Battery banks, parasitic loads and low sun hours

[SHTF Power Anyway]

Update on battery BMS records:
I looked through 10 hours of data from Battery 5's BMS and could see only two incidents of the 0.50 unit current reading and it was only for a few seconds each time. I looked at all 9 other batteries to see if this draw changed the others but all I saw in all the reports were consistent -0.30 unit currents.

The team is still disconnecting batteries and trying to trace the voltage coming out of the bank when the whole bank is off.

 

[MurphyGuy]

The voltages we've been reporting all this time have been for all 10 batteries. Battery #5 had not shown that .5 unit current at all again, from what we could see from the reports. It had returned to -.3 unit current like the rest of the batteries so we were trying to look at this morning's reports to see if we saw that anomaly again. That's when the computer crashed. I was able to recover it and replace the computer in the shop but can't get the new computer to record a damn thing so I finally broke down and contacted Fortress (twice) with the second attempt being in writing stating all of the issues we've been having and asking for a written response back at this point. Based on the alarming message below your last post, we have literally shut down all of the batteries while we, again, try to figure out what the heck is going on. When my husband shut off all of the batteries he tested at the Sol-Ark battery connections and he's seeing voltage which started at 15 and has since risen to 24. Our neighbor is now here helping him while I type this to you.

Well crap.. all that work just went to into the trashcan because of one poster who doesn't even know what's going on?

You should ignore the alarming message posted by Welnat. Per his own post, he hasn't read the entire thread and doesn't understand what's happening. And now our experiment has been invalidated.

You need to plug back into the grid, allow the inverters to charge the entire battery bank back up to 54.4 volts. IGNORE the SOC readings coming from the inverter. Put your meter on the battery terminals until the thing reads 54.4 volts and don' stop until it's there.


Once you get to 54.4 volts, record BMS software information, then REMOVE one module (not bat5) from the bank, put it on a table, and start taking voltage readings every few hours again. We need to see how a single module behaves..

Even the police don't interrogate ten suspects at once in the same room.

I should note also that when I finally did get the original computer recovered, I did see a brief moment on battery 5 when it showed that 0.5 unit current. It occurred at 2:13 am and again at 2:20 and lasted only seconds each time. I'm still trying to get through more of those files to see if I see this activity on any of the other batteries. I lost that system monitoring recording around 10 am and have not been able to get it back online.

The voltage readings for the entire 10 batteries together have been as follows:

3/5/2023 14:43​	53.27​
3/5/2023 15:43​	53.25​
3/5/2023 16:43​	53.24​
3/5/2023 17:43​	53.23​
3/5/2023 18:50​	53.22​
3/5/2023 19:47​	53.22​
3/5/2023 20:43​	53.21​
3/5/2023 21:43​	53.21​
3/6/2023 7:48​	53.18​
3/6/2023 8:48​	53.18​
3/6/2023 9:48​	53.18​
3/6/2023 10:48​	53.18​
3/6/2023 11:43​	53.17​
3/6/2023 12:43​	53.17​

 

[SHTF Power Anyway]

Well crap.. all that work just went to into the trashcan because of one poster who doesn't even know what's going on?

You should ignore the alarming message posted by Welnat. Per his own post, he hasn't read the entire thread and doesn't understand what's happening. And now our experiment has been invalidated.

You need to plug back into the grid, allow the inverters to charge the entire battery bank back up to 54.4 volts. IGNORE the SOC readings coming from the inverter. Put your meter on the battery terminals until the thing reads 54.4 volts and don' stop until it's there.


Once you get to 54.4 volts, record BMS software information, then REMOVE one module (not bat5) from the bank, put it on a table, and start taking voltage readings every few hours again. We need to see how a single module behaves..

Even the police don't interrogate ten suspects at once in the same room.

FYI - With the batteries all turned off, there is still voltage showing at the terminals to the Sol-Arks. Battery 5 is not the one pushing this voltage. They're still hunting it down. I think that work is important too at this point. To clarify: there is absolutely ZERO incoming PV. The grid is not attached to charge anything. The Sol-Arks are off and have been since late yesterday. It is my intent to restart the experiment but I will need that BMS software recording things too so I can watch for anomalies by battery so we're not hunting and pecking blindly through 10 batteries.

Also, the original voltage for the batteries to show SOC at 100% was at 55.7 (both figures from the BMS software). Soon after my husband took the following measurements:

With a Fluke 789 Process Meter: 54.83 DC which dropped quickly to 54.79 DC within seconds.
Again, the measurement was taken at the connection of the battery cables to the Sol-Ark

It seems a pretty drastic drop occurred early on and since has gotten very slow and gradual. Is that normal?

 

[MurphyGuy]

It seems a pretty drastic drop occurred early on and since has gotten very slow and gradual. Is that normal?

Yes, that is normal. Here is a typical LifePo4 discharge curve Notice the elbow (left side) at 98/99% charge? It goes straight up to the maximum allowable voltage for a 16 cell LifePo4 config. Anything left of that elbow is useless charge because there's no real stored energy there.
Now notice the flat line from about 54 volts all the way right to where the elbow starts to curve at around 30% ? That's where your system will operate at most times. you can take it all the way to 10% (2nd to last marker dot from the far right), but beyond that, there isn't much energy left in the battery.

What we want to do is charge to that 54.4 volts and then see what a single module does.. how long does it take for its own self-consumption to start dropping to that 50 volt mark.

So we start at 54.4 volts, and let it drop to 50 volts.. We know we went from 98/99% to about 15%.. So we mathematically remove 2% + 15% from the module's 5.4kWh capacity, then measure the time it took to get there and a bit of math will tell you how much juice the module uses for self consumption. It's not exact, but darn close.

This can be done with all 10 modules at once, but it would be MUCH better to do it with a single module. It would also allow you to run on 9 modules while waiting.

Keep in mind, we are dealing with voltage resolutions with two decimal places for the pack, and three at the cell level. There are always going to be inaccuracies. I can pretty much guarantee you your inverter, bms software, and fluke meter, are all going to report slightly different at those resolutions. Anyone can get an accurate reading between 55 and 54 volts.. going from 55 to 55.x is much harder, and going frrom 55.x to 55.xx is even worse.. You are dealing with voltage resolutions of 3 decimal places at the cell level.

 

[labeeman]

FYI - With the batteries all turned off, there is still voltage showing at the terminals to the Sol-Arks. Battery 5 is not the one pushing this voltage. They're still hunting it down. I think that work is important too at this point. To clarify: there is absolutely ZERO incoming PV. The grid is not attached to charge anything. The Sol-Arks are off and have been since late yesterday. It is my intent to restart the experiment but I will need that BMS software recording things too so I can watch for anomalies by battery so we're not hunting and pecking blindly through 10 batteries.

Also, the original voltage for the batteries to show SOC at 100% was at 55.7 (both figures from the BMS software). Soon after my husband took the following measurements:

It seems a pretty drastic drop occurred early on and since has gotten very slow and gradual. Is that normal?

Put an incandescent 110-volt light bulb across that voltage to see if it goes away.

 

[SHTF Power Anyway]

Yes, that is normal. Here is a typical LifePo4 discharge curve Notice the elbow (left side) at 98/99% charge? It goes straight up to the maximum allowable voltage for a 16 cell LifePo4 config. Anything left of that elbow is useless charge because there's no real stored energy there.
Now notice the flat line from about 54 volts all the way right to where the elbow starts to curve at around 30% ? That's where your system will operate at most times. you can take it all the way to 10% (2nd to last marker dot from the far right), but beyond that, there isn't much energy left in the battery.

What we want to do is charge to that 54.4 volts and then see what a single module does.. how long does it take for its own self-consumption to start dropping to that 50 volt mark.

So we start at 54.4 volts, and let it drop to 50 volts.. We know we went from 98/99% to about 15%.. So we mathematically remove 2% + 15% from the module's 5.4kWh capacity, then measure the time it took to get there and a bit of math will tell you how much juice the module uses for self consumption. It's not exact, but darn close.

This can be done with all 10 modules at once, but it would be MUCH better to do it with a single module. It would also allow you to run on 9 modules while waiting.

Keep in mind, we are dealing with voltage resolutions with two decimal places for the pack, and three at the cell level. There are always going to be inaccuracies. I can pretty much guarantee you your inverter, bms software, and fluke meter, are all going to report slightly different at those resolutions. Anyone can get an accurate reading between 55 and 54 volts.. going from 55 to 55.x is much harder, and going frrom 55.x to 55.xx is even worse.. You are dealing with voltage resolutions of 3 decimal places at the cell level.

OK. When all the batteries were powered off, they still saw voltage of 15 which rose to 24 volts at the battery connections to the Sol-Ark. They started disconnecting batteries one by one until that voltage disappeared. It was battery #3 (not 5) that was the cause. All of our batteries are currently offline and will not be charged until tomorrow with PV.

Do you have thoughts on this particular issue? I'm hesitant to put battery 3 back in to charge to 100% again but will if you think it's safe.

 

[labeeman]

OK. When all the batteries were powered off, they still saw voltage of 15 which rose to 24 volts at the battery connections to the Sol-Ark. They started disconnecting batteries one by one until that voltage disappeared. It was battery #3 (not 5) that was the cause. All of our batteries are currently offline and will not be charged until tomorrow with PV.

Do you have thoughts on this particular issue? I'm hesitant to put battery 3 back in to charge to 100% again but will if you think it's safe.

How are you turning the batteries off?

 

[MurphyGuy]

OK. When all the batteries were powered off, they still saw voltage of 15 which rose to 24 volts at the battery connections to the Sol-Ark. They started disconnecting batteries one by one until that voltage disappeared. It was battery #3 (not 5) that was the cause. All of our batteries are currently offline and will not be charged until tomorrow with PV.

Do you have thoughts on this particular issue? I'm hesitant to put battery 3 back in to charge to 100% again but will if you think it's safe.

There's probably a capacitor in there that has a bit of charge left in it. Some inverters have large capacitor banks that are connected externally to the power circuit. (Externally means outside the power switch) I ran into this with my Sunny Island inverters.. they have a big ON-OFF circuit breaker on the front panel.. Common sense would dictate that when that breaker is in the OFF position, there would be no connection between the battery and the inverter, and that turned out to NOT be the case. There is in fact, a capacitor bank that can not be disconnected from the batteries unless you physically disconnect the external connections (wire) or pull an external fuse between the inverter and battery.

This is why I said to REMOVE AND ISOLATE one of your modules for testing.. it is the only way to be sure there is no connection.

And as a side note: There is no such thing as a perfect capacitor, the all bleed energy. If you connect a power source to a capacitor, it will drain energy from that power source even though it's not supposed to be doing anything.

In other words, your inverters can till suck energy from your batteries if they are connected.. even if they are off.

As for safety, I have not yet seen any indication (via your posts) that anything in your system is unsafe. You simply have an energy draw that we either need to hunt down and kill, or learn to deal with.

 

[RoadTurtle]

I cannot tell you how helpful you've been in such a short conversation! Honestly, THANK YOU! Sadly, I have two electricians and one electrical engineer helping with this system and I seem to know more... How is that even possible?

I have gotten in way too many arguments with self proclaimed electricians, one was even a MASTER ELECTRICIAN, that have difficulty understanding a 50a trailer is 50a PER leg, or 100a total to the trailer. I even walked the self proclaimed master electrician that is was 12,000amp total, but he just couldn't get past the fact it's 50a total energy

 

[SHTF Power Anyway]

I have gotten in way too many arguments with self proclaimed electricians, one was even a MASTER ELECTRICIAN, that have difficulty understanding a 50a trailer is 50a PER leg, or 100a total to the trailer. I even walked the self proclaimed master electrician that is was 12,000amp total, but he just couldn't get past the fact it's 50a total energy

Oh, Mr. Turtle, if I can call you that! lol

This whole thing is a shit show. Solar seems to me to be a con job pipe dream. When the biggest and best turn out to be a brick, I just don't have words for it.

A few years ago I met a Nuclear Engineer who could power 2 homes for 10 years on $6 worth of material in a reactor the size of a BBQ propane tank. It was based on thorium with molten salt. The byproduct was not a weapon but something called Bismuth 213 which he said Sloan Kettering turned into a cure for both Leukemia and Lymphoma in a series of 3 shots. His permitted use of this "reactor" was rescinded and his reactor he thinks is at Hanford. The man worked under the Reagan admin. He was the real deal. What don't we have in our world? Safe/clean energy that's truly sustainable and the cure for two major types of cancer. Why?

That conversation hunts me to this day and is part of my shear frustration with this project. I'm fighting to prove that what the manufacturer told me was the truth about their product. Why? I now don't even know. My original post was asking if anyone could tell me their parasitic load from their equipment and if they had any suggestions on how to get me out of my piss ass poor investment in a fraudulent product.

I've had a day. Thanks for letting me rant.

 

[SHTF Power Anyway]

How are you turning the batteries off?

The power switch on each battery and the breaker at the inverter.

 

[SHTF Power Anyway]

There's probably a capacitor in there that has a bit of charge left in it. Some inverters have large capacitor banks that are connected externally to the power circuit. (Externally means outside the power switch) I ran into this with my Sunny Island inverters.. they have a big ON-OFF circuit breaker on the front panel.. Common sense would dictate that when that breaker is in the OFF position, there would be no connection between the battery and the inverter, and that turned out to NOT be the case. There is in fact, a capacitor bank that can not be disconnected from the batteries unless you physically disconnect the external connections (wire) or pull an external fuse between the inverter and battery.

This is why I said to REMOVE AND ISOLATE one of your modules for testing.. it is the only way to be sure there is no connection.

And as a side note: There is no such thing as a perfect capacitor, the all bleed energy. If you connect a power source to a capacitor, it will drain energy from that power source even though it's not supposed to be doing anything.

In other words, your inverters can till suck energy from your batteries if they are connected.. even if they are off.

As for safety, I have not yet seen any indication (via your posts) that anything in your system is unsafe. You simply have an energy draw that we either need to hunt down and kill, or learn to deal with.

Why then would the volts disappear when battery 3 was disconnected? Why just battery 3?

 

[MurphyGuy]

Why then would the volts disappear when battery 3 was disconnected? Why just battery 3?

I'm sorry but I don't know how to help at this point. I was attempting to diagnose your system one step at a time in an organized and systematic way but you've taken other actions which render my diagnostic attempts invalid.

There is a process to this kind of troubleshooting, but it doesn't work well when there are too many cooks in the kitchen pulling wires and pushing buttons.

 

[SHTF Power Anyway]

I'm sorry but I don't know how to help at this point. I was attempting to diagnose your system one step at a time in an organized and systematic way but you've taken other actions which render my diagnostic attempts invalid.

There is a process to this kind of troubleshooting, but it doesn't work well when there are too many cooks in the kitchen pulling wires and pushing buttons.

I do appreciate your help. I know you're helping many others and that's so commendable. It's hard for those of us with no experience and harder with us who have handicapped help. I've been a ping-pong ball in this whole thing since the word go. It's hard because I kept telling you the manufacturer gave me this info and, in the end, that's what we've settled on really except for proving their point. I'm so damn tired. I feel beat to shit by the world at this point. I tried so damn hard to make a wise decision in this purchase which was critical to our overall goals and, despite the efforts, I'm at a breaking point.

Love to you for your attempts to make this world a better place when so many are not even trying. Truly, thank you.

 

[SHTF Power Anyway]

Why then would the volts disappear when battery 3 was disconnected? Why just battery 3?

I do want to make an important point, though, MurphyGuy. You originally doubted the numbers I stated which were in the email from their company. You tried twice to get them to admit those awful numbers were wrong. When you realized they, even if wrong, were bad numbers, (not wrong but bad for the customer from a performance standpoint) you wanted to help make these bad products work because I "can't just return them because I don't like them." This is how we are finding ourselves, collectively, in this pickle in society. We refuse to take a stand when something isn't right. We "make do" because it was somehow our faults we were defrauded. We let the very criminals destroying our society get away with this stuff. I will find a way to make do one way or another but if I somehow get stuck with products that suck this bad, I'm going to do what you said to do and make sure EVERYONE hears about it so no one else gets stuck with products that should "never have made it off of the engineering table." You were right in your original analysis. Don't let that part go.

 

[MurphyGuy]

I do want to make an important point, though, MurphyGuy. You originally doubted the numbers I stated which were in the email from their company. You tried twice to get them to admit those awful numbers were wrong. When you realized they, even if wrong, were bad numbers, (not wrong but bad for the customer from a performance standpoint) you wanted to help make these bad products work because I "can't just return them because I don't like them." This is how we are finding ourselves, collectively, in this pickle in society. We refuse to take a stand when something isn't right. We "make do" because it was somehow our faults we were defrauded. We let the very criminals destroying our society get away with this stuff. I will find a way to make do one way or another but if I somehow get stuck with products that suck this bad, I'm going to do what you said to do and make sure EVERYONE hears about it so no one else gets stuck with products that should "never have made it off of the engineering table." You were right in your original analysis. Don't let that part go.

If there is anything else I can help with, let me know. One final note on your problem. I think I mentioned this before but it's worth saying again. Off-grid people are an interesting bunch.. they treat energy like bankers treat money.. every penny gets counted, every kilowatt gets accounted for.
After being in this game for over 5 years now, every bone in my body is telling me that it's not their battery design that is the problem.. if that were the case, these off-grid people would be all over youtube and other social platforms with their complaints.

With that in mind, there are some things you should consider:
1) It is certainly possible you have a single bad module. Every manufacture in the history of mankind has produced a defects coming off the assembly line. That being said, I didn't see that in any of the BMS data you posted.

2) If you do verify, with solid and reliable data, that the self-consumption load on these units really is so high, then perhaps you should consider creating a youtube video... or better yet, a series of youtube videos showing the problem. Then send that video link to Fortress and let them know their efficiency numbers are fraudulent advertising. Let them know you'll be on the solar facebook groups, internet forums, youtube, and any other social media you can find, and that you will be complaining about the problem until the Sun collapses into a white dwarf. Just make absolutely sure you verify the self-consumption is accurate.

3) And lastly... this one would require a bit of technical expertise but I can tell you that anyone who builds their own lithium battery banks could probably do it.. You could always disassemble the batteries and combine them. Take them apart, harvest the cells, combine the cells from multiple units and then use a single quality BMS on them. Heck, you could combine all the modules into a single large 16s battery and wire up a REC or Batrium BMS unit.
This is basically what I did.. the lithium cells I use are harvested from a Chevy BOLT electric vehicle.. arraigned in a format that suits me, and wired up my own BMS. (picture attached of my 25kWh battery bank). You paid for the cells, you might want to consider making the most of them. Pretty sure it would void the warranty though..

Good luck to you, that's a lot of money to spend and probably worth digging into to get the problem solved.

 

[RV10flyer]

it's not their battery design that is the problem.. if that were the case, these off-grid people would be all over youtube and other social platforms with their complaints.

We’re not giving reviews, because most of us that spent $13K on two Sol-Ark12K’s could save and build our own 16S 280aH battery x 10ea for 30% the cost of theirs. I checked into buying those two years ago. Besides, it’s nice to be able to troubleshoot and work on your own build if necessary. I order and keep spares of every component.

 

[labeeman]

The power switch on each battery and the breaker at the inverter.

It seems that your battery does not have a separate breaker to also disconnect the battery and is using the fets in the BMS to turn off the battery all fets have leakage and will pass some current it is in the microamp range but can be measured and will charge up a cap in the inverter. I think you are chasing a normal situation on the ghost voltage and one of the batteries #3 has more leakage than the rest which may indicate a bad BMS in that battery.

 

[SHTF Power Anyway]

For anyone who has followed this thread and is still interested, I did receive an inadequate response from Fortress by email again from another "Applications Engineer". I still have literally no remedy or clarification on their 30 watt per battery consumption. Why aren't other people complaining? Maybe it's because many have had these units installed by professional companies who do their monitoring and maintenance for them? I don't know. I'm pretty disgusted.

We have recharged the batteries to the point they were showing 100% SOC per the battery BMS (A tool I'm not supposed to use, apparently). We have been taking readings of the entire battery bank's voltage every hour on the hour. I'm not inclined to take any battery out of the rotation given the total lack of support from Fortress.

This is what I sent to them:
QUESTIONS:
1 - I had to install the BMS Software on a new computer when the original failed. Yesterday, before the original laptop failed, I was able to choose "Record" and check "Save" and a checkmark appeared next to "Save". I was able to get a CSV file to see a good record of what my batteries have been doing. The new laptop with software successfully installed is not saving these records for some reason. Your "instructions" don't even address this option. How do I get the software to save CSV files so I can review them later?

2 - I noticed the CAN Protocol ID number in the instruction document shows a "2" for Sol-Ark. Our settings show a "6" which is what your staff set it to when they recently worked on our system in January due to the communication protocol issues with Sol-Ark. Which is correct? Let me know if I need to make changes on my end or if you need to update your instructions.

3 - Six of my 10 eFlex batteries are currently showing a level 3 "High Cell Voltage" alarm. My battery bank is currently not powering even the Sol-Arks (ie, there should be no load on the batteries at all except for their own consumption needs). The system has been in this mode since early yesterday morning while we perform our own analysis and testing. The alarm appeared later yesterday evening. There are no red BMS alarm lights on the batteries themselves but the alarm level is concerning to me. Without any manual for your BMS software, there is no way for us to determine if we need to take any measures. If the alarm escalates, we're not in the building to see it happening.

3: We've been told that your batteries consume 30 watts each which, for us, would equate to 7.2k per day for the 10 batteries we have. That would mean your batteries consume 13% of their capacity daily. How is that a ">98% efficiency"? That makes your batteries overpriced paperweights for us in the winter. We invested in six additional batteries recently and noticed it made things worse for us, not better which is when we discovered this issue. It wasn't until we were forced to jump through the whole communication protocol hoops that we were finally able to get this 30 watt figure from your employee, Tom Honey. How would you feel to have dropped $21k on paperweights? That efficiency number makes no sense and, if true, makes your efficiency statements pure fraud. I would like and, frankly, deserve an explanation. And I'd like it in writing.

OTHER GENERAL FEEDBACK (if you wish to hear it from your frustrated customers):
I did not need to update my firmware so I had no idea the Firmware Update Instructions would have the instructions on how to install the BMS monitoring software. I spent the weekend trying to get that software loaded and wasted several hours in this process. Previously, your staff had downloaded and installed this software for me which becomes unhelpful in circumstances when your staff is unavailable to assist and the customer needs to swap out their computer that they use to monitor. Further, it would make more sense to keep the BMS software instructions separate from the Firmware update instructions as there have been several warnings to not update your own firmware but instead to make an appointment to have you do this.

Your Firmware Update Instructions under eFlex show eVault on the top of the document. You may want to edit that to avoid customer confusion.

Your instructions seem to be useful for a Windows version the laptop I was forced to use didn't have. The laptop I'm stuck with for the moment is on Windows 10. It doesn't have the "Type here to search" option. As luck would have it, I am at least intuitive enough to figure out where to go but other customers may not be. I thought it would be useful feedback for your manual writer to take into consideration.

Finally, I want to make a formal complaint about one of your employees who stated a former communication was "quasi emotional". If you continue to treat your customers that way, your reputation, which is not yet tarnished, will become so in short order. And his other statement of, "We have many support tickets..." didn't bode well for your reputation either.

This is what I received back:
The Tool you are using is an engineering tool.
This provides diagnostics to identify a battery failure.
This tool is not intended to be used as a monitoring device.

You are welcome to monitor the battery but this is similar to using a CAN tool to monitor your automobile performance.
Use at your own risk and use it to adjust how you are utilizing the unit.

The performance of the eflex batteries in normal use is monitored using the LEDs on the battery and the data provided to the inverter.

1) this is an engineering tool not intended for the purpose you are requesting

2) Fortress Power has recently updated firmware as a result of SolArk recent firmware releases having issues communicating using the RS485 communication bus. Fortress has adjusted the protocol numbers as a result and some firmware require protocol at 2 and others at 6. The knowledgeable
installer or customer will no if communication is not working and then identify the communication is not working so Engineering support can assist in changing the protocol (this is a one time change)

3) High Cell Voltage alarm is a normal behavior on a large battery installation. The high voltage alarm prevents the battery with the alarm to charge. This allows other batteries in the group to be fully charged. This is a normal function. BMS alarms are when the system is disabled. You are using an engineering tool in a way that it is not intended to be used and this is not supported by Fortress Power.

3a) The eFlex battery protection circuitry uses energy to create a very safe residential storage battery. You can agree that the safe operation of a High energy device being powered 24 / 7 is VERY Important. The Fortress Power eFlex is designed with a solid Aluminum shell, a high performance battery management system using high performance power contactors. These items were designed for safety. To run these safety systems requires energy. The efficiency number is for the power stored in the Cells, the amount of energy stored in the cell is discharged with 98% efficiency.

Fortress power wants all of its customers happy and having their batteries working. Unfortunately Sol-Ark released firmware for their inverters which had communication problems using the RS485 communication Bus which Fortress and Sol-Ark had used successfully for years. To allow communication to work between the Fortress batteries and Sol-Ark inverters, Fortress decided to move communication over to the Sol-Ark CAN Bus. This is a one time action. You can run in voltage mode and eliminate communication. Either way will work well. To update firmware we require a windows PC.
The use of a windows PC is difficult for some of our installers and customers and we have developed a monitoring and support option Fortress Guardian which is also intended to take care of firmware updates in the future. This is completing beta testing and firmware support should be available before the end of the year.

Douglas Greenfield
Fortress Power
Applications Engineering

 

[DougfromdaUP]

So Fortress has developed a high performance safety protocol- empty the battery in 7 days so it won't explode.
Bravo!


edited to include "high-performance" at least once