Sungrow SH5K-30 DIY battery possible ?

[jcf]

Hello guy ,
My friend and me we are not sur if we can connect a custom made lithium ion battery to Sungrow SH5K-30 .
Looks like need to be connected with a can cable to make works as they said on the manual .

Hope someone will help me to solve this issue .

thx

 

[joemoco7]

Just checking in - how has your battery project been going? ? Thankfully, my 51.2V pack has been doing pretty good the past few weeks.

 

[syphear]

Hi, I have this Sungrow inverter as well. I have a 16x280ah battery with a 100a Daly "smart" BMS. It's all working under the 'other batttery' settings but I really want to get CAN working. When the BMS switches off charging the inverter no longer sees a battery and freaks out. It sometimes goes into a restart loop and gets stuck then ends up shutting down.

Has anyone at all managed to get CAN working with any kind of BMS?

 

[RP67]

Hi, just barging in with an idea, the Batrion Q&A section says their unit uses the same comm protocol as the LG BMS, so it should work with the pre set values and use all data from the BMS. I'm about to order a starter kit for my leaf batteries, so I might can confirm it very soon.

 

[syphear]

Hi, just barging in with an idea, the Batrion Q&A section says their unit uses the same comm protocol as the LG BMS, so it should work with the pre set values and use all data from the BMS. I'm about to order a starter kit for my leaf batteries, so I might can confirm it very soon.

Cool, I will follow with interest. Did you mean to write Batrion or Batrium? Is it a BMS you are talking about or a shunt?

I ended up ditching the Daly BMS for a JK BMS to get active balancing, the Daly was hopeless.

 

[RP67]

Yeah, thanks for pointing out for my reckless use of autocorrect. Batrium of course, I just ordered this
With a few extras. Also here is the PDF, which makes me think, the CAN could work on Sungrow hybrid inverter as well. Anyway, after I placed my order, I asked a few questions, but I did not get any response from them just yet. Maybe that was a holiday in AU... Also I just noticed their shipping time is up to two weeks, eh at the mean time I can work on the batteries... Still haven't decided yet about the physical configuration.

 

[RP67]

Batrium Cellmon, shunt and leafmons are on place. Initial setup complete and the system is up and running. All safety features (over voltage under voltage, over temp under temp) stops the inverter to charge/discharge the battery, shunt trip breaker on the way, needs to be installed as secondary protection. Apparently the data supplied from the inverter to the cloud is inconsistent. I noticed this issue earlier, but now is more apparent. That is rather data handling issue than real problem, but makes the entire "isolarcoud" function useless. For example, when the panels charging the battery it is coming up on the web interface as power feed to the grid, or when the battery in discharge mode, it appears as PV generation. Again on the inverter screen all data showed correctly, but incorrect on the remotely. I selected Li-ion battery, on the inverter, with forced charge option (night rate is low enough), and the battery use is limited to daytime. I'm also a little puzzled to setup the soc% and nominal capacity. As I have a buggered Leaf battery pack, with reported SOH 50%, I set the capacity to 250A (@48v) which is about right, but the I have no idea about the state of charge... but this is probably to another topic.

 

[RP67]

Ok, I've tried very hard to get the CAN work, but eventually I gave up for now. It works, no question, but doesn't seem to be so efficient. Offpeak charging is pretty much stopped at 55-56%. No continuous charging though overnight. PV charging even worst, completely ad-hoc. Same problem with discharging. Randomly on-off. So I ended up to selecting Other Battery on the inverter, setting up the key parameters, and use the (bloody expensive) BMS to do the balancing and some additional tasks, and using a shunt trip breaker as final resort of protection via the extension board. It's a shame, but I rather use it than try to figure out which one (the inverter or the BMS) is makes the fun of me.

 

[RP67]

Ok, Batrium + Sungrow SH5K-30 CAN bus communication in my case in pictures:

 

[Waynev888]

Did you get thing work out with the inverter. I'm thinking going to the same route as you

 

[syphear]

Ok, Batrium + Sungrow SH5K-30 CAN bus communication in my case in pictures:
View attachment 107510View attachment 107511View attachment 107512View attachment 107513View attachment 107514View attachment 107515

Wow thats really cool all that info shows up in the inverter. If the Batrium stuff wasn't so crazy expensive I would probably give it a try.
I will possibly try a seplos BMS one day but at the moment we are just making do with a JK bms and 'other battery' inverter profile.

Side question, have you ever tried updating your inverter firmware in isolar cloud? I have tried following the instructions for the web GUI but the update options aren't even there for me.

 

[Waynev888]

Wow thats really cool all that info shows up in the inverter. If the Batrium stuff wasn't so crazy expensive I would probably give it a try.
I will possibly try a seplos BMS one day but at the moment we are just making do with a JK bms and 'other battery' inverter profile.

Side question, have you ever tried updating your inverter firmware in isolar cloud? I have tried following the instructions for the web GUI but the update options aren't even there for me.

does your Jk bms communicate with your Sungrow inverter?

 

[syphear]

does your Jk bms communicate with your Sungrow inverter?

No. I apparently was sent a non canbus version even after asking specifically for it to be. They have sent me some chips I have to solder into it but i have not bothered yet.

I'm not even sure the Sungrow inverter would know how to talk directly to the JK BMS. It may need to go through something to make the canbus protocol compatible like Pylon or BYD.

 

[RP67]

Did you get thing work out with the inverter. I'm thinking going to the same route as you

Yes, but there are some limitations, and I'm not sure if that one can be resolved. Apparently my 24kWh battery pack SOH about 50%. That is approximately correct on the inverter. The discharge is not going as far I did by the "other battery" options on the inverter, but definitely matches with the indicated 12.5 kWh (on the pic). I'm not sure where this value coming from, but I presume it is a calculated value from the Batrium shunt setting (250 Ah in my case) and the battery voltage. At this point I cannot change the set value on the Batrium, to keep the CAN bus comm alive. I mean when I change the battery capacity on the shunt settings page, the inverter goes to error mode. I presume there is some sort of limitation, to prevent accepting larger battery bank than 12.5kWh. I might be wrong, but I did not managed to get any information from Sungrow just yet regarding battery management.
Also I have some issue with the Batrium, Watchmone CORE, as it stops and starts randomly, but Batrium is working on a solution for that issue and I expect them to come back to me very soon. Once this issue is solved I would say the current situation is suit for the purpose, which is a solid grid tied system. Not so user friendly, obviously limitations but I can't imagine the Sungrow own branded battery bank would be more resilient or would provide more storage capacity.
If I ever want to introduce more battery, or increase the array in my system, I need to upgrade the inverter for sure, but that will be another chapter (topic).

 

[RP67]

Side question, have you ever tried updating your inverter firmware in isolar cloud? I have tried following the instructions for the web GUI but the update options aren't even there for me.

No I did not tried yet, but to be fair I wasn't even aware of there is an option for firmware update.

 

[syphear]

No I did not tried yet, but to be fair I wasn't even aware of there is an option for firmware update.

I just started looking after I discovered on the 'other battery' setting the inverter force charges to 100% every 6 months. It's a battery maintenance feature for lead acid, which is unwanted in my case, but it seems there is no way to disable it.

Probably a super long shot anyway hoping for an enthusiast version firmware with more unlocked settings.

 

[RP67]

I just started looking after I discovered on the 'other battery' setting the inverter force charges to 100% every 6 months. It's a battery maintenance feature for lead acid, which is unwanted in my case, but it seems there is no way to disable it.

Probably a super long shot anyway hoping for an enthusiast version firmware with more unlocked settings.

Yes, the maintenance charge is something what bother me the less with the "other battery" setting. I'd rather try to keep my system simple, so adding extra components to it like shunt trip breaker and other monitoring options was not my preference. With the CAN bus comm these extra features are avoidable. I know, people has different opinion, but you know what Harry Callahan says about opinions...
The reason why I cant see the "DIY friendly" firmware, at least in AU and NZ because Sungrow trying to hold on to the compliance certificate and giving "excessive freedom to make changes" would be an issue.

 

[syphear]

Yes, the maintenance charge is something what bother me the less with the "other battery" setting. I'd rather try to keep my system simple, so adding extra components to it like shunt trip breaker and other monitoring options was not my preference. With the CAN bus comm these extra features are avoidable. I know, people has different opinion, but you know what Harry Callahan says about opinions...
The reason why I cant see the "DIY friendly" firmware, at least in AU and NZ because Sungrow trying to hold on to the compliance certificate and giving "excessive freedom to make changes" would be an issue.

Yes you are right about the compliance certificate and giving more options on the firmware.

On your Batruim system is it the smart shunt or the cellmon that has the canbus connection to the inverter?

 

[RP67]

I have the WatchMon Core, with the 500A shunntMon. I use LeafMons, due to the battery what I have and these are connected to through the IsoMon to the WatchMon. So there is the full package from Batrium, I tried to avoid incompatibility issues getting everything from them.
The WatchMon connected to the inverter. Here is a few picture.

 

[ba_nz]

I have the WatchMon Core, with the 500A shunntMon. I use LeafMons, due to the battery what I have and these are connected to through the IsoMon to the WatchMon. So there is the full package from Batrium, I tried to avoid incompatibility issues getting everything from them.
The WatchMon connected to the inverter. Here is a few picture.

Hi, I also have an SH5k-30 and looking at Lithium Ion - Did you end up getting the CAN to work or using "other battery" still?

Cheers