Sol-Ark 15K + SOK batteries = Weird SOC issue

[42OhmsPA]

Looking forward to seeing what the experts at CC come up with.
Fortunately it's still up and running.
I'm guessing identical firmware versions or adjusting all BMS settings to be the same.

 

[Watts Happening]

After going through all batteries with SOKTools this morning I've determined the following information (I have screenshots of everything, but it's just a lot to look at on a forum. Notice the only battery with differing values is #2, which happens to be the battery with the oldest firmware. It's also NOT the battery giving me "trouble" from a Solar Assistant reporting perspective. I've tried to change the settings to match the others, but the software won't let me "write" to the battery, I'm sure there's a reason for that, but I'd love to get it to the same spec.

Firmware Version
1 - 3.01
2 - 1.04
3 - 3.01
4 - 4.07
5 - 4.07

Voltages
1 - 55.031
2 - 56.897
3 - 56.701
4 - 53.978
5 - 54.342

High Cell/Low Cell
1 - 3446/3430
2 - 3562/3541
3 - 3556/3486
4 - 3442/3345
5 - 3465/3352

Warnings
1 - None
2 - None
3 - None
4 - Cell OVP
5 - Cell OVP

Cell OVP Release
1 - 3.38
2 - 3.50
3 - 3.38
4 - 3.38
5 - 3.38

SCP Delay Time
1 - 300
2 - 350
3 - 300
4 - 300
5 - 300

Balance Threshold V
1 - 3.50
2 - 3.45
3 - 3.50
4 - 3.50
5 - 3.50

Balance Cell mV
1 - 30
2 - 20
3 - 30
4 - 30
5 - 30

Pack Full Charge Voltage
1 - 56.00
2 - 57.60
3 - 56.00
4 - 56.00
5 - 56.00

Now, one thing I did notice that may be of value is that pack #3 (the one that refuses to show above 95% in Solar Assistant) is the only pack not showing a 100% state of health. In SOK tools you'll notice it is listed as 95%, so, is there some correlation between "health" and max percentage through Solar Assistant? Maybe that value gets reported in such a way that a battery with a sub-100% state of health is no longer able to reach 100% SOC and is capped at whatever the SOH value is? It seems rather coincidental that the value matches identically, but who knows.

And to reiterate, the battery reports 100% SOC locally on the BMS, but when reported through Solar Assistant it maxes out at 95%




I now feel like I at least have some data for them, I would however like to figure out how to get them all balanced as accurately as possible so they're all "in line". @CCJ

 

[G00SE]

I believe @marionw has done a lot of digging into the firmware iterations. Hoping they’ll chime in with potentially useful information

Edit. I see they’ve already contributed in here. I saw a separate post in Kenny’s thread this morning which made me think of it

 

[Watts Happening]

I believe @marionw has done a lot of digging into the firmware iterations. Hoping they’ll chime in with potentially useful information

Edit. I see they’ve already contributed in here. I saw a separate post in Kenny’s thread this morning which made me think of it

I’m not sure what happens behind the scenes in the firmware, but the changes seem minimal at least via the SOKTools software

 

[1201]

@Watts Happening have you by chance already measured the reported voltages with a multimeter?

 

[Watts Happening]

@Watts Happening have you by chance already measured the reported voltages with a multimeter?

I haven’t yet, family in town and a 3 year old only left so much time this morning before leaving for breakfast.

What I DID do though before leaving was set the Sol-Ark to charge batteries to 100%, also set the Chargeverter to charge at a low amperage and turned battery #2 off.

I did this because #2 was sitting at the highest voltage and my thinking was removing it from the equation would give the other batteries a chance to balance. Whether this is true or not, I’ll find out later.

 

[marionw]

After going through all batteries with SOKTools this morning I've determined the following information (I have screenshots of everything, but it's just a lot to look at on a forum. Notice the only battery with differing values is #2, which happens to be the battery with the oldest firmware. It's also NOT the battery giving me "trouble" from a Solar Assistant reporting perspective. I've tried to change the settings to match the others, but the software won't let me "write" to the battery, I'm sure there's a reason for that, but I'd love to get it to the same spec.

Firmware Version
1 - 3.01
2 - 1.04
3 - 3.01
4 - 4.07
5 - 4.07

Voltages
1 - 55.031
2 - 56.897
3 - 56.701
4 - 53.978
5 - 54.342

High Cell/Low Cell
1 - 3446/3430
2 - 3562/3541
3 - 3556/3486
4 - 3442/3345
5 - 3465/3352

Warnings
1 - None
2 - None
3 - None
4 - Cell OVP
5 - Cell OVP

Cell OVP Release
1 - 3.38
2 - 3.50
3 - 3.38
4 - 3.38
5 - 3.38

SCP Delay Time
1 - 300
2 - 350
3 - 300
4 - 300
5 - 300

Balance Threshold V
1 - 3.50
2 - 3.45
3 - 3.50
4 - 3.50
5 - 3.50

Balance Cell mV
1 - 30
2 - 20
3 - 30
4 - 30
5 - 30

Pack Full Charge Voltage
1 - 56.00
2 - 57.60
3 - 56.00
4 - 56.00
5 - 56.00

Now, one thing I did notice that may be of value is that pack #3 (the one that refuses to show above 95% in Solar Assistant) is the only pack not showing a 100% state of health. In SOK tools you'll notice it is listed as 95%, so, is there some correlation between "health" and max percentage through Solar Assistant? Maybe that value gets reported in such a way that a battery with a sub-100% state of health is no longer able to reach 100% SOC and is capped at whatever the SOH value is? It seems rather coincidental that the value matches identically, but who knows.

And to reiterate, the battery reports 100% SOC locally on the BMS, but when reported through Solar Assistant it maxes out at 95%


View attachment 199535

I now feel like I at least have some data for them, I would however like to figure out how to get them all balanced as accurately as possible so they're all "in line". @CCJ

Try paceadmin for the Administrator Password.

The SOKTools I am using I downloaded from https://www.currentconnected.com/sk48v100-owner-operators-manual/#commintro

 

[Kenny_]

I haven’t yet, family in town and a 3 year old only left so much time this morning before leaving for breakfast.

What I DID do though before leaving was set the Sol-Ark to charge batteries to 100%, also set the Chargeverter to charge at a low amperage and turned battery #2 off.

I did this because #2 was sitting at the highest voltage and my thinking was removing it from the equation would give the other batteries a chance to balance. Whether this is true or not, I’ll find out later.

I've done that a couple of times in order to try and balance out the batteries and it did help, but the thing that actually worked was to get the inverter out of the mix and let the battery BMS handle things. I went to Open Loop/User mode and that has made a huge difference! No weird alarms, not batteries acting weird etc. etc.

 

[Kenny_]

Try paceadmin for the Administrator Password.

LOL! I was just trying to remember that this morning after not having to use it for a couple of months.... wrote it down after I finally remembered.....thought I was going to have to ask you for it.

 

[Kenny_]

The only way I know to get the BMS to reset what 100% SOC actually is is to get the battery cells to the Balance voltage and hold it there. If you are running in "closed loop"

I'm relatively confident that this was my ongoing problem with certain batteries not 'fully' charging. I still think the inverter and the batteries were fighting one-another.

Once I got the inverter out of the way by going to user mode and open loop everything has been fine.

 

[Watts Happening]

Try paceadmin for the Administrator Password.

The SOKTools I am using I downloaded from https://www.currentconnected.com/sk48v100-owner-operators-manual/#commintro

I downloaded the same, version 22 because 23 won't open, it gives me the following error:



I appreciate the password, but the only place I can see to input a password has a "change" button next to it, when I click that button, whether a password is input or not I get a change password dialog box and it doesn't accept paceadmin as the 'old password'. Either way, I don't want to change the password, I'd imagine I just want to 'unlock' the ability to write changes to the BMS. The 'write' button is grayed out.

This is the only page I see that has anything to do with password from what I can tell, bottom right:

 

[marionw]

Are you running windows or mac? I am running on windows 10. Can't run from the zip file, must extract it to a folder.

Open the zip file and extract to to a folder. The SOK Tools will be in the subfolder "Program"

Below is what my screen looks like. Enter paceadmin for the password. No need to hit enter, once you enter the "n" the software will unlock the addition functions and the Password textbox will turn green

SOK Tools

 

[Watts Happening]

Are you running windows or mac? I am running on windows 10. Can't run from the zip file, must extract it to a folder.

Open the zip file and extract to to a folder. The SOK Tools will be in the subfolder "Program"

Below is what my screen looks like. Enter paceadmin for the password. No need to hit enter, once you enter the "n" the software will unlock the addition functions and the Password textbox will turn green

SOK Tools


View attachment 199601

I'm on a Mac running Windows 11, even when downloading your link I have the same net result. It's been unzipped etc

 

[marionw]

Try copying (copy don't move) all the ".dll" files in the Program\Config\ZL folder into the same folder as SOKTools.exe

 

[Watts Happening]

Try copying (copy don't move) all the ".dll" files in the Program\Config\ZL folder into the same folder as SOKTools.exe

Much closer, I get an exception error and it's all in Chinese with no way to swap to English. I'll snag a windows computer tonight and get it sorted.. Stupid Parallels....

 

[marionw]

Click on the red Icon at the bottom right that has the "Stars" on it

 

[Watts Happening]

Click on the red Icon at the bottom right that has the "Stars" on it

I did, but whatever exception errors it had prevented a change to English. Its fine, I’ll get a windows machine and not fight it

 

[marionw]

In the \Config\UpperDB folder there is a file Upper.db. Rename this file to Upper.db.save

Copy the attached file to the same folder and rename it Upper.db

There is a field in this database that sets the language. In this file it is set to English.

Also in the \Config\ZL\10950_x86 there is a file SQLite.Interop.dll. Copy it to the same folder as the SOKTool.exe file.

in the \Config\Log folder there might be a text file(s) that would give you a clue as to what the error is.

 

[Watts Happening]

In the \Config\UpperDB folder there is a file Upper.db. Rename this file to Upper.db.save

Copy the attached file to the same folder and rename it Upper.db

There is a field in this database that sets the language. In this file it is set to English.

Also in the \Config\ZL\10950_x86 there is a file SQLite.Interop.dll. Copy it to the same folder as the SOKTool.exe file.

in the \Config\Log folder there might be a text file(s) that would give you a clue as to what the error is.

I sincerely appreciate the info, I’ll do that tomorrow on my Mac so I don’t have to snag a windows laptop in the future.

Just got home from a dinner and was able to make the changes, I’m now working to charge the batteries back up with the new settings in effect on pack #2. Hopefully that change has a real world effect.

It’s a good night to leave the batteries at 100%, it’s a full on blizzard outside.

 

[marionw]

I sincerely appreciate the info, I’ll do that tomorrow on my Mac so I don’t have to snag a windows laptop in the future.

Just got home from a dinner and was able to make the changes, I’m now working to charge the batteries back up with the new settings in effect on pack #2. Hopefully that change has a real world effect.

It’s a good night to leave the batteries at 100%, it’s a full on blizzard outside.

Try moving SQLite.Interop.dll into the same folder as SOKTools.exe. I am thinking for some reason you need all the dynamic link libraries (dll) in the same folder as the executable SOKTools.exe.

Ensure the \Config folder is a subfolder to the one SOKTool.exe is installed is as the software needs to load/access data in the subfolders