I'm shut down. Did I overcharge my batteries?

[harvardbeans]

I recently updated the firmware on some lifepower4 48v 100ah batteries. My understanding was that after updating the best charge voltage for balancing was 58.4v. I set the solark 12k to do that and went out of town for a week. Came back and most of the batteries are in alarm with only the alarm light on solid.

I haven't quite figured out how to get a battery and a Macbook to talk. I downloaded BMS tool from eg4 and got to the screen that should show what exactly the alarm is, but the battery stays offline. Maybe a dip switch issue (tried all up and all down) idk.

Any ideas how to get them working again?

Thanks

 

[BentleyJ]

58.4V is 3.65V per cell so no doubt you have hit the High Voltage Protection disconnect. Discharge may still be enabled? Can you use the 12K to power loads so the batteries go down to the recovery voltage. Probably somewhere around 56V (3.5V per cell)

If you wish to balance the cells with an extended float that can be done at 54.4V.

 

[timselectric]

You're not going to get much useful balancing below 3.45v per cell.
You should float at a minimum of 55.2v .
I personally float at 56v.

 

[harvardbeans]

58.4V is 3.65V per cell so no doubt you have hit the High Voltage Protection disconnect. Discharge may still be enabled? Can you use the 12K to power loads so the batteries go down to the recovery voltage. Probably somewhere around 56V (3.5V per cell)

If you wish to balance the cells with an extended float that can be done at 54.4V.

They won't discharge which is the annoying thing. Luckily, I have a couple batteries functioning so that I can have AC, but that's about it.

 

[timselectric]

I know that the BMS's in the Lifepower4 batteries only come out of low voltage cut off, at a current rate of less than 5a.
It's possible that it's the same for over voltage protection. I would try a very low current draw and see if it works.
Connect the small load and cycle the on board breaker, to restart the BMS.

 

[marionw]

I recently updated the firmware on some lifepower4 48v 100ah batteries. My understanding was that after updating the best charge voltage for balancing was 58.4v. I set the solark 12k to do that and went out of town for a week. Came back and most of the batteries are in alarm with only the alarm light on solid.

I haven't quite figured out how to get a battery and a Macbook to talk. I downloaded BMS tool from eg4 and got to the screen that should show what exactly the alarm is, but the battery stays offline. Maybe a dip switch issue (tried all up and all down) idk.

Any ideas how to get them working again?

Thanks

The fact that you updated the firmware indicates you have the BMS Tool software working. The battery firmware update would have set the RJ45 jack pins 7&8 RS485 bus to 19200 baud and the pins 1&2 RS485 bus remains at 9600 baud.

RJ45 jacks on the LifePower4 have two RS485 busses. You need to connect Pins 1&2 (pin1 orange/white and pin 2 solid orange) of the RJ45 jack to an RS485 converter. Pins 7&8 are used by the "Master BMS" to collect data from the other batteries. Any dip switch address from 1 and up. address 0 places the BMS in "Master" mode.

The BMS Tool will connect to a LifePower4 battery using an RS485 to USB converter. The. If you change the dip switch address then use a toothpick (or something small and round) and depress the "Reset" button and hold for a couple of seconds or you can open the breaker wait a couple of seconds and then reclose the breaker. Hopefully the battery gives you some indication the BMS goes through a reboot process.. For testing disconnect all battery to battery communications cables and connect the cable from your Macbook to one of the batteries.

You can also consider disconnecting the cables on the battery terminals to isolate the battery, just don't short anything. Is there a voltage reading on the battery cable connections? This would suggest the Discharge MOSFETS are on if you read voltage. Normally if a cell reaches Over Voltage Protection at 3.6 vdc the BMS simply turns off the Charging MOSFETS and all is still ok. The Cell Overvoltage Alarm is set at 3.550. Pack Overvoltage protection is set at 57.60 vdc (again would turn off the Charging MOSFETS) and Pack Overvoltage Alarm is set at 56.80. I would be curious as to what voltage if any you read on the cable terminals

Using the BMS Tool (I am using a windows version so this might not be completely accurate):
On the "Config" tab select the correct COM port, set the baud rate to 9600, click the "Connect/Disconnect" button to connect. Hopefully you can connect.
On the "BatInfo" tab set the "Packs Number" to 1 and the "Start Adr" to the address of the battery you are connected to. The "Status" at the bottom of the BMS Tools will hopefully display something and at the very bottom of the screen it will display the BMS firmware version.

I generally would not use a charge voltage over 56 vdc (16 cells x 3.5 vdc = 56 vdc). There are occasions where you might want to charge to 57.2 vdc (3.575 per cell).

 

[harvardbeans]

The fact that you updated the firmware indicates you have the BMS Tool software working. The battery firmware update would have set the RJ45 jack pins 7&8 RS485 bus to 19200 baud and the pins 1&2 RS485 bus remains at 9600 baud.

RJ45 jacks on the LifePower4 have two RS485 busses. You need to connect Pins 1&2 (pin1 orange/white and pin 2 solid orange) of the RJ45 jack to an RS485 converter. Pins 7&8 are used by the "Master BMS" to collect data from the other batteries. Any dip switch address from 1 and up. address 0 places the BMS in "Master" mode.

The BMS Tool will connect to a LifePower4 battery using an RS485 to USB converter. The. If you change the dip switch address then use a toothpick (or something small and round) and depress the "Reset" button and hold for a couple of seconds or you can open the breaker wait a couple of seconds and then reclose the breaker. Hopefully the battery gives you some indication the BMS goes through a reboot process.. For testing disconnect all battery to battery communications cables and connect the cable from your Macbook to one of the batteries.

You can also consider disconnecting the cables on the battery terminals to isolate the battery, just don't short anything. Is there a voltage reading on the battery cable connections? This would suggest the Discharge MOSFETS are on if you read voltage. Normally if a cell reaches Over Voltage Protection at 3.6 vdc the BMS simply turns off the Charging MOSFETS and all is still ok. The Cell Overvoltage Alarm is set at 3.550. Pack Overvoltage protection is set at 57.60 vdc (again would turn off the Charging MOSFETS) and Pack Overvoltage Alarm is set at 56.80. I would be curious as to what voltage if any you read on the cable terminals

Using the BMS Tool (I am using a windows version so this might not be completely accurate):
On the "Config" tab select the correct COM port, set the baud rate to 9600, click the "Connect/Disconnect" button to connect. Hopefully you can connect.
On the "BatInfo" tab set the "Packs Number" to 1 and the "Start Adr" to the address of the battery you are connected to. The "Status" at the bottom of the BMS Tools will hopefully display something and at the very bottom of the screen it will display the BMS firmware version.

I generally would not use a charge voltage over 56 vdc (16 cells x 3.5 vdc = 56 vdc). There are occasions where you might want to charge to 57.2 vdc (3.575 per cell).

View attachment 233208

View attachment 233209

I updated the firmware on the batteries with the automatic updater dongle. This is the first time I have tried to get it to talk to my Mac.