Help us design a rack-mounted system for the UK

[SeaGal]

The alarm was "Battery name fail" so it seems the can bus checks if the battery really is a pythontech or not.

Part of the Pylontech CANBus protocol is that the 8 character string "PYLON " (i.e. PYLON and 3 spaces) should be sent as CANBus message 0x35E.

The Solis will fail with the battery name error if the Solis is set to PYLONLV battery type and it does not receive this packet of data periodically.

I would assume that if Fogstar's BMS (the PACE BMS) has been correctly configured to use the Pylontech protocol it should send this additional packet of data alongside all the usual stuff (SOC / SOH / voltages and charge currents etc.)

 

[Ben@Fogstar]

We can update the BMS via RS232 and talk customers through it no problem. CAN communication works - just obviously need to solve the battname fail issue, unless users use the user defined battery parameters that we provide. I'll talk to pace about the update.

Victron, Sofar etc are all plug and play. Slightly annoying that Solis do this - but I'm sure there is a reason for it.

We're waiting to hear from Solis about what it takes to get on the approved list. I will document it here because I think its useful for people to know

 

[SeaGal]

We can update the BMS via RS232 and talk customers through it no problem. CAN communication works - just obviously need to solve the battname fail issue, unless users use the user defined battery parameters that we provide. I'll talk to pace about the update.
...

It's no big deal though... your customer can just set the Solis to UserDefined battery type and it should just work with a more generic CANBus protocol from the Pace BMS.

 

[Oldman2]

@Ben@Fogstar So Ben what are your settings for this battery that you provide?

This is a Solis RAI-3.0KW 48ES 5G AC Coupled Inverter

Solis battery settings for user defined battery from the menu, I have not altered anything.

Go-Advanced settings-battery control-user defined battery-select that for settings list.
Sub menu list appears with the following settings:

Battery capacity 100A
Discharge depth 80%
Overcharge SOC 95%
Overdischarge SOC 20%
I max charge 60A
I max discharge 60A
Charge OVV-pro 56.4v
Discharge UNV-pro 46v
Battery OVV-pro 59.5v
Battery UNV-pro 46v
Floating volts 55v
Floating current 3A
Floating time 30mins
Equalising volts 55v
Equalising time 000day

OVV=over voltage
UNV=under voltage
SOC= state of charge

I cant find ForceCharge SOC either in user defined settings or elsewhere.

Why would you set discharge depth 80% then overdischarge SOC to 20%? thats the same isnt it?

I would set overdischarge SOC to 15% and if I could find it I would set ForceCharge SOC to 10%

 

[SeaGal]

...

I cant find ForceCharge SOC either in user defined settings or elsewhere.

Why would you set discharge depth 80% then overdischarge SOC to 20%? thats the same isnt it?

I would set overdischarge SOC to 15% and if I could find it I would set ForceCharge SOC to 10%

Re your questions...

a) IIRC, the option to set ForceCharge SOC appears when you save the user-defined settings.

b) The dischargeDepth setting makes no sense to me and I am not sure the Solis makes any use of it. The value should just be the difference between the 'Overcharge SOC' and 'OverDischarge SOC'. It is the Overcharge SOC that stops the Solis charging when the battery reports it has reached that SOC. The OverDischarge SOC stops the Solis from using battery power to supply the AC Grid when the battery reaches that SOC, though note that the Solis will continue to draw approx 30W from the batteries to keep its electronics running when there is no solar DC input.

c) I have used those values too (i.e. overdischarge SOC is 15% and ForceCharge SOC is10%). I have Overcharge SOC set to 100%, so for consistency I then set dischargeDepth to 85% (i.e. 100%-15%). Works well for me on my DIY battery system using EVE 280Ah cells from Fogstar. ?️

 

[Ben@Fogstar]

Sorry was playing with this! Thought I'd buy a solis inverter so I can test the fix when pace send it to me.

I'll message you the settings I'd recommend @Oldman2. Other people that may find this thread may have a different number of batteries and settings will vary slightly.

Can confirm Force Charge appears after parameters are entered on the next screen.

Thanks!

 

[Oldman2]

Can confirm Force Charge appears after parameters are entered on the next screen.

Sorry but thats not what happens on my model, I altered 1 setting and saved hoping to see the missing setting like it does on the hybrid but all I got was "done" and return to menu.
I dropped this setting Overdischarge SOC 20% from 20% to 15% thinking this was the warning you have gone too far level, when it seems solis have it as the normal discharge to this level, as soon as I saved the battery sprung into life discharging until it got to 15% set point. So I returned it to 20% and it then started charging from the grid to bring it back to 20%.

 

[Oldman2]

@Ben@Fogstar Hmm.. I found my Frogstar server rack battery had turned itself off overnight with 20% capacity.
2 alarms from the Solis, no can bus and no battery.
I pressed the silver start button and the battery booted up, the alarm stopped and then the Solis started battery charging from the grid. I checked a few settings on the Solis display and the charging stopped.
Why would the battery turn itself off?

​

 

[Ben@Fogstar]

@Ben@Fogstar Hmm.. I found my Frogstar server rack battery had turned itself off overnight with 20% capacity.
2 alarms from the Solis, no can bus and no battery.
I pressed the silver start button and the battery booted up, the alarm stopped and then the Solis started battery charging from the grid. I checked a few settings on the Solis display and the charging stopped.
Why would the battery turn itself off?

​

Hi Mike,

Sent you software and instructions to disable sleep option via email. Let me know exact model of inverter so I can do some fault finding re the force charging!

 

[Oldman2]

Hi Mike,

Sent you software and instructions to disable sleep option via email. Let me know exact model of inverter so I can do some fault finding re the force charging!

This is a Solis RAI-3.0KW 48ES 5G AC Coupled Inverter info and all the battery settings are from my list post yesterday, thanks.

 

[Urge38]

Hi Ben @ Fogstar

I live in the uk and am researching all my options for either a 15kva or 30kva battery option.

Might you have a promo code to pm me ???

One thing that I hold up most with any purchase is after sales care
I note you dont have a contact number on your web page, so is the only contact via email ??

Piero

 

[Ron-ski]

@Urge38 Ben's not going to get notified as you've not tagged him correctly.

Its very easy to find a phone number for Fogstar, Google is your friend

 

[Wjm1964]

Hi Ben @ Fogstar

I live in the uk and am researching all my options for either a 15kva or 30kva battery option.

Might you have a promo code to pm me ???

One thing that I hold up most with any purchase is after sales care
I note you dont have a contact number on your web page, so is the only contact via email ??

Piero

No harm in asking but given their already very competitive pricing for what is a quality product I doubt you will get any further discounts. There's a pre paid waiting list and people would get annoyed if discounts were now given. Give to one, they all want and Ben's inbox would over flow.

 

[Urge38]

No harm in asking but given their already very competitive pricing for what is a quality product I doubt you will get any further discounts. There's a pre paid waiting list and people would get annoyed if discounts were now given. Give to one, they all want and Ben's inbox would over flow.

It was only one part off my question,

no harm in asking to be fair

 

[Urge38]

@Urge38 Ben's not going to get notified as you've not tagged him correctly.

Its very easy to find a phone number for Fogstar, Google is your friend

How do you tag some one other than quoting them (like i did for you) plz ??

 

[Ron-ski]

@Urge38 If you look at you're post, Ben's username was not high lighted blue, as you had a space after Ben and before Fogstar, thus the system didn't pick it up as a username, although with an @ sign in his name I think it can cause complications, it doesn't appear in the drop down list.

 

[SeaGal]

@Urge38 If you look at you're post, Ben's username was not high lighted blue, as you had a space after Ben and before Fogstar, thus the system didn't pick it up as a username, although with an @ sign in his name I think it can cause complications, it doesn't appear in the drop down list.

I notice that problem with tagging Ben too - I'll mention that to admin.

 

[Urge38]

@Ben@Fogstar

Hi Ben
I am interested to know if your bms is capable of communicating with a Schneider inverter like there Conect XW

 

[Ben@Fogstar]

@Ben@Fogstar

Hi Ben
I am interested to know if your bms is capable of communicating with a Schneider inverter like there Conect XW

I've never tested it - but looks like a normal RS485, and we support the baud rate. Should be no problem at all.

 

[Urge38]

I've never tested it - but looks like a normal RS485, and we support the baud rate. Should be no problem at all.

@Ben@Fogstar

thanks for the information,

what the ETA on your rack battery's as of late????