EG4 lifepower4 battery comm problem

[Texican]

I have been having problems with my eg4 lifepower4 batts in recent days. my inverters are LV6548 and I use Solar Assistant/

the first problem that developed was Solar Assistant missing the switch from SBU to SUB after the SOC dropped below the set value of 35 pct
this happened for last few days

I replaced the comm wire between batts and Solar Assistant with a new wire today
I rebooted SA many times and also depowered the pi

I have not changed any dip settings on the 6 batts, that have worked for the last year

now, I am getting the following error using the eg4 bms software
"Status: address 1 read remote measurement information failed"


I am also now getting an error in Solar Assistant when trying to connect the batts using the
USB to Narada RS485 setting
I am getting an error
"address 0 19200 baud invalid data
"address 1 19200 baud invalid data
"address 2 19200 baud invalid data
"address 0 9600 baud invalid data
"address 1 9600 baud invalid data
"address 2 9600 baud invalid data

I also got some weird data from the batts using the eg4 bms software
showing all 6 batts at about 53.4v and showing an SOC of almost 100 pct. At this voltage actual SOC is maybe 40 pct
here is a pic of that info


I have now switched to using Emulated BMS and have ordered the cables to update firmware on the eg4 batts

anyone have ideas on how to fix these errors or what might be going on ?

thanks

 

[Batavian]

I have the same thing.
"Status: address 1 read remote measurement information failed" says the same for the other batteries

I didn't have it on BMS test 1.0 it started when I use the new 2.7.3

No help, but at least you know you are not the only one.

 

[Texican]

I think my version is 2.6, but I downloaded it today from SS

just tried the 1.0 version, it will not read batt 1 either, it sees all the other 5 batts just like the new version

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

I just started using the BMS tool for Mac and I updated 12 LifePower4 batteries from version 3.21 to 3.26 and I had no issues. I'm using the EG4 Communications hub and I had to change the baud rate to 19,200 to get it to connect afterward, but all the batteries are reporting to the hub correctly.

I do recall during the process of updating, sometimes just asking for the "Get Boot Information" would cause the BMS to power cycle, but it didn't prevent me from updating the firmware and or having solid data output to the COMM Hub.

I'm still waiting to get my SolarAssistant fully up and running, but I seem to recall that when connecting to the batteries directly with SolarAssistant the first battery is supposed to start at address 2? See the documentation here.

EG4 battery setup in SolarAssistant

How to connect an EG4 battery to SolarAssistant.

solar-assistant.io

 

[Texican]

I just started using the BMS tool for Mac and I updated 12 LifePower4 batteries from version 3.21 to 3.26 and I had no issues. I'm using the EG4 Communications hub and I had to change the baud rate to 19,200 to get it to connect afterward, but all the batteries are reporting to the hub correctly.the next question will be why is solar assistant s

I do recall during the process of updating, sometimes just asking for the "Get Boot Information" would cause the BMS to power cycle, but it didn't prevent me from updating the firmware and or having solid data output to the COMM Hub.

I'm still waiting to get my SolarAssistant fully up and running, but I seem to recall that when connecting to the batteries directly with SolarAssistant the first battery is supposed to start at address 2? See the documentation here.

EG4 battery setup in SolarAssistant

How to connect an EG4 battery to SolarAssistant.

solar-assistant.io

you are correct about the first ID needing to be 2, thanks for reminding me.
My dip switches are correct 2 thru 7. I forgot that when using the bms test software which can now see all 6 batts
the next question is why does it look like solar assistant is giving errors like it is trying to talk with ID 0, 1, and 2 and saying invalid data. may have to try msg to solar assistant

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Just a thought, if you changed any of your dip switches on the batteries, you should possibly consider power cycling the batteries, you can do them one at a time so you don't power down your system and then potentially restart SolarAssistant to see if the problem continues.

 

[Texican]

Just a thought, if you changed any of your dip switches on the batteries, you should possibly consider power cycling the batteries, you can do them one at a time so you don't power down your system and then potentially restart SolarAssistant to see if the problem continues.

thanks, but I didnt change any of them at all. I sent a msg to solar assistant aking for any ideas

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Any word for SolAssistant?

 

[mlhagema]

I just downloaded SA and got the Rpi 4B up and running. I can connect to my PIP3048 perfectly, but no connection to the EG4 Lifepower batteries.


I can read them from the BMS_Test software, but when I unplug the USB dongle and plug it into the RPi I get:



I did power cycle the batteries after the DIP switch changes, still no SA connection. I hook back up to BMS_Test and it reads them just fine. I can also read both batteries with my EG4 Communications Hub. (I.m not using the hub for anything right now)

I've just sent SA an email. I'll post here with more information.

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

I just downloaded SA and got the Rpi 4B up and running. I can connect to my PIP3048 perfectly, but no connection to the EG4 Lifepower batteries.

View attachment 178312
I can read them from the BMS_Test software, but when I unplug the USB dongle and plug it into the RPi I get:

View attachment 178313

I did power cycle the batteries after the DIP switch changes, still no SA connection. I hook back up to BMS_Test and it reads them just fine. I can also read both batteries with my EG4 Communications Hub. (I.m not using the hub for anything right now)

I've just sent SA an email. I'll post here with more information.

The "USB2.0-Ser!" text in the port is odd to me. It could be the "!" is what is placed in the box when SA truncates the string in the name if it's too long, or it could be some oddity about the ports.

The battery you're connecting SA to, what do you have the DIP switches set to on that battery? You should not connect to a battery that has zero. In my scenario I have mine connected to battery 7 of 12.

SA has some confusing documentation because my first battery is set 1 and it works fine so I'm not sure what firmware they're talking about. The current version is V3.32 for the LifePower4 batteries.



Check these things and let me know.

 

[mlhagema]

The "USB2.0-Ser!" text in the port is odd to me. It could be the "!" is what is placed in the box when SA truncates the string in the name if it's too long, or it could be some oddity about the ports.

The battery you're connecting SA to, what do you have the DIP switches set to on that battery? You should not connect to a battery that has zero. In my scenario I have mine connected to battery 7 of 12.

SA has some confusing documentation because my first battery is set 1 and it works fine so I'm not sure what firmware they're talking about. The current version is V3.32 for the LifePower4 batteries.

View attachment 178324

Check these things and let me know.

@MaikaiLifeDIY​

I started with battery addresses 1 and 2. I then tried 2 and 3 as shown in the BMS_Test image in my post. BMS_Test read fine if the addresses were 1/2 or 2/3. I power cycled both batteries after switching from 1/2 to 2/3, same results with BMS_Test and SA.

Thanks for this information about addresses 1 and 2 working for you.

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

@MaikaiLifeDIY​

I started with battery addresses 1 and 2. I then tried 2 and 3 as shown in the BMS_Test image in my post. BMS_Test read fine if the addresses were 1/2 or 2/3. I power cycled both batteries after switching from 1/2 to 2/3, same results with BMS_Test and SA.

Thanks for this information about addresses 1 and 2 working for you.

What firmware are your batteries and what type of EG4 batteries are you using?

What version of Solar Assistant do you have? I'm always running the beta and there may be something different, the change logs always say they're working on protocols.

For reference this is what mine looks like when connected to the batteries.

 

[mlhagema]

What firmware are your batteries and what type of EG4 batteries are you using?

What version of Solar Assistant do you have? I'm always running the beta and there may be something different, the change logs always say they're working on protocols.

Lifepower4 (no LCD display) . V3.26 on both batteries

The latest trial version of SA downloaded this morning:



I see this filename is 2022-06-28, seems kinda old... Maybe you are on to something!

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Lifepower4 (no LCD display) . V3.26 on both batteries

The latest trial version of SA downloaded this morning:

View attachment 178337

I see this filename is 2022-06-28, seems kinda old... Maybe you are on to something!

Yeah, that version appears to be nearly 2 years old, it's possible it doesn't work with the current firmware etc. Recall the baud rate changed in one of the recent EG4 firmware updates. When I connect Solar Assistant for a moment it tries the old rate and then the new one. See the pictures below.

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

I just tried to download the SD card image and it's the same date, I believe that's just the baseline image that gets installed, then it should update afterwards.



What version do you have installed?

 

[mlhagema]

I just tried to download the SD card image and it's the same date, I believe that's just the baseline image that gets installed, then it should update afterwards.

View attachment 178348

What version do you have installed?

View attachment 178347

I"m completely new to SA, I didn't know I could download the latest. I do have the old version:





I'm downloading now, More bulletins as events warrant!

 

[mlhagema]

@MaikaiLifeDIY

You figured it out, thank you very much!!!

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

@MaikaiLifeDIY

You figured it out, thank you very much!!!

View attachment 178367

So to confirm, the problem was that you needed to update Solar Assistant?

 

[mlhagema]

So to confirm, the problem was that you needed to update Solar Assistant?

Correct.