Install and Operation of the SUNGOLD 10KW 48V SPLIT PHASE SOLAR INVERTER

[Kenny_]

and now of course I'm wondering what would happen if I unplug the comms and then plug it back in .. i.e. re-establish it will my Param #5 change back?

I mean I did have communication issues in the beginning with the stupid comm cable unmarked (inverter end/battery end) and that caused no end to hair pulling....then getting the batteries connected comm wise... then trying to get SA to talk to the batteries....shit this whole thing has been a crap-shoot. LOL!

 

[marionw]

You only provided eight values.
Is #12 at 0 or 42.0

Remember my issue with SGP where #12 was going to 0 as soon as I connected the BMS cable.

#5 at 56.4 (Inverter switches from utility back to battery) is more than the BMS parameter (in the BMS) and more than #9 or #11 which is what the BMS tells the inverter.

Remember, in some cases when you change one, the firmware will automatically change others (and not let you know).

#5, #9 and #11 default to 57.6 when you select L16 for the #8 Battery Type.
#9 and #11 get set by the BMS once you have BMS communications and this is dependant on the batteries (EG4 set these different then SGP). They will revert to 57.6 if BMS communications is lost (and Battery Type is still L16).

Don't know what defaults if any there are if you set #8 Battery Type to "User" or if they stay at their last values.

No reason not to set #5 to the same as #9 and #11. On my inverter #5, #9 and #11 are all at 57.6 but remember, mine are EG4 Lifepower4 which do have a different charge profile (more aggressive) thant the SGP batteries.

Is the left most SOC charge led light on any of the batteries blinking? Led's show SOC and one or more will blink if the battery is charging.

 

[Kenny_]

You only provided eight values.
Is #12 at 0 or 42.0

I know, sorry... I noticed and went back and added one (14?)

 

[Kenny_]

#5, #9 and #11 default to 57.6 when you select L16 for the #8 Battery Type.

That's not true for my system. 5 was set at 57.6 but 9 and 11 are at 56.4 and I can't change them. I tried and they just changed back when I exited the setting and rechecked them.

I was able to change 5 to 56 and that satisfies the condition/relationship but ....

 

[marionw]

The only reason I asked is I expected to see a 0 for #12.

In any case you might want to record all of them so you have a reference for future use. I constantly keep notes as I change stuff, that way is something stops working I can undo what I did that broke it.

Doccument, Doccument, Doccument... Can't stress that enough

 

[marionw]

You can only change #9 and #11 when #8 Battery Type is "User", possibly if there is no BMS comms but once there is comms to the BMS, these get set by the BMS and they will follow the BMS reported settings

 

[Kenny_]

#9 and #11 get set by the BMS once you have BMS communications and this is dependant on the batteries (EG4 set these different then SGP). They will revert to 57.6 if BMS communications is lost (and Battery Type is still L16).

That didn't happen either... I disconnected the comm cable and got the error ... checked the values 9,11 were still the same 56.4. Plugged the cable back in ... comm error gone and values for 5 9 and 11 still the same 5 - 56 , 9/11 56.4

 

[Kenny_]

Tne only reason I asked is i expected to seet a 0 for #12.

In any case you might want to record all of them so you have a reference for future use. I constantly keep notes as I change stuff, that way is something stops working I can undo what I did that broke it.

Doccument, Doccument, Doccument... Can't stress that enough

0 for 12??? what?

Oh and documentation... I have, I do for the most part, but as you know some of these will change on their own depending on other params or battery input etc.

 

[Kenny_]

You can only change #9 and #11 when #8 Battery Type is "User", possibly if there is no BMS comms but once there is comms to the BMS, these get set by the BMS and they will follow the BMS reported settings

Exactly and that's why it's strange to see them at 56.4 when 5 default is 56.8 and was set by my system/batteries? to 57.6.. WTF?
I mean maybe I changed something by accident at some point.

I have thought about doing the full factory reset and seeing if things change. Scares me a bit though.

 

[marionw]

Before you do a factory default reset check #57 (Stop charging current). I can't set mine to less than the default of 2. The only way to increase charging current is to increase charging voltage which is set by #9 and #11 (with BMS comms) which can't be changed in closed loop. This would mean that as your battery(ies) voltage approaches #9 or #11 the current the battery is drawing for charging will decrease, if it falls below 2 amps (which is the total charging current for all five batteries) the Inverter will stop charging (at least that is what I understand from the manual). Just another interlock, so between #9 and #11 and #57 you may not be able to get 100% SOC, unless you set #8 Battery Type to "User" so you can increase #9 & #11, Which I would not do.

If you do a full factory default reset it won't break the system. You will need to as a minimum after reset:
Disconnect the BMS cable.
Set #8 Battery Type = L16,
Set #32 RS485 Communication = 485
Set #33 BMS Communications = PYL

Before you plug the BMS cable back in, record【15】＜【12】＜【04】＜【14】＜【35】＜【37】＜【05】＜【09】=【11】
Plug in the BMS cable, ensure the BMS alarm clears and then record 【15】＜【12】＜【04】＜【14】＜【35】＜【37】＜【05】＜【09】=【11】again.

These will be reference points.

Check/Set #6 (Battery charging Mode)
Check/Set #7 (Battery charging current) 60 is the default but remember this is divided amongst your 5 batteries so you might want to increase it.
Check #57 (Stop charging current). Default is 2 and I would not increase it.

 

[Kenny_]

Okay.....so....perhaps I shouldn't have done it but I did....

I changed the battery type to USER the comm to SLA unplugged the comms cable and checked values for 5, 9, 11 - no change. Changed the values of 9 and 11 to 57.6 and they stuck...

changed back to L16 and 485 comm and it changed 37 (back)to 53.6 and it changed 5 back to 57.6 and 9 and 11 to 56.4

seems something is f'd

 

[Kenny_]

Before you do a factory default reset check #57 (Stop charging current). I can't set mine to less than the default of 2.

57 on mine is set to 3 ... I've never changed it default is 2 so....

that might be stopping the charging but as I said in the past I've seen it hit 100 % SOC for all batteries but one and when that one got ot 99.6 or 99.7 or so it stopped charging. As far as I know all the above values were as they are everything but 5 in order and made note of it as well the 9 and 11 values some time back and they have been that way since the beginning as far as I know.

also I don't particularly care about the SOC but the voltages being significantly below what is considered fully charged for LiFePo batteries IS bothering me a bit.

I'm thinking the only way I know to be sure would be to do the factory restart and see what values I end up with ... maybe I should even disconnect all but one battery ... I dunno.

anyway, I'm done here for today ... gonna sleep on all this and (maybe) start fresh in the morning or maybe just ignore it.

 

[Kenny_]

Check/Set #7 (Battery charging current) 60 is the default but remember this is divided amongst your 5 batteries so you might want to increase it.

This is the value we discussed before it changes dynamically 60 is the default but I've seen it at 170 (that's what I recorded on my notes) and looking currently at my inverter it says 40. You can literally watch it change on the SA configuration screen or on the inverter itself.
I'm a bit unsure what it actually is... there is a separate max for grid charging current #28 so I think #7 is related to PV current/charging or perhaps it is the dynamic current going to the batteries when charging... I don't know.

In SA there are three values under battery charging and when I was trying to correlate them with the inverter Params I couldn't quite figure it out, particularly with the dynamic value of #7 which I think is Max Charge Current in SA

 

[Lighthouse Beacon]

I'm sorry, I haven't actively followed this thread, I got "invoked" lol and so I chimed in from what I picked up, but more generically.
The "grand experience" here has taught the lesson about being reasonable & conservative, it's the best & simplest solution to the majority of issues when it comes to charging & maintaining battery packs. When dealing with a bank full, well stuff really pops up and can cause follicle loss ! I ain't got much left no more ;-) Simply put, keeping within LFP Working Range spec and taking the "average", works best with all of the packs in a bank making life a hell of a lot easier.

On the SUNGOLD BMS, I do not know exactly WHAT they are but from the screen shots they appear to NOT have that 100% set default. It also looked like your BMS is unlocked (some companies require admin to adjust some parameters) so it's just a matter of finding the sweet spot.

Steve

Great advice ?

 

[marionw]

If I had to guess:
Max charge current is the actual charging current at any time?
Max PV charge current, can't find a configurable setting
Max grid charge current is menu #28 (Max utility charging current, default 60)

 

[marionw]

I read to much and the manual sucks
#7 Battery Charging Current default 60
#28 Max Utility Charging Current default 60

#7 is from the BMS, set to 5 right now with the BMS connected. Reverts to 60 (default) with the BMS disconnected. Both my SGP batteries are a 99% SOC, 53.235 and 53.132 volts so 5 amps is not unreasonable, I would expect your inverter to read more with 5 batteries.
I would also expect #7 to increase as SOC and battery voltage decrease, hopefully the BMS asks for more.

One of my projects will be to map the configuration menu # to the values I can read directly from the inverter:
The 0xE0?? registers are the modbus registers where the menu item data and other non-configurable "constants" are stored.

Description.................................................Value Unit Register Multiplier Displayed Default Min Max
Max_PV_Charger_Current......................................200.0 A 0xE001 0.1 200.0 200.0 0 100
System_Voltage_Rate_Read_Only...............................48 V 0xE003 1 48 48 12 255
Battery_Type................................................6 0xE004 1 6 0 14
Battery_Overcharge_Voltage_Protection.......................15.0 V 0xE005 0.1 60.0 15.5 9 15.5
Battery_Limited_Charge_Voltage..............................14.4 V 0xE006 0.1 57.6 14.4 9 15.5
Battery_Equalization_Charge_Voltage.........................14.1 V 0xE007 0.1 56.4 14.4 9 15.5
Battery_Boost_Charge_Voltage................................14.1 V 0xE008 0.1 56.4 14.4 9 15.5
Battery_Floating_Charge_Voltage.............................14.1 V 0xE009 0.1 56.4 14 9 15.5
Battery_Charge_Recovery_Voltage.............................13.4 V 0xE00A 0.1 53.6 13.2 9 15.5
Battery_Undervoltage_Recovery_Voltage.......................13.2 V 0xE00B 0.1 52.8 12.6 9 15.5
Battery_Under_Voltage_Warning_Alarm.........................12.4 V 0xE00C 0.1 49.6 11 9 15.5
Battery_Over_Discharge_Voltage..............................0.0 V 0xE00D 0.1 0.0 12.2 9 15.5
Battery_Discharge_Limit_Voltage.............................11.6 V 0xE00E 0.1 46.4 11.2 9 15.5
Battery_Charge_Cutoff_SOC_Discharge_Cutoff_SOC..............5 0xE00F 1 5 0 100
Battery_Over_Discharge_Delay_Time...........................30 S 0xE010 1 30 30 0 120
Battery_Equalized_Time......................................5 Min 0xE011 1 5 5 0 600
Battery_Boost_Charge_Time...................................120 Min 0xE012 1 120 120 10 600
Battery_Temperature_Compensation_Coefficient................5 °C 0xE014 1 5 5 0 10
Battery_Charge_Upper_Limit_Temperature......................60 °C 0xE015 1 60 60 -40 100
Battery_Charge_Lower_Limit_Temperature......................-30 °C 0xE016 1 -30 -30 -40 100
Battery_Discharge_Upper_Limit_Temperature...................60 °C 0xE017 1 60 60 -40 100
Battery_Discharge_Min_Temperature...........................-30 °C 0xE018 1 -30 -30 -40 100
Battery_Heater_Start_Temperature............................0 °C 0xE019 1 0 0 -40 100
Grid_Switching_Voltage......................................12.3 V 0xE01B 0.1 12.3 12.3 9 15.5
Battery_Stop_Charging_Current...............................3.0 A 0xE01C 0.1 3.0 3.0 0 40
Current_Time_Setup..........................................0 Date Time 0xE034 1 0 0 0 -
PV_Grid_Connected_Power_Generation_Enable...................0 0xE037 1 0 0 1
GFCI_Enable.................................................0 0xE038 1 0 0 1
P5_Reserved.................................................0 0xE039 1 0
Power_Rate..................................................10.0 kW 0xE118 0.1 10.0 10.0
Function_Enable_1...........................................1 0xE11D 1 1
Function_Enable_2...........................................0 0xE11E 1 0
PV_Voltage_Rate.............................................500 V 0xE11F 1 500 500
Max_Charge_Current_By_PV....................................200.0 A 0xE120 0.1 200.0 200.0
RS485_Address...............................................1 0xE200 1 1 1 254
Change_Password.............................................0 0xE202 1 0 0 65535
Input_Password..............................................0 0xE203 1 0 0 65535
Output_Priority.............................................1 0xE204 1 1 0 2
Max_AC_Charger_Current......................................60.0 A 0xE205 0.1 60.0 60.0 0 100
Max_Charger_Current.........................................5.0 A 0xE20A 0.1 5.0 5.0 0 150
Ac_Input_Voltage_Range......................................1 0xE20B 1 1 0 1

 

[Kenny_]

Oh my lordy... I'm back at it this morning already.... Obsessive, Tenacious,Dumb...

and differences of course....

I turned off Battery #5 and shut it down, disconnected Comms etc.
Brought up Solar Assistant and saw something I've not seen before. When I disconnected and reconnected via the Configuration page the battery status which normally scans through the batteries (i.e. addresses 1 - 5) said Battery 1 Aggregates. WHAT? WHAT?

Never seen that before.

and beyond that there were only three batteries displayed in the battery screen. WTF??

So..... I reconnected comms cable and restarted Battery #5
reconnected Solar Assistant and it did the polling of each battery and all 5 displayed properly .... AND more importantly to me the are displaying voltages above 53 V --- 53.4 at the moment and all about 91% SOC which seems much more reasonable

Hmmmm.... onward or upward or ....

 

[Crowz]

Well one day you will get to the user mode setup using a victron smart shunt and find happiness.

Tylenol might be a good upgrade till then.

 

[Kenny_]

Well one day you will get to the user mode setup using a victron smart shunt and find happiness.

Tylenol might be a good upgrade till then.

LOL! This (may be) the way!

 

[Kenny_]

...well, this seems weird.... pack voltages as I mentioned in my previous post were 53.4 but they now have DROPPED (53.2 across the board) as the SOC is increasing.

That I'm not understanding unless the BMS's are adjusting to balance or get to a new 'understanding' of the SOC percentage.
Help me Mr. Wizard!

P.S. after getting all batteries on line and charging (watching in SA and two instances of PBMStools) I went ahead and adjusted Param #37 to 54.8 V from the 53.6 it was at after last night's USER - L16 - USER - L16 stuff.... also I've kept param #5 adjusted to 56 V because 9 and 11 insist on being 56.4...

back to add....probably that voltage is due to the 'charging voltage' (not the actual battery voltage) so kinda makes sense it might drop as it approaches full.... we'll see what happens this time as they reach 100% SOC... battery 3 is at 99% at the moment...

 

[Kenny_]

So, it is once again settling in on 53 or 53.2 Volts as fully charged. WHY IS IT DOING THIS!

I'm not seeing any parameter or setting that would cause this.

I'm back to thinking that the BMS's need to be reprogrammed so they learn a New 100% SOC....

I really don't think Resetting the Inverter to FACTORY would change anything.
I'm still confused/concerned why 9/11 are at 56.4 volts instead of 57 or even 58.4 .. it's like it's purposely limiting the max voltage/max charging to (possibly) increase battery life, but still nothing I see in the settings are doing the limiting. It's confusing as hell!

 

[Kenny_]

currently:





And yes @marionw after 100% current is still flowing into battery #5 per PBMSTools and into the others as well per the above SA capture.

 

[G00SE]

So, it is once again settling in on 53 or 53.2 Volts as fully charged. WHY IS IT DOING THIS!

I'm not seeing any parameter or setting that would cause this.

I'm back to thinking that the BMS's need to be reprogrammed so they learn a New 100% SOC....

I really don't think Resetting the Inverter to FACTORY would change anything.
I'm still confused/concerned why 9/11 are at 56.4 volts instead of 57 or even 58.4 .. it's like it's purposely limiting the max voltage/max charging to (possibly) increase battery life, but still nothing I see in the settings are doing the limiting. It's confusing as hell!

It sounds like when in closed comms that 9/11 pulls from BMS.
So in the BMS is it programmed to 56.4?

 

[Kenny_]

It sounds like when in closed comms that 9/11 pulls from BMS.
So in the BMS is it programmed to 56.4?

Here's the BMS Params on #5


Full Pack charge voltage is 56 from what I see. Maybe that should be increased?

but also why is it stopping charging/full at 53.1 V and calling it 100% SOC

 

[Kenny_]

... I just upped Param 10 Bulk Charging Delay Time to 240 as we're approaching the 120 that was the default... to see if it keep charging battery #5 which is now at 90% SOC but at 53.1 as are the others (but at 100% SOC).

I Don't Know if this even does that... the manual is so cryptic. for 10 it says The duration when battery voltage reached param 09 (56.4) value in bulk charging procession. ???? which of course it is never reaching 09 anyway....