Communications issue with Lifepower4 EG4 BMS

[Mark48vMagnum]

I’m having a communications issue with Lifepower4 EG4 BMS to my laptop.

I have 6 Lifepower4 48v/100Ah battery modules set up in 2 battery racks. Batteries were put in climate controlled crawl space with 48 inch height, this was why I used 2 battery racks instead of just 1.
I have a 6 foot Cat 5E (RJ-45 ends) cable run from garage RJ-45 wall plate down to battery module #1 RS-485, this cable is 6 foot long. I have standard jumper cables on all battery modules except for battery modules 3 to module 4. (Rack #1 to Rack#2) See Picture
The jumper cable from battery 3 to battery 4 is a CAT 5E cable and is 3 foot long.
All RJ-45’s and wall plate receptacle are wired Standard (T568B Pin-Out)
Pin 7- White/Brown Strip (D+), Pin 8- Brown (D-)
I’m using the dongle supplied by Signature Solar from garage wall plate to laptop.

DIP Switch on battery Modules all set to proper addressing from manual, and rechecked, and rechecked.

The software I’m using is BMS-TEST-Lifepower4.
When I open the software it opens at “Configinfo Screen.
App Baud Rate: 9,600
Boot Baud Rate: 115200
Port is: COM 2 (USB-Serial CH340)
I then go to Batinfo Screen and set Packs Number to 1.
Then I enter start Address of 0 (for #1 Battery Module)
Long story short software will communicate with Battery Module #1 (Adr.0) and Battery Module #4 (Adr.4)
I can’t get software to bring up Battery Modules #2, #3, #5, or #6.

I have tried to do modules separately (Stand Alone) with just dongle cable between laptop and module and using address 0 (All Dip Switched Down/ON) but will not bring up Modules #2, #3, #5, or #6.
Makes no sense…

Any Ideas on what could possibly be wrong???

Thanks

 

[Mblanke]

Hello - sorry don't have answer to your question - wondered if you figured this issue out. I am working at getting the BMS test to work. Did you disconnect the communication cable from the inverter before plugging the BMS usb into your battery/computer? I was hoping that by plugging the BMS usb cable into one computer it would read all the batteries or do you have to plug in seperately to each battery? We have 3 Growatt 5Kw inverters and 2 transformers and 36 455W panels. We started with 4 Lifepower4 batteries and recently added 2 more - we have been having issues since hooking up the 2 new batteries and are wanting to use the BMS test to see what may be going on. Thanks - wish you the best. (we are just up the road from you)

 

[Mark48vMagnum]

I've been able to bring up Battery #1 & #4 of the six in a parallel communication.
I've Turned off my Inverter (MS4448PAE) Disconnected the classic 150 from charging thru settings. Reset battery's and then rebooted battery's. If I plug RJ45 into any one battery at a time, then I can see all info of that particular battery. I purchased these battery's because they said they could be daisy chained together thru the RS485 ports on battery's. That was important as my battery's are in a climate controlled crawl space with an overhead height of 48" When I had them all daisy chained I could open BMS-TEST software but only connect to battery's #1 and #4. Not sure why only 2 of the six battery's will come up live and the other 4 will not connect. (Even though software says successfully connected)
Spoke with Signature Solar Tech support and they have told me software will only work for one battery at a time. (Would have been nice to know that before my purchase) The Lifepower4 EG4 Manual even states that you can connect to all battery's, but just bring up one at a time on laptop which would be GREAT!
If these battery's were just a one at a time communication to a computer then why have an addressing DIP switch?
Why have two RS485 ports on each battery module?
Why does the manual say you can daisy chain up to 16 battery's at a time for communication?
The Battery Manual States as Follows:
This allows encoding in the range of 0~15, which can support up to 16 modules in parallel. If more modules are needed in parallel, please contact Signature Solar; we will design the module to meet your requirements.
That's not what SS Tech Support now says! I think on the communications side of these battery's SS is lost, don't have a clue what they're selling!!!
As far as the battery performance of the Lifepower4's I'm presently pleased.
I just feel that on the communications side of these Lifepower4 battery's Signature Solar misrepresented the product by not informing their customers of the issues.

I'll keep digging and trying new things...

 

[Quattrohead]

The Battery Manual States as Follows:
This allows encoding in the range of 0~15, which can support up to 16 modules in parallel. If more modules are needed in parallel, please contact Signature Solar; we will design the module to meet your requirements.
That's not what SS Tech Support now says! I think on the communications side of these battery's SS is lost, don't have a clue what they're selling!!!

They are just telling you what the Chinese manufacturer told them without fact checking or QA.
Rush to market and make a killing, its the new world order.

 

[Old Seagull Man]

I don't know if this will help.

Plug the cable back to you PC in to the last com port on the last battery.

On the battery dip switches, set the first battery as ID 01 and so on so ID 06 is the last battery.

And see if you have any luck. worked on some old no understandable name rack battery's i dealt with a number of years back.

 

[Mark48vMagnum]

I don't know if this will help.

Plug the cable back to you PC in to the last com port on the last battery.

On the battery dip switches, set the first battery as ID 01 and so on so ID 06 is the last battery.

And see if you have any luck. worked on some old no understandable name rack battery's i dealt with a number of years back.

Give it a shot, but no cigar.

 

[jmjack]

I've been able to bring up Battery #1 & #4 of the six in a parallel communication.
I've Turned off my Inverter (MS4448PAE) Disconnected the classic 150 from charging thru settings. Reset battery's and then rebooted battery's. If I plug RJ45 into any one battery at a time, then I can see all info of that particular battery. I purchased these battery's because they said they could be daisy chained together thru the RS485 ports on battery's. That was important as my battery's are in a climate controlled crawl space with an overhead height of 48" When I had them all daisy chained I could open BMS-TEST software but only connect to battery's #1 and #4. Not sure why only 2 of the six battery's will come up live and the other 4 will not connect. (Even though software says successfully connected)
Spoke with Signature Solar Tech support and they have told me software will only work for one battery at a time. (Would have been nice to know that before my purchase) The Lifepower4 EG4 Manual even states that you can connect to all battery's, but just bring up one at a time on laptop which would be GREAT!
If these battery's were just a one at a time communication to a computer then why have an addressing DIP switch?
Why have two RS485 ports on each battery module?
Why does the manual say you can daisy chain up to 16 battery's at a time for communication?
The Battery Manual States as Follows:
This allows encoding in the range of 0~15, which can support up to 16 modules in parallel. If more modules are needed in parallel, please contact Signature Solar; we will design the module to meet your requirements.
That's not what SS Tech Support now says! I think on the communications side of these battery's SS is lost, don't have a clue what they're selling!!!
As far as the battery performance of the Lifepower4's I'm presently pleased.
I just feel that on the communications side of these Lifepower4 battery's Signature Solar misrepresented the product by not informing their customers of the issues.

I'll keep digging and trying new things...

I have 4 of the LifePower4 48v batteries and I can see them all in BMS Test. Two of the 4 batteries will come up pretty quickly, followed by the 3rd, then a little longer wait, maybe a couple minutes, and the 4th battery in the rack comes up. From top to bottom, the batteries are addressed as 0, 2, 3, 4. From what I understand, you can't use address 1 becuase its reserverd from communications. I can plug into battery 0 or 4 and can see all 4 batteries. So the communication is work, but it is a little slow.

 

[Mark48vMagnum]

I tried waiting up to 5 minutes a couple times with no luck... and yes they do respond slow. I've even slowed my buffer on my com port in device manager to help with slow connection issues. I think batteries are good and well designed, but the communications side is laughable. (At Best)
So far Signature Solar hasn't helped much, but I will be speaking with their tech support tomorrow. (I Hope!)

 

[Zapper77]

I have 4 of the LifePower4 48v batteries and I can see them all in BMS Test. Two of the 4 batteries will come up pretty quickly, followed by the 3rd, then a little longer wait, maybe a couple minutes, and the 4th battery in the rack comes up. From top to bottom, the batteries are addressed as 0, 2, 3, 4. From what I understand, you can't use address 1 becuase its reserverd from communications. I can plug into battery 0 or 4 and can see all 4 batteries. So the communication is work, but it is a little slow.

I just figured out the delayed BMS readings on my 6 EG4 when using the computer software. ID-0 causes an issue with the software and totally screws it up! However, one battery must be set to ID-0 or my EG4 6500 won't recognize my batteries when battery type is set to EG4. I can unplug the cat5 cable from the ID0 battery when I want to view the battery status of the other batteries in "near real time". If you would like I could make a video tomorrow or Sunday.

 

[jberger]

Have you thought about using Solar Assistant to monitor the batteries?
I'm using it on (3) 12V EG4 packs and it works well, I know the BMS's are different in the 48V, but you look at SA as an option.

 

[Mark48vMagnum]

I ended up running 12 CAT6 Cables from Battery Racks in Climate Controlled area to 2 six port RJ-45 wall plates in garage. I have to move dongle plug from one to another but it works. Just received 3 more Lifepower4 EG4 48v batteries (Total of 45 kWh) At this point I should be good for 3-1/2 to 4 days of no sun. Thanks for all the input everyone!