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Outback Power with Lithium Ion Batteries

howiegrapek

New Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2020
Messages
26
Hey Will, I absolutely love your channel - it has helped me a tremendous amount over this past year. Your way of explaining everything is awesome.

I have a completely off-grid system, it currently has:

one Kilovault 7.5KW battery,
one outback front end (Specifically, the Outback FlexPower One - 48V FP1 FXR3048A-01).
12 x 380W Canadian solar (total approx 4kw) panels connected in 4 strings.
All combined in a Midnite solar combiner box.

I have no complaints about the Kilovault products. Mine has been working well for about 5 months so far and handles load very well.

Here is my issue:
I am having a hard time configuring my Outback charge controller/Inverter/FX to get the SOC of the battery to be 100% at the same time that the Outback system shows it is at 100%.

More often than not, I get to a point where the outback system says the SOC is 100% - but the battery's OpenHAB app shows it to be 75% or whatever.

Do you have any experience with Outback hardware/software configuration, and can you assist with the configuration such that outback works better with these kinds of batteries. Below is my current configuration.

I'm an engineer by trade (Software), but have a lot of electronics background and have experience setting up other solar systems, so I think I understand the basics and terminology, but am always happy to learn!!

To be specifc, this is an OFF GRID system. Here are my outback settings:


This is my MATE3 setup
Mate3SSerial: N/A
PortComm
Firmware1.4.3
SerialN/A
Mac Address00:90:EA:E0:C6:EA
DHCPDisabled
TCP/IP Address10.0.0.150
Gateway Address10.0.0.1
Network Mask255.255.255.0
DNS 175.75.75.75
DNS 275.75.76.76
SunSpec ModBus Port
502​
Connectivity
Auto Reboot IntervalDisabled
Inverter Menu: FXR3048AActual
Port1
Firmware1.6.63
Serial:N/A
Battery Charging
Absorb Voltage56.0 Vdc
Absorb Time (hr)0.5 hr
Re-Bulk Voltage51.2 Vdc
Float Voltage54.4 vdc
Re-Float Voltage52 Vdc
Float Time (hr)0 hours
Low Battery:
Cut-Out Voltage:48 Vdc
Cut-Out Delay (Seconds):6 Seconds
Cut-In Voltage:50 Vdc
High Battery:
Cut-Out Voltage:57.2 Vdc
Cut-Out Delay10 Seconds
Cut-In Voltage:56.0 Vdc
Battery Equalize:
Equalize Voltage:56.4 Vdc
Eq Time0.0 Hrs(No Equalization)
Charge Controller FM80-150VDC
Port2
Firmware3.3.0
Serial:N/A
Battery Charging:
Absorb Voltage56.2 Vdc
Absorb Time (hr)0.5 hr
Absorb End Amps:0 Adc
ReBulk Voltage:51.0 Vdc
Float Voltage:54.5 Vdc
Current Limit:80 Adc
EQ Voltage56.4 Vdc
EQ Time1 Hr
Auto EQ Interval0 days (off if 0 days)
MPPT:
MPPT Mode:Auto
MPP Range MinimumHalf
Maximum90
U-Pic VOC77 percent
Temp Compensation:
Mode:Wide
Limited: Lower Battery Voltage52.8 VDC
Limited: Upper Batter Voltage56.4 VDC
Misc:
Grid Tie ModeDisabled
Auto Restartoff
Wakeup VOC Charge6.0 Vdc
Snooze Mode Amps:0.6 Adc
Wakeup Interval (Minutes)5 mins
Battery Voltage Calibrate0 Vdc
Grid-Tie Mode
Grid Tie:N
FLEXnet DC
Port3
Firmware1.1.71
Serial:N.A
Battery Charging:
Battery AH:150 Ah
Charged Voltage56.4 Vdc
Charged Time1 minute
Charged Return Amps7.0 Adc
Charge Factor96 Percent
Shunt A
Shunt A EnableEnabled
Shunt B
Shunt B EnableEnabled
Shunt C
Shunt C EnableDisabled
Relay
Relay ModeOff
Mate3s Item
FN-DC AdvancedLow SOC Warning20 percent
DN-DC AdvancedCritical SOC Warning10 percent
 
Last edited:
FM80 config:

Absorp end amps should be 7.5A (0.05C)
Increase your absorption time to 2 hours to ensure the end amps is the means of termination..

FLEXnet DC Battery charging config:

Charged voltage should be 55.8V (0.4V below your absorption V)
Charged time 30 seconds:
Charged return Amps should be 8.0A

Your current configuration never triggers the Flexnet "charged" criteria.

The above should have the FLEXnet show the battery fully charged very shortly before the FM80 actually terminates charging. Tweaking some values may improve results.

Note that I have limited experience with the FM80 and no experience with any of the other components. I am providing values based on proper charging and similar configurations for other charge controllers and battery monitors as they appear to conform to what is typical.
 
Last edited:
snoobler,
I also appreciate your taking time to reply. I'm in the process of building and integrating a new, large lithium battery into my 9-year old system that is also built around Outback Power charge controllers and inverters. Your informed suggestions are valuable.
 
SolarQueen,
Thank you also.
I don't have a KiloVault battery, but I have downloaded the pdf, and have added it to my library of study. My LiFePO4 battery is a large DIY unit, so I have to use applicable information from wherever I can find it.
 
See the latest HAB manual for charging profiles. It is not what Snoobler said (sorry snoobs). https://www.altestore.com/static/datafiles/Others/KLV HAB Installation and User Manual Rev 2.02.pdf Page 28. You may need to recalibrate the HAB to agree with the Outback SoC. That's also in the manual, page 27 & 38.
Hey there SolarQueen (From AltEstore where I bought the KiloVault).
Everything is working perfectly fine now - the SOC is calibrated and the system is working optimally.
I was wondering if the firmware would ever be updated so I can connect to it via a rest api and collect data for my home assistant system.
I'd love to use a different interface than my IOS App.
Thoughts?
Thanks, Howie.
 
Hey there SolarQueen (From AltEstore where I bought the KiloVault).
Everything is working perfectly fine now - the SOC is calibrated and the system is working optimally.
I was wondering if the firmware would ever be updated so I can connect to it via a rest api and collect data for my home assistant system.
I'd love to use a different interface than my IOS App.
Thoughts?
Thanks, Howie.
Great to hear all is well. Upgrading depends on which version you got. The latest ones have a USB com port on them, so we can provide firmware upgrades in the future.
 
Hey there SolarQueen (From AltEstore where I bought the KiloVault).
Everything is working perfectly fine now - the SOC is calibrated and the system is working optimally.
I was wondering if the firmware would ever be updated so I can connect to it via a rest api and collect data for my home assistant system.
I'd love to use a different interface than my IOS App.
Thoughts?
Thanks, Howie.
Hi howiegrapek. I have just received delivery of an OutBack Power System (a prewired Outback FlexPower One - 48V FP1 FXR3048A) that is similar to yours. I am currently shopping for a good lithium-ion power storage solution. I am keen to know your experience with the KiloVault solution.
 
Hi howiegrapek. I have just received delivery of an OutBack Power System (a prewired Outback FlexPower One - 48V FP1 FXR3048A) that is similar to yours. I am currently shopping for a good lithium-ion power storage solution. I am keen to know your experience with the KiloVault solution.
After 1.5 years, The Outback/Kilovolt solution is still working flawlessly. Note, I have also purchased and built a Growatt solution with a bunch of EG4 batteries from Signature Solar for a different purpose and those rack mount batteries have also working flawlessly for the last year. Although I have not connected them to the Outback system, I suspect they will work fine.
 
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