Server Rack Eco-Worthy 48v 100ah and EG4 6000xp comms.

[lmpsr]

Can one of these be added to a pair of LifePower4 V1 batteries? I am using the EG4 Communications hub, but the RS485 is set to EG4 protocol and 19200 baud. I think the two RS485 ports have to use the same settings.

 

[HardYakka]

I am right there behind you. Still limping after playing pickle ball with the grand kids. Wife is one me to exercise more as I limp around. Becoming a cranky old fart.

I'm feeling my years tonight lifting PT 2x12x16's & 20's half the day building a deck on the new house. Fired the contractor last year and am finishing the place myself with help. Retired at 53 now 71 my helper is 26 eeek.. The first issue that bothered me was I couldn't drink a schooner/pint full of water right before bed and had to wake up, that was about 4 years ago. Now it's bladder, muscles and bones since middle of '24.

As not to hijack thread EW looks like a great price point and a gentleman over on the coast has a pile of them with good reviews. My problem here is UL listed and heated. Have a separate 16x12 with a 16x14 north side shed roof powerhouse (PH) with all the kit. I've ask EW about heated but of course no comment. The RUIXU stack is not heated so we will be finishing the PH tomorrow all insulated up making the heated units possibly a moot point if I find the right heater.

Was a big supporter of Ruixu in '23 but I'm not getting direct answers from them, I will not join Farcebook, so I'll be watching EW's threads here. Deleted another 4 server batteries and rack in their cart tonight.

 

[dieselxj]

Good afternoon all first time poster here. How is the mixed battery pack doing with the EG4 lifePower 4 v2 mixed with the E-W 5.1kwh server rack battery? I want to supplement my 2x eg4 lfp4v2 batts with at lesast 1x of the EW5.1kwh batteries and the EW bats are still cheap enough to warrant the switch. Oh my system is only 3 weeks old so i am not to scared about different cycle counts from the eg4 to the EW. i am a bit worried about the battery communication

 

[BarracudaBob]

The Eco-Worthy batteries use the JBD BMS Communication through Can Bus, RS232, RS485, Bluetooth, and even Wi-Fi.

You would just put them in parallel with your current batteries. Obviously matching their voltage in state of charge when you do that.

Otherwise, it's pretty simple if you want to monitor the E-W batteries. Besides, for the LEDs in the front of it, you can use all the methods I mentioned above.

Many of us are using multiple batteries and as long as the inverter talks to at least one of them, you can consider it. Clothes cycle communication.

The Eco-Worthy have a very wide voltage range so that's not going to be an issue.

That is why so many of us have added storage capacity to our system with these batteries.

 

[dieselxj]

thanks for the reply, and your communication explanation style is good. I thought i saw something up the thread that said the EW batt needs a pretty high 100%SOC voltage compared to the eg4 lfp4v2. Will that be adjustable?
i like to think i am pretty good with electrical and mechanical stuff, but i admit i am not up to speed on ( i'll call it ) the internet of things like CAN bus etc. i kind of know what it is, i would like to know more. but for now i need help with dip switches i guess.
On price I asked someone nicely if they would price match to the EW battery and they said no. So The EW batts are close enough to half the cost of the the other guy, it seems worth a try . i just don't know if i should get one or 2.
i think i have pretty much enough panels to expand into at 20 panels. But for now my battery situation is immediately not enough at 10 Kw h
I really wanted to bring a wrecked EV battery online but that seems complicated for now.
Now for the joke. by the way do you know how much battery it takes to charge a electric car? Well the short answer is basically the same size as the car battery. i know it is not totally true but it makes a little sense.
For now i have 3.4Kw of solar deployed on a good day i have seen 12.2kwh harvested . If you come home at night and need to charge the car it can take 50Kwh EASY plus you still gotta run the house while you are charging. So i am not sure if i will ever get to fully off grid or generator . At least not with out a major upgrade in battery capacity. I knew this going in from the start, but i thought i could do a little better than i am doing now on the battery front.
It seems like a no brainer to buy a wrecked EV for $2 or 3K now; and put that 50 to 85K battery on the house. But it is hard enough that here i am thinking about spending yet another $1000 ish to get another pitifully small battery. when i know i need what seems like 5x more capacity at least.
how big are yalls house batteries????

 

[dieselxj]

i am having keyboard difficulties today, so short typed response
Also What SOC are you all running down too before starting to charge. only discharging to 20% seems to leave quite a bit in the battery

 

[jorby]

thanks for the reply, and your communication explanation style is good. I thought i saw something up the thread that said the EW batt needs a pretty high 100%SOC voltage compared to the eg4 lfp4v2. Will that be adjustable?
i like to think i am pretty good with electrical and mechanical stuff, but i admit i am not up to speed on ( i'll call it ) the internet of things like CAN bus etc. i kind of know what it is, i would like to know more. but for now i need help with dip switches i guess.
On price I asked someone nicely if they would price match to the EW battery and they said no. So The EW batts are close enough to half the cost of the the other guy, it seems worth a try . i just don't know if i should get one or 2.
i think i have pretty much enough panels to expand into at 20 panels. But for now my battery situation is immediately not enough at 10 Kw h
I really wanted to bring a wrecked EV battery online but that seems complicated for now.
Now for the joke. by the way do you know how much battery it takes to charge a electric car? Well the short answer is basically the same size as the car battery. i know it is not totally true but it makes a little sense.
For now i have 3.4Kw of solar deployed on a good day i have seen 12.2kwh harvested . If you come home at night and need to charge the car it can take 50Kwh EASY plus you still gotta run the house while you are charging. So i am not sure if i will ever get to fully off grid or generator . At least not with out a major upgrade in battery capacity. I knew this going in from the start, but i thought i could do a little better than i am doing now on the battery front.
It seems like a no brainer to buy a wrecked EV for $2 or 3K now; and put that 50 to 85K battery on the house. But it is hard enough that here i am thinking about spending yet another $1000 ish to get another pitifully small battery. when i know i need what seems like 5x more capacity at least.
how big are yalls house batteries????

I was thinking about ev battery for the same reason as you. I have a friend who had a Leaf that was damaged and I worked out a deal for it. My curiosity with the ev got the best of me though so I fixed it. Now I have another hungry device and the same size house battery as before!
The logic still stands and i was looking into using the 400v Leaf battery directly into a high voltage mppt controller. Now I need to find another crashed leaf.....

 

[jorby]

By the way total battery here is aprox 150kwh and I have 17 of the EW rack batteries, They have been the best value, especially if you get them during a sale.

Edit: actually 156kwh total.....for now...

 

[BarracudaBob]

I was thinking about ev battery for the same reason as you. I have a friend who had a Leaf that was damaged and I worked out a deal for it. My curiosity with the ev got the best of me though so I fixed it. Now I have another hungry device and the same size house battery as before!
The logic still stands and i was looking into using the 400v Leaf battery directly into a high voltage mppt controller. Now I need to find another crashed leaf.....

Holy cow. I'm seeing a whole new market, maybe Black market , but a market nonetheless

 

[jorby]

Holy cow. I'm seeing a whole new market, maybe Black market , but a market nonetheless

I can buy a nice used Leaf from a used ev dealer in Portland OR for typically about 3k. The 24kwh batteries are aged but still, that's for the whole functional car.

 

[jorby]

The cheap one is under 50% on the battery, but the body is nicer than mine. (front end damage and rust). Mine has a battery that shows 11 out of 12 bars on the health-o-meter in the dash and will go at least 50 miles whereas the cheap one is stated as 5 bars and 25 miles. Mine happend to be blue also....

 

[dieselxj]

I saw a Leaf sell at auction for $700. i think i can buy a tesla for $2-3k . then there is the market in buying the good parts of the wrecked ev batteries. But that is getting expensive. the individual Leaf cells are $40 ish delivered, and a broken down 10 year old tesla 24vdc module is about $350. then another $200 for a custom BMS. i am just getting started on this line of thought. but those are not a good price.
Finding a inverter that has a very high dc input rating seems like the best solution. These inverters exist but i am getting a bit lost in inverter specs on solar string voltage limit, vs battery voltage limit. I think you can use a ev battery as a solar string input . and then just find a way to charge the 400ish volt battery

 

[dieselxj]

i could not see well, but if you see a pic of a EV battery level in a used car pick, i thiink it is most likely a % of charge not a overall statement on the health of the battery. but YES you are most likely buying a 10 year old well used battery witth older battery chemistry. But the new LiFe batteries are already on the used EV market batteries with wrecked wrecked newer model 3 tesla. sorry i did not see the actual bat health in the pic

 

[dieselxj]

Back to the EW battery. how do you all get so in depth on the individual cell voltage matching

 

[BarracudaBob]

The cheap one is under 50% on the battery, but the body is nicer than mine. (front end damage and rust). Mine has a battery that shows 11 out of 12 bars on the health-o-meter in the dash and will go at least 50 miles whereas the cheap one is stated as 5 bars and 25 miles. Mine happened to be blue also....

11 out of 12 bars on the health-o-meter ! Dude, I love it! My SOH started at 100% and keep going down.

 

[jorby]

Back to the EW battery. how do you all get so in depth on the individual cell voltage matching

Honestly, I am a bit lazy about balancing voltage monitoring this time of year because we have a lot of rain and clouds all winter, and the battery doesn't get full enough for balancing very often. That said, today was very nice and the blue charge line peaked at 13.6kw, but the solar day is kinda short.

 

[dieselxj]

thanks yes that looks like a eg4 monitor. isn't there a monitor just for the battery, i saw something about hooking up a laptop to the battery.

Well i have a battery enroute i guess i will see how it works out? Any hints on hooking it up to the eg4 LifePower4 v2 batteries

 

[jorby]

thanks yes that looks like a eg4 monitor. isn't there a monitor just for the battery, i saw something about hooking up a laptop to the battery.

Well i have a battery enroute i guess i will see how it works out? Any hints on hooking it up to the eg4 LifePower4 v2 batteries

There is EW software that lets you see all the cells and fiddle with parameters. It is mentioned many times in this thread. It is called ES-UP-V1.22.16 and can be downloaded from EW. You can connect a laptop to your battery with a usb to rs232 or rs485 cable. You could also monitor via bluetooth on your phone. The software is described in the paperwork that comes with your battery. Have fun playing with it!

 

[dieselxj]

Obviously matching their voltage in state of charge when you do that.

i guess not so obvious for me. how can i go about doing this, when i got my Lfp4v2, i charged them on solar for a couple of half days before i loaded them but that was only because i had not set up the load yet

 

[dieselxj]

Sorry I am reading a few different threads on the EW battery and if it can talk to the eg4 batteries and inverter, somehow i think i ended up in the middle of this thread and i was reading another. i will try and catch up

 

[jorby]

Sorry I am reading a few different threads on the EW battery and if it can talk to the eg4 batteries and inverter, somehow i think i ended up in the middle of this thread and i was reading another. i will try and catch up

The EW battery can talk to the eg4 inverter but not at the same time as the eg4 battery. It is one or the other for comms. Also, the EW and eg4 batteries can't talk to each other because the parallel comms are incompatible. You can run them in parallel as far as the 48vdc is concerned though. I have my eg4 18kpv inverter talking to 15 (max possible) EW rack batteries, and the other 2 EW rack batteries and 4 280ah batteries with JK bms's and a 4s string of a LiTime 12v@230ah are all connected in parallel and working just fine. Total is 156kwh.

 

[dieselxj]

thanks i think a lot of the time i just over think stuff. So how do you switch back and forth to see the different batteries? I am curious to see how it will integrate with my eg4 stuff, and how much adding 50% more capacity will help me. I sure hope that 15Kwh will take care my whole load, Even though i am pretty sure I will need closer to 30-50Kwh if i want to have any luck of charging my car. thankfully i am driving a lot less these days.
It seems that it would be helpful to have a inverter with multiple battery strings just like it is helpful to have multiple solar strings

 

[jorby]

thanks i think a lot of the time i just over think stuff. So how do you switch back and forth to see the different batteries? I am curious to see how it will integrate with my eg4 stuff, and how much adding 50% more capacity will help me. I sure hope that 15Kwh will take care my whole load, Even though i am pretty sure I will need closer to 30-50Kwh if i want to have any luck of charging my car. thankfully i am driving a lot less these days.
It seems that it would be helpful to have a inverter with multiple battery strings just like it is helpful to have multiple solar strings

I have the 4 JK bms's on solar assistant to see how they are doing. If I want to see cell details, I have a laptop in the garage with software for both bms brands. I just plug into the master of which ever one I want to look at. The LiTime string has no comms whatsoever. In the future, I may run a usb cable from a usb expansion box (one "usb to 485cable" from each of the 3 masters) to my office so I wont have to go out into the garage.

 

[BarracudaBob]

That is why I bought two Solar Assistances. I already had the RP3B so was less than $100.

I never messed with a USB via WiFi before but that is another choice.

@jorby knows what he is doing, he has it all figured out

 

[BarracudaBob]

Post in thread 'Closed Loop Accuracy.'

Jan 19, 2025

With multiple packs in parallel is using closed loop really worth it?

I am wondering the same thing. I have 6 batteries with the hub on closed loop with a inverter. One battery goes into OV Cell alarm and BMS disconnects. The Inverter doesn't care and keeps charging the others.

I unplug 3 of the 6 and inverter doesn't care. I have more issues when the is a communication issue especially when I am fiddling and the inverters turn off.

I have different protocols in my stack and now really wondering if it would be better to go manual absorption/float voltage programming.

I see...

• BarracudaBob

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