Sol-Ark 12K Outdoor with Solar Assistant Pi Device

[MikeInPanama]

Hello all.

I have a Sol-Ark 12K outdoor with a Fortress LiFePo4 18.5 kWh battery connected to the Battery CANBus port (light grey cable shown below). The Fortress battery needs protocol 4 selected in the inverter settings, so I'm told that a RJ45 splitter to also connect the Solar Assistant Pi will not work - I get CRC errors.



The WiFi RS232 port on the inverter is used by the Sol-Ark WiFi dongle and needed for firmware updates and monitoring by Sol-Ark through PowerView (PV Pro app).

How do I connect the Solar Assistant Pi device?

Thank you in advance for any help...

 

[100FUEGOS]

Have you tried the splitter? I do not see the reason why it should not work. People from SA are telling you it will work.

It uses completely different pins in the connector. See here:

 

[MikeInPanama]

Have you tried the splitter? I do not see the reason why it should not work. People from SA are telling you it will work.

It uses completely different pins in the connector. See here:

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I have and I get a CRC error when the Pi tries to connect. Here's what SA has told me: "Unfortunately if the Fortress battery is connected via RS485, then a splitter can not be used. The splitter can split the CAN and RS485 out of a single port, but it can't split the RS485 into two RS485s".

 

[100FUEGOS]

Hello all.

I have a Sol-Ark 12K outdoor with a Fortress LiFePo4 18.5 kWh battery connected to the Battery CANBus port (light grey cable shown below).

When I read this I incorrectly assumed your battery was using the CAN protocol and not the RS485. It is not clear in your words and I do not know the details of those batteries.

RS232 splitter?

 

[Balthazar-B]

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I have and I get a CRC error when the Pi tries to connect. Here's what SA has told me: "Unfortunately if the Fortress battery is connected via RS485, then a splitter can not be used. The splitter can split the CAN and RS485 out of a single port, but it can't split the RS485 into two RS485s".

Have you read through this thread?

Near Real Time Sol-Ark 12K Monitoring

I see some posts/threads already mentioning some wanting, and already maybe doing some things to get better monitoring from the Sol-Ark. So far, I have the PowerView app but it only updates when you ask it to, or every 10 minutes maybe, and I find it lacking. Plus, its coded in China, the...

diysolarforum.com

 

[robby]

I don't know if the OP is coming back but just for the sake of clarity, as of the time of this post it cannot work.

The Sol-Ark uses the Battery addresses as a way of redirecting the Batt port to specific subroutines within the Inverter so that the Inverter can communicate with the Battery in a much more specific manor with much more detailed information. Once you change the address to anything other than 00 you can no longer access the general information from the Inverter as it is now trying to connect to the brand of battery assigned to the address. In this case Fortress Power is assigned to 04.

So splitting the port and using Pins 1&2 for Solar Assistant and 7&8 for the battery will not work.
I have tried it in all configurations and so have many other people. I also confirmed with Sol-Ark and SA that it will not work.

You have three choices.

1) Use the port for Solar Assistant and set the address to 00 and uncheck the box.
2) Use the battery in closed loop mode and forget Solar Assistant.
3) Use the RS232 port that the WiFi dongle is plugged into, get an RS232 to RS485 adapter and give up PowerView. Also note that if you need Direct Connection Support or Firmware Updates you will have to plug back in the Dongle.

Note that battery packs that are not supported by the Sol-Ark for indepth two way communication like the SOK or EG4 will use Address 00 and therefore they can work with a splitter.

I chose Option #1 and have to use my Fortress batteries without closed loop support.
It's not ideal and requires closer monitoring of the batteries and removes some protective features that this kind of closed loop communication provided.

I needed the Real Time data from Solar Assistant for deciding when to do certain things and it made life easier for my wife. I prefer the Interface and all of the built in features and the depth of data collection from PowerView so I kept it and run both pieces of software. One piece of software for immediate info and the other for tracking my long term data.

 

[jrcromer]

Balthazar - if you want to beta test our can communication to solark with the eflex, fill out a support ticket and request that. It will free up your modbus port. Or just wait another year(?) so we have some development time with our guardian to spin up a HA integration ?

 

[Balthazar-B]

Hi, John:

We haven't implemented a 15k yet. We had been planning to (with Fortress storage) but now that PG&E is rejecting 15K-related applications -- which is being discussed in a thread on this forum -- has gotten us looking at possible HV approaches as we watch how/whether the Sol-Ark issue gets resolved. The imminent release of the new Solis inverters -- which should be functionally equivalent to the 15K, and less expensive -- as well as the new SMA Sunny Boy Smart Energy product in 2023 gives us some attractive/superior alternatives for a good ESS solution. I assume Fortress will be collaborating with SMA for Arrow to be supportable with their product upon its release.

Cheers!

John

 

[cm119]

Have you seen This thread for Sol-Ark/SA/eFlex

 

[robby]

Hi, John:

We haven't implemented a 15k yet. We had been planning to (with Fortress storage) but now that PG&E is rejecting 15K-related applications -- which is being discussed in a thread on this forum -- has gotten us looking at possible HV approaches as we watch how/whether the Sol-Ark issue gets resolved. The imminent release of the new Solis inverters -- which should be functionally equivalent to the 15K, and less expensive -- as well as the new SMA Sunny Boy Smart Energy product in 2023 gives us some attractive/superior alternatives for a good ESS solution. I assume Fortress will be collaborating with SMA for Arrow to be supportable with their product upon its release.

Cheers!

John

It should be noted that the issue in that thread got resolved and it seems like the Sol-Ark 15K is good to go with PG&E in California.

 

[robby]

Have you seen This thread for Sol-Ark/SA/eFlex

Yep I now have the eFlex Batteries in closed loop communication and Solar assistant working together with them using just the one port.
See the above thread for details.

 

[acsscott]

So far the Fortress CANBUS firmware seems to be working.....

CRC errors - When the Sol-Ark BMS Lithium mode is set to anything but 00, the Sol-Ark becomes the MODBUS master, sending out MODBUS requests, and does not respond to MODBUS requests on the RS485. Solar Assistant requires the Sol-Ark to be a MODBUS slave and respond to MODBUS requests.