
About to install the last two 350w panels tomorrow and that will be about it.
Taken my power bill from +$300 to just under $100 per month. 4ish year ROI on the system.
Without the SA data, I'd be stuggling to save $50 and be wondering what I did wrong!
I'm at the point of forgiving the backward switch settings. Great batteries, great inverter, awsome Solar-Assistant!

 

[tamingilman]

still fighting this. Got first battery talking with down up down down looking at front of unit. second battery is connected via rs485 to the first pack and will not show up in Solar Assistant. by the manual slot 3 which should be used for the second battery should be down down up up. Neither this or the reverse up up down down work. I rebooted the batteries as well. What else could I be missing?

 

[tamingilman]

I mean flipped, reversed there are only two options for module 3 battery 2 right...

 

[tamingilman]

ha finally got two. onto pack 3. this is crazy

 

[thebaldgeek]

Well, come on! Spill the beans! Flipped, revered, or both? Or perhaps the cable was wrong?
It really is worth looking at the raw serial/modbusRTU data to see what SA is seeing. (But not decoding).

 

[tamingilman]

still stuck at 2 of 6. no cable changes
pack 1 - down up down down
pack 2 - up up down down
pack 3 - testing

Sounds silly, but I don't have another machine close enough to my batteries to plug in the usb to serial adapter and look at raw data. tomorrow...

 

[tamingilman]

Ok. BMS Test utility can see all 6 packs. They are addressed from 2-7 per Solar Assistant instructions. SA only shows two packs.

Thoughts?

 

[tamingilman]

I do not currently have my Sol-Ark connected. Which I believe is what is causing the error shown in config, but maybe not.

 

[thebaldgeek]

Since you don't have the inverter plugged in, but you still have to configure it for the battery communications to work, SA is trying to poll two different devices out the one interface and that might be messing things up.
Do you have a spare or second serial to USB device you can plug into the Pi, the other end can be dangling, but it will mount it as USB1 and point the SA inverter to it. That way you can keep SA happy in looking for the inverter on USB1 and test talking to the batteries (all of them) on USB0.

 

[thebaldgeek]

Oh, and you are not trying to talk to the batteries with two bits of software at the same time right? Those screenshots were taken at different times? (Just sanity checking here).

 

[tamingilman]

I don't have a second adapter at the moment. have one on order. Guess what though, it doesn't matter now! I rebooted the PI from the SA web interface and it didn't come back up. Solid red light will not boot. connected HDMI to just see the "bios" screen come up and nothing. It looks like the little guy just died. Perhaps that was my issue... tried a few power supplies and different cables. UGH it's impossible to find PI's right now. Really wish SA ran on standard linux boxes. I have a ton of those available.

To answer your question, yes those screenshots were taken at different times. pulled the adapter out of pi and put it in laptop running software, no changes to wiring / dip switches etc. Works in BMS Test, only 2 in SA. Odd.

 

[reiters]

So I recently got my setup all working. Here are some details I didn't find anywhere but figured out (after days of fighting).

RS485 is like a building full of people (16 max in our case) and someone on stage. The person on the stage yells out "john how old are you" and if there is more than one john then both answer at the same time and nobody understands the answer. You cant have more than one person on stage yelling for answers and everyone has to have a unique name.

What that means to us is you can only have one device asking for information. I tried having BMS_Tool running on laptop AND SA polling the batteries. Doesn't work because you have 2 people on stage asking questions at the same time. The ID of each battery has to be unique. In the case of SA it requires all the IDs to be in order without gaps but BMS_Tools doesnt care. If you set a lifepower to ID 1 or eg4ll to 0 then they act differently and serve as the person on stage and poll the other batteries so you cant use SA.

The way I figured out my switches was to use BMS_Tools (on a laptop) on a single battery and set BMS_Tools to look at all 16 IDs. When I got data back I detemined what the switches were doing from there. Mine were all flipped. I understand binary from my days in college (I'm a programmer). I didn't use ID 0 or 1 because it effects the communication. I started with 2 and went to 7 (I have 6 batteries). Then I (and this is important) disconnected the laptop and hooked up SA. If you leave the laptop hooked up SA will give you a communication error because BMS_Tools will be polling the batteries at the same time as SA and the responses will be jumbled.

I give the drawn out explanation, even though you have yours working, for the next person searching the forums.

 

[tamingilman]

I did finally get mine working. Two serial adapters one the the Sol-Ark and one to the EG4's. Also running Home assistant talking to SA. Pretty slick.

 

[thanhrodke]

I did finally get mine working. Two serial adapters one the the Sol-Ark and one to the EG4's. Also running Home assistant talking to SA. Pretty slick.

Great looking dashboard! And I agree...Iove the SolarAssistant to Home Assistant integration.

 

[bgpiano]

Solar assistant does not mention that you must have an inverter configured before the battery configuration will 'take' and it will even try and talk to the batteries.

I have the eg4 6500 inverter. Could you tell me what you mean by "must have an inverter configured"? Does this mean just make sure the charging parameters and all programs are set up how you want your 6500 to run? thank you