Eg4 LL not charging all the way.

[Lu jitsu]

I’ve had this battery, EG4 LL 100ah for about a year. I have an eg4 6000 EX inverter too and this single battery on the hybrid system. I’ve had no problems up until The last couple weeks I notice I was on the grid but the battery charging via solar and the battery was only going. To 67% max even on sunny days when I wasn’t even using from The battery. Typically the battery would go to 99% each day while sun was out. I am currently on solar (not grid) and I’m going to run the battery all the way to zero in hopes that will reset something. The inverter fires up with the blowers etc, when it’s sunny like it’s going to charge it and then like 15 seconds later it doesn’t, but it supplies power to the house just fine, so I think the inverter is doing its thing correctly. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

This typically results from imbalanced cells. Discharging to zero is unlikely to change anything favorably.

The typical resolution is to set battery type to USE and then set bulk/absorption to 55.2V and float to 55.1V.

 

[Lu jitsu]

This typically results from imbalanced cells. Discharging to zero is unlikely to change anything favorably.

The typical resolution is to set battery type to USE and then set bulk/absorption to 55.2V and float to 55.1V.

Is bulk the cv voltage? Can you tell me why these need changed? I will try it, I’d like to understand why. Thanks

 

[Traviss224]

Cv 55.2 float 55.1

 

[Onehand]

Might want to watch this. Kind of a top balancing procedure, but not quite the correct way to do it.

Watch to end.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Is bulk the cv voltage? Can you tell me why these need changed? I will try it, I’d like to understand why. Thanks

Parameters passed through to inverter comms seem to be pretty conservative and appear to increase the tendency for cell imbalance - particularly when there are periods where the battery may not attain high SoC on a regular basis. When cells hit a certain voltage, the battery passes lower charge current limits to the inverter - slowing charge and potentially reducing the peak attainable SoC.

Going to manual mode removes SoC from the equation as there's no comms and no control of the inverter by the battery. The BMS can still protect the battery via disconnect, but the battery can't limit what the inverter does. If you have it set to 55.2, then the inverter will feed the battery 55.2V until it refuses to take it by the current either tapering to zero when it's 98%+ full or when the BMS cuts off. Either way, balancing is encouraged and higher SoC can be attained than the battery comms would otherwise allow.

IIRC, @timselectric has Growatt inverters with EG4 batteries and has opted out of BMS comms to avoid this issue entirely (and maybe other reasons).

 

[timselectric]

75% of all of the issues reported here, on the forum. Are related to closed loop communications.
I prefer to keep my system simple and reliable.

 

[42OhmsPA]

75% of all of the issues reported here, on the forum. Are related to closed loop communications.
I prefer to keep my system simple and reliable.

Agreed.
User and

loop for the win.

 

[n2aws]

75% of all of the issues reported here, on the forum. Are related to closed loop communications.
I prefer to keep my system simple and reliable.

To be fair,

Closed loop + older firmware. Newer firmwares update the bulk/absorb/float voltages, and handle things more appropriately now. With the current firmware installed, all you need to do is make sure the batteries get a full charge occasionally so they can balance (but this is true in open loop comms as well)

In the video linked above, the user has firmware 3.10, and upgrades to 3.32.

He then charges the batteries at the voltage the new firmware suggests.

It's a long-known issue that the documentation in the manual for voltages, doesn't match what the newer firmwares are set for. I'm not sure why they don't update the manual, but again.. it's a known issue that the documentation isn't accurate any longer.

Once people update the firmware and either let the closed loop comms handles setting the voltages, OR use the correct voltages in their open loop configs.. and allow the batteries to charge fully occasionally, they remain balanced.

 

[ricardocello]

I prefer to keep my system simple and reliable.

As I mentioned in a BMS thread, I've moved back to open loop after 6 months in closed loop with the EG4-LL.
I'm just not happy with balancing and spurious high-voltage alarms, and some other annoyances.

However, I'm paranoid about the cell voltages, and I want to collect that data, even if open loop.
So I've combined the RS-485s from my 3 EG4-LLs and fed them into a WaveShare Ethernet device connected to my house network.
This lets me monitor the batteries and log the data remotely, unfortunately separately from Victron VRM (which is the big disadvantage).

 

[Lu jitsu]

Parameters passed through to inverter comms seem to be pretty conservative and appear to increase the tendency for cell imbalance - particularly when there are periods where the battery may not attain high SoC on a regular basis. When cells hit a certain voltage, the battery passes lower charge current limits to the inverter - slowing charge and potentially reducing the peak attainable SoC.

Going to manual mode removes SoC from the equation as there's no comms and no control of the inverter by the battery. The BMS can still protect the battery via disconnect, but the battery can't limit what the inverter does. If you have it set to 55.2, then the inverter will feed the battery 55.2V until it refuses to take it by the current either tapering to zero when it's 98%+ full or when the BMS cuts off. Either way, balancing is encouraged and higher SoC can be attained than the battery comms would otherwise allow.

IIRC, @timselectric has Growatt inverters with EG4 batteries and has opted out of BMS comms to avoid this issue entirely (and maybe other reasons).

Thank you so much for that information. Makes sense. I really appreacuet that. I changed the settings so it’s kind of cloudy today but as soon as it charges I will let you know. Hopefully this will work.

 

[Lu jitsu]

75% of all of the issues reported here, on the forum. Are related to closed loop communications.
I prefer to keep my system simple and reliable.

What do you mean closed loop? I don’t have them set up to talk(inverter and battery). The simpler the better.

 

[Traviss224]

Open loop- user mode
Closed loop- lithium mode via communication cable

Right?

 

[timselectric]

As I mentioned in a BMS thread, I've moved back to open loop after 6 months in closed loop with the EG4-LL.
I'm just not happy with balancing and spurious high-voltage alarms, and some other annoyances.

Open loop is better. If you have good batteries.
If not, then closed loop can save you some headaches keeping track of the runners.
But the best way to get the most out of your batteries. Whether they are good quality or not. Is a hands on approach.
It's just more labor intensive for low quality batteries. Or if your system isn't capable of fully charging the batteries, weekly.

 

[timselectric]

What do you mean closed loop?

Closed loop communications. Means BMS communicates with charge controllers.

I don’t have them set up to talk(inverter and battery). The simpler the better.

Agree 100%

 

[ricardocello]

Open loop- user mode
Closed loop- lithium mode via communication cable

Right?

Open Loop: The battery BMS protects the battery from under/overvoltage, under/over current, under/over temperature, tracks the State of Charge, disconnects when overcharging, etc.
The inverter (and solar charge controllers) have no knowledge of the state of the battery in open loop, other than current voltage.
They just apply voltage to charge the battery, and draw current when inverting

Closed Loop: The battery BMS communicates over a cable (RS-485, CANbus, etc.) the state of the battery, including State of Charge.
Sometime the info contains: Charge Current Limit, Discharge Current Limit, Voltage Limit.
The inverters and controllers will adjust their actions based on what the battery is saying in real-time.

 

[Lu jitsu]

Thanks to Phil at signature solar. Setting 17 up did the trick!