Two Epever Tracer5415AN in parallel - strange behavior

[andrewhack]

Hi all,

I have two Epever Tracer5415AN in parallel connected via PAL-ADP Parallel Adapter. Both controllers have separate sets of panels (39-40V, 2x5 panels ~350W each) - 24V system. Both controllers has different IDs as is required by the manual. The firmware is the same.
Sometimes the controllers behavior is a bit odd- the current is limited (even in sunny day and small load) and the required additional energy is drained from the battery bank. The controllers shows 39V and 4-5A from the PV panels which is less than the needed to keep the batter from discharging.
Both controllers works as is expected if they are used in non-parallel configuration (tested one by one).
Can somebody suggest any remediation?

 

[Symbioquine]

What happens if you disconnect the PAL-ADP and reboot the controllers at the start of the day?

Personally, I'm running two Tracer8420's in parallel on my 24V LFP battery bank with no problems. It might be worth baby-sitting your system for a couple days when there's plenty of sun to fill your batteries and see if the PAL-ADP is doing anything for you...

My understanding is that the PAL-ADP's primary purpose is to synchronize the boost/equalization/float state between the controllers. (Maybe less relevant for LFP?)

I started to reverse engineer what the PAL-ADP is actually doing under the hood, but haven't gotten too far yet. My recollection is that it also called some undocumented Modbus commands which looked like they might also be setting the output current limits of the controllers. No idea how it decides what values to send for that yet.

 

[andrewhack]

What happens if you disconnect the PAL-ADP and reboot the controllers at the start of the day?

Personally, I'm running two Tracer8420's in parallel on my 24V LFP battery bank with no problems. It might be worth baby-sitting your system for a couple days when there's plenty of sun to fill your batteries and see if the PAL-ADP is doing anything for you...

My understanding is that the PAL-ADP's primary purpose is to synchronize the boost/equalization/float state between the controllers. (Maybe less relevant for LFP?)

I started to reverse engineer what the PAL-ADP is actually doing under the hood, but haven't gotten too far yet. My recollection is that it also called some undocumented Modbus commands which looked like they might also be setting the output current limits of the controllers. No idea how it decides what values to send for that yet.

I never did this - I will try to reboot the controllers. Thank you for the reply.
Just a stupid question - do you thing the exact ID is important? I am using 2 and 3, not 1 and 2.

 

[Oldak]

I never did this - I will try to reboot the controllers. Thank you for the reply.
Just a stupid question - do you thing the exact ID is important? I am using 2 and 3, not 1 and 2.

Hi , have two array 2x 3900Wp and two paralel Tracer 8420AN.Very dissapointed from PAL-ADP-50AN. Have same issue, in sunny days PAL limiting both Tracer to 20% power and everything is drawn from battery..Status is boost and giving only2x 700W from availabile 2x 3000W.Really do not understood the behaviour.After disconnect PAL ,regulator find soon a peak and start full production 2x3000W.After connection to PAL again drop to 700W each regulator.Really upset,cannot find a reason..

 

[chrisski]

Sometimes the controllers behavior is a bit odd- the current is limited (even in sunny day and small load) and the required additional energy is drained from the battery bank.

if you assembled your batteries from cels, adjusting a float voltage could help. Could be float voltage in SCC settings needs to be raised slowly up to the absorption/bulk voltage.

I had behavior similar to what your saying on a smaller battery pack. There was enough energy going into the battery while it was charging to more than cover the 300 watts I was using. Once it entered float thought, I was losing energy. I had a 300 watt load and 200 watts was coming from the battery and only 100 watts from solar. Before the SCC entered float the same panels were making 400 watts.

I bumped my float up .1 volts at a time until the panels produced the energy I needed was coming from the Panels and SCC and not the batteries.