A post in the now defunct vendor section brought these to my attention and, as they looked to have some interesting features compared to other offerings currently on the market, I thought I'd buy one and test it out (and an inverter, too.)
I'd actually received this order a few weeks ago but the battery had an unfortunate shipping experience and I just received the replacement this evening. I'd recommend avoiding trying to ship single units without a pallet; the packing is more than sufficient when palletized but the weight of a bare box seems like it invites abuse (from gravity). I'll note that the the damage appeared to be limited to a bent case and the battery powered up just fine, but I wasn't comfortable with the potential for hidden problems especially with an in-home installation.
So, things of interest:
One battery successfully powered up a (directly connected) XW Pro and the Insight Facility recognized the BMS over CAN without any configuration. (EDIT: I've since added a pre-charge system since the inverter inrush can cause damage.) I need to run an ethernet cable and monkey with VLANs so I can update the inverter firmware and then I'll hook things up via the PDP and see about doing some more testing.
I'd actually received this order a few weeks ago but the battery had an unfortunate shipping experience and I just received the replacement this evening. I'd recommend avoiding trying to ship single units without a pallet; the packing is more than sufficient when palletized but the weight of a bare box seems like it invites abuse (from gravity). I'll note that the the damage appeared to be limited to a bent case and the battery powered up just fine, but I wasn't comfortable with the potential for hidden problems especially with an in-home installation.
So, things of interest:
- Better color match with the Schneider Conext gear.
- Smaller size - 100Ah in 2.5U
- "Pylon" CAN protocol support.
- RS485 support.
- Robust battery modules, supporting vertical installation.
- Uses Amphenol RADSOK 5.7mm connectors, which are pretty slick but add potential complications to battery wiring.
- The battery connectors are only rated for 120A and the BMS supports 6 (or 12 depending on whose ad copy you read) units.
- Batteries are rated for 50A with a surge of 70A. I'll need more batteries to fully power two XW Pros.
- No onboard DC protection (fuse/breaker). Battery has a switch and a momentary button start/stop the BMS. I'm using external fuses so this omission is fine.
- BMS/inverter support still undergoing development; some risk of interoperability?
- Carry handles; seemed like an extravagence but after carrying stuff down stairs I'll concede that it's nice.
- All configuration via "Console" RS-232 port!
- BMS firmware updated over console using XMODEM.
- Windows and other proprietary software appear not to be needed.
- Schneider "BMS" support may only work in single inverter mode (for now?)
- Only one BMS "master" instance per CAN bus?
- More than six batteries may require multiple "master" batteries.
- May need some software/hardware to solve?
- - RS485 MODBUS/ASCII limited success. Still tinkering.
One battery successfully powered up a (directly connected) XW Pro and the Insight Facility recognized the BMS over CAN without any configuration. (EDIT: I've since added a pre-charge system since the inverter inrush can cause damage.) I need to run an ethernet cable and monkey with VLANs so I can update the inverter firmware and then I'll hook things up via the PDP and see about doing some more testing.
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