You could drill the hole bigger and use a washer on the bolt. You really only need 2 bolts to hold it in. I have the same rack and had to start the bolt with the batteries slighly pulled out and raised up to get at least 2 bolts in. My batteries don’t sit on the shelf in the front only on the back.
My EG4 server rack batteries don't fit in the EG4 battery rack.
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Samsonite801
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I do believe it would be a good idea to have the bolts in there if you live in an area which could be prone to earthquakes. In the datacenter labs I am in charge of at work, facilities management wants all our racks to be attached to the cement floor with concrete anchors, and all servers / appliances in the racks should not be able to slide out (either securely latched or screwed in, if on drawer rail sliders or sitting on shelf supports)...
I've even told other shareholders on my co-op, to attach the whole battery rack to the wall of their storage containers or mount location, so it can't tip over even if you tried, because a rack of batteries could be heavier than even a rack of servers, and the higher you stack batteries, the more top heavy the rack as a whole gets. And a lot of the more modern racks we get in here in our labs, are much taller than the older gen racks too.
In our datacenter labs at work, we also put all the batteries / UPSs down on the bottom of rack, and servers always start from there going upwards, to keep the heaviest weight at bottom half of rack.
I've even told other shareholders on my co-op, to attach the whole battery rack to the wall of their storage containers or mount location, so it can't tip over even if you tried, because a rack of batteries could be heavier than even a rack of servers, and the higher you stack batteries, the more top heavy the rack as a whole gets. And a lot of the more modern racks we get in here in our labs, are much taller than the older gen racks too.
In our datacenter labs at work, we also put all the batteries / UPSs down on the bottom of rack, and servers always start from there going upwards, to keep the heaviest weight at bottom half of rack.
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SignatureSolarJames
Try Solar, the Grid will always take you back
With all of the steel sourcing issues some of the mounting holes have not aligned, many people never use the screws and the insert can be adjusted up, I'm sorry to be too easygoing about this, the point was to create an enclosure with a safe bus bar system that made the install very easy and sell practically at cost. we will get the build more uniform this year.
robby
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Yes I agree, an earthquake is always a real possibility. It would not be safe if those started to come loose during an earthquake.
It could cause the terminal bar to short out and cause a fire or a heavy pack could fly out and hurt a small child below it.
I am pretty sure that @SignatureSolarJames will take it back and replace it with one that has properly drilled holes.
SignatureSolarJames
Try Solar, the Grid will always take you back
@robby pls check with HR on your recent hire status as CSR… I think that if this issue presists we could rather credit the customer for an appropriate fastening system, saving them trouble and hassle of return, @robby, I do believe this is your first write up as CSR for not attempting to respect the customer’s time…
@BenFromSignatureSolar will reach out to the customer to see if they have a ticket active.
robby
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Wow at least you would finally have a real electronic engineer in your company.
You should really invest in one so you can fully understand how your MPP and Growatt inverter grounding systems work.
Then you could do proper manuals with wiring diagrams.
Samsonite801
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Yeah the marine guys already know about the floor under you turning to jelly hehe...
Back when I was working tech support at a job I had years before, I once dealt with a technical admin working on a NOAA sea ship and he told me how all of the datacenter server racks in the bilge were bolted in and cross-braced six ways from Sunday! He said you could turn that ship upsidedown and vertical and the servers weren't going anywhere hehe...
SignatureSolarJames
Try Solar, the Grid will always take you back
All ears here
Will check our team for realness, the schematic on the AC side is being separated for posting board house will not share the whole schematic.Wow at least you would finally have a real electronic engineer in your company.
You should really invest in one so you can fully understand how your MPP and Growatt inverter grounding systems work.
Then you could do proper manuals with wiring diagrams.
robby
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thanhrodke
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I am late to the party, but the issue with the EG4 racks are the placement of the battery slides. The racks and rack hole spacing themselves are fine though and appear match all other racks I've used in the rack server world. I have bought one of the racks needing assembly, and one of the premade racks, and they identical from a battery placement and alignment issue perspective.
I will say that adjusted correctly, all batteries will fit into the rack just fine, though they may not all sit flat on the shelves in doing so. IIRC, it's battery #4 from the bottom that has to float the most off the rack shelf. That said, across a 3.5U device, the ears are plenty strong to hold the front of the battery lifted off the rack shelf. The holes in the front of the battery are not the correct increments either, so there's that.
If anyone wants pictures or details on the placement of the batteries or rack nuts, just let me know. After fiddling with the first rack, the second one was a breeze, and took 1/3 of the time to install all of the batteries.
Or maybe we need a dedicated sticky thread on how to use the EG4 rack. I am open to doing that post as well if it would be helpful to folks.
I will say that adjusted correctly, all batteries will fit into the rack just fine, though they may not all sit flat on the shelves in doing so. IIRC, it's battery #4 from the bottom that has to float the most off the rack shelf. That said, across a 3.5U device, the ears are plenty strong to hold the front of the battery lifted off the rack shelf. The holes in the front of the battery are not the correct increments either, so there's that.
If anyone wants pictures or details on the placement of the batteries or rack nuts, just let me know. After fiddling with the first rack, the second one was a breeze, and took 1/3 of the time to install all of the batteries.
Or maybe we need a dedicated sticky thread on how to use the EG4 rack. I am open to doing that post as well if it would be helpful to folks.
Sorry for the late reply, I got held up in the hospital for a bit (battery fell on me, just kidding!!, but no I was sick a bit).
Honestly the whole thing would work great if there was a vertical slot in the rack mount brackets that attach to the battery. If they looked how they looked in the manual everything would be 100% perfect.
I'll contact SS directly to ask about it but I'm still very happy with them. I know they are pushing the envelope in getting things out in the world. I will mostly likely just have the brackets cut a bit so the hole has some vertical play.
Honestly the whole thing would work great if there was a vertical slot in the rack mount brackets that attach to the battery. If they looked how they looked in the manual everything would be 100% perfect.
I'll contact SS directly to ask about it but I'm still very happy with them. I know they are pushing the envelope in getting things out in the world. I will mostly likely just have the brackets cut a bit so the hole has some vertical play.
thanhrodke
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As I noted yesterday, none of the battery ears had to be modified on either EG4 rack that I have (one preassembled and the other I assembled). but basically all of the batteries had to be 'floated' in some way to get lined up.
I can affirm that the mounting holes in the battery ears don't line up perfectly in any scenario. All 12 of my batteries across two racks had to be fidgeted with. Either it was lift the battery to get a bolt to start, or slide the battery forward just a tad so the bolt could catch the rack nut, then lift the rack nut up as the battery slides back. But I have all four bolts connected without issue in all 12 batteries with no modification to the rack or ears.
I would return all of the shelf brackets to their original locations, then take a piece of paper and line it up with the bottom of a battery (not just the ear, the very bottom of the battery). Then on the paper, mark exactly where the mounting ear holes are on your battery ears. Take that piece of paper, and set every rack nut accordingly. Virtually all of the rack nuts had to be repositioned from the original shipped locations. I would note that the rack nuts have a little more wiggle room top to bottom if you mount them with the retaining clips on the sides of the rack's square holes.
After I did set all of the nuts according to my paper template, every battery was a one shot install. That lesson was learned on the first rack where we took the batteries in and out three times I think.
I can affirm that the mounting holes in the battery ears don't line up perfectly in any scenario. All 12 of my batteries across two racks had to be fidgeted with. Either it was lift the battery to get a bolt to start, or slide the battery forward just a tad so the bolt could catch the rack nut, then lift the rack nut up as the battery slides back. But I have all four bolts connected without issue in all 12 batteries with no modification to the rack or ears.
I would return all of the shelf brackets to their original locations, then take a piece of paper and line it up with the bottom of a battery (not just the ear, the very bottom of the battery). Then on the paper, mark exactly where the mounting ear holes are on your battery ears. Take that piece of paper, and set every rack nut accordingly. Virtually all of the rack nuts had to be repositioned from the original shipped locations. I would note that the rack nuts have a little more wiggle room top to bottom if you mount them with the retaining clips on the sides of the rack's square holes.
After I did set all of the nuts according to my paper template, every battery was a one shot install. That lesson was learned on the first rack where we took the batteries in and out three times I think.
PunchySunshine
Solar Enthusiast
I too can attest to all the rack mounting bolts taking a bit of finesse. I think the issue is the batteries are 3.5U size and the math gets weird for the spacing. It works but it isn't easy. I've been building racks for both music production and networking most of my life and these do work. I love the integrated buss bar although I wish they had told me there wasn't a bottom on the DIY version!!!
Samsonite801
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On the bus bars, is anyone flipping one bus bar upside down so you can wire multiple inverters/cables with diagonal topology? I just came across a neighbor I'm helping with an install of one of these racks, and I'm telling him we need to invert one bus bar so we can optimally wire for diagonal (one inverter lead connect to top and other at bottom)...
The reason for flipping one is because the bus bars have like 4 connection points (for multiple inverters) but only on one end of each bar, and in my case they were only mounted with both sides bus bars facing up...
Still haven't decided if we will run a single set of wires to some smaller bus bars (to break them into 2 for each inverter) or use a separate set of cables coming directly off the main EG4 bus bar going to each inverter yet.
We also had the problem of the battery module flange bolt holes not lining up, have to lift the front of each battery a little bit to get the screws in (so it's not resting on the bracket on frontside).
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thanhrodke
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Agreed about there being no bottom in the DIY version! Also, they are about 3/16" difference in height, I have both.
thanhrodke
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Best practice on the EG4 rack is to flip one of the bus bars. I flipped the negative bus bars on mine.
And yes, a little battery lift goes a long ways!
PunchySunshine
Solar Enthusiast
I flipped the negative buss bar for diagonal charging.
PunchySunshine
Solar Enthusiast
That would drive me nuts!!Agreed about there being no bottom in the DIY version! Also, they are about 3/16" difference in height, I have both.
CoastieBalls1790
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I was able to get all my battery mounting holes lined up (after a little lift here and there) but the battery side brackets don't get all the way to the vertical mounts before hitting the back panel. I still have a 1/2" space and the only way to get them fully seated is to remove the back panel. My rack also came assembled so I'm guessing there's a problem where that happens. I tried contacting SS but getting through is an issue with how busy they are right now. I "spoke" with someone else in the forum and his measurement from the back panel to the front vertical mounts measured 19". For some reason mine are only 18". Has anyone else had problems getting their batteries in completely without removing the back panel?
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