Felicitysolar Lithium Battery Communication with Victron Cerbo GX

[RotEvery]

My installer connected my 2x 10kwh Felicitysolar parallel LFP battery packs (which have both CAN and RS485) to my Victron Cerbo GX BMS-CAN port but there is no communication. He used a Victron cable type A with Victron terminators on both ends of the cable. He tried both the BMS-CAN and the VE.CAN ports on the Cerbo GX but it didn't work. Please does anyone have experience of connecting Felicitysolar lithium battery packs to Cerbo GX? What is the solution to this problem?

 

[Quattrohead]

I have not seen or heard of this being done by anyone. I think the data from the Felicity is encrypted and only their EDMS software can read the info.

 

[Sean Very North]

What is the solution to this problem?

Sadly, the solution is to ensure that all of the equipment you intend to fit and install is compatible before you fit and install it. Just because two devices have CAN ports that doesn't mean that they able able to communicate effectively.

 

[RotEvery]

Sadly, the solution is to ensure that all of the equipment you intend to fit and install is compatible before you fit and install it. Just because two devices have CAN ports that doesn't mean that they able able to communicate effectively.

The supplier/installer did assure me that they were compatible before I bought the battery packs from him. After they failed to communicate, he is apologetic. He cannot afford to refund me......

 

[Quattrohead]

Do you know if the right pins are connected ? Double check with your manuals, I think this is correct.
Victron GX
CAN-L = Pin 8
CAN-H = Pin 7
Felicity battery
CAN-L = Pin 7
CAN-H = Pin 8

The supplied cables may not be suitable.
Also the Felicity batteries do have RS485, that is what EDMS uses. I know the GX has RS485 for a meter connection but not sure if it can also read batteries through it.

 

[RotEvery]

Do you know if the right pins are connected ? Double check with your manuals, I think this is correct.
Victron GX
CAN-L = Pin 8
CAN-H = Pin 7
Felicity battery
CAN-L = Pin 7
CAN-H = Pin 8

The supplied cables may not be suitable.
Also the Felicity batteries do have RS485, that is what EDMS uses. I know the GX has RS485 for a meter connection but not sure if it can also read batteries through it.

We did the pin-out correctly with a cable my installer made on site but did not work. No, the supplied cables are NOT suitable.
I've now found out we need RS485 pin-out on Felicitysolar battery side and NOT a CAN pin-out.

 

[RotEvery]

I have not seen or heard of this being done by anyone. I think the data from the Felicity is encrypted and only their EDMS software can read the info.

I chatted with Felicitysolar China engineer and he / she asserts that their BMS can communicate with Victron Cerbo GX. Sent me the attached COM-BOX user guide (which seems to apply to a different inverter though). From the user guide, I see that we should rather do an RS485 connection on the battery side.

To connect to Cerbo GX, we should EITHER
(1) Do Felicitysolar RS485 pin-out for CAT6 cable / RJ45 connector on battery side, buy Victron RS485 to USB interface cable and connect to Cerbo GX USB port

OR

(2) Do Felicitysolar RS485 pin-out for CAT6 cable / RJ45 connector on battery side, buy the Felicitysolar COM-Box and connect to Cerbo GX BMS-CAN or VE.CAN port.

I think option 1 is the better option.

 

[wmsolarconsultant]

Hi
I need latest update for Felicity bms ?

 

[RotEvery]

(1) Do Felicitysolar RS485 pin-out for CAT6 cable / RJ45 connector on battery side, buy Victron RS485 to USB interface cable and connect to Cerbo GX USB port

This did not work.

 

[RotEvery]

(2) Do Felicitysolar RS485 pin-out for CAT6 cable / RJ45 connector on battery side, buy the Felicitysolar COM-Box and connect to Cerbo GX BMS-CAN or VE.CAN port.

I ordered the Com-box directly from FS China. Just received it yesterday. Powered it and connected it to the battery BMS. The relevant lights blinking per the little manual that came with it. My Cerbo GX is farther away than the cat 6 cable that came with the box can reach. Will prepare my own cable for connection to Cerbo GX VE.CAN port. Will let you know the outcome.

 

[RotEvery]

I've successfully made the FS BMS to communicate with Cerbo GX and take over control of the system. FS engineer worked from his weekend time today to support me. Shows up in Cerbo GX as a Pylontech battery. Had to make my own cable. However, had shutdowns in my system twice on multiple alarms. BMS Showing wrong voltage at 106.4V and wrong SOC at 100%. The BMS is showing twice the correct voltage and half the correct current. Even after I disconnected the BMS cable and disabled the BMS-CAN communication and BMS battery measurement in DVCC / Cerbo GX, my charge controllers refused to charge and kept giving error 67. To solve this (i.e. revert to pre-BMS control state), I had to reset the charge controllers in VictronConnect and enter set points afresh. For the Quattro, I just uploaded a backup of the last working file in Remote VEConfigure. Everything is now normal (as before introduction of BMS connection to Cerbo GX). On Monday, after I get the solution to the wrong voltage and current measurements by the BMS, I will commission the BMS control again. An FS engineer is helping me on this.

The BMS is thinking I have two groups of series connected batteries, 2P2S instead of the actual 4P batteries. Attached picture shows how the 4 nos. 10kwh FS batteries (I think they are actually 8.75kwh but good for the price and have 5 years warranty) are connected to the 48V DC (nominal) busbars.

 

[Quattrohead]

So it sounds like you have basic comms working now but need to figure out some of the data, nice one.

 

[smartkom]

My installer connected my 2x 10kwh Felicitysolar parallel LFP battery packs (which have both CAN and RS485) to my Victron Cerbo GX BMS-CAN port but there is no communication. He used a Victron cable type A with Victron terminators on both ends of the cable. He tried both the BMS-CAN and the VE.CAN ports on the Cerbo GX but it didn't work. Please does anyone have experience of connecting Felicitysolar lithium battery packs to Cerbo GX? What is the solution to this problem?

First you need to do some manual work there. Yeah most companies have a specific point where their bms port should be located. Looking at those 8 pin on your cabled rj45. Felicity battery mostly has its RS485-B and RS485-A port linked to the 5 and 6 pin respectively, as well as CAN-l and CAN-h at 7 and 8 respectively, so you can manually crimp the other end of the bms cable that came with your inverter bms cable. You probably need just two wires in that cable. First of all check your inverter manual to see if the bms port is found in which of the pins and which port( USB port or rs485 port.), After knowing this information, identify the wires that is connected to your inverter bms pin and ensure you crimp the other end of the cable that will be plug into Felicity battery at 5 and 6 pin

 

[RotEvery]

First you need to do some manual work there. Yeah most companies have a specific point where their bms port should be located. Looking at those 8 pin on your cabled rj45. Felicity battery mostly has its RS485-B and RS485-A port linked to the 5 and 6 pin respectively, as well as CAN-l and CAN-h at 7 and 8 respectively, so you can manually crimp the other end of the bms cable that came with your inverter bms cable. You probably need just two wires in that cable. First of all check your inverter manual to see if the bms port is found in which of the pins and which port( USB port or rs485 port.), After knowing this information, identify the wires that is connected to your inverter bms pin and ensure you crimp the other end of the cable that will be plug into Felicity battery at 5 and 6 pin

Already passed that stage. Communication already established using a special FS Com-Box. See my other updates above. Thanks.

 

[RotEvery]

I've successfully made the FS BMS to communicate with Cerbo GX and take over control of the system. FS engineer worked from his weekend time today to support me. Shows up in Cerbo GX as a Pylontech battery. Had to make my own cable. However, had shutdowns in my system twice on multiple alarms. BMS Showing wrong voltage at 106.4V and wrong SOC at 100%. The BMS is showing twice the correct voltage and half the correct current. Even after I disconnected the BMS cable and disabled the BMS-CAN communication and BMS battery measurement in DVCC / Cerbo GX, my charge controllers refused to charge and kept giving error 67. To solve this (i.e. revert to pre-BMS control state), I had to reset the charge controllers in VictronConnect and enter set points afresh. For the Quattro, I just uploaded a backup of the last working file in Remote VEConfigure. Everything is now normal (as before introduction of BMS connection to Cerbo GX). On Monday, after I get the solution to the wrong voltage and current measurements by the BMS, I will commission the BMS control again. An FS engineer is helping me on this.

The BMS is thinking I have two groups of series connected batteries, 2P2S instead of the actual 4P batteries. Attached picture shows how the 4 nos. 10kwh FS batteries (I think they are actually 8.75kwh but good for the price and have 5 years warranty) are connected to the 48V DC (nominal) busbars.
View attachment 160007

Update: There are still pending issues with the FS BMS showing wrong current / wrong power measurement as if I have only two battery packs in parallel while I have four battery packs in parallel. This made me revert back to Victron DVCC again. Above picture shows how the 4 nos. 10kwh FS batteries are connected to my 48V DC (nominal) busbars.

FS engineers are working in the background to help me resolve this plus I am too busy working on something else this month. For now, it seems to me as if the FS Com-box / BMS Control will work well only if you do the paralleling per FS schematic for paralleling in their user manual. Well, since I now have all the parameter information that I need from the FS BMS, I will stay on DVCC at least for now.

I've also confirmed that the FS BMS independently stops charging of the FS battery packs when they reach 100% whether or not it is communicating with the Victron Quattro/SmartSolar SCCs and irrespective of the Victron DVCC/Quattro/SmartSolar SCCs' max Voltage/Absorption Voltage/Float Voltage settings. This is true at least for my model of FS Battery Packs. It seems FS BMS is able to hold the battery pack voltage at a value lower than the busbar voltage set by the Quattro and/or SmartSolar SCCs once the battery packs have reached 100% SoC.

Here are the screenshots of when FS BMS took over control of my system via connection with Victron Cerbo GX (in attached pdf file).

 

[Quattrohead]

The Felicity solar BMS is very good at managing the cells but completely hopeless at communicating anything. What I did find out which confused the crap out of me is the terminating resistor that is supposed to be for the rs485 communications line seems to be connected to one pin of the can bus. I was always having communication errors between the batteries and edms and now I'm thinking that the interface board with the RS 485 output to the RJ45 connections is just plain wrong.
I discovered this when trying to figure out how to connect the RS 485 out of a JBD BMS to the RJ45 ports. I ended up taking out all of the Felicity BMS and replace them with JBD BMS so that my batteries can actually talk to the world.

 

[wmsolarconsultant]

Try other type battery (not pylontech)

 

[ANDREJA SRB]

This did not work.

This works

 

[ANDREJA SRB]

Hi
I need latest update for Felicity bms ?

 

[RotEvery]

This works

Please provide details of how it worked and in which installation. Did it correctly display battery status on Cerbo GX?