EG4-LL (V2) Integration with Schneider Insight Home

[Hootch406]

My BMS looks like Shire's attached screen shot. Interestingly my "maximum discharge current" only displays 5A though. Our screens look like the BMS on the video. I think when all the batteries are connected we will have other problems, see below....

I have been running on SOC enabled for a few days and it has been nothing but problems. Lots of BMS over-voltage faults. As I said before, i think there should be a battery selected in the BMS Setup. So i did pick one that is close to 15kw's (BYD LVL 15.4) and loaded it I(I have 3 batteries). Now, The only time it will sell to the grid is when the battery is charging. Once the battery is charged it quits selling. I do have it set to sell once the battery is charged to 90% SOC. The inverter even says it is in grid sell mode and the most it might send to the grid is an 100w in full sun.

I have since disabled SOC and what do you know, 5KW gets sent to the grid.
I'm going to run on voltage (SOC Disabled) for awhile and hopefully someone at signature solar can get this fixed. Am I wrong to think that if I would have spent the money on a Discover AES battery or similar it would have been plug and play?? I honestly thought the V2 battery was going to make everything super simple. I'm sure you all have the same amount of hours that I do messing with this.

 

[Shire222]

My BMS looks like Shire's attached screen shot. Interestingly my "maximum discharge current" only displays 5A though. Our screens look like the BMS on the video. I think when all the batteries are connected we will have other problems, see below....

I have been running on SOC enabled for a few days and it has been nothing but problems. Lots of BMS over-voltage faults. As I said before, i think there should be a battery selected in the BMS Setup. So i did pick one that is close to 15kw's (BYD LVL 15.4) and loaded it I(I have 3 batteries). Now, The only time it will sell to the grid is when the battery is charging. Once the battery is charged it quits selling. I do have it set to sell once the battery is charged to 90% SOC. The inverter even says it is in grid sell mode and the most it might send to the grid is an 100w in full sun.

I have since disabled SOC and what do you know, 5KW gets sent to the grid.
I'm going to run on voltage (SOC Disabled) for awhile and hopefully someone at signature solar can get this fixed. Am I wrong to think that if I would have spent the money on a Discover AES battery or similar it would have been plug and play?? I honestly thought the V2 battery was going to make everything super simple. I'm sure you all have the same amount of hours that I do messing with this.

Yes, the information that is displayed isn't completely accurate on mine either. According to the EG4-LL V2 spec sheet, both max charge and discharge current should be reading 100A. The Signature Solar video shows 50A charge current which aligns with the max recommended current in the spec sheet.

Edit:
Thinking about this a bit further, I'm hoping that the BMS is smart enough to regulate the max charge current. Right now with a 100% SOC it won't allow more than 5A, but if the batteries start to discharge and drop below a certain Voltage or SOC, I suspect the Max current will jump up to 50A as shown in the SS video and the screenshot I attached.

 

[Shire222]

I just got off the phone with Signature Solar Tier 2 support. I have had a ticket open since the end of December. They had no updates or information for me. This is the first time that the Tier 2 assigned to my case has called me to discuss the issue. No timeline, no estimates, no hunches, nothing. Signature Solar really needs to step it up. They are selling products that do not function as advertised. They are providing no documentation to accomplish said configuration and more or less no support. This is one of the worst customer experiences I can recall. It's really a shame because the quality and performance of the Schneider XW Pro is top notch.
@signaturesolarHelpUs @SignatureSolarJames @SignatureSolarJarrett

 

[JFKS]

FWIW, I've continued to email back and forth with Signature Solar tech support for the last week or so. The end result is that they are arriving at the same conclusion we have, i.e., that the EG4 LL V2 firmware is to blame for the Insight Home to not detect the battery when the battery has address 0001. They are waiting to hear back from their guys at R&D for confirmation of that. If I hear any more I'll post it here.

Meanwhile, I put all my V1's back in the same rack, cabled them up, and detected 0001 on the Insight. Two of three are accounted for in the SEMB-BMS based on reporting of the Max Discharge Current, and on the reported current draw. One is not, and (as usual) I have no idea why because its got the Scneider.hex firmware, a legit non-duplicated dip switch address, etc. At this point I'm going to give it a rest and move on to something else for awhile.

 

[Dwhtwo]

I have the Schneider 4048 and two of the EG4-LL-v2 and an Insight
Home running v1.16 build 4. I am just in the process of commissioning. This version is different from demo videos and published documentation. I have seen several different sets of documentation with conflicting instructions. Obviously a quickly evolving product mix. the Insight Home does not have the option to connect the battery with a remote bms. It does show a lithium profile. it does not have the ability to drop a device from the modbus system.

When the unit Is programmed on a lithium profile it will not start the inverter. It throws overcurrent error and trips. It is unlikely the inrush of charging the capacitors as it trips after the set delay in the bins setting for overcurrent. If it is set for 3 seconds it trips in three seconds. If it is set for twenty seconds it trips in twenty seconds.

i program the Insight for “Custom” and adjust the charge settings accordingly the inverter starts up without issue. Every time. There is another thread (some 56 pages long) where the discussion was started where a user could not get his inverter to start. SS appeared to be unable to duplicate and tested inverters”right out of the box” - in other words did not program the inverter for lithium. based on my experience this is not a surprise.

the other issue more pertinent to this thread is that the two EG4-LL-V2s do not communicate. The Insight will only recognize one unit. Same communication issue as discussed here running a V2 as master with the older versions as slaves. I tried, based on another thread, using a 485 splitter and connecting each battery to the splitter. When I run Detect Device, the Insight says it sees two devices, but when you navigate back to the device page only one shows. I had one dipswitch set to 1 and one to 2. I have not tried all dip switch variables.

it appears that there are issues on the Schneider side in integrating the EG4 into the system as well as firmware issues with the EG4. Hopefully this information is of help and SS will follow up and beat up on their Schneider rep.

 

[Matruco]

the Insight Home does not have the option to connect the battery with a remote bms. It does show a lithium profile. it does not have the ability to drop a device from the modbus system.

Can you show a screenshot?

When the unit Is programmed on a lithium profile it will not start the inverter. It throws overcurrent error and trips. It is unlikely the inrush of charging the capacitors as it trips after the set delay in the bins setting for overcurrent. If it is set for 3 seconds it trips in three seconds. If it is set for twenty seconds it trips in twenty seconds.

I had the same overcurrent warning, since the insight can only "see" one battery, the way I solved it was to use the recommended charge current value (30 to 50 Amps) for the "Maximum Bulk Charge Current", "Maximum Absorbtion Charge Current" and "Maximum Float Charge Current" for the Battery Setting sub menu on the inverter configuration tab. You can try this and see if it helps.

 

[Dwhtwo]

No AC was hooked up, Charger not turned on. SO charge settings should not effect boot up. I have a 4048 and max output charge is 45 amps anyway. I can send screen shot later. However int he drop down menu in Li settings shows options for 3 stage. 2 stage or CVCC. There is no option for External BMS

 

[JFKS]

Just another quick update on the problem where EG4 LL V2 batteries can't simultaneously serve as a master battery for V1s and also be detected by a Schnieder Insight Home... I received an email for Ryan at Signature Solar today indicating that a new firmware release for EG4 LL V2's is now available on EG4's downloads web page that should solve the problem.

I won't be able to give it a try for probably a few weeks, but if anybody else does let us know if it works.

Meanwhile, my XW Pro with three V1 batteries and both AC and DC coupled panels are working pretty well with both SOC control and Sell-to-Grid enabled. There are a few things (probably Schneider firmware and documentation-related) that could be better, but all in all its a great combination.

 

[Shire222]

Just another quick update on the problem where EG4 LL V2 batteries can't simultaneously serve as a master battery for V1s and also be detected by a Schnieder Insight Home... I received an email for Ryan at Signature Solar today indicating that a new firmware release for EG4 LL V2's is now available on EG4's downloads web page that should solve the problem.

I won't be able to give it a try for probably a few weeks, but if anybody else does let us know if it works.

Meanwhile, my XW Pro with three V1 batteries and both AC and DC coupled panels are working pretty well with both SOC control and Sell-to-Grid enabled. There are a few things (probably Schneider firmware and documentation-related) that could be better, but all in all its a great combination.

Tried the new firmware over the weekend. Didn’t make any difference for me.

 

[Matruco]

Just another quick update on the problem where EG4 LL V2 batteries can't simultaneously serve as a master battery for V1s and also be detected by a Schnieder Insight Home... I received an email for Ryan at Signature Solar today indicating that a new firmware release for EG4 LL V2's is now available on EG4's downloads web page that should solve the problem.

I won't be able to give it a try for probably a few weeks, but if anybody else does let us know if it works.

Meanwhile, my XW Pro with three V1 batteries and both AC and DC coupled panels are working pretty well with both SOC control and Sell-to-Grid enabled. There are a few things (probably Schneider firmware and documentation-related) that could be better, but all in all its a great combination.

It didn't work for me either. Actually the "new update" is an older firmware (from 9-17-2022).

 

[Shire222]

It didn't work for me either. Actually the "new update" is an older firmware (from 9-17-2022).

Agreed, tech support tried to convince me of this as well. Clearly a new firmware would have an updated name. We are getting the run-around.

 

[Shire222]

New firmware is actually posted now. That said, still zero devices detected when connected to master battery on ID 1.

 

[cjinx123456]

I have everything working for a few weeks but have the same issue as Shire, Matruco and others. The issue I mentioned earlier at not being able to charge over 100amps I discovered, after working with Schneider was due to the fact that the EG4-LL V2 batteries are not communicating. The BMS of the 1 battery that will communicate with InsightHome is telling it not to send more than 100amps to the battery. We think that once the batteries are communicating this limitation will increased to 400amps since I have 4 batteries and the inverter will be able to charge at its rated 140amps.

In position 1 the lights blink but won't connect to the insight home.

I tried the firmware update but doesn't make a difference! Please fix this SS!
P.S. My dipswitches were also backwards. The 4 is actually 1, 3 is actually 2 and so on. Would be nice if they mentioned that ANYWHERE in the documents or told you it was a possibility when you called in.

 

[cjinx123456]

Anyone have any luck? I've been pestering Signature Solar but nothing.

 

[GVSolar]

@SignatureSolarJames

 

[Shire222]

It’s been over two weeks since SS has responded to an email. I was told front panel hardware would be replaced if the firmware update didn’t help. Then I was ghosted, yet again.

 

[SignatureSolarPeyton]

It’s been over two weeks since SS has responded to an email. I was told front panel hardware would be replaced if the firmware update didn’t help. Then I was ghosted, yet again.

I spoke with R&D and Tech and it looks like it's a BMS issue, not firmware. That being said, anyone who is dealing with this issue, please send an email to peyton@signaturesolar.com, and I will get you directly to a technician for a fix. Also, make sure to leave your first and last name along with a phone number in the email.

 

[goodoleme]

Everyone I am in the same situation as you, when you put any of the batteries on #1 (host battery) insight will not see it under devices.
Insight will see it, if it's any other ID than one, but then, it only shows one battery (100amps) and I have 6 so you can't charge and discharge all 600 amps.

I have talked with Eric at Schneider about it, as I have just upgraded 2 customers with XW Pros for SOC use and not sure what to do at this point other than use a Batmon and Volts as SOC. Can you please let me know what is the fix?

I have emailed "peyton@signaturesolar.com" and I'm am just ghosted like everyone else.

Take Care,
Neil

 

[SignatureSolarPeyton]

Everyone I am in the same situation as you, when you put any of the batteries on #1 (host battery) insight will not see it under devices.
Insight will see it, if it's any other ID than one, but then, it only shows one battery (100amps) and I have 6 so you can't charge and discharge all 600 amps.

I have talked with Eric at Schneider about it, as I have just upgraded 2 customers with XW Pros for SOC use and not sure what to do at this point other than use a Batmon and Volts as SOC. Can you please let me know what is the fix?

I have emailed "peyton@signaturesolar.com" and I'm am just ghosted like everyone else.

Take Care,
Neil

Everyone that has emailed me from this thread has been responded to and taken care of, your email was just in my spam folder. Thanks for bringing this to my attention though. I'll shoot you an email now.

 

[ChrisG]

So potential buyers can make an informed decision can you elaborate on what the issue is? With the multiple comm protocols, EG4 batteries are diverse product which makes it appealing. We all should have the proper information before purchasing.