Ampster
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Did you get custom cables? If so, from who? I can crimp 2/0 cables but 4/0 get a little messy without the correct die.
My Pytes battery install with my SolArk 12k, AC coupled to Enphase micros
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The installer is ordering the (custom) cables, so I don't know where they are getting them. When I was considering doing this battery install myself, I was planning to buy cables from Windy Nation.
Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
I did not expect the Pytes IC enclosure to arrive for another couple of weeks but since it was here, I assembled it and put the other three batteries in it to test. I only have a permit for the four batteries which are running in the external enclosure but since the internal enclosure has wheels it is easier to move 300 lbs of batteries out of sight until I get my final inspection. I was impressed with the rugedness of both enclosures.
How many batteries will you have in total?
Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
Seven for a total of 35 kWhs, Four in a V-BOX-OC external enclosure and three in a V-BOX-IC internal enclosure..The engineer said we would avoid lengthy review by the Fire Marshall and a quicker permit process if we only went with 20 kWhs externally. That is why I am using two stages, one for inspection, and another, after inspection.
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Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
This morning my pack was down to 45% SOC at which point the SolArk is programmed to no longer discharge it. I used the USB cable to poll the pack via the Console port and see how it was doing. Every cell was within 0.003 volts of each other. The average cell voltage was 3.317 per cell or a battery voltage of 53 volts. It should be noted that the pack was already charging and the SOC was 47% when I took those readings. That is no surprise for that section of the charge discharge curve but a good reality check about the health of the pack.
At 86% one battery had a high cell at 3.439 volts and a low cell at 3.425 which is a difference of 0.014, which is a lot better than my DIY pack ever did at that SOC.
At 100% one battery had a high cell at 3.460 volts and a low cell at 3.439 for a difference of 0.018, which is not surprising to have a higher delta at this point in the curve. This pack has only been through a dozen cycles at the most so I will be curious in a month if the deltas are less.
At 86% one battery had a high cell at 3.439 volts and a low cell at 3.425 which is a difference of 0.014, which is a lot better than my DIY pack ever did at that SOC.
At 100% one battery had a high cell at 3.460 volts and a low cell at 3.439 for a difference of 0.018, which is not surprising to have a higher delta at this point in the curve. This pack has only been through a dozen cycles at the most so I will be curious in a month if the deltas are less.
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Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
The WIFI Stick arrived and I got it installed along with some other finishing touches so I am ready to call for inspection. The data from the Stick allows me to see each battery and I was comforted by the data that they are all close together in voltage at the top and the peek into individual cell voltages shows they are well balanced. The advantage of the Stick over the console cable are that the data is logged so you can see historical data and graph it plus it is accessable from my network so I do not have to physically be connected to the cable connected to the console port.
I also checked individual cell voltage deltas and the biggest deviation is 0.04 volts with the highest cell at 3.51 volts and the lowest at 3.47 volts.
I also checked individual cell voltage deltas and the biggest deviation is 0.04 volts with the highest cell at 3.51 volts and the lowest at 3.47 volts.
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Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
Here is the exterior enclosure wired to the SolArk through the box on the left. Then it goes inside where the SolArk (right picture) and feeds through the bottom junction box where my Class T fuse and the Ferrite cores are.
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Ampster
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I finally scheduled my inspection today and was planning on being available the whole day. The inspector just called and wanted to know if I wanted to do a virtual inspection. Years ago I had done one of those when I was helping my sister's electrician and trying to save him the time of waiting around for a main panel swapout. I can't beleive they want to do one with something complicated as an ESS and hybrid inverter, but after spending two days cleaning up the site to make it less distracting for the inspector I was happy to do a virtual final inspection. He will send me a link to the app in an hour and we will do the walk through. I am in Sonoma County in a small village about 30 minutes from the building department offices, so I am not in one of the corners of the County which could be an hour and a half away.
EDIT: We finally connected and did the virtual inspecting and I passed everything except the placards and labeling. My plan had some very specific labeling requirements and I stuck as many stickers as I could on the inverter and main service panel. Some of them actually need to be engraved and I found a local place that can do it for me. I now have a correction notice which should be easy to resolve once I plaster the inverter and service panel with the placards and inverter with them.
EDIT: We finally connected and did the virtual inspecting and I passed everything except the placards and labeling. My plan had some very specific labeling requirements and I stuck as many stickers as I could on the inverter and main service panel. Some of them actually need to be engraved and I found a local place that can do it for me. I now have a correction notice which should be easy to resolve once I plaster the inverter and service panel with the placards and inverter with them.
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Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
As noted, I passed the inspection for everything except the placards and labels so when I get those applied my next inspection will also be virtual using Virspect. Based on that I decided to add the three other Pytes V5 batteries to my system since I will not have to show that part at my next video call inspection.
I checked the SOC and voltage of the three cells and when the other four reached that percentage and within 0.05 volts of the other pack I connected them. The Pytes has a power on process that brings up one rack battery at a time and that process was fairly simple. Each of the seven batteries quickly reached th same voltage and even though the SOCs wer off by two or three pecent they all advanced to 100% fairly evenly. One lagged at 95% for a while at the end and the pack showed 99% until it reached 100%. Both the WIFI Stick and the Consol monitoring allowed me to watch the process and I seemed to notice that each pack was charging at a different current which I am not sure how the BMS figures out how to do that but I am pleased.
Now I have 35 kWhs of storage and because the evenings are cool, I can use my heat pump and not have to take the pack down to 45% every night like I did when I only had 20 kWhs attached. I am trying an experiment to see if I can be self sufficient in late Spring, Summer and early Fall. Last year I paid $230 in Non Bypassable Charges and I am experimenting to see if I can reduce that this year. I am also trying to charge my EVs from excss solar during the day to reduce NBCs as well. It is more of a thought experiment that makes this hobby entertaining for me.
I checked the SOC and voltage of the three cells and when the other four reached that percentage and within 0.05 volts of the other pack I connected them. The Pytes has a power on process that brings up one rack battery at a time and that process was fairly simple. Each of the seven batteries quickly reached th same voltage and even though the SOCs wer off by two or three pecent they all advanced to 100% fairly evenly. One lagged at 95% for a while at the end and the pack showed 99% until it reached 100%. Both the WIFI Stick and the Consol monitoring allowed me to watch the process and I seemed to notice that each pack was charging at a different current which I am not sure how the BMS figures out how to do that but I am pleased.
Now I have 35 kWhs of storage and because the evenings are cool, I can use my heat pump and not have to take the pack down to 45% every night like I did when I only had 20 kWhs attached. I am trying an experiment to see if I can be self sufficient in late Spring, Summer and early Fall. Last year I paid $230 in Non Bypassable Charges and I am experimenting to see if I can reduce that this year. I am also trying to charge my EVs from excss solar during the day to reduce NBCs as well. It is more of a thought experiment that makes this hobby entertaining for me.
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Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
I found a great local engraver who was familiar with solar placards and labels. The turnaround time was 24 hours and when I finished installing them I called for inspectrion. I passed with flying colors so now I can move on the other projects around the house. Here is a picture of the inverter labeling.
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Ampster
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I am trying to figure out the export limiting function of the SolArk. In Solar Assistant it is edited unde Configuration / Inverter / Work Mode Detail. I don't know where those settings are on the LCD screen on the SolArk. I have not invested time to learn PVPro since we will be migrating to My SolArk in a few days.
I had assume the limit only applies toward the DC coupled solar. For background I have about 3kW of DC coupled solar and had previously set that limit to 2kW. The other settings are, Work mode - Selling first and Energy pattern - Battery first. At about 9 AM my DC solar drops from 2 kW to 100 Watts until about 5 PM. As a test I increased the setting to 7.5 kW and the result was that the DC solar fired up again. So in conclusion the total is based off both the DC and AC coupled solar but the only solar that can be controlled by that setting is the DC solar, when the grid is active. This off course is because the grid frequency does not change and that and voltage are the only ways to modulate the AC coupled solar. The DC coupled solar can be controlled by the MPPT controller.
I had assume the limit only applies toward the DC coupled solar. For background I have about 3kW of DC coupled solar and had previously set that limit to 2kW. The other settings are, Work mode - Selling first and Energy pattern - Battery first. At about 9 AM my DC solar drops from 2 kW to 100 Watts until about 5 PM. As a test I increased the setting to 7.5 kW and the result was that the DC solar fired up again. So in conclusion the total is based off both the DC and AC coupled solar but the only solar that can be controlled by that setting is the DC solar, when the grid is active. This off course is because the grid frequency does not change and that and voltage are the only ways to modulate the AC coupled solar. The DC coupled solar can be controlled by the MPPT controller.
Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
Thanks. Mine is a 12 k but that is how the Pull down menu under Settings, Limiter block and Time tab appears on mine.
I did not mention it in my earlier post but the export was capped at the 7.5 kWs which is what I programmed. It takes into account house loads of about 900 Watts. The CEC AC capacity of my existing system is 7.17 so 7.5 kWs is not much above the 1 kW above the limit on my NEM agreement. I think I can be more agreessive and will crank that number up to 8 kW. That will mean I will see some clipping but my overall production will be increased because the extra panels will mean I hit the limit sooner and last longer if I had not added that extra capacity of about 4 kWs.
I did not mention it in my earlier post but the export was capped at the 7.5 kWs which is what I programmed. It takes into account house loads of about 900 Watts. The CEC AC capacity of my existing system is 7.17 so 7.5 kWs is not much above the 1 kW above the limit on my NEM agreement. I think I can be more agreessive and will crank that number up to 8 kW. That will mean I will see some clipping but my overall production will be increased because the extra panels will mean I hit the limit sooner and last longer if I had not added that extra capacity of about 4 kWs.
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Are you operating without battery communication? I see in your later posts you have cell voltage of 3.5V. I'm operating with Comms and V5 batteries sit at 56.7V when 100% SOC.
Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
Yes, battery is communicating with The SolArk so the BMS is telling the SolArk how much to charge. Interestingly when at 100% it puts about 60 Watts into the battery at 3.55 Volts per cell. At 4 PM the batteries start discharging if the solar is not enough to cover loads. Since there is no longer a small current going into each rack module they settles to 53.1 volts or 3.32 volt per cell
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Per Sol-Ark tech support I had to set my batteries to discharge to 99% during solar hours. It was the only way to prevent the PV dropout I was experiencing. I usually achieve 100% SOC shortly after 5PM, but never achieve 56.7V due to little solar. I hope I'm not creating cell imbalance. I guess I should purchase the Wi-Fi dongle.
I've been waiting for a string of decent solar days to try my system in an off grid manner. Weather has been lousy.
Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
It all depends on when the balancing starts. You can also use hyper terminal on the console port of the master battery to query individual batteries and see individual cell voltages. Not as convenient as the WIFI module because to use hyper terminal you have to be within the fiance of the cable length to the master battery.
Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
I just noticed that my Pytes V5 batteries are not communicating with my SolArk. My SolArk 12k is on Firmware version 6222 which is the latest. I did some research and found out that it was updated a year or more on February 2023. The result of having no closed communication is that the inverter reverts to voltage settings previously set. I checked and adjusted them to 56.8 or 3.55 per cell. I checked the pack via the Pytes WIFI dongle and everything looks normal but I don't have a way to diagnose the closed communications. Solar Assistant is still working so I know communication is taking place between my Orange Pi and my SolArk. I know tech support is busy with the conversion to MySolArk and this is not a big enough issue for me to place a support ticket. I can always do that after the conversion to MySolArk if it persists.
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Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
The new communications cables have been working for at least a month but I am going to run some diagnostics and bypass those cables. I do have a cable tester. I am also going to reach out to Pytes to see if there is any way to confirm that the Pytes is sending data to the SolArk. I know part of the cables are working because Solar Assistant can see the data from the SolArk. I did reboot Solar Assistant, the SolArk and the Pytes batteries.
I got the Wi-Fi dongle. It appears to be dead. What if any of the 3 LEDs should be on when plugging it in? I have none. I've been unable to connect it to my router. I tried AP mode that requires holding the reset button for 10 seconds, but the ready light never turns on. I was thorough in seating it. Pushing then turning the locking collar multiple times.
I've contacted Current Connected. They will reach out to Pytes. I couldn't find any installation literature on-line.
I've contacted Current Connected. They will reach out to Pytes. I couldn't find any installation literature on-line.
Ampster
Renewable Energy Hobbyist
Is it connectecd to your Master battery? The three LEDS are green with the comms one slowly blinking. You have to use the application Solarman to view it on your phone or the website at solarmanpv.com
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I bought the dongle from Current Connected based on positive reviews on this forum. CC communicated with me and without prejudice agreed the dongle is defective. They tested one to verify the LEDs light up and sent it out to me. Excellent customer service.
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