EG4 LifePower4 Batteries bad SOC issues

[TheGreyPaladin]

Hello all! I have been working with signature Solar for months trying to get the SOC working on my 3 Lifepower4 batteries in the EG4 rack. I have the EG4 6000XP inverter and in voltage mode all works great! Goes down to 47V and up to 55V no problem. But we have been trying to get it to work in SOC mode for months with no luck. If I switch to SOC mode the low is above 51V (and SOC shows 15% or less). No matter what we do - have had so many talks with them, put them in voltage mode for weeks at a time gone down to low voltages back to 100%, changed master battery, tried overvolting, undervolting to reset SOC, hookup only 2 batteries etc. I have literally put in over 100 hours working on this. The reason I bought all EG4 was not to have these issues..... anyone see this type of issue before / know anything to fix? Very frustrating.

My system does have a grid connection and solar also for charging although I have it set to only charge via Solar most days, obviously when they ask me to get to 100% I grid charge.

 

[marionw]

Take a look at thread which might be the same or similar issue

SOC being ignored by EG4 6000X-s

hello, wa I have two EG4 6000XPs in paralle,l 6 eg4 lifepro server rack batteries, and 7200 watts of solar panels _{16 x 450 -455 watt } excellent so far , running main kitchen fridge , two mini fridges , washing machine and dryer, mini, split in my studio and a 5 tonn condenser . I installed...

diysolarforum.com

 

[solaruser120]

What is the firmware version of the LiFePOwer4 batteries and the firmware version on the 6000XP?

 

[EG4TechSolutionsTeam]

I would recommend confirming that each battery is updated to firmware version v3.37 and to aim for the Cell Overvoltage Alarm threshold of 3.5V during charging. Typically, this can be achieved by setting the bulk charging voltage to 57.2v. After achieving this, the LifePower4 should recalibrate to indicate 100% SOC. Previously, pressing and holding the reset button on the front of the battery for 10 seconds while it is powered on has also been beneficial in this process. Also, ensuring that the BMS cable that came with the 6000XP is used and that Lithium Brand 0 is set on the inverter.

 

[TheGreyPaladin]

SolarUser - firmware is the latest 3.37 on every battery - I check every week on my tech call with signature solar. The firmware on the 6000XP is the latest ccaa-180C0D - the 18k has newer firmware but not the 6k.

EG4 Jared - the signature solar tech set charging to 58V and was trying to 3.55 on a cell on each battery which I got on 2 of the 3 batteries but could not do on the 3rd battery even by itself. I now have just the 2 batteries on the system that did overvolt and the same behavior. Should I press and hold the reset button once the batteries hit overvoltage? I can try that again if so. Or do this anytime on the batteries?

 

[EG4TechSolutionsTeam]

I would recommend pressing the reset once they hit the overvoltage.

 

[marionw]

The EG4 LifePower4 batteries will start to balance cells once a cell reaches 3.45 vdc and the voltage difference is at least 20mv.
The BMS will only balance up to six cells and they will be the first six to reach or exceed 3.45 volts. Even if a seventh (or more) cell voltage exceeds 3.45 volts and if that cells voltage is higher than a balancing cells lowest voltage the BMS will not change the cell balance order. Resetting/Rebooting the BMS will however change this.

I had one LifePower4 battery where three cells would never charge beyond 3.38 volts, could not get any of them to charge any higher. I held the battery charge voltage at 56 volts (56 / 16 = 3.5 per cell) for a day then upped the charge voltage to 56.8 (56.8 / 16 = 3.55 volts per cell). I wanted to ensure that no cell would exceed 3.6 volts which is the Cell OV Protection setpoint which will cause the Charging MOSFETS to turn off. I did get several cells above 3.55 which is the Cell OV Alarm setpoint. I let the battery "soak" for 2 days this way and still the three cells would not charge above 3.38

In short I had to open the battery and charge the three cells individually with a variable bench power supply (after requesting permission from Signature Solar so as not to void the warranty and guess what, no response. Go figure). The three cells now play very well with the others and the battery is operating normally as it should.

 

[SignatureSolarJess]

(after requesting permission from Signature Solar so as not to void the warranty and guess what, no response. Go figure)

Good morning!
I just wanted to touch base with you to make sure this email came through correctly. If you'd like to DM me your email address, we haven't had very many missed or delayed emails recently at all so I'd like to check on it.

 

[TheGreyPaladin]

MarionW - I have been charging them to 100% for only an hour or so - it sounds like the battery balancing may require me to keep them at 100% for like a full day or so to balance out....

 

[Mark-]

I have been using voltage settings, only, in the inverter (MPP) and the EG4 SOC has been useless.
As it reads right now:

No rhyme or reason.

Compared to RUiUX:


All batteries have the same 4/0 cable (length, crimps, etc.), from the main buss bar to the buss bar in the battery rack.
Sungold batteries (4) SOC is about the same as EG4. And the one Trophy battery, is about the same as the RUiUX.

 

[jzampieron]

I am having a similar problem. EG4 Lifepower4 rack with 6x and a Comm Hub.

The SOC indicator is completely off. Was reading 85% SOC at 46V -- that can't be right. Almost killed the batteries entirely.

These are brand new batteries with maybe 1 or 2 cycles on them.

The FW updater tool reports that all the batteries are "No upgrade needed".

Can't use the BMS tool b/c for some reason the baud rate won't set on my Mac. It tries at 9600 and the communicate tab reports data incoming and outgoing, but 19200 doesn't work even though the comm hub works at 19200. There's a bug somewhere going on here.

Can someone provide the voltage control charging settings for these things for a Schneider XW Pro System? Or any other ideas?

I purposefully bought the comm hub to avoid problems like this... even the CommHub reads bad values so its not the XW Pros.

Not happy at all.

 

[marionw]

The latest firmware update for the LifePower4 batteries is 3.40 and the updater tool is stuck at 3.37.

You do not necessarily need to update the firmware. Using the BMS_Test software (downloadable from EG4) you can monitor the batteries while charging. You cannot use the BMS_Test software while in closed loop. You need to disconnect the BMS to inverter cable (or turn off BMS communications in the inverter) as both use the same pins 1&2 RS485 bus on the battery RJ45 jacks

 

[jzampieron]

The latest firmware update for the LifePower4 batteries is 3.40 and the updater tool is stuck at 3.37.

You do not necessarily need to update the firmware. Using the BMS_Test software (downloadable from EG4) you can monitor the batteries while charging. You cannot use the BMS_Test software while in closed loop. You need to disconnect the BMS to inverter cable (or turn off BMS communications in the inverter) as both use the same pins 1&2 RS485 bus on the battery RJ45 jacks

The USB to RS485 Adapter just does not work right on my Mac. It's a old mac, so I'm not surprised, but that's what I have.

I had everything disconnected and all the other batteries off as well as the data cables unplugged. It was a straight computer to battery hookup.

Maybe I'll try again later.

Interesting about the updater tool, but I guess I'm stuck until there's a way to update the updater tool on an older Mac or Linux.

I'd really like EG4 to release a way to upgrade the BMS firmware while the batteries are on the bus. It's a real PITA to have to isolate everything, put the AC on bypass, and do one by one.

As an embedded engineer I know there are tons of ways to do this... it just screams lazy and poor design.

 

[marionw]

Can't update the "Updater" tool. It was a gimmick/sales pitch

I have updated the firmware using the BMS_Test software while closed loop was operational using an EG4 Communications Hub, and without changing any battery address. I simply select the correct address on the "ProgramUpgrade" tab -> "Upgrade operation" box. I sometimes have to click the "Get Boot information" button a couple of times before I get the correct response. Once I select the "Load upgrade program" (new firmware file) I just simply need to change the address, "Get Boot information" and then click "Upgrade start".

You might have to disconnect the BMS to inverter cable but that does not shut down the inverter.

The BMS_Tools will run on an old windows 7 computer/laptop. Does not have to be a top-of-the-line PC.

I have updated the firmware while the batteries are online. In fact I just updated the firmware on battery 1 to 3.40. Try it and see if it works...

This one says it supports a MAC OS:

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