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Schneider xw pro 6848 not powering up with eg4 lithium battery

Well I have something to bitch about now.

how many other people didn’t get the RS485 communication cables with their batteries?
 
The support guys would probably welcome that particular call. Something tells me it might be an easy fix.
 
GVSolar said:
The support guys would probably welcome that particular call. Something tells me it might be an easy fix.
Click to expand...
Called they are out of stock and will not have any until the first week of February.

I Have been very calm and understanding with Signature Solar. I understand that shit happens. But today when I called the nice woman on the phone made it sound like they knew about this problem All along. She did tell me they could be set manually I assume with a laptop but I don’t own a laptop nor the RS485 to USB adapter.
 
Without a Growatt inverter or a laptop not sure what you will hook the RS485 cables too. My understanding is the batteries don't talk to each other, but can be configured to be polled thru the RS485 by compatible inverters. Right now that's just Growatt inverters.

I took all the RS485 cat5 cable jumpers off mine. I hooked my laptop to each of them to check the BMS and voltages, but there's nothing to set, just monitor if you want.
 
Mr-Sandman said:
Without a Growatt inverter or a laptop not sure what you will hook the RS485 cables too. My understanding is the batteries don't talk to each other, but can be configured to be polled thru the RS485 by compatible inverters. Right now that's just Growatt inverters.

I took all the RS485 cat5 cable jumpers off mine. I hooked my laptop to each of them to check the BMS and voltages, but there's nothing to set, just monitor if you want.
Click to expand...
Really? so I can hook up the other 5? I didn’t mention to her that I don’t have a GroWatt so maybe that’s the confusion. I just assumed the batteries talked with each other to balance correctly.

If I don’t need them that’s great! Less technical shit I need to deal with. That was one of the main reasons I wanted this battery. I’m not into all that technology stuff. I just like things to work and to work right the first time.

I will call Ray in the morning and confirm this.

If this is true, Sorry Signature Solar.
 
I assumed the batteries talked to each other thru the battery communication ports also, but it seems they do not talk to each other, but only talk to inverters or a computer. If you had a Growatt inverter you would daisy chain all batteries, set the ID different on all of them and the one set to ID 1 would connect to the inverter.

Here's a thread I started on this exact subject the other day: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/eg4-rack-battery-communication-between-batteries.34057/

Let us know what Signature Solar says about this, if you contact them to confirm. I have 3 EG4 LL hooked up with no communications and they are working fine.
 
Well ran into another problem.

Got the rest of my Magnum/mini load center wired up along with installing the other 5 Lifepower4 batteries. Checked the voltage on the 5 and they were all 52.8v. The one I had hooked up already was at 52.9/53v. I turned on the inverter with the 175amp breaker and started switching batteries on one by one. The first battery fired up the inverter as it has done several times. The other 5 came on like they were supposed to. Everything was going great “UNTILL” I tried to charge the batteries with the EG4 charger that came with them. All but the original battery that I hooked up yesterday faulted out and shut down. The original battery charges just fine. I even tried charging each battery separately. The only one that will accept a charge is the original battery I started with.

I have them all on right now running my house. I’m going to give them until tomorrow and try to charge them again and see what happens. Then make the call if it don’t go well.
 
I wouldn't think the slightly higher voltage from your original battery would cause them to not charge, but maybe it's a protection "no charge allowed until battery voltage matches". I would power up with new matching voltage batteries and see how they charge without original higher voltage battery. If they take charge, charge them to match the original and then turn it on and see if they are all happy. Just guessing here, never had that happen.
 
This is where having the rs485 to USB cable is handy. You could monitor real time and see what the fault is. I bought the adapter on Amazon for a few bucks and arrived the next day. Other than that, I got nothing, can't think what would cause that.
 
Mr-Sandman said:
I wouldn't think the slightly higher voltage from your original battery would cause them to not charge, but maybe it's a protection "no charge allowed until battery voltage matches". I would power up with new matching voltage batteries and see how they charge without original higher voltage battery. If they take charge, charge them to match the original and then turn it on and see if they are all happy. Just guessing here, never had that happen.
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Tried charging just the 5 nope. Tried charging them one at a time nope. The reason the one has more charge is because last night I wanted to see if my Honda eu would power the charger so I let is run for about 5 min. And it charged fine.
 
@merritt2828 is right if you had the USB to RS485 converter and a cat 5 cable to plug into them, you might learn what the fault is. I have no idea, but those LifePower4 batteries sure seem to have a flaky or temperamental BMS in them...
 
Mr-Sandman said:
@merritt2828 is right if you had the USB to RS485 converter and a cat 5 cable to plug into them, you might learn what the fault is. I have no idea, but those LifePower4 batteries sure seem to have a flaky or temperamental BMS in them...
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I'm Thinking now I should have just bought AGM’s And saved about 6k or just bought 7 more Chins batteries. up until tonight I’ve been living off a single 12.8v 300ah Chins with a Reliable inverter from Amazon for the last 3 months now. Powering my entire house with not a single problem other then not enough sun.
 
Have the batteries been stored outside?Any chance the internal temp of the batteries could be below 0 degrees C? I don't think it's a current problem because the good battery in parallel should buffer current flow.
And of course, the electrical solution to every every problem, tried hitting the reset button?
 
merritt2828 said:
Have the batteries been stored outside?Any chance the internal temp of the batteries could be below 0 degrees C? I don't think it's a current problem because the good battery in parallel should buffer current flow.
And of course, the electrical solution to every every problem, tried hitting the reset button?
Click to expand...
Your a freaking Genius! I didn’t even think of that. They have been in my cargo since I picked them up. Other then the one. I brought it into to the utility shed the day I brought them home. The shed is fully insulated and I have been running the heat while I work on the Magnum and the rack.

I totally forgot about the low temp cut off! All my systems in the past have been small lead acid. To me it wasn’t that cold today. but last night I’d did get down to the twenty‘s my son said.

the shed is at 45 right now and shouldn’t get colder the 40 before morning. I’ll try it again in the morning and see what happens.

I know this is the problem. Thank you so much!
 
Good deal. Mine are in an unconditioned space, so I've been monitoring the temp myself. When I connected to the BMS, I noted that the charging cutoff is 0, and the discharging temp is -10. Guess you're somewhere in between.
 
Jack Rabbit Off Grid said:
Your a freaking Genius! I didn’t even think of that. They have been in my cargo since I picked them up. Other then the one. I brought it into to the utility shed the day I brought them home. The shed is fully insulated and I have been running the heat while I work on the Magnum and the rack.

I totally forgot about the low temp cut off! All my systems in the past have been small lead acid. To me it wasn’t that cold today. but last night I’d did get down to the twenty‘s my son said.

the shed is at 45 right now and shouldn’t get colder the 40 before morning. I’ll try it again in the morning and see what happens.

I know this is the problem. Thank you so much!
Click to expand...
Hope this works! Keep us posted!
 
signaturesolarrichard said:
Hope this works! Keep us posted!
Click to expand...
41 deg in the shed and all 6 batteries are charging as the are supposed to.

I’m such an idiot! I’m so worried about another disaster to happen I’m thinking strait.

Moving off grid and building an entire homestead from scratch is way more work then I thought.
 
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