EG4 6500EX and EG4 Lifepower4 intermittent 61 error

[Zapper77]

Today I watched my battery charging all day 6ea EG4 Lifepower4. I noticed different batteries were showing 100% charged when others at the same voltage were showing as little as 80%. I kept cycling the power off on the batteries untill they finally all got to 100% at 58.04 or so on BMS test.

If you are using BMS Test, are you disconnecting the primary battery comm cable?

Take a look at this video if you are have issues with bms test software lagging.

 

[Batavian]

Do you use the watchpower app on phone or desktop. Are the inverters connected to internet?

(Assuming you are using EG4 battery for Type setting)

Funny thing about watchpower. I put it on my phone, somehow it got deleted and now I don't know my user name or my password and the serial numbers were registered so I am locked out. I will talk with SS about this when I get to talk to them. But I can connect my computer with a cable to watchpower as a guest and view without being able to make changes. I swear I had the right username and password written down, but I am locked out.

 

[Batavian]

If you are using BMS Test, are you disconnecting the primary battery comm cable?

Take a look at this video if you are have issues with bms test software lagging.

No, I was using BMS test and connecting to the open port on my bottom battery.

 

[Zapper77]

Funny thing about watchpower. I put it on my phone, somehow it got deleted and now I don't know my user name or my password and the serial numbers were registered so I am locked out. I will talk with SS about this when I get to talk to them. But I can connect my computer with a cable to watchpower as a guest and view without being able to make changes. I swear I had the right username and password written down, but I am locked out.

If you have an idea what your username might be...you can use smartess app or http://www.dessmonitor.com/#/entry?redirect=/generalNew/home

watchpower and smart ess apps use the same credentials as does dessmoniter. Except Dess and Smartess both give you the option to reset your password...a simple feature that was forgotten with the watchpower app.

 

[Batavian]

I can't find anywhere in battery or 6500 manual about not using "1" as an address. I do see that is says you can connect up to 16 batteries which from what I can see in the dip switch settings would require using all 0-15 available dip switch settings which would include using "1".
When I saw this on your old post I just wanted to make sure I wasn't causing my problem with dip switch settings. This entire issue with F80 is weird because it never happened for the first month I had everything running. Then was sporadic happening once a week or so. Now I can count on it every night. I have been turning off PV before the inverter shuts down on F80 in the evening when I catch it in time then everything works great on battery all night. Thanks for your trying to help, I haven't seen anyone getting this issue resolved on this forum except Gavin who said his units were replaced by SS.

 

[Zapper77]

I can't find anywhere in battery or 6500 manual about not using "1" as an address. I do see that is says you can connect up to 16 batteries which from what I can see in the dip switch settings would require using all 0-15 available dip switch settings which would include using "1".

You are correct the statement about skipping 1 because "it's reserved for the inverter" is missing from the "current" user manual of the battery and inverter.

 

[IrishLad]

Not sure where to post this, I know this is not the correct thread, but hey, maybe somebody can point me in the correct direction.

First off, I had the 61 error, and fixed it with making my own jumper. blue white to pin 1, blue to pin 2 on the battery end, and then blue white to pin 3, and blue to pin 5 on the inverter side. no code since then.

Now, my issue is that I have my EG4 fully connected, reads the incoming AC at 110 {just using line 1 so as to use the inverter and bat bank for running outlets and what not. Problem is, it reads the incoming power, yet can not get the inverter to charge up the 48v lifepower4 battery rack. {2 bats installed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[IrishLad]

Oh, a quick snap shot of the LCD.

 

[Zapper77]

Oh, a quick snap shot of the LCD.

Is that a 6000ex?

 

[FilterGuy]

Not sure where to post this, I know this is not the correct thread, but hey, maybe somebody can point me in the correct direction.

First off, I had the 61 error, and fixed it with making my own jumper. blue white to pin 1, blue to pin 2 on the battery end, and then blue white to pin 3, and blue to pin 5 on the inverter side. no code since then.

Now, my issue is that I have my EG4 fully connected, reads the incoming AC at 110 {just using line 1 so as to use the inverter and bat bank for running outlets and what not. Problem is, it reads the incoming power, yet can not get the inverter to charge up the 48v lifepower4 battery rack. {2 bats installed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What does "just using line 1" mean? The statement implies a 240V system. As @Zapper77 implied, is this EG4 6000? If so, it needs 240V to charge the battery.

 

[IrishLad]

What does "just using line 1" mean? The statement implies a 240V system. As @Zapper77 implied, is this EG4 6000? If so, it needs 240V to charge the battery.

It is being run as a 120 system, so just using line 1 neutral and earth ground instead of doing line one and two.

 

[IrishLad]

Is that a 6000ex?

Yes

 

[Zapper77]

Yes

Does it actually work with just 120v and not the designed 240v?

 

[IrishLad]

It is being run as a 120 system, so just using line 1 neutral and earth ground instead of doing line one and two.

Oh my word, as I was reading your response my brain kicked in. I feel like a fool. the technician i was speaking with said that if we were running just 110 off the system, we only needed to use line 1 on the incoming to be able to charge the bank. I should have realized it still needs 240 incoming to charge even if just powering the 110 system on the Vessel. Thanks a million. We leave for Alaska on Monday morning and really need this system up and running.

 

[Zapper77]

Oh my word, as I was reading your response my brain kicked in. I feel like a fool. the technician i was speaking with said that if we were running just 110 off the system, we only needed to use line 1 on the incoming to be able to charge the bank. I should have realized it still needs 240 incoming to charge even if just powering the 110 system on the Vessel. Thanks a million. We leave for Alaska on Monday morning and really need this system up and running.

The inverter will see that one of the incoming legs is down and it won't charge until the "grid" (2nd leg) is back up. Until the grid comes back online the inverter will stay in battery mode.

Assuming your settings are correct, once you connect the 2nd leg (that is 180 degrees off)...it should function as designed.

 

[IrishLad]

Does it actually work with just 120v and not the designed 240v?

So, I have it up and running with 240 in from AC, and Line 1 Ground and Neutral as line out for 120, and it 100% works beautifully. So, the EG4 6000EX can be used to supply just your 110/120 power, but you need incoming 240 combined between PV and AC with user mode for charging. With the EG4 6000, the minimum input from PV is stated as 95,and on overcast days, the PV only puts out 90, so I really want to know if it is possible to lower the incoming PV minimum charging to 85 incoming so as not to have to fire up the Kubota gen set to charge up the bank when it gets low.

 

[Zapper77]

So, I have it up and running with 240 in from AC, and Line 1 Ground and Neutral as line out for 120, and it 100% works beautifully. So, the EG4 6000EX can be used to supply just your 110/120 power, but you need incoming 240 combined between PV and AC with user mode for charging.

First part is accurate. But the bold statement isn't completely accurate. You should be able to modify the settings, so that the inverter will charge your batteries with just grid 240 split AC.

 

[IrishLad]

First part is accurate. But the bold statement isn't completely accurate. You should be able to modify the settings, so that the inverter will charge your batteries with just grid 240 split AC.

I agree, but, with three days of chatting with support, they could not help me get the inverter to charge with just line 1 with incoming 120. Honestly, this forum has been 100% more helpful than tech support.

 

[Zapper77]

I agree, but, with three days of chatting with support, they could not help me get the inverter to charge with just line 1 with incoming 120. Honestly, this forum has been 100% more helpful than tech support.

But you just stated you have 240 going to the inverter and you are only using one leg of the outbound.

 

[IrishLad]

But you just stated you have 240 going to the inverter and you are only using one leg of the outbound.

Let me clarify, bringing in a 10 gage 3 wire from AC power to the inverter, earth ground, line 1 and , would show that AC was connected to the inverter, yet, the inverter would not charge the bat stack at all, yet the bat pack would send power to the grid. I ran a 4 wire to the panel to run incoming 240, and BAMM, it started charging the bat stack. Outgoing is only done with earth ground, line 1 and neutral creating a 120 output, not a 240. So, with everything I have dealt with, you need 240 coming into the inverter for it to kick in and charge the bat pack, yet by just using one pole (line 1 or 2 on the outgoing feed to grid) it will run your 120 outlets ect, but will not power 240 equip.


Maybe this will help you understand what i am doing with the system. It is installed on a 103 foot commercial fishing vessel. The system is going to be running all the 110/120 power while we travel in Alaska, and we have no need of any 240/480 power usage. Next year, if the system works good, I am going to do a 12kw set up for the boat. So, at this point, I just need 120 output from the system. After days of trying to get answers on if it would work with a 120 input from AC to charge the bank, the only thing that has worked is running 240 to the inverter for it to charge the bat bank. I do have a scheduled call for Monday morning at 7 am my time to speak with an Engineer regarding the setup, and how to get deeper into the settings, but we leave for Alaska Sunday evening, so, I had to go with 240 in to charge until I get into deeper settings than what the basic tech support can do. So, I did what needed to be done, and also installed Star Link Maritime so as to have the ability to deal with this on the 7 day trip up to the fishing grounds. We do have gen sets to keep everything going, yet, when you can bypass using fuel, its a good thing.

First time installing one of these systems, so I am as cherry as can be with it.

Oh, and when I purchased the kit, I was told I only needed 120 incoming to do a 120 output to grid. They failed to mention that to charge the bat rack that i needed 240 incoming. That has been my whole issue.