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Schneider xw pro 6848 not powering up with eg4 lithium battery

I think my EG4's are still sitting at Signal Solar even though I have had a tracking number for days now. If that's the case they won't be here by this weekend unless I go get them. Frustrating.

As soon as I get them and can do some testing myself, I will hopefully be able to determine what's going on better. The thread is long and it's hard to understand every troubleshooting step @Koldsimer has tried, which he has tried a LOT of things to try to make these batteries work with his inverter.

I'm very anxious to hear back from Signature Solar on this also....
We have a team looking into this for you guys. We definitely want our batteries to work with as many inverters as possible. As far as your batteries, I'd be happy to look into their current status. My warehouse guys are carefully but quickly packing orders as fast as they can, but it's been a madhouse the last few weeks and we are working to get everyone's order to their door as fast as possible!
 
You pre-charge from the battery of course. The resistor is in series with input until the caps are charged through it.

Those DC inputs right now already have large charged capacitors after precharge with the BMS.
Our resistor is actually in parallel (or so I've been told) to the circuit and does not allow the full charge through during pre-charge.
 
Our resistor is actually in parallel (or so I've been told) to the circuit and does not allow the full charge through during pre-charge.

That makes no sense. You'd burn that resistor in no time - it'd be a heater :)
The only way to limit the inrush current to a capacitor (which is seen as a short by a transient) is to put a resistance in series with the capacitor.
 
We have a team looking into this for you guys. We definitely want our batteries to work with as many inverters as possible. As far as your batteries, I'd be happy to look into their current status. My warehouse guys are carefully but quickly packing orders as fast as they can, but it's been a madhouse the last few weeks and we are working to get everyone's order to their door as fast as possible!
Thank you private message sent. Please call me.
 
As Signature said in this thread and as they told me when I bought the batteries and when I picked them up, they have plenty of their batteries working with Schneider equipment. No problem at all.

So i guess they changed something in this new lifepower battery that IS causing them to have problems with Schneider. HMMM seems like they designed a flaw into the new packs. Sorry, i'm not going to give them any credit for that. I am glad they are looking into it and I hope they offer a solution.

And you still didn't answer my question....

Why would Signature Solar recommend I need to purchase a resistor and switch to pre-wire into my system to charge my caps if they are selling a battery pack with those items inside for that exact reason?
We definitely aren't intentionally adding flaws to our batteries! Unfortunately, the current state of solar is a lot of different people working on a lot of proprietary systems, with very little standardization. This means that every time we fix something with one company, we break something with another. As far as that recommendation, I'm not sure how the discussion went or was explained. We do our best to offer support to everyone, regardless if they purchase from us or not. If you want to PM me some info I'll look into it for you.
 
That makes no sense. You'd burn that resistor in no time - it'd be a heater :)
The only way to limit the inrush current to a capacitor (which is seen as a short by a transient) is to put a resistance in series with the capacitor.
I'll ask and do additional research. I'm not sure of the tech behind this specifically and haven't personally looked at any schematics, but in a quick conversation yesterday this is what I was told! I'll update as more info becomes available to me.
 
We definitely aren't intentionally adding flaws to our batteries! Unfortunately, the current state of solar is a lot of different people working on a lot of proprietary systems, with very little standardization. This means that every time we fix something with one company, we break something with another. As far as that recommendation, I'm not sure how the discussion went or was explained. We do our best to offer support to everyone, regardless if they purchase from us or not. If you want to PM me some info I'll look into it for you.
I know you aren't intentionally designing flaws into your batteries, I never said it was intentional. It seems the change that you made to the bms could be causing this issue.

Your tech, M.C. was the guy initially helping me with this. He was very friendly and patient with me when we were digging through the bms trying to figure things out. He has a long email chain with me (Koldsimer) documenting all of this and we spent over 3 hours on the phone trying to fix this issue.

On a lighter, positive note.

The batteries worked perfectly last night and ran the mini split and all other loads with no issue. Got up this morning and made coffee, ran the electric waffle maker with my batteries at 55% and a 3500w load. Batteries didn't flinch. Never would have dreamed of putting that kind of load on the fla bank!
 
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I know you aren't intentionally designing flaws into your batteries, I never said it was intentional. It seems the change that you made to the bms could be causing this issue.

Your tech, M.C. was the guy initially helping me with this. He was very friendly and patient with me when we were digging through the bms trying to figure things out. He has a long email chain with me (Koldsimer) documenting all of this and we spent over 3 hours on the phone trying to fix this issue.

On a lighter, positive note.

The batteries worked perfectly last night and ran the mini split and all other loads with no issue. Got up this morning and made coffee, ran the electric waffle maker with my batteries at 55% and a 3500w load. Batteries didn't flinch. Never would have dreamed of putting that kind of load on the fla bank!
Sounds great. Glad to hear you had a good interaction with our tech team. I'll dig into details and see if I can provide any additional insight.
 
Couple things to note.

My inverter is definitely a little bit quieter now. Not sure if it was the firmware update with Schneider or the good, steady 52v source but i'm taking it as a win.

Bank of four 100ah batteries got down to 53% soc this morning according to whiz bang shunt in the Midnite scc. Ran the mini split on 70 from 5pm until 8am and kept the house nice and toasty. Never would have done that with fla.

Interested to see what it indicates as soc vs when batteries actually get to 100% this afternoon. Will make adjustments as necessary so I can use it as a quick, somewhat accurate reference.
 
We have a schneider Conext 48v on the way to our bench, we did increase the delay as a precaution in the last update, we have a successful history of using the Conext 6848 with the GYLL and EGYLL, this will be resolved.
Which model conext are you going to be using? If it's not an xw6848, it may not duplicate the problem if the hardware isn't the same right? I can send you pictures inside my inverter if necessary or try to read the capacitors if possible.
 
Guys, we tried to extend the pre charge capacity and apparently took it too far for the xw pro. the "use a resistor" was a stab at nothing by tech support because this is out of their depth as a problem in general
 
Which model conext are you going to be using? If it's not an xw6848, it may not duplicate the problem if the hardware isn't the same right? I can send you pictures inside my inverter if necessary or try to read the capacitors if possible.
I think any Conext SW or XW would probably respond the same.
 
Couple things to note.

My inverter is definitely a little bit quieter now. Not sure if it was the firmware update with Schneider or the good, steady 52v source but i'm taking it as a win.
I'd put the quieter to firmware. probably not new betteries
 
I'd put the quieter to firmware. probably not new betteries
Yeah, Alejandro, the Tech at Schneider who helped with this over the last 10 days, when we were initially discussing the issue, he told me the firmware i was running was 9 updates out. Said it would help inverter run better, possibly quieter. He asked if i had run the inverter in charge mode with an external generator and if it had caused any damage to my electronics. Funny, a tv we had started turning on slowly or not at all shortly after this time we ran the generator. I never made the connection, but he said that firmware version wasn't good to run with a generator. HUH?

They sent me the insight unit to perform the update and told me to keep it as a sign of good will. Pretty cool, now i can monitor/manage the inverter via phone or laptop. Wow!
 
Yeah, Alejandro, the Tech at Schneider who helped with this over the last 10 days, when we were initially discussing the issue, he told me the firmware i was running was 9 updates out. Said it would help inverter run better, possibly quieter. He asked if i had run the inverter in charge mode with an external generator and if it had caused any damage to my electronics. Funny, a tv we had started turning on slowly or not at all shortly after this time we ran the generator. I never made the connection, but he said that firmware version wasn't good to run with a generator. HUH?

They sent me the insight unit to perform the update and told me to keep it as a sign of good will. Pretty cool, now i can monitor/manage the inverter via phone or laptop. Wow!
Yeah they did that with me too ... gave me a battery monitor once when we were trouble shooting other issues. I pretty much Like Schneider. Even though they are not really DIY friendly, they are a rock solid product for the most part
 
@SignatureSolarUS it's really nice that you got the Schneider Inverters being sent to test and work out the EG4 LifePower4 pre-charge issue.

Maybe, just maybe you could work with Scheider while you have them and get your battery BMS's in the EG4's talking with their inverters, The XW Pro 6848 have the Modbus/RS485 capability to do so built in and support many other batteries already, just need Signature Solar and Schneider to make it happen!

Of course fixing the pre-charge issue is #1 :)
 
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@SignatureSolarUS it's really nice that you got the Schneider Inverters being sent to test and work out the EG4 LifePower4 pre-charge issue.

Maybe, just maybe you could work with Scheider while you have them and get your battery BMS's in the EG4's talking with their inverters, The XW Pro 6848 have the Modbus/RS485 capability to do so built in and support many other batteries already, just need Signature Solar and Schneider to make it happen!

Of course fixing the pre-charge issue is #1 :)
We would love to! We are working hard to make solar easier for everyone, which includes working with other companies to provide the best compatibility possible. We see a future where people are still innovating, but starting to work within a framework of standardized connections and communication protocols... we just aren't there yet! Kinda reminds me of when VHS and Laserdisc were a thing - eventually one format will win out and we will all have a better time because of it.
 
@Koldsimer
Did you get a resolve or working start up sequence you are permanently satisfied with ?

It's a little chilly here today, and got me wondering. What if you have a shut down due to low temp cut off or a Low voltage disconnect. Will the batteries allow the XW to restart once the disconnect cause is cleared?

I'd wanna test and see. Will u have to jump through hoops to make it restart after some disconnect?
 
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