My Pytes battery install with my SolArk 12k, AC coupled to Enphase micros

[Ampster]

I heard from Pytes on my communication issue. They are looking into it. At this point it may be related to the software issue upgrading MySolArk but I wanted Pytes to confirm the batteries are communicating before starting a ticket with SolArk.

 

[Ampster]

The Pytes tech walked me through my setup and we determined that I had the cable from the Master battery plugged into the RS485 port instead of the CAN port. As soon as I changed that, communications came back up and is working. The tech did say that the RS485 port sometimes works but it is not consistent and that is what apparently happenedI to me. That just reminds me in many diagnostic situations it is always important to test your assumptions.

Another issue happened this morning and will report it on the SolArk migration thread as well. This morning while checking my Solar Assistant, I noticed my TOU voltage settings had changed and my pack was discharging instead of charging from available solar. I do not know if this is a result of the migration but I had given the Pytes tech access via PVPro and confirmed with him that he had not changed those settings.

 

[Oldphile]

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.

I got the new dongle today and it didn't work. Then, I assumed it had to be me. I reversed the connection and it worked, but now I can't see the LEDs because they are facing the cabinet. The connector key is easily ignored. @Ampster is this how yours looks, dongle LEDs not visible?

 

[Ampster]

Yesterday I noticed my SolArk had discharge to 55% by 6PM and when I dug into it today I notice my work mode settings had been changes. I had notice a similar ocurance back in June during the conversion. My software version is still 6.2.2.2 so nothing changed in that area. I will check the screen on the actual SolArk to see if this relates to the seasonal choices but I thought i had not used those.

 

[glandpuck]

Hmm. My system is similar and I have zero problems with communication or discharge.
Sol-Ark 15K. I have a total of 8 Pytes batteries, but they are the Ebox version C.
They are housed in 2 separate cabinets. Four batteries in each cabinet. One battery in cabinet A is designated as the master. The dip switches on the master set the communication protocol to the Sol-Ark. From this, the can cable goes to the input on the Sol-Ark. The from the master, the cable goes from link 1 to the second battery link 0. then from second battery link 1 to third battery link 0 and so forth until all 8 batteries in the 2 cabinets are connected together.

In each cabinet, 2 batteries are wired together and to the buss bar. So the buss bar has 2 connections, each representing 2 batteries. Output from the buss bar passes through a fuse and to a set of terminals on the Sol-Ark. Four batteries are connected to each set of Sol-Ark battery terminals.

Startup has all batteries in the OFF position and connected. the inverter is ON. I keep the breakers in the inverter for batteries off until all batteries are powered on and started up. They go through a series of communication with the master and then the LED's indicate the state of charge. When have started up and are online, I close the breakers to the inverter.

Within a couple of seconds, the inverter and the master battery establish communications in closed loop fashion.

I also manually input the Pytes recommended charging voltages in case communication is interrupted.

I have a TOU rate plan that is cheap in the middle of the night.

I set my batteries to discharge to 35%. But once midnight is reached, the batteries charge until 2 AM. The rate is 5,000 watts per hour. This is a 25% charge for the bank. The grid supplies till 6 AM. Then the batteries take over the loads and then begin to recharge as the sun comes up and now in shorter days hit about 88% while powering the loads. The sun goes down and batteries handle the loads until midnight. Then this day repeats.

I have not touched these settings or re-booted anything for about 5 months now. No errors and the daily cycle very stable.

www.stackrackbattery in Corona, CA carries excellent battery cabinets that are UL listed and I believe can install Pytes Ebox, but I am not sure about V5. they have 2/4/6/12 capacity cabinets.

 

[Ampster]

I did not mean to imply that anything was wrong with my batteries. They are doing fine. During the winter when I use my heat pump I also charge a little at off peak rates like you do. The issue is the work mode settings being changed in my SolArk. It changed the TOU times and power amounts. A similar thing happened in June. The result caused the battery to discharge quicker than my normal settings. It is fixed now but I am searching for a way to prevent it in the future.

 

[glandpuck]

I did not mean to imply that anything was wrong with my batteries. They are doing fine. During the winter when I use my heat pump I also charge a little at off peak rates like you do. The issue is the work mode settings being changed in my SolArk. It changed the TOU times and power amounts. A similar thing happened in June. The result caused the battery to discharge quicker than my normal settings. It is fixed now but I am searching for a way to prevent it in the future.

Nothing like that has ever happened in my system. Very interesting.

 

[Ampster]

Nothing like that has ever happened in my system. Very interesting.

I wish there was a log of changes so that I could discover why and exactly when it happened.

 

[Ampster]

I checked the seasonal choices on my inverter screen and the check box was checked but the dates did not correspond to when these changes happened. The only things that were changed were the TOU times and the power outputs but not the percentages or the time to charge from grid. That explains why my battery went to 45% overnight which is not usual for this time of year.

 

[Ampster]

I checked the seasonal choices on my inverter screen and the check box was checked but the dates did not correspond to when these changes happened. The only things that were changed were the TOU times and the power outputs but not the percentages or the time to charge from grid. That explains why my battery went to 45% overnight which is not usual for this time of year.

Today I noticed annother reset of the values and times on my Solar Assistant work mode settings were changed. Now that the MySolArk application is more stable and I am more comfortable using it, I checked there as well and the settings were not changed. I also checked to inverter itself and have now reached a conclusion that there is a bug in Solar Assistant. I daily check the output of my system on Solar Assistant but only ocassionally the work mode settings. I guess my option is to document this with Solar Assistant. I think I will try a reboot of Solar Assistant to see what values propogate. I have taken screen shots of the two differnent screens to document the differences.

 

[SunDave]

Hi Ampster,
Something to be aware of if you are not already. Even though solar-assistant may allow it (since it is used with multiple inverters) the time slots in the TOU/Work Mode settings have to be in order on the Sol-Ark.

Mine starts at 1am, then goes every few hours to a different work mode time slot, ending at 21:00 hours. Which then wraps around to the 1am slot. Going out of order will cause problems.

Glad you are seeing a stable system. I only had my batteries lose comms one time and it was after a prolonged period of time (probably 2-3 weeks) without a full charge. My theory is that one battery shut down, or they went into sleep mode after getting no charge or discharge for a long period of time. They basically discharged to 25% or whatever I had them set to, then stayed there for a long time without charge.

Now that I have more solar, they are at 100% every day, or every 2-3 days when really cloudy.

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I have a similar setup, so any info I can share, I would be glad to help.

 

[Ampster]

Something to be aware of if you are not already.

Thanks, mine are in order, similar to what you describe. I encountered that issue a while back when I tried to use midnight which it considered out of order. For a while I used 00:01 but it was easier to just use 01:00.
I did a software reboot the Solar Assistant and it did not take the values from the SolArk. I may try disconnecting the power and see if that makes a difference. Even though the MySolArk shows the correct values, my inverter seems to be responding to the numbers in Solar Assistant as far as when and how much to export to the grid. That is the puzzling thing I am trying to figure out before I communicate with SolArk or Solar Assistant. Otherwise I will just get finger pointing. I do not want to disconnect Solar Assistant because I have almost two years of data that is valuable and I want that continuity.

 

[SunDave]

Thanks, mine are in order, similar to what you describe. I encountered that issue a while back when I tried to use midnight which it considered out of order. For a while I used 00:01 but it was easier to just use 01:00.
I did a software reboot the Solar Assistant and it did not take the values from the SolArk. I may try disconnecting the power and see if that makes a difference. Even though the MySolArk shows the correct values, my inverter seems to be responding to the numbers in Solar Assistant as far as when and how much to export to the grid. That is the puzzling thing I am trying to figure out before I communicate with SolArk or Solar Assistant. Otherwise I will just get finger pointing. I do not want to disconnect Solar Assistant because I have almost two years of data that is valuable and I want that continuity.

Ever check the inverter? That screen seems to have different checkboxes yet. For TOU. I struggle with the differences myself, especially when I have not looked at them for a while.

That said, I have no doubt you are seeing what you are seeing. Some of this integration stuff can be buggy.

 

[Ampster]

I finally wrote Solar Assistant about my TOU time being reset and their response was simple, update my software. I did that and am hoping that solves the issue. I was on one version from early 2024 and the current version is May 2024. Hoping that solves the issue.

 

[Ampster]

Hoping that solves the issue.

I got the same erroneous change in my parameters. I don't check them every day but from my data it looked like the TOU settings might have been changed. I also checked and there is a new version which I installed and made a note to check in a few days. The new software version is dated 2025-02-10. If it does not work I am tempted to find a way see if the Solar Assistant can be programmed to be read only because I like the dashboard and the charts and have figureed out how to change parameters in the MySolArk web interface. Interestingly only the Solar Assistant settings were changed and not the settings in MySolArk. I did not check the settings in the inverter to see if they had been changed.. I will have to test the inverter and see if it gets its settings from Solar Assistant or MySolArk?

 

[Ampster]

I appears the SolArk inverter has the same settingts as Solar Assistant.