Rowpow / Powerurus Fish App bluetooth connecting to Home Assistant

[DarrylG]

Hello I recently purchased a 200ah Powerurus battery and it has been okay for me. However the app is very barebones and has some features that are undocumented and difficult to figure out. I have contacted Powerurus and Roypow for support, but so far their support has been very lacking.

Does anyone have any of these batteries, or similar, connected up to Home Assistant to check the data from the BMS over bluetooth? I do not have a HA system yet, but plan to build one and would like to know if this is possible before my return period has expired on the battery.

 

[Tomthumb62]

Hello I recently purchased a 200ah Powerurus battery and it has been okay for me. However the app is very barebones and has some features that are undocumented and difficult to figure out. I have contacted Powerurus and Roypow for support, but so far their support has been very lacking.

Does anyone have any of these batteries, or similar, connected up to Home Assistant to check the data from the BMS over bluetooth? I do not have a HA system yet, but plan to build one and would like to know if this is possible before my return period has expired on the battery.

Hey I think you’re the person who wrote the top review on Amazon for the Powerurus 200Ah.

I’ve been considering this battery for some time but would love to ask you a few questions if you don’t mind.

Does the 0-100% power meter in the app base its reading from voltage or does the battery have a built in shunt to measure amps in and out?

And can you see the voltage of each cell individually or just max, min and difference?

Finally, does the “amps” measurement (which you say is always a a negative number), simply show you the sum total? Meaning if 80 amps are being discharged and 20 amps are being charged into the battery, the amps reading would be 60? Actually -60 since that pesky negative sign is stuck there.

I’ve never seen or used a lifepo4 battery or their Bluetooth app, so I’m not sure what to expect. I’ve installed various BMS apps on my phone (even though I have no batteries yet), including the Roypow Fish app. These apps allow me to see some of what info might be available but since I don’t have a battery yet it’s a bit of an estimate.

I did write Roypow via their Amazon seller account to ask if they intend to upgrade the app. I’ll update you if they write back.

 

[DarrylG]

Does the 0-100% power meter in the app base its reading from voltage or does the battery have a built in shunt to measure amps in and out?

Honestly I am not sure on that one. I might say measuring in-out amps, as I saw the capacity in my battery and SOH increase after doing a 100% discharge and full charge.

Finally, does the “amps” measurement (which you say is always a a negative number), simply show you the sum total?

Yes, it is a sum total. The pesky negative sign is only on IOS devices on the Roypow Fish App. The android app works like it should in this field. Additionally, I have learned that one can use the Epoch Li-ion app instead. See: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/powerurus-12v-100ah-batteries.48210/page-2#post-772208 which work well on IOS.

can you see the voltage of each cell individually or just max, min and difference?

Yes, farther down the screen you can see the individual cells. They might show up on the same page if you have a larger phone.

 

[Tomthumb62]

Honestly I am not sure on that one. I might say measuring in-out amps, as I saw the capacity in my battery and SOH increase after doing a 100% discharge and full charge.

Ok, I think I read through a different thread and it sounds like the meter SOC, even if voltage-based, might not be too far off. I don't care if a shunt would show 63% charge and the Powerurus app meter shows 57% charge, but I would care if it was more different like 63% vs 30%. As much as I would love a shunt to accurately measure SOC, in reality, it's just not an expense I can quite justify other than "I wanna know", lol

Yes, it is a sum total. The pesky negative sign is only on IOS devices on the Roypow Fish App. The android app works like it should in this field. Additionally, I have learned that one can use the Epoch Li-ion app instead. See: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/powerurus-12v-100ah-batteries.48210/page-2#post-772208 which work well on IOS.

Oooh, thank you for the tip on the Epoch app, it's much better looking. I'm debating between the Powerurus and Aolithium, and I think the Powerurus is winning the race with that better app. The Aolithium app is way better though and the battery has an actual built-in shunt, but I don't like the sunken terminals, higher cost nor the reality of 2x100Ah vs a single 200Ah battery.

Yes, farther down the screen you can see the individual cells.

Thanks for confirming that. One time I did see the individual cell numbers (might have been on Will's video), but in the app on my phone without connection to a battery it just shows a completely blank space where the cell voltages should be.

 

[Tomthumb62]

Honestly I am not sure on that one. I might say measuring in-out amps, as I saw the capacity in my battery and SOH increase after doing a 100% discharge and full charge.


Yes, it is a sum total. The pesky negative sign is only on IOS devices on the Roypow Fish App. The android app works like it should in this field. Additionally, I have learned that one can use the Epoch Li-ion app instead. See: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/powerurus-12v-100ah-batteries.48210/page-2#post-772208 which work well on IOS.


Yes, farther down the screen you can see the individual cells. They might show up on the same page if you have a larger phone.

Just received my Powerurus 200Ah and am trying it out now.

I discovered that there are TWO Roypow apps with very similar names for iOS:

Roypow Fish
and
Roypow fish

Notice the lowercase “fish” this latter one has fixed the dreaded always negative amps bug. It also shows remaining charge time and remaining discharge time. However, when it searched Bluetooth to find the battery, it finds something but shows as a blank instead of the battery’s serial number. I selected that and it works.

I tried a bunch of other BMS apps but none of them worked. Some seemed to connect to the battery but couldn’t collect any data.

Overall, my first impression is I’m extremely pleased with this battery. The Bluetooth feature is very useful. Not sure yet that I won’t end up buying a proper shunt to measure SOC, but from the looks of it I won’t need to.

 

[DarrylG]

Interesting! The old Roypow Fish app is version 6.3.1 while the newer Roypow fish is version 1.0.13 and is made by a different developer. I no longer see the Roypow Fish app on the iOS store.

Showing the blank bluetooth is a bit of a problem. On mine it showed six different items, but only one showed a name. As of yet, I haven't tried to figure out which one is the battery.

 

[Tomthumb62]

Interesting! The old Roypow Fish app is version 6.3.1 while the newer Roypow fish is version 1.0.13 and is made by a different developer. I no longer see the Roypow Fish app on the iOS store.

Showing the blank bluetooth is a bit of a problem. On mine it showed six different items, but only one showed a name. As of yet, I haven't tried to figure out which one is the battery.

Sometimes in the Bluetooth search it shows the name of the battery, sometimes it shows one blank name and another item with the correct name. Sometimes both are blank. Sometimes it only shows one item. Go figure! Once connected though, it seems to work.

 

[Rulexi]

Hey I think you’re the person who wrote the top review on Amazon for the Powerurus 200Ah.

I’ve been considering this battery for some time but would love to ask you a few questions if you don’t mind.

Does the 0-100% power meter in the app base its reading from voltage or does the battery have a built in shunt to measure amps in and out?

And can you see the voltage of each cell individually or just max, min and difference?

Finally, does the “amps” measurement (which you say is always a a negative number), simply show you the sum total? Meaning if 80 amps are being discharged and 20 amps are being charged into the battery, the amps reading would be 60? Actually -60 since that pesky negative sign is stuck there.

I’ve never seen or used a lifepo4 battery or their Bluetooth app, so I’m not sure what to expect. I’ve installed various BMS apps on my phone (even though I have no batteries yet), including the Roypow Fish app. These apps allow me to see some of what info might be available but since I don’t have a battery yet it’s a bit of an estimate.

I did write Roypow via their Amazon seller account to ask if they intend to upgrade the app. I’ll update you if they write back.

The app has not been updated as of 5-30-2023, however, I can answer some of your questions. You can see each cell voltage but the font is so small I need a magnifying glass. The app will also give you the cell V averages, high and low. I have been using a 500W halogen light to drain the battery and the amperage draw indicated by the app is rather accurate according to my testing amp meters. The physical methods used within the BMS is unknown, I'm too cheap to tear it apart to see. I have not attempted the draw and charge experiment. I hope this helps. I just saw they now have 400Ah 12V batteries. I would have purchased one of these if I knew they were available.

 

[DarrylG]

The app has not been updated as of 5-30-2023,

I see there is an update on the Roypow fish app today. This is the newer app with the lower case "f" however they have now made the "F" uppercase and as I mentioned before I don't see the old app on the IOS App Store anymore.

This updated version does show the names of the bluetooth devices and I was able to connect to my battery.

 

[Tomthumb62]

I just saw they now have 400Ah 12V batteries.

I don’t see these on their website. Where are you finding these?

Also, the Epoch Li-ion app works with the Powerurus battery and also shows watts being discharged.

 

[Tomthumb62]

This updated version does show the names of the bluetooth devices and I was able to connect to my battery.

I have a new problem lol. I don’t have the old app installed anymore so I can’t compare. But I just installed a Victron inverter with the Bluetooth dongle and the Roypow fish app shows an ever growing list of the Victron device. But only one item is the Powerurus battery. Usually the battery is at the top of the list but not always. The Epoch app doesn’t have this problem.

Despite this, the connectivity does seem a bit easier on the new version.