New to the forums: EG4 BMS integration Problems with Schneider Electric system

[Matt_West]

We have had our system running for a few months and have encountered problem with enabling the BMS control of the inverters.

Our system topology is as follows:

• 10.5 KW PV input split into 3 arrays
• Feeding into three Schneider Electric MPT 100 charge controllers
• Going to three XW Pro 6848 inverters
• Two SCP controllers
• One AGS
• One Insight Facility
• Batteries are twelve EG4 LifePower4 batteries organized into two strings of six

All batteries were updated to the latest firmware. When connected via the BMS Test software I could see all six batteries in each string. When I went to connect the batteries to the Insight Facility it was not properly recognizing the battery strings.

I unplugged the data cables for the slave batteries and unconnected and reconnected the battery data cables from the Insight Facility and master batteries and then ran through the device detection process a second time. Both battery BMS’s were detected. I reattached the data cables for the slave batteries and they did not add to the BMS string as they did in the EG4 LL V2 portion of the video put out by Signature Solar.

I had the inverter’s battery settings configured to: Li-Ion, BMS, SOC controlled.

When the well pump kicked on this morning the starting load appears to have triggered a fault that the batteries were over discharged. This in turn shutdown the inverters. I believe the problem is that the BMS control for the inverters is only detecting the master battery on the first string. This seems to be confirmed by reverting the inverter battery settings from BMS and SOC enabled to 2 stage and SOC off.

Questions:
1. How do I get the BMS’s to see all the batteries?
2. BMS #1 dropped offline on its own. I disconnected the pin block from the Insight Facility and BMS #2 also dropped offline. I cannot get the Insight Facility to redetect the batteries. How do I get the Insight Facility to redetect the "Offline" Battery BMS's?

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Shire222]

We have had our system running for a few months and have encountered problem with enabling the BMS control of the inverters.

Our system topology is as follows:

• 10.5 KW PV input split into 3 arrays
• Feeding into three Schneider Electric MPT 100 charge controllers
• Going to three XW Pro 6848 inverters
• Two SCP controllers
• One AGS
• One Insight Facility
• Batteries are twelve EG4 LifePower4 batteries organized into two strings of six

All batteries were updated to the latest firmware. When connected via the BMS Test software I could see all six batteries in each string. When I went to connect the batteries to the Insight Facility it was not properly recognizing the battery strings.

I unplugged the data cables for the slave batteries and unconnected and reconnected the battery data cables from the Insight Facility and master batteries and then ran through the device detection process a second time. Both battery BMS’s were detected. I reattached the data cables for the slave batteries and they did not add to the BMS string as they did in the EG4 LL V2 portion of the video put out by Signature Solar.

I had the inverter’s battery settings configured to: Li-Ion, BMS, SOC controlled.

When the well pump kicked on this morning the starting load appears to have triggered a fault that the batteries were over discharged. This in turn shutdown the inverters. I believe the problem is that the BMS control for the inverters is only detecting the master battery on the first string. This seems to be confirmed by reverting the inverter battery settings from BMS and SOC enabled to 2 stage and SOC off.

Questions:
1. How do I get the BMS’s to see all the batteries?
2. BMS #1 dropped offline on its own. I disconnected the pin block from the Insight Facility and BMS #2 also dropped offline. I cannot get the Insight Facility to redetect the batteries. How do I get the Insight Facility to redetect the "Offline" Battery BMS's?

Thanks,
Matt

David Poz posted his video on this over the weekend.

This post by @Matruco nicely outlines the steps. You just won't have to set the communication protocol on the battery as this only applies to the EG4 LL V2's. As long as you are on the newest firmware you should be good.

EG4-LL (V2) Integration with Schneider Insight Home

Hello, Has anyone managed to make the connection between the EG4-LL (V2) batteries and the Schneider insight home? I am not able to detect the BMS in the insight home if I put the dip switch on the battery in position 1 (Master). But, if I put the dip switch to position 2, I can detect and add...

diysolarforum.com

You are feeding those two strings of 6 batteries to a common 48V Bus correct? Into a Schneider PDP, presumably? You should be able to daisy chain all 12 battery comms together behind 1 master battery.

1. Do you have unique dip switch ID's assigned to all the batteries? The master battery in each stack of six being set to ID 1.
2. In my experience with BMS disconnects, the BMS has come back online all by itself after the disconnected state has been fixed. In my case I was intentionally disconnecting the ethernet cable to the RS485 port. Just reconnecting the ethernet cable brought it back online after the watchdog handshake is restored.

 

[DER Solar]

We have had our system running for a few months and have encountered problem with enabling the BMS control of the inverters.

Our system topology is as follows:

• 10.5 KW PV input split into 3 arrays
• Feeding into three Schneider Electric MPT 100 charge controllers
• Going to three XW Pro 6848 inverters
• Two SCP controllers
• One AGS
• One Insight Facility
• Batteries are twelve EG4 LifePower4 batteries organized into two strings of six

All batteries were updated to the latest firmware. When connected via the BMS Test software I could see all six batteries in each string. When I went to connect the batteries to the Insight Facility it was not properly recognizing the battery strings.

I unplugged the data cables for the slave batteries and unconnected and reconnected the battery data cables from the Insight Facility and master batteries and then ran through the device detection process a second time. Both battery BMS’s were detected. I reattached the data cables for the slave batteries and they did not add to the BMS string as they did in the EG4 LL V2 portion of the video put out by Signature Solar.

I had the inverter’s battery settings configured to: Li-Ion, BMS, SOC controlled.

When the well pump kicked on this morning the starting load appears to have triggered a fault that the batteries were over discharged. This in turn shutdown the inverters. I believe the problem is that the BMS control for the inverters is only detecting the master battery on the first string. This seems to be confirmed by reverting the inverter battery settings from BMS and SOC enabled to 2 stage and SOC off.

Questions:
1. How do I get the BMS’s to see all the batteries?
2. BMS #1 dropped offline on its own. I disconnected the pin block from the Insight Facility and BMS #2 also dropped offline. I cannot get the Insight Facility to redetect the batteries. How do I get the Insight Facility to redetect the "Offline" Battery BMS's?

Thanks,
Matt

Lets' face it: EG4 ll(V2) batteries do not interface properly with Schneider XW inverters via RS 485 or ModBus! I know customers who have returned the batteries and went with traditional sealed AGM batteries. By the way, in most larger cities you can pick those up for $80-$100 per kWh, decommissioned from Telecom companies, either 6V or 12V. Give it a try, check out craigslist, you'll get thermally safe batteries, close to 80-90% rating and you'll save a lot of money and valuable time trying to set this up.

If you really want LiFePo4 batteries, buy Discovery, BYD, Fortress or Homegrid. Support at eg4electronics.com is totally unprofessional! These guys should take software enginering 101 to learn how to document changes! Look at Schneider or Enphase how they document firmware changes from prior version, including error fixes, new features and changes in usage. With the latest firmware upgrade - as of 2023-02-28 - I am no loger able to enter the 5 sec menu button to configure CAN or RS-485. I'm generous, I gave them 6 month to fix it because I like the overall hardware design of the Eg4 LL(V2).

Stop buying EG4 ll(V2) batteries until the BMS software and the Schneider closed loop communication is working.

 

[400bird]

Support at eg4electronics.com is totally unprofessional! These guys should take software enginering 101 to learn how to document changes!

Sorry to nit pick such a minor detail, but in my opinion, there is no chance EG4 or Signature Solar are writing software/firmware in-house. I'd love to be wrong.
They buy assembled batteries from China with their decals. They were surprised when a batch arrived without breakers. But, that's what happens when you purchase something already designed by a 3rd party, changes happen and you get what you get until you are big enough.

You could start a company, go on Alibaba, order batteries with your decals and start EG5 and be in about the same place. Sure, they've purchased enough quantity to request changes and have relationships with the manufacturer, but you could too.

 

[DER Solar]

Great comment, I was not implying that they are able to write software, they don't even know how to document changes. I was just recommending that they should document the firmware changes they get from the BMS OEM. And I spent hours with just a simple tool like the BMS_Tools because it overwrites ini files with NULL if it cannot find the ports. I regularly buy electronics at AliExpress and on Alibaba I'm ordering samples first and I'm not buying products with software or apps I cannot control.

 

[amt]

I looks like in that video the same two warnings/errors are triggered that I see, having to do with not getting SoC data for the inverter's charger program. Eventually it will trip a battery over-voltage, because there is a lower voltage threshold for when SoC control fails. If anyone has gotten past these "no SOC data from BMS" errors, please let us know.

FWIW, I am also trying to connect my BMS (EG4 comm hub) via CAN. There is another area in the Schneider config where you can specify the battery model, and of course EG4 is not there. There are, however, several other brands, and I wonder if EG4 is emulating one of those brand's protocol.

On a somewhat related note, it would be really nice if the EG4 5kW chargeverter had some kind of closed-loop communication, but I suspect has no such logic. FWIW, I have the chargeverter for times when I can not get split phase shore power.

 

[RxJemm]

Hi guys, they issued an update late last week that fixes the issue:

EG4 LL V2 and Schneider Close Loop Communication

We are thrilled to announce that our team has successfully resolved the Schneider Insight Home-Insight Facility protocol issue that was affecting the communication between the Schneider Insight Home system and our EG4 LL v2 batteries' Battery Management System (BMS). As you may recall, some of...

diysolarforum.com

 

[DER Solar]

Please check the 6-slot DIP Switch settings for the master!
If not set to ID:1 for the master, the Schneider InsightHome MOD BUS scanner will not find the BMS!
EG4-LL(V4) 6-slot DIP Switch Settings

 

[n2aws]

Just a note I noticed, in case it helps others. OP listed "Lifepower4" batteries. Several comments in the thread were about LL(v2) batteries (which are different and unrelated). The Lifepower4's worked fine sine the beginning firmware that supported schnieder closed loop. The LL(V2s) on the other hand, there was recently an update that resolved an issue between them and the insight devices. I just wanted to clarify, as it seems that many on the forum use "lifepower4" and "LL" interchangeably, maybe assuming they use the same BMS or something. But, they are different.

For the OP: If both battery stacks are connected to the same 48v bus, I would do as mentioned previously in the thread. daisy chain all 12 battery data cables. 1 "master" battery talks to the insight, the rest are "behind" that battery. a single "master" can support up to 16 batteries I believe.