Eg4 battery comms with solark

[SignatureSolarPeyton]

@SignatureSolarJames Where's the recommended place to connect the ring terminals to the battery voltage when using an EG4 battery rack? On the battery terminals on top of the existing cable, or find the right size of screw and use an open spot on the bus bar?

They can be placed on top of the existing cables that run to your inverters. If you need a picture to show how we wired it up, let me know.

 

[essr]

When does the 24 volt version come?

 

[SignatureSolarPeyton]

When does the 24 volt version come?

Not sure just yet. We will be sure to update everyone as soon as we have more information.

 

[linuxdrake]

They can be placed on top of the existing cables that run to your inverters. If you need a picture to show how we wired it up, let me know.

Any thoughts if this would let me connect 24 EG4-LLv2's (both 4dip and 6dip models) in closed loop? Seems the docs are wrong, I cannot get more than 16 to show up, as the 17th batt looks to be the same ID as batt1 and detected batts go down to 1 or 4 or 6 or 8, all weird data.

Using this would let me get all 24 working in closed loop, any ideas? Grasping at straws here as Sales @SignatureSolar told me this would work, and now cannot see 1/2 my batts, if I knew this I would of used the LFP4 only.

Post on the issue: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/more-than-16-eg4-llv2s-not-communicating-to-sol-ark.60914/

 

[SignatureSolarPeyton]

Any thoughts if this would let me connect 24 EG4-LLv2's (both 4dip and 6dip models) in closed loop? Seems the docs are wrong, I cannot get more than 16 to show up, as the 17th batt looks to be the same ID as batt1 and detected batts go down to 1 or 4 or 6 or 8, all weird data.

Using this would let me get all 24 working in closed loop, any ideas? Grasping at straws here as Sales @SignatureSolar told me this would work, and now cannot see 1/2 my batts, if I knew this I would of used the LFP4 only.

Post on the issue: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/more-than-16-eg4-llv2s-not-communicating-to-sol-ark.60914/

The hub is only compatible with LP4 batteries.

 

[Sundown]

@SignatureSolarPeyton

Peyton I cannot find anything in the hub's manual concerning the settings for hub's dip switches R1 and R2. Your photo on this thread has them up, the photo in the manual has them down. How is the setting determined?

 

[SignatureSolarPeyton]

@SignatureSolarPeyton

Peyton I cannot find anything in the hub's manual concerning the settings for hub's dip switches R1 and R2. Your photo on this thread has them up, the photo in the manual has them down. How is the setting determined?

They need to be in the "Up" position. The picture in the manual is just showing how the unit comes when shipped.

 

[Sundown]

"Up" position

Oh. I have them both down. It seems to be working with the 6 EG4 LP4 and 2 EG4 6500EXs. Should I change them to both up?

I have two LP4 V3.15 and 4 V3.7. What's the process to follow to get them the same?

 

[SignatureSolarPeyton]

Oh. I have them both down. It seems to be working with the 6 EG4 LP4 and 2 EG4 6500EXs. Should I change them to both up?

I have two LP4 V3.15 and 4 V3.7. What's the process to follow to get them the same?

Gotcha. If they are functioning with both switches down, it's probably best to leave it that way. Also, it sounds like the other 4 batteries need to be updated to the newest firmware version.

 

[Sundown]

batteries need to be updated

Where can I find the how to resource for that?

 

[SignatureSolarPeyton]

Where can I find the how to resource for that?

Go to eg4electronics.com/downloads - Download the LP4 firmware file and extract the file - Follow the instructions on the "README" file to update the firmware.

Also, you will need a read/write cable that can be found here if you do not currently have one: https://signaturesolar.com/eg4-lifepower4-read-write-cable/

Edit to my earlier post: Where are you seeing V3.15 and V3.7? Only asking because the issue might not have anything to do with a FW update.

 

[Sundown]

Where are you seeing V3.15 and V3.7

On the first screen, bottom right, for each pack.

 

[SignatureSolarPeyton]

On the first screen, bottom right, for each pack.

Can you send a picture to peyton@signaturesolar.com?

 

[Sundown]

send a picture

Man, I just disconnected the hub because the voltage started fluctuating into the 130s and 114s after I hooked it up. After I did that the voltage was still fluctuating, so I changed the inverter back to USE setting. The fluctuations stopped after that.

Don't really want to go through that again today, maybe I'll try/test EG4 setting again tomorrow.

It was the first screen on every pack. In the bottom left it gave the status of the battery: charging or stand-by; on the bottom right, it said either V3.7 or V3.15.

And the hub I have makes a whining noise that changes pitch when pushing buttons.

 

[RLM4JC]

This may have been answered before. What kind of cable do I use to connect ll v2 EG4 batteries to my Sol-Ark15k? I was told to connect canbus to canbus for closed loop, however what kind of cable? WIll it just be a regular cat5/6 cable?

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

cat 5 or 6 will work

 

[RLM4JC]

cat 5 or 6 will work

Thanks

 

[vin2002]

@SignatureSolarJames @SignatureSolarPeyton
I just received and connected my communications hub and it is working great. So pleased my two parallel SolArks and LF4 rack can now talk. I had noticed that the SOC on the SolArk was off by at least 10 percentage points running open-loop compared to the battery info. With summer approaching and expected higher demand on the batteries, I appreciate the effort put into the hub.

Just an fyi for others, I had previously set my batteries dips to 3-4-5-6-7-8 (months ago, thinking my SolArks would be 1-2 at the time). I left them set there and the LF4s worked just fine with the comms hub. It took all of 10 minutes to setup.

Thanks,
Paul

@phubner,

I have 2 15k's as well as 12 LifePower4's in an off-grid config. I recently received a comm hub as well, but have yet to hook it up. A couple questions if you can help:

1. The comm hub manual (pg. 3) wants the battery the hub is connected to at ID#1. Looks like you don't have it that way? The hub still works fine?

2. Did you only connect the hub to the master Sol-Ark? No need to hook up to the slave?

Thanks for any info you might have...

-James