Using off-brand batteries with a Pecron E1500LFP: A build log

[PunkerTFC]

Disclaimer: None of this really make sense from a "build it from scratch" standpoint, and I realize that. I also realize that a bunch of the readouts on the Pecron, like state-of-charge are probably not going to work correctly. I'm doing this because I like to tinker with stuff, and I'm posting this thread to record the process and results for anyone else who is thinking about doing this in the future. Also, this will definitely void the warranty on your Pecron solar generator, but who doesn't like to live dangerously?

Based on some stuff I've seen with the Pecron E2000LFP, I'm thinking that it is possible to run an off-brand 16s LiFEPO4 battery (in my case, a server rack battery) in place of the OEM expansion battery. I ordered and received an E1500LFP to use as a UPS for my pellet stove, so I thought I'd keep going down the path of actually testing it out. This is what I've found so far:

• The battery expansion port on the E1500LFP appears to be a hot connection straight to the battery. I'm measuring 57.2 VDC on the port maximum (end of charge), down to 50.4 VDC at an indicated 7% charge. Those numbers match a 16s LFP pack.
• The expansion port looks like a female two-pin MJ32, with some additional data pins above and below the main pins. I'm guessing those are just for BMS communication. A straight two-pin MJ32 connector set is available on Amazon, and I ordered one to test. They are way cheaper if you order them straight from China, but I'm impatient.

This is what is left for my plan:

1. Make sure the male MJ32 connector fits and secures correctly into the E1500LFP it fits perfectly and the polarity matches the markings on the plug.
2. Order a 16s server rack battery. It'll probably be an AOLithium since the E1500LFP voltages are within the range of the BMS in that pack, they are cheap, and also have free shipping
3. Wire up the MJ32 to some battery leads
4. Match the voltage on the E1500LFP and the server rack battery, and connect them up to see if magic smoke comes out
5. Test the charging and discharging capability to see if the E1500LFP is charging the server rack battery in parallel with the internal pack, and then drawing from the server rack battery in parallel with the internal pack for discharging

I'll update this thread once I've made more progress.

Quick aside about the E1500LFP: if you just want a budget-priced medium-size solar generator that just works without much tinkering, the E1500LFP seems to be pretty great. I haven't tested it extensively but the UPS function works great with my stove and it'll power my Harmon P43 pellet stove (which draws between 70-120 watts once it's lit) for about 10 hours on the internal battery. The app is also internet connected, so you can access the unit from anywhere with an internet connection to see what's going on.

 

[Dave in AZ]

Interesting.
I got the e1500LFP, and also the e3000 48v expansion battery. The expansion is interesting, it is dang near a power station on it's own--has everything but inverter. Can be AC charged, DC charged, has 400w mppt solar input, has 100w USB C out, and has xt60 30A 12v out. So you could just run it as is for a car 2nd battery solution if no AC needed.

Anyways, I am thinking about running it with the e1500LFP, connected designed, and then using the 30A xt60 ports on both the main station and the expansion battery, to give 60A dc to my Bluesea dc fuseblock.

I got looking, the expansion battery is 40 lbs and 3072wh. Combined it gives 4608wh, or 360Ah at 12.8v. That is probably enough to get me thru all 3 day truck-camping trips... so I wouldnt have to mount 50 lbs of solar on popup roof, save weight and drag and wiring and pain.

I am interested in your results. Jasonoid on Youtube has a recent video of just using 100 or 200ah 12v as expansion packs with solar generators, certainly much cheaper than the Pecron expansion battery. He used a pecron e2000 station there, check it:

 

[PunkerTFC]

Interesting.
I got the e1500LFP, and also the e3000 48v expansion battery. The expansion is interesting, it is dang near a power station on it's own--has everything but inverter. Can be AC charged, DC charged, has 400w mppt solar input, has 100w USB C out, and has xt60 30A 12v out. So you could just run it as is for a car 2nd battery solution if no AC needed.

Anyways, I am thinking about running it with the e1500LFP, connected designed, and then using the 30A xt60 ports on both the main station and the expansion battery, to give 60A dc to my Bluesea dc fuseblock.

I got looking, the expansion battery is 40 lbs and 3072wh. Combined it gives 4608wh, or 360Ah at 12.8v. That is probably enough to get me thru all 3 day truck-camping trips... so I wouldnt have to mount 50 lbs of solar on popup roof, save weight and drag and wiring and pain.

I am interested in your results. Jasonoid on Youtube has a recent video of just using 100 or 200ah 12v as expansion packs with solar generators, certainly much cheaper than the Pecron expansion battery. He used a pecron e2000 station there, check it:

It should also be totally possible to charge the E1500LFP with a 16s LFP battery through the MPPT DC connector, but in my case I want the E1500LFP to both charge and discharge the server rack battery since I'm using it as a UPS. I'm more of less using it in place of an off-the-shelf hybrid inverter like the EG4 3k. I guess I'll find out if it works or not! My biggest question is if the expansion terminal really is just a hot connection to the battery, or if there is some kind of relay and I'm just reading voltage bleeding through a resistor or something. From what I've seen the E2000LFP has a hot connection to the battery, so I'm making the assumption they didn't change it. I suppose the control board might also be smart enough to recognize that the SOC % and voltages don't match up, but I suspect it's not really that smart.

The E3000 battery price dropped to $1099 but considering you get almost double the energy and 4x the warranty with the AOLithium server rack battery for the same price, it's hard to justify when I just need more Wh.

 

[PunkerTFC]

Some additional data points:

Fully charged (like end-of-charge, not charged-and-rested) the E1500LFP external port reads 57.3 vdc. I ran mine tonight until it shut off and it looks like the BMS kicked off at around 43 vdc (hard to tell as it dropped quickly when an unexpected load kicked on, but the lowest I saw was 43.0). Once the unit was off I measured 44.2 vdc on the external port. It read 1% SOC from 50.0 vdc all the way down to 43 vdc

I've noticed some strange charging behavior when you run the E1500LFP until it kicks off. Once you reconnect the AC it'll charge at 500w for a while then ramp up to 1400w, which seems fine. However, it does not like to output AC AND charge until the SOC gets over 50-ish percent, even though it's operating in UPS mode. It'll do it for a while, and then the charger will kick off. I've only seen that behavior when I run it until it shuts off; any time I've partially discharged it (even as low as 7% SOC) and then reconnected the AC it works perfectly.

 

[PunkerTFC]

The two-pin MJ32 plug fits perfectly on the Pecron battery expansion port. It looks like a solid unit. I'm putting a generator transfer switch in so I can move everything away from the pellet stove, and then I'll buy the server rack battery.

 

[PunkerTFC]

I decided to abandon this idea; I went as far as ordering an aolithium server rack battery, and then started reading posts saying the AOLithium rack batteries were alarming for over voltage at 56.0 volts, which is regularly exceeded when the E1500LFP charges. It would still probably work, but I don't want to have to listen to the battery alarm all the time. In the meantime the Pecron expansion batteries have come down to $1099, so while the server rack batteries are still cheaper per wH, it's about a hundred bucks cheaper to just buy a Pecron expansion battery. At this point I'm not even sure I need the extra capacity anyways. Good luck to anyone else who decides to give this a try, and let me know how it goes!

 

[dstra1]

Just picked up the E1500LFP and have been debating getting an EP3000 vs a server rack battery. Found your experiment very interesting and sorry you decided not to continue. I like the idea of the integration of the EP3000 and E1500LFP and the fact that the EP3000 can be charged directly or used as a DC power station. If the capacity was 100aH it would be a no brainer, but at 60aH it makes a server rack battery still attractive. Even if you have to charge through the solar port. Did you get the EP3000? If so how do you like it?

 

[Dave in AZ]

I got the ep3000 and like it, because as you say it us basically it's own power station, just no 120v inverter. Has 400W solar with mppt, can do car and ac input, usb c output, and most bestest, another 30A 13.4v dc xt60 port! Between it and the e1500LFP I can have 60A of 12v (13.4 really, sweet!) Going to my fuseblock.

It's 240Ah of 12v... yeah it runs inside on 48v, 60Ah there, but output is 12.

Pricewise it is $1100 right now. For 240Ah 12v LFP, that would be about $650 right now. Adding in the mppts and ports and engineering and BMS, I thinkbit is probably worth the $450 extra. I bought a 100Ah 12v for if I want to just feed it into the e1500LFP mppt as a smaller lighter expansion

 

[bandgap]

Got so excited because this is what I was hoping to do. Too bad it didn't work out. I still might give it a try, because it would be really handy to have this this smaller battery mobile without buying another inverter for home use. And the expansion is still really expensive compared to the DIY battery options. Will report back if I ever proceed (don't have any equipment on order yet)

 

[Dave in AZ]

Got so excited because this is what I was hoping to do. Too bad it didn't work out. I still might give it a try, because it would be really handy to have this this smaller battery mobile without buying another inverter for home use. And the expansion is still really expensive compared to the DIY battery options. Will report back if I ever proceed (don't have any equipment on order yet)

I happened to make a 2 min video today showing e1500LFP ac capacity test. Once drained, I started filling it up using a 100Ah 12v mini LiFePo4 from Redodo, just to test the Redodo capacity to be sure it was good before return period runs out. Using the 12-18v 100W solar input, will take 12.8 hrs at 100W to drain lifepo and fill Pecron, its still out there charging now. Pretty slow, but a good overnight setup.

 

[Brucey]

Not sure what the mppt input specs are on that but I've had good luck using 24V batteries to extend the runtime of my Delta 2 max (two mppts with 11-60V 15A inputs). Gets me around 330W input per port.

 

[Dave in AZ]

Not sure what the mppt input specs are on that but I've had good luck using 24V batteries to extend the runtime of my Delta 2 max (two mppts with 11-60V 15A inputs). Gets me around 330W input per port.

12-18v 100W
32-95v 700W.

So I can really only use the 12v 100W max. Pretty slow. Maybe I will buy a 12v to 48v booster to feed the larger port, and can use later for doing Starlink off 12v if desired. Can't think of other 48v needs.

 

[bandgap]

12-18v 100W
32-95v 700W.

So I can really only use the 12v 100W max. Pretty slow. Maybe I will buy a 12v to 48v booster to feed the larger port, and can use later for doing Starlink off 12v if desired. Can't think of other 48v needs.

Yeah, I figure I need around 700w average to run "essentials" during a power outage so this is a possibility but not ideal with only the small 1.5kw pecron buffer. I can get 100-150w out of the 12v accessory port of my EV

 

[RobertoJJJ]

I got the ep3000 and like it, because as you say it us basically it's own power station, just no 120v inverter. Has 400W solar with mppt, can do car and ac input, usb c output, and most bestest, another 30A 13.4v dc xt60 port! Between it and the e1500LFP I can have 60A of 12v (13.4 really, sweet!) Going to my fuseblock.

It's 240Ah of 12v... yeah it runs inside on 48v, 60Ah there, but output is 12.

Pricewise it is $1100 right now. For 240Ah 12v LFP, that would be about $650 right now. Adding in the mppts and ports and engineering and BMS, I thinkbit is probably worth the $450 extra. I bought a 100Ah 12v for if I want to just feed it into the e1500LFP mppt as a smaller lighter expansion

Yes, I also prefer to buy the extended battery EP3000-48V directly. I only spent $1,044 with a 5% coupon code: ALLCPMOR on the Pecron website.
It can also be used as a separate DC output. The price of PECRON is indeed very affordable. I have purchased E2000LFP and E1500LFP, EP3000-48V from last year to now. Their quality is indeed great.
(I feel that I was too stupid to choose Jackery before, jackery is very expensive, because its Pays for Jackery's advertising,,,)

 

[bandgap]

There's supposed to be an E3600LFP coming out soon... perfect for hitting that tax credit (if installed to house) while still remaining portable. Alas, I am not in the market for one anymore after I dove into cheaper semi-DIY options.

 

[RobertoJJJ]

There's supposed to be an E3600LFP coming out soon... perfect for hitting that tax credit (if installed to house) while still remaining portable. Alas, I am not in the market for one anymore after I dove into cheaper semi-DIY options.

When will E3600LFP be available? My current power stations are sufficient, but I want to equip my parents’ old house with a home energy storage of more than 10KW in June. I heard that E3600LFP can be cascaded to output 240V 7200W power. I like this very much. The important thing is that I am looking forward to this value for money Jaja, after all, my wallet is always limited.

 

[bandgap]

When will E3600LFP be available? My current power stations are sufficient, but I want to equip my parents’ old house with a home energy storage of more than 10KW in June. I heard that E3600LFP can be cascaded to output 240V 7200W power. I like this very much. The important thing is that I am looking forward to this value for money Jaja, after all, my wallet is always limited.

Sadly I haven’t heard any new rumors for months. If you google it you can find some foreign language spec sheets online but that’s about it. So who knows when they will ship it?

 

[RobertoJJJ]

Sadly I haven’t heard any new rumors for months. If you google it you can find some foreign language spec sheets online but that’s about it. So who knows when they will ship it?

Yes, I consulted them this afternoon and they said they expect sales to start at the end of April or early May. I will attention to it