Sol Ark 12K SOC estimation

[mvonw]

I have a Sol Ark 12k (off grid only) connected to 6-48 volt Trophy 120ah batteries (listed as 110ah, but actually 120ah). I have the Sol Ark set to use voltage to estimate battery SOC since I don't have closed loop communication working with my battery. I can monitor my batteries using the trophy battery monitoring software, so I can can get deep real-time data on SOC/SOH cell voltages, cell temps etc..

The question I have is that the Sol Ark always is super pessimistic about the estimate it gives for the total SOC of my battery bank. Since the Sol Ark knows the total AH of my bank (720ah), and it measures PV in and loads out, it should be able to fairly accurately estimate the current total SOC of the bank. It's not clear if the Sol Ark is just using voltage cut offs alone to measure % SOC, or if it is monitoring actual amps/volts pulled.

For example, my Sol Ark is reporting 65% SOC, but the monitoring software shows a 86% SOC average across all batteries right now and it is consistently off by larger and larger amounts as it gets lower and lower SOC

I'm sure some of you understand how this work and could guide me in this?

 

[DougfromdaUP]

My Sol-Ark 12K does a better job of measuring the SOC of my EG4 LifePower4 bank than the EG4 bms does. But after a few days without fully charging or discharging they both are too optimistic.

Are you sure your SOC estimate is good?

You can diddle the charge efficiency on the menu. See what that is set at.

It appears that the Sol-Ark does measure power in/out of the batteries.

Both my battery bms and Sol-Ark have great SOC estimates after charging fully. I think they need a deep discharge to find the bottom (at least once?) too.
Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[houseofancients]

I have a Sol Ark 12k (off grid only) connected to 6-48 volt Trophy 120ah batteries (listed as 110ah, but actually 120ah). I have the Sol Ark set to use voltage to estimate battery SOC since I don't have closed loop communication working with my battery. I can monitor my batteries using the trophy battery monitoring software, so I can can get deep real-time data on SOC/SOH cell voltages, cell temps etc..

The question I have is that the Sol Ark always is super pessimistic about the estimate it gives for the total SOC of my battery bank. Since the Sol Ark knows the total AH of my bank (720ah), and it measures PV in and loads out, it should be able to fairly accurately estimate the current total SOC of the bank. It's not clear if the Sol Ark is just using voltage cut offs alone to measure % SOC, or if it is monitoring actual amps/volts pulled.

For example, my Sol Ark is reporting 65% SOC, but the monitoring software shows a 86% SOC average across all batteries right now and it is consistently off by larger and larger amounts. The tot

I'm sure some of you understand how this work and could guide me in this?

depending on what version of the trophy you have, it contains a seplos bms.
connect bms canport to the bms port on your sol-ark using a normal utp cable.
should be able to give you a very accurate SOC , and individual cell voltages, which should tell you if you pack is in balance

 

[mvonw]

Are you sure your SOC estimate is good?

Well now, that's a very good question... I have never verified that the BMS are accurately reporting the true SOC, but the vendor assures me that they should be very accurate.

 

[mvonw]

depending on what version of the trophy you have, it contains a seplos bms.
connect bms canport to the bms port on your sol-ark using a normal utp cable.
should be able to give you a very accurate SOC , and individual cell voltages, which should tell you if you pack is in balance

I have the 110AH variant (CATL cell) that they don't even sell any more. Dan says that none of their batteries use seplos BMS's (but they may use Seplos protocols)
I'm still trying to get comms working with these batteries with Dan@Trophy. They also don't work with Solar Assistant, but they do work with Trophy's monitoring software. Go figure.

 

[houseofancients]

I have the 110AH variant (CATL cell) that they don't even sell any more. Dan says that none of their batteries use seplos BMS's (but they may use Seplos protocols)
I'm still trying to get comms working with these batteries with Dan@Trophy. They also don't work with Solar Assistant, but they do work with Trophy's monitoring software. Go figure.

did you follow sa trophy guide and couldnt connect ?

what is the name of that bms tool ?
may give a bit of insight in what actual bms is used

 

[mvonw]

did you follow sa trophy guide and couldnt connect ?

what is the name of that bms tool ?
may give a bit of insight in what actual bms is used

It's the tool that Trophy sent me. Here is a screen cap showing the 6th battery in the set.

 

[houseofancients]

It's the tool that Trophy sent me. Here is a screen cap showing the 6th battery in the set.
View attachment 129232

wow, that is entirely new for me, seems a modified webpage .
sorry , but truely have not a single clue, and i suppose opening the box up isnt an option ?

 

[629658]

My Trophies are working great with Solar Assistant

 

[mvonw]

My Trophies are working great with Solar Assistant

They are all different. Which ones do you have?

 

[629658]

220’s 4 of them

 

[mvonw]

220’s 4 of them

Yeah , those have completely different BMSs from my 110ah…

 

[mvonw]

I f

My Sol-Ark 12K does a better job of measuring the SOC of my EG4 LifePower4 bank than the EG4 bms does. But after a few days without fully charging or discharging they both are too optimistic.

Are you sure your SOC estimate is good?

Turns out that the the Trophy batteries cannot report accurate SOC. The issue is that the BMS do not update SOC internally if the amp draw is 2 or less amps. In my situation, because my 6 battery bank is at my cabin, and my average load to run internet security system and a few other low draw device is pretty low (300 watts or so) the Trophy BMS (for God knows what reason) is programmed not to update the SOC. Trophy is investigating the issue and see if there is a way to fix this, but this is highly disappointing to discover. I’ve been struggling to get the Sol Ark to communicate with batteries, but the truth is that this is a fool’s errand since the Trophy’s lie about SOC and the inverter estimate is probably a lot more accurate.

 

[Ampster]

I don't have confidence in the SOC estimates from my SolArk.. It was fairly new and I had a lot of experience with my BMS over the past three years, so consider my comment anecdotal..

 

[mvonw]

I don't have confidence in the SOC estimates from my SolArk..

In my case, the Sol Ark estimate is way better than the BMSs on my battery, I agree, I have no way to accurately know how much battery capacity I really have at any given point.

 

[Luxpower_Gilbert]

if the battery and inverter not communicating with communication cable it will not give you accurate SOC. Its better to set Use Bat V.

 

[mvonw]

if the battery and inverter not communicating with communication cable it will not give you accurate SOC. Its better to set Use Bat V.

Of course, yes.

 

[DougfromdaUP]

I f

Turns out that the the Trophy batteries cannot report accurate SOC. The issue is that the BMS do not update SOC internally if the amp draw is 2 or less amps. In my situation, because my 6 battery bank is at my cabin, and my average load to run internet security system and a few other low draw device is pretty low (300 watts or so) the Trophy BMS (for God knows what reason) is programmed not to update the SOC. Trophy is investigating the issue and see if there is a way to fix this, but this is highly disappointing to discover. I’ve been struggling to get the Sol Ark to communicate with batteries, but the truth is that this is a fool’s errand since the Trophy’s lie about SOC and the inverter estimate is probably a lot more accurate.

I wonder if that's the problem with my EG4 LiFePOwer4s too. I've noticed watching them that unless two amps or more is flowing into or out of the battery it doesn't report as charging or discharging. That would also explain why the inverter estimate is better. Whenever my wife is gone my average use is less than the 500+ watts I draw before I get to two amps.

 

[DougfromdaUP]

I have no way to accurately know how much battery capacity I really have at any given point.

Charge your batteries fully, I mean watch the voltage and make sure you pass the knee. Then set your Sol-Ark to discharge the batteries down to 5% or so, wait for evening and turn on all the loads you can while you watch the battery voltage. It's easy to see when you're down to 10% or so, because the voltage starts dropping like a rock. If you check and record your "Load" usage and "discharge" before and after you'll get a pretty good idea of what the batteries can store.
The "import" on my SolArk agrees exactly with my utility's meter.

 

[629658]

I have Solar Assistant reading my Trophy BMS. Seems very accurate. I have a Victron shunt also. It correlates within 1% the BMS data and then I have my Sol Ark data. During December and into January I see my Sol Ark off as much as 10% almost always too high. When we have consistent sunny days not usually an issue. During multiple cloudy days it becomes an issue. I spoke with Sol Ark yesterday in fact and my thoughts are if the Victron shunt can track it accurately then the Sol Ark should be able to also. My next thought is how can i interface my Victron shunt to my Sol Ark for SOC. That would pretty much solve any issues no matter which battery brand is attached to the Sol Ark. This would solve a multitude of battery and BMS issues and the Sol Ark.

Manually enter in your correct charge parameters and have the Victron supply the SOC data to the Sol Ark. Problems solved.