Weird issue with 6000XP 🤷‍♂️

[PotusGobbleBottom]

Ok looks like you can sit at 55v keep it there for as long as you can stand.
Current doesnt "need" to be flowing.
The only thing that matters is that the balancing is working.
Does it balance without charging? Or does it stop as soon as its in float?
Can you set the float to 55? Try 54.9

I wish I knew about these batteries more. I only have experience with DIY packs where you can adjust anything

 

[PotusGobbleBottom]

been slowly attempting to work towards

Dont move the charge voltage until there is some BIG TIME balancing done. I would wait till 0.020 delta and change to 0.010 when you get to 3.5

 

[brucenolan]

Like Scrotus said, set the voltage and leave it for several days, balance current on these BMS is weak. you might be able to move up 0.1 volt every other day once you get the delta down in the 0.030 - 0.020 V range but until then nothing you can change will help. goal is to have balance on and no over voltage protection and allow the BMS to work.

I'm going to guess this will take weeks.

that is why I open my packs and charge the cells manually, my newest Lifepower4 packs had similar deltas and each took me three days of manual charging before delta was in the range the BMS could manage, now I can push charge voltage up to 57.0 and deltas are < 0.020 where BMS stops balancing

 

[brucenolan]

Ok looks like you can sit at 55v keep it there for as long as you can stand. correct
Current doesnt "need" to be flowing. correct
The only thing that matters is that the balancing is working. THIS!
Does it balance without charging? Or does it stop as soon as its in float? Balance will continue while any one cell is above 3.45
Can you set the float to 55? Try 54.9

 

[ChrisSwolls]

I’ll get the settings in for tomorrow.

Float: 54.9
Charge: 55.2

And I’ll just let her sit from there. This is turning into a giant headache. What do people do that run completely off grid and need a plug and play setup?? lol. This would be even more of a pain if the system was needed every night.

Thanks for all the input @ScrotusGobbleBottom and Bruce. Hopefully I’ll get this thing dialed in!

 

[ChrisSwolls]

Currently still balancing. Only have about 120W input power.

 

[brucenolan]

That’s what I’ve been slowly attempting to work towards. The problem is I keep getting a cell overvoltage alarm and/or cell over voltage protection. I’ve had to raise the float charge as well, they’re hitting float and getting no additional current to balance.

This sure is a headache lol

BMS does not need current to balance, passive balancer will bleed off current from the high cells, thats all that is happening

I'm not sure how much balance current these BMS have but do some math, if the high cell is 5 ah (5000 mAh) fuller than the low cell and BMS is maybe 150 mA - 5000/150 = 33.3 hrs to balance that ONE cell

thats why it will take a long time and you will be bald

Set the charge voltage at 55.0 and watch the deltas for a couple of days

 

[42OhmsPA]

Personally I'd open the packs and bleed off the high cells and/or charge up the low cells with a bench charger.
You've been dealing with this way to long.

 

[ChrisSwolls]

Personally I'd open the packs and bleed off the high cells and/or charge up the low cells with a bench charger.
You've been dealing with this way to long.

I’m almost at that point lol.

 

[brucenolan]

I use two bench power suppy as I linked in #42, one set to pack voltage (start at 55V) and one I rotate to the low cells till all cells are at 3.550 then I let the BMS do its job, I can get a pack balance in 24 hours, I think thats a better invesment than a chargverter

 

[ChrisSwolls]

I use two bench power suppy as I linked in #42, one set to pack voltage (start at 55V) and one I rotate to the low cells till all cells are at 3.550 then I let the BMS do its job, I can get a pack balance in 24 hours, I think thats a better invesment than a chargverter

I think I may go that route. Would you mind shooting me a DM?

 

[ChrisSwolls]

Well, no real new updates. I ordered the bench power supplies.

Still trying to get the Deltas closer for now. The cells are definitely balancing out more, going to do another cycle tomorrow and try to get them below 50%.

The cells start balancing out at 3.451-ish it seems, and hit 3.5ish. The Deltas are also slowly getting better but still aren’t good by any means.

 

[PotusGobbleBottom]

Well, no real new updates. I ordered the bench power supplies.

Still trying to get the Deltas closer for now. The cells are definitely balancing out more, going to do another cycle tomorrow and try to get them below 50%.

The cells start balancing out at 3.451-ish it seems, and hit 3.5ish. The Deltas are also slowly getting better but still aren’t good by any means.

Progress is progress. You should only have to do this once.

But I digress, no one should have to do this at all, ever

However, this does seem to be the nature of lifepo4 and pre-assembled battery packs weather the user knows it or not.

You just happen to be smart and aware.

 

[ChrisSwolls]

Progress is progress. You should only have to do this once.

But I digress, no one should have to do this at all, ever

However, this does seem to be the nature of lifepo4 and pre-assembled battery packs weather the user knows it or not.

You just happen to be smart and aware.

Well, like most of us I want the setups service life to be as long as possible. I agree, this shouldn’t be this large of a headache out of the box. There are MANY people that run these systems off grid and rely on them and most likely, don’t closely monitor them once they’re up and running.

I’ve seen plenty of people post on the different Solar Facebook pages that they do not have a laptop or ability to monitor. While the system obviously works, it makes me worried for it’s longevity.

Most of the packs are hitting 3.4v and going up to 3.5v and balancing out now, deltas aren’t where I want them but WAY better than before.

 

[Gruic]

The eg4s sometimes need 10-20+ cycles some people struggle for months to get them to balance.

I can certainly relate to that. I struggled for months trying to get my stack of 8 EG4 Lifepower4 batteries to charge evenly while hooked up to a pair of EG4 EX6500. I got so frustrated with EG4's inability to properly support the unit, I did the upgrade program and now have a single EG4 6000xp in service, and the other one as a spare. The batteries seem to balance a lot better now, I think that might have something to do with the firmware upgrade I did. I still am not out of the woods though as I know my system is not optimized. The thing that bothers the heck out of me with this new inverter is that I want to be able to set the charge amperage manually and the unit wants to determine it from what it sees from BMS and it seems to have a lot of problems talking to my batteries. I had upgraded my eight batteries with the upgrade dongle and thought I had done a good job, but my unit only sees 5 batteries. I never had the correct cable to hook my batteries up to a PC. Signature Solar is sending me one, but it literally takes them two weeks to process and internal order and ship anything. I'll confirm battery firmware once the cable arrives.

 

[PotusGobbleBottom]

I have to say, at least we are not all using lead acid. That has a whole big box of "ifs" and maintenance. I am sure there are plenty of people on this forum that would disagree but, I am young enough to not have had much to do with lead acid. I am glad for that!

 

[ChrisG]

Do any of the EG4 batteries have active balancers?

 

[ChrisSwolls]

Do any of the EG4 batteries have active balancers?

I was wondering if charging with the chargeverter would speed up the process on balancing them out. Unfortunately I’m still waiting for mine to ship lol

 

[Brucey]

I was wondering if charging with the chargeverter would speed up the process on balancing them out. Unfortunately I’m still waiting for mine to ship lol

Generally you want to charge them slowly versus fast. Faster is just going to hit cell over volt protection faster.

Now if you are faced with insufficient solar to keep things at float for extended times then a chargeverter (or any charger) set to low amperage would be handy.

 

[ChrisSwolls]

Generally you want to charge them slowly versus fast. Faster is just going to hit cell over volt protection faster.

Now if you are faced with insufficient solar to keep things at float for extended times then a chargeverter (or any charger) set to low amperage would be handy.

So far it’s ironing itself out. I discharge nightly and usually use a 125A charge until I hit around 90% (per BMS). I then drop the charge current down to between 10-20A and since doing that, I haven’t hit overvolt warning or protection again. This process is just taking awhile lol. Deltas have been getting better and better over 3.4x cell voltages.

The thought on the chargeverter was to really control the last 10% slow charging.