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EG-4 Communication Hub Closed loop

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BushMan2000U

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Has any one had experience with the new EG-4 Communication Hub. They are saying they now work in Closed loop with a lot of batteries that were not able to work in Closed loop. I'm very curious as i need to have closed loop with my SMA Sunny Islands and it would seem that this is now possible?
Curious if anyone has any more information on this Question.
Thanks
 
signaturesolar.com

EG4 LiFePOWER4 Communications Hub

Signature Solar provides solar panels, off-grid solar systems, grid-tie, and hybrid systems. Quality solar inverters, bifacial solar panels, complete solar kits, solar batteries. Featuring brands such as EG4 Electronics with their solar battery, LifePower4 and EG4 LLifePower4 and EG4 LL
signaturesolar.com signaturesolar.com

I have not, but as there are BMS communication issues with the EG-4 LL V2 (series communication anyway) - my confidence is low. I'd get SS to list what EG-4s it's compatible with when setting batteries up in communication series. Bet it works with the earlier varieties.
 
BushMan2000U said:
Has any one had experience with the new EG-4 Communication Hub. They are saying they now work in Closed loop with a lot of batteries that were not able to work in Closed loop. I'm very curious as i need to have closed loop with my SMA Sunny Islands and it would seem that this is now possible?
Curious if anyone has any more information on this Question.
Thanks
Click to expand...
On another post, they claim compatibility with SMA. I remain dubious until proven otherwise. I have all REC BMS for the system that we are getting ready to commission, but if I need more peak power, I may build another system and this would be a great option. Building these batteries is getting old. Plug n play would be worth paying for (but not as much as SMA's "partners").
 
SilverbackMP said:
On another post, they claim compatibility with SMA. I remain dubious until proven otherwise. I have all REC BMS for the system that we are getting ready to commission, but if I need more peak power, I may build another system and this would be a great option. Building these batteries is getting old. Plug n play would be worth paying for (but not as much as SMA's "partners").
Click to expand...

I take everything they sell with a huge grain of salt until I see a post or a video on how to set it up with the same specific components. Meaning that exact version of battery, probably same firmware level. There are changes to this hardware that I'm not sure the SS knows about (which isn't uncommon out of China) and I'm doubtful that they're running full compatibility checks.... What doesn't work - they seem to have a handle on and to be actively working on, but there really isn't any proactive customer notification that I've seen.
 
dcg9381 said:
I take everything they sell with a huge grain of salt until I see a post or a video on how to set it up with the same specific components. Meaning that exact version of battery, probably same firmware level. There are changes to this hardware that I'm not sure the SS knows about (which isn't uncommon out of China) and I'm doubtful that they're running full compatibility checks.... What doesn't work - they seem to have a handle on and to be actively working on, but there really isn't any proactive customer notification that I've seen.
Click to expand...
You may be right about that. I got mine hooked up today and it communicates with the 6 newer Lifepower4 batteries I picked up at the end of 2022, but not the 4 older ones I have from Dec 2021. I can communicate with all of them using bms_test just fine, so not sure what the problem is. I will have to dig into it more tomorrow. The hub does communicate with my Sol-ark without issue so far.
 
sunny_c10 said:
You may be right about that. I got mine hooked up today and it communicates with the 6 newer Lifepower4 batteries I picked up at the end of 2022, but not the 4 older ones I have from Dec 2021. I can communicate with all of them using bms_test just fine, so not sure what the problem is. I will have to dig into it more tomorrow. The hub does communicate with my Sol-ark without issue so far.
Click to expand...
I have a sol-ark and batteries from mid 2022. I’m considering getting this hub. Let us know if you solve the problem.
 
Bkord said:
I have a sol-ark and batteries from mid 2022. I’m considering getting this hub. Let us know if you solve the problem.
Click to expand...
Turns out the batteries have to be running the latest firmware to communicate with the hub, updated the four older batteries and everything is working fine.
 
Following along. I bought one last week and having communication issues to Victron via can bus. Detects all the EG4 lifepower 48v battery's with no issue.
 
BushMan2000U said:
Has any one had experience with the new EG-4 Communication Hub. They are saying they now work in Closed loop with a lot of batteries that were not able to work in Closed loop. I'm very curious as i need to have closed loop with my SMA Sunny Islands and it would seem that this is now possible?
Curious if anyone has any more information on this Question.
Thanks
Click to expand...

I don't know anything about these nor do I have one, but just to clarify, in reading the manual, the idea is that it allows to support many inverter models, but only the Lifepower4 battery protocols are supported on the battery side of things. So it is not intended to allow increased battery/bms support, only meant to increase flexibility in using more inverter models with the EG4 batteries, but also allow to use up to 2 banks of 15 EG4 battery modules each as well (hub becomes the master or 'host').

Someone correct me if I am not stating it accurately.


Ref:
and
 
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Samsonite801 said:
I don't know anything about these nor do I have one, but just to clarify, in reading the manual, the idea is that it allows to support many inverter models, but only the Lifepower4 battery protocols are supported on the battery side of things. So it is not intended to allow increased battery/bms support, only meant to increase flexibility in using more inverter models with the EG4 batteries, but also allow to use up to two banks of 15 EG4 battery modules each as well (hub becomes the master or 'host').

Someone correct me if I am not stating it accurately.


Ref:
and
Click to expand...
That is correct, the hub is specific to Lifepower4 batteries only. It provides more closed loop communication options to popular inverters and the ability to have more than 15 batteries communicating, limited by the max address setting of 15. From what I can tell it seems to re-number batteries on the second trunk from 1-15 to 17-31.
 
essr said:
Does anyone know if this is also available for an EG4 24 volt battery
Thank you
Click to expand...
From my understanding this only works with 48 Volt. I will say I have a 48 volt system and it does see 2x 24 volt batterys that are in series and the 3x 48 volt batterys. It does get confused with 24 volt and 48 volt and sometimes reports the 24 volt. The BMS tool has the same issue when a 24 volt and 48 volt battery are being monitored.

I think the video stated this ONLY works with 48 volt batterys/system and possible development in the future for 24 volt batterys / system.
 
Does anyone know either the specified and/or measured power draw of the hub itself?? I don't see it spec'd on the datasheet or manual. Thanks!!
 
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I think I saw 0.1 amps, but I'll verify tomorrow. I have one connected to 3 EG4 (not LL) batteries
BTW, I am using this hub with Schneider Conext XW Pro, and while the insight does see the BMS, including the SOC, and correct max discharge of 300 amps for 3 batteries, when configuring the inverter for SOC control, it faults and states it does not get a SOC update. This is my first experience w/ Schneider and EG4, and it has been very frustrating. First deal with a failed firmware update, and now trying to get SOC control working.
 
amt said:
Oops, my mistake, it was 0.022 amps.
Click to expand...
Thanks amt, much appreciated!! Mine arrived about 5 minutes ago after the long 9 day trip from Sulphur Springs to Iowa. It is missing some paint on the mounting tab, does yours look similar?
 

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I have been told by Signature Solar it doesn’t do anything with growatt 5000es, even though the literature says it does work with growatt. So what is this supposed to do
 
BushMan2000U said:
Has any one had experience with the new EG-4 Communication Hub. They are saying they now work in Closed loop with a lot of batteries that were not able to work in Closed loop. I'm very curious as i need to have closed loop with my SMA Sunny Islands and it would seem that this is now possible?
Curious if anyone has any more information on this Question.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Has anyone had personal experience with this and the Sunny Island yet? I was looking at building my own lifepo4 bank and getting a rec bms, but the cost savings vs time isn't really worth it to me if you could go with eg4 server rack system and have closed loop communication.
 
wrhartlerode said:
Has anyone had personal experience with this and the Sunny Island yet? I was looking at building my own lifepo4 bank and getting a rec bms, but the cost savings vs time isn't really worth it to me if you could go with eg4 server rack system and have closed loop communication.
Click to expand...
I have contacted EG4 several times and they say their EG4 LL work in closed loop with Sunny Islands , just need to download the battery protocol.
 
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