Pylontech US5000 with Sofar Hybrid Problem - can anyone help?

[Diggers253]

Hello,
Can anyone help?

We are 20 months into a pretty challenging professional installation. Challenging in a ‘picked the wrong company’ way I mean.

We have a Hybrid Sofar inverter and two pylontech us5000 batteries attached to it.

The master battery seems to work fine but the other one has a red light. Neither battery is discharging energy that we can use. When the sun goes in, we start buying off the grid even though the batteries say they have charge
In the Solarman app.

According to everything I can find (manuals and youtube) battery 2 is was not installed properly, (the rj45 link cable was installed plugged into 2 sockets on the same battery, no earth cable was connected at all and the red and black wires were just connected in parallel with both wires from there inverter plugged into the master battery.

Connecting it according to the manual and even just connecting it on its own doesn’t fix the red light. The battery seems to be completely flat. It won’t turn on at all if I switch off the inverter.

The inverter also has a red light when this battery is connected and it says ‘alarm’.

Does this mean the battery is totally defective and needs replacing or is there anything we can do to get it working?

I can’t bear to have to wait for them to turn up yet again. They often just dont turn up at all when they say they will.

Can anybody help??

Many thanks in advance

Anthony

 

[SeaGal]

Oh no, not another "professional installation" from an installer that is two GCSE's short of an A level

There are others on here more familiar with Pylontech's than me, who will hopefully chip in. But I'd suggest getting an admin console attached to the US5000 pylontech's RS232 port to see if there are any alarms / fault reported.

Also, can you contact Pylontech tech support directly?

 

[Diggers253]

It’s so hard when you are trying to find an installer

I was thinking to call Pylontech directly


Is an admin console a laptop with software or a gadget??

Thanks +++

Anthony

 

[SeaGal]

Is an admin console a laptop with software or a gadget??

standard serial port software on PC with RS232 connection - more details in this thread...

Pylontech console cable

Does anyone know where I can get the pylontech console cable in Spain/Europe? Also the cable in the attached photo .

diysolarforum.com

 

[Diggers253]

Thank you

 

[Diggers253]

Hmm that seems to be about using raspberry pi modules and what not.

Is there a factory made cable that works and a place to download the software that’s needed in order to check the battery on a windows laptop?

Or any other way to reset the battery which is stuck in red light mode. It’s a brand new battery so I don’t want to do anything that invalidates its warranty.

 

[rpdom]

Hmm that seems to be about using raspberry pi modules and what not.

It was originally about PCs. I just happened to have just finished making a board that connected to my Pi.

Is there a factory made cable that works and a place to download the software that’s needed in order to check the battery on a windows laptop?

The official software is called BatteryView for PC and I believe it's only available from Pylontech. Ask them and they may give it to you.
Otherwise any serial terminal and a custom cable will give you access to the battery console.

Or any other way to reset the battery which is stuck in red light mode. It’s a brand new battery so I don’t want to do anything that invalidates its warranty.

I assume you've tried the usual Switch the batteries all off, then on, then start by pressing the red button on the main battery?

 

[Diggers253]

I have bought a wire and they have the software too - thank you ++

I now have three new batteries (was 2)

With them connected as per the instructions, I turn each on and then press SW on the master. They power up in sequence, but the middle troublesome battery then shows a solid red light still. The batteries either side of it are green and seem to be charging, but if the red light battery is connected then the inverter shows a red alarm light and the batteries don’t discharge to power anything when the sun goes in.

Even if I connect the middle battery on its own, it still shows a solid red light.

 

[Diggers253]

This is how the two batteries were installed by the installer.

They are tucked away in a loft space so hard to see but, the red and black wires were not clipped in, the link cable was plugged in twice to the same battery (he’s the one with the red light now) and there are no earth connections.

Can that have done permanent damage to the battery for forced thre battery into some sort of panic mode??

 

[Diggers253]

I can’t find anywhere advising to install them like this. Is this a legitimate / alternative installation perhaps??

 

[rpdom]

That looks to me like perhaps they connected that battery, found it didn't work, then disconnected it and left it like that. Very dodgy!

It definitely isn't a recommended installation technique.

I don't know if that would have damaged the battery of if it was already faulty.

 

[SeaGal]

This is how the two batteries were installed by the installer.

Doesn't look very "installed" to me.

Get the so-called installers back to fix it and/or threaten name-shame or small-claims court.

 

[Diggers253]

This is helpful. Thank you.

 

[SeaGal]

Further thought... is withholding the final payment pending successful commissioning an option, or too late?