EG4 LifePower4 battery refuses to charge beyond 64%

[AxH]

I have an EG4 LifePower4 battery that is behaving rather weird. Any thoughts as to the problem would be appreciated.

Its the 48 volt 100AH model. I also have one of the Signature Solar 48volt 19amp EG4 chargers.

For a few days its been refusing to fully charge so I took it out of service for a few tests.

If I use the battery charger to charge it up everything seems to be ok. The battery charger does its stuff, then cuts out and the green success LED comes on.
When I connect up the BMS monitoring software it shows that the battery is charged to 64%. Three of the four green charge status LEDs are lit also.
So I disconnect the charger and leave the battery for a while. With nothing attached, the battery voltage is 54.9 (measured on terminals and reported by the BMS software) Cell voltages are 3.438 volt max and 3.365 volt min, a difference of 0.073mv.
To me this indicates a battery that is very close to fully charged, not 64%.

The next day, just as a test I ran the BMS monitoring software whilst I had the EG4 charger connected.
The battery was at 64% charge for a couple of minutes and then flipped straight to 100% charged and 4 of the cells in balance mode.

So bottom line is, could this be caused by a faulty cell or is it a faulty BMS ?

Thanks
Andy

 

[Samsonite801]

Mainly it's like your SoC ticker is not in sync and just needs to be calibrated...I have an EG4 LifePower4 battery that is behaving rather weird. Any thoughts as to the problem would be appreciated.

Its the 48 volt 100AH model. I also have one of the Signature Solar 48volt 19amp EG4 chargers.

For a few days its been refusing to fully charge so I took it out of service for a few tests.

If I use the battery charger to charge it up everything seems to be ok. The battery charger does its stuff, then cuts out and the green success LED comes on.
When I connect up the BMS monitoring software it shows that the battery is charged to 64%. Three of the four green charge status LEDs are lit also.
So I disconnect the charger and leave the battery for a while. With nothing attached, the battery voltage is 54.9 (measured on terminals and reported by the BMS software) Cell voltages are 3.438 volt max and 3.365 volt min, a difference of 0.073mv.
To me this indicates a battery that is very close to fully charged, not 64%.

The next day, just as a test I ran the BMS monitoring software whilst I had the EG4 charger connected.
The battery was at 64% charge for a couple of minutes and then flipped straight to 100% charged and 4 of the cells in balance mode.

So bottom line is, could this be caused by a faulty cell or is it a faulty BMS ?

Thanks
Andy

It's like your SoC ticker is not in sync and just needs to be calibrated (if all the cell/bank voltages seem to indicate a fully charged pack)...

Many of the BMS's will reset/recalibrate to 100% when they get to the full end at charging. Check on what is the calibrate procedure (in documentation or with SS)...

And I know on some other BMS brands like Seplos for example, they want you to fully discharge then charge, and it will auto-calibrate the SoC...

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

I have an EG4 LifePower4 battery that is behaving rather weird. Any thoughts as to the problem would be appreciated.

Its the 48 volt 100AH model. I also have one of the Signature Solar 48volt 19amp EG4 chargers.

For a few days its been refusing to fully charge so I took it out of service for a few tests.

If I use the battery charger to charge it up everything seems to be ok. The battery charger does its stuff, then cuts out and the green success LED comes on.
When I connect up the BMS monitoring software it shows that the battery is charged to 64%. Three of the four green charge status LEDs are lit also.
So I disconnect the charger and leave the battery for a while. With nothing attached, the battery voltage is 54.9 (measured on terminals and reported by the BMS software) Cell voltages are 3.438 volt max and 3.365 volt min, a difference of 0.073mv.
To me this indicates a battery that is very close to fully charged, not 64%.

The next day, just as a test I ran the BMS monitoring software whilst I had the EG4 charger connected.
The battery was at 64% charge for a couple of minutes and then flipped straight to 100% charged and 4 of the cells in balance mode.

So bottom line is, could this be caused by a faulty cell or is it a faulty BMS ?

Thanks
Andy

There is a firmware update available at eg4electronics.com 9 times out of 10 that will resolve this issue. You will need the read/write cable that we offer on the website in order to flash the firmware, but if you will message me and let me know that you are interested in going this route I will give you a coupon code to use at checkout so that you get it at no cost.

 

[AxH]

Thanks for replying.

I think I have the cable from a previous order. It's the yellow one ? with a usb adapter on one end and a RJ45 plug with cables to pins 1 and 2 ?

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

Thanks for replying.

I think I have the cable from a previous order. It's the yellow one ? with a usb adapter on one end and a RJ45 plug with cables to pins 1 and 2 ?

It's actually red/black and connects pins 7 and 8. If you are comfortable repinning that cable, it would certainly work. Obviously the color doesn't matter on this cable. the 1,2 pin out is what we use for BMS comms

 

[AxH]

Ok. I have that one also.

I've used both cables in the last few hours to try and get the battery hardware information out of the BMS.
The end result is the same. I get an error message "Get Boot Information Failed". I set the battery device ID to 0000
Any suggestions on what to try next would be appeciated.

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

Ok. I have that one also.

I've used both cables in the last few hours to try and get the battery hardware information out of the BMS.
The end result is the same. I get an error message "Get Boot Information Failed". I set the battery device ID to 0000
Any suggestions on what to try next would be appeciated.

Do you have the batteries connected to anything at all? Including bus bars, other batteries, inverters, charge controller, etc.? If the battery is connected to any sort of load or charging device it will not work. You will use the 7/8 pin out cable and 0000 is the correct location.

 

[AxH]

Battery is 100% disconnected. Just to clarify when you say pin 7/8 is that with the RJ45 plug tab facing towards you or away.

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

Battery is 100% disconnected. Just to clarify when you say pin 7/8 is that with the RJ45 plug tab facing towards you or away.

It'll de the black one if we sent it

 

[AxH]

That's the one I'm using. The BMS monitoring software and the BMS are talking to each other. I can see the Tx and Rx traffic in the monitoring software. It just keeps giving this error message Get Boot Information Failed

 

[AxH]

Is there any information at Signature Solar for doing what Samsonite801 suggested ? (2nd post in this thread)

​

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

Yes, one of the first things we normally suggest is to deep cycle the batteries for 10 days to see if this helps. Take them down to 20% or less and charge them back to full. This can help balance the cells and calibrate the BMS.

 

[AxH]

Unfortunately that probably isn't a option. I'm not here at this property all the time and it would take at least a month to deep cycle 10 times.

I've followed the firmware update procedure to the letter and it still fails. I get success as far as step 7 on the instructions. I can see the battery SOC and cell voltages with the BMS device ID set to 0000 so up to this point everything is good.
When I try to get the Boot Information all I get back is the "Get boot Information Failed" error message and the BMS clicks a couple of time and goes offline.
So I'm starting the think that either the BMS is faulty or the BMS monitoring software is incompatible with the version of firmware currently on the BMS.

If you are reading this Ben. Is there a later version of the BMS monitoring software I can download ? Can you ship me a replacement BMS ?

 

[EJansen]

I've noticed a similar issue over the past couple of months, but it's been getting worse, particularly with battery pack #6, but also with #1 and #4:



I know this isn't using the BMS software and it's using Solar Assistant, but I would assume similar results. Even if I leave it in Solar\Utility\Battery, it maxes out at what's seen there and Solar will begin clipping. As soon as I turn a load on like a vacuum or something, solar input jumps way up. Has anyone had this same issue and had the firmware be the fix? Also, anyone know what's going on with pack #4, being charged to 104.2%?

I want to buy another rack, but now I'm skeptical - perhaps the newer versions don't have these issues - haven't researched enough into it yet. There's also the overall capacity issue on backs #4 and #6 - being at 96 and 97.6AH respectively - where the others are showing 100AH.

 

[EJansen]

That's the one I'm using. The BMS monitoring software and the BMS are talking to each other. I can see the Tx and Rx traffic in the monitoring software. It just keeps giving this error message Get Boot Information Failed

Did you ever get past this error?

@BenFromSignatureSolar

Any suggestions? I tried using the BMS Test software from the Signature Solar site, as well as the latest version from the EG4 website. It connects to the batteries just fine and can see the per cell voltage, but any time I tried to get the boot information, I get "Get Boot Information Failed!" I tried it on Packs 5 and 6 from the screenshot above, both with the same results.

Thanks!

 

[AxH]

I gave up trying. SS shipped a replacement BMS which I fitted and the 64% charge problem got resolved.

 

[EJansen]

I can't get SS to ever respond to an email - ultra frustrating. The best response that I've had was from Ben here on the thread, for an issue I had with one of the remotes on one of my 6500s. Update - Thanks to Trevor and SS for replying back - still working through things with him.

The issue right now is that I'm 2 for 2 in trying to update the firmware, and I really don't want to swap out the BMS for all 6, but I spose that may be the only answer.

 

[shopman]

I've noticed a similar issue over the past couple of months, but it's been getting worse, particularly with battery pack #6, but also with #1 and #4:

View attachment 141439

I know this isn't using the BMS software and it's using Solar Assistant, but I would assume similar results. Even if I leave it in Solar\Utility\Battery, it maxes out at what's seen there and Solar will begin clipping. As soon as I turn a load on like a vacuum or something, solar input jumps way up. Has anyone had this same issue and had the firmware be the fix? Also, anyone know what's going on with pack #4, being charged to 104.2%?

I want to buy another rack, but now I'm skeptical - perhaps the newer versions don't have these issues - haven't researched enough into it yet. There's also the overall capacity issue on backs #4 and #6 - being at 96 and 97.6AH respectively - where the others are showing 100AH.

The charging to 104.2% is a calculation error in Solar Assistant. The BMS is not reporting that data. I reported the issue to Solar Assistant and never got a response.

To even out your batteries, try holding the absorb voltage at 56.2v for an hour before dropping to float of 54v. It's important that they fully charge during this procedure. I let my system control the absorb duration and only occasionally force the one hour absorb if they get out of whack. Also, use the BMS Test software to truly see what's going on in the batteries as it shows much more data than Solar Assistant. When you hit the absorb phase you should see the batteries start balancing the cells. My six batteries are running happily together after doing this procedure.

 

[EJansen]

The charging to 104.2% is a calculation error in Solar Assistant. The BMS is not reporting that data. I reported the issue to Solar Assistant and never got a response.

To even out your batteries, try holding the absorb voltage at 56.2v for an hour before dropping to float of 54v. It's important that they fully charge during this procedure. I let my system control the absorb duration and only occasionally force the one hour absorb if they get out of whack. Also, use the BMS Test software to truly see what's going on in the batteries as it shows much more data than Solar Assistant. When you hit the absorb phase you should see the batteries start balancing the cells. My six batteries are running happily together after doing this procedure.

I'll give that a look tonight. I was playing with the BMS Test software last night, after trying to update the BMS firmware, but it appears to be drastically off - I'll see if I can get some screenshots of what I'm talking about tonight.

One update, in working with Trevor, in regards to being able to write the firmware, I guess it needs to use pins 1/2 instead of 7/8. so though he's sending me a new cable, I just cut the end off of one of mine and re-tipped it. I was then able to update the firmware on one of the batteries. Unfortunately, the other 5 failed, even though I could connect to them, as I could with the pins 7/8 configuration. They all get the same "Get Boot Information Failed!" error, so I can't update the firmware. Hopefully the new cable / USB dongle works, but I don't know that it will.

 

[Aanon11]

There is a firmware update available at eg4electronics.com 9 times out of 10 that will resolve this issue. You will need the read/write cable that we offer on the website in order to flash the firmware, but if you will message me and let me know that you are interested in going this route I will give you a coupon code to use at checkout so that you get it at no cost.

Ben would you please send the coupon code for the updated firmware for my

EG4-LifePower4 Lithium Battery | 48V 100AH​

I'm having low percentage of charging occurring as well.
Thanks!