Has anyone had experience with Growatt SPF 6000 ES plus?

[Carlos_solar]

I am currently using an SPF 5000 and thinking to upgrade. The 5000 has been quite good bar a few oddities, but i could use a bit more power and the 6000's two MPPT controllers will make much better use of my panels (10 550 watt panels, 5 on each side of the roof where one side is facing slight to the east and one slightly to the west).

Would like to hear about your experiences - good and bad.

Cheers

 

[AshleyL]

.........be prepare to update the firmware first? Before you upgrade, CHECK the initial firmware version first because the control board with firmware + DSP 100.01, 101.01 firmware CANNOT be updated, it will be bricked if you do so. Luckily mine can be upgraded since I have later revision of control board.

Other than that, it is same with SPF 5000. The sound of the fan......same loud as SPF5000?

 

[Carlos_solar]

.........be prepare to update the firmware first? Before you upgrade, CHECK the initial firmware version first because the control board with firmware + DSP 100.01, 101.01 firmware CANNOT be updated, it will be bricked if you do so. Luckily mine can be upgraded since I have later revision of control board.

Other than that, it is same with SPF 5000. The sound of the fan......same loud as SPF5000?

Cheers, If I do go ahead and get the 6000, I'll definitely pay attention to the firmware... Yeah, I hear you - or rather the fan of the 5000 is loud. Built an enclosure with that in mind...

 

[AshleyL]

Cheers, If I do go ahead and get the 6000, I'll definitely pay attention to the firmware... Yeah, I hear you - or rather the fan of the 5000 is loud. Built an enclosure with that in mind...

Sigh, I might as well as post the DSP and BCU changelog for SPF6000ES:

SK100.01_1209C​	1. Fix the abnormal MPPT tracking issue when PV power is less than charging power or in off-grid mode without a battery. 2. Fix the parameter synchronization issue between master and slave devices, which caused abnormal SOC display. 3. Fix the issue where single PV high voltage in off-grid mode with charging only causes PV power to exceed 4000W. 4. Change the SOC display method in non-lithium battery mode back to the 4-step calculation method, canceling the original linear display method. 5. Modify the forward discharge limit value of the inverter to 520V during grid-tie mode.​
SK100.02_0217A​	1. Add a solution for the 08 error caused by leakage current on the inverter side (modify inverter charging/BUCK control logic). 2. Fix the issue of battery voltage fluctuations during charging. 3. Fix the issue where the frequency settings are not synchronized when starting up a parallel system sequentially. 4. Fix the issue where the master unit cannot connect to the grid due to the slave unit being in standby/fault mode in a parallel system.​
SK100.03_0221A​	1. Fix the issue where some machines cannot start due to the LLC soft start duty cycle being too small.​
SK100.04_0721A​	1. Add confirmation function for parallel settings: after setting parameters, the master unit collects confirmation from all machines. If any machine fails to set successfully, resend the settings up to 5 times. 2. Change battery inverter drive to point wave mode to correct frequent zero-crossing switching issues. 3. Increase the number of waveforms in energy-saving mode from 2 to 6 for easier detection of output short circuits. 4. Fix overlapping issue where some Fault codes were repeated. 5. Add offset sampling to output current during interruption to prevent loads exceeding 10% during no-load conditions. 6. Clear 21 alarms when mains relay is engaged. 7. Adjust BUS soft start criteria to subtract an additional 10V from the original 7.8 times battery voltage to prevent BUS soft start failure at low battery voltages. 8. Add LLC duty cycle check to BUS soft start success criteria, ensuring nearly full duty cycle to prevent BUS fault 58 when loaded. 9. In lead-acid mode, prevent startup into inverter mode if mains power inconsistency is detected. 10. Fix issue where inverter cannot shut down after generating partial faults due to over-temperature warning caused by disconnected NTC (05Fault, 03Fault, 61Fault, 80Fault). 11. Modify master-slave switch in parallel operation: when operating modes are the same, prioritize switch based on power status, not mains presence. 12. In lead-acid mode with inconsistent mains power in parallel systems, set cutoff point to item 21 setting value, unaffected by load changes. 13. Increase BUS high voltage rapid protection point to 600V. 14. Correct issue where setting 02 to 0A still allowed charging current under certain conditions. 15. Fix specific conditions causing charging protection flag to remain active, preventing reactivation of mains charger. 16. Address issue where reactivating inverter during waiting period after mains Off event results in error 51 after mains return.​
SK100.05_0828A​	1. Fix abnormal voltage drop during parallel operation under load, particularly when load exceeds 80%. 2. Address abnormal reduction in inverter output capacity. 3. Correct voltage fluctuations during standalone operation. 4. Adjust parallel operation for better output current balancing.​
SK100.06_0307A​	1. Modify the generator detection criteria to resolve the issue of a 15 alarm caused by leakage current. 2. Fix the issue of a small charging current when the utility power charging time is out of range due to the buck converter not being turned off. 3. Adjust the virtual resistance to the single machine value when transitioning from parallel to single operation. 4. Separate the control algorithms for utility power and generator charging currents. 5. Set the generator to shut off via dry contact once its operation time is reached. 6. Verify if there is a 52 alarm when activating the battery with a load while set to SBU or SOL mode. 7. Verify the effectiveness of charge protection. 8. Verify if the charging state can be synchronously shut off for both master and slave units in parallel operation. 9. Add a feature to discharge to utility power if high BUS voltage occurs during utility power charging to prevent an 08Fault. 10. For lithium batteries, extend the shutdown time to 10 minutes when the switch is ON (due to SOC fluctuation). 11. After losing communication with lithium batteries, do not cut off output, stop charging, and add an 04 alarm at 48.2V, with an 04 reset point at 48.9V, utility power entry point at 49.2V, utility power exit point at 53.2V, lithium battery non-existence point at 42V, shutdown point at 48V, and shutdown recovery point at 50V. 12. For parallel operation, the battery activation will still use the master activation scheme, but the slave unit can also switch to utility power and stabilize the BUS (when utility power is available). PV can also stabilize the BUS (when PV is available), but only the master unit will output the activation voltage during actual activation. 13. Shorten the determination time for USE2 to be fully charged to 4 seconds. 14. During parallel operation, if the BMS reports a current of 0A, cancel the "parallel quantity compensation charging" value.​

SK101.01_0214A​	1. If there is only a "no battery" warning, turn off the warning light and buzzer. 2. If other warning events occur in the absence of a battery, prioritize turning on the warning light and buzzer. 3. Optimize the voltage correction function of the display screen (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34) so that customers can input the set voltage parameters themselves. 4. Change the default value of item 21 to 42V in water battery mode. 5. Add a "synchronous output frequency" function for internal communication use. 6. Voltage calibration function: If the accumulated calculation exceeds ±9V, reset to zero automatically. 7. Change the boot development environment to Keil.​
SK101.02_0517A​	1. Update the version number and date. 2. Change the boot version to 00.​
SK101.03_0721A​	1. Increase generator energy. 2. Correct the error in displaying model capacity. 3. Change the time for resetting the day's energy to 23:58. 4. Modify the serial number saving method, adding read-back confirmation. 5. Fix the bug where the day's energy could not be saved. 6. Shorten the read/write control delay of the LCD screen to 6us to reduce interference with IIC data saving. 7. Fix the issue where output energy could not be saved.​
SK101.04_0828A​	1. Fix the PV power display jitter issue. 2. In non-lithium battery modes (AGM, FLD, USE, USE2), do not allow modification of the Li battery protocol type via MODBUS communication (Pvkeeper).​
SK101.05_0307A​	1. Corrected the issue with the display of the generator's floating voltage. 2. Fixed the problem with the forced conversion in temperature calculation using INT16U, which might cause abnormal calculations of negative temperatures. 3. Added settings for generator charging current (item 11) and generator running time (item 65) to the menu. 4. Added read and write functionality for generator charging current and generator running time in Modbus communication. 5. Changed the current of the PV terminal in external communication to the actual sampled Boost current. 6. Fixed the issue where the lithium battery protocol could be set to 0 in non-lithium battery mode, causing the machine to report 04BUG. 7. Corrected the external transmission of the initialization software version number. 8. Adjusted the acceptable range for the received charging current in lithium battery communication to values greater than or equal to 0. 9. Changed the activation current threshold from greater than 1A to greater than 0A. 10. Removed the restriction from item 02 for setting the mains charging current; logical processing will be performed internally during actual charging. 11. Added a long beep action for the enter key. 12. For alarms 04 and 20, alarm sounds and red light prompts are no longer activated; only the alarm value will flash (same as alarm 19). 13. Added item 66 to the LCD to allow communication interruption mode (parallel synchronization). 14. When there is no battery and the voltage is below 30V, Modbus will mask "battery power" and "battery discharge power" externally. 15. The remote shutdown command will not be saved after power loss.​

 

[Carlos_solar]

.........be prepare to update the firmware first? Before you upgrade, CHECK the initial firmware version first because the control board with firmware + DSP 100.01, 101.01 firmware CANNOT be updated, it will be bricked if you do so. Luckily mine can be upgraded since I have later revision of control board.

Other than that, it is same with SPF 5000. The sound of the fan......same loud as SPF5000?

Sounds like you are using one now. Has it been good? Any problems? Cheers

 

[AshleyL]

Sounds like you are using one now. Has it been good? Any problems? Cheers

No problem. Filters got clogged up quickly, need to clean it up at least once a month.

I only have problem with my JK Inverter BMS right now, so no BMS Lithium communication at all.

 

[Sadiqatiku8]

No problem. Filters got clogged up quickly, need to clean it up at least once a month.

I only have problem with my JK Inverter BMS right now, so no BMS Lithium communication at all.

So you can't see your state of charge, only battery voltage right?

 

[AshleyL]

So you can't see your state of charge, only battery voltage right?

No, it is different issue......not sure if I should blame Growatt or JK.

Let say you are operating the inverter in SBU mode. Growatt will stop charging the moment the BMS reported SOC 100%. Then all your load will be powered solely by solar and if the solar is insufficient, the battery will make up for it until the SOC drops below 95% in which the inverter will restart the charging process to bring the SOC back to 100%.

Hereby lies the issue, there are two ways to trigger the SOC 100% at JK inverter BMS:
Coulomb Counting (CC) and SOC-100%Volt setting.

Problem with Coulomb Counting = results in negative drift (cell self discharge) or if the sensor is inaccurate........you know.
Problem with SOC-100%Volt setting = a runner cell will will trigger the soc to be 100% and the inverter will stop charging immediately

You can see what the problem now, since the inverter stopped charging immediately as in within 10 seconds after SOC reaches 100% when it is being triggered by either CC or SOC-100%Volt setting, there will be no time for absorption phase (so much for lithium doesn't need to be floated or absorp) and the BMS to start its active balancing phase.

Contacted Growatt = they said it is not their issue as their 95 - 100 % cycling algorithm is normal and the issue lies with BMS
Contacted JK = never got any reply from them at all.

Currently I am stuck with using the inverter USE algorithm.
As workaround, I am using the inverter equalization function to hold the voltage for "artificial" absorption phase once every two weeks (for 1 hour) so that I can deal with the negative drift and allow the active balancing to take place.
The downside, can't see any SOC percent at Growatt Shinephone and it relies on voltage for disconnect (LVD, back to grid etc)