EG4 Lifepower4 48V Top Balancing Firmware.

[watchdoc]

If it drops from 7% to 1% in a very short time, then I would suspect that the cells were out of balance.

The firmware update should resolve this issue itself over time, assuming the pack is occasionally charged to full (at least weekly)

If you need it resolved sooner than that, I'd charge the pack to full, and let it *stay* full until the top balancing is done. But if you don't need it resolved immediately, it's easier to just let the pack correct itself over a few full charges naturally.

You can use the BMS software to look at the cell balance. Be aware, you may not see an obvious imbalance until the pack is nearing full SOC, due to the voltage curve on this chemistry. from about 20% to 80%, the cells may look like they are balanced when they actually aren't. Look at the max_diff(V) field, when the pack is nearing 100% SOC.

This is what I figured. I charge my Leaf almost daily with this setup so it gets fully cycled if the sun is shining. I’ve got 181 cycles in 8 months. Max cell deviation is only .004 so I think it was just out of balance. I’ll beat on it for a few days and see if it sorts itself out. This 7% to 1% thing just started.

 

[Zapper77]

Let it recharge and top balance. It was near 100% when I did the firmware update and it immediately started balancing cells and even gave a overvolt error briefly before it settled down.

Sounds good, try to get a good 4-6 hours of top balancing over the next few days.

 

[Zapper77]

This is what I figured. I charge my Leaf almost daily with this setup so it gets fully cycled if the sun is shining. I’ve got 181 cycles in 8 months. Max cell deviation is only .004 so I think it was just out of balance. I’ll beat on it for a few days and see if it sorts itself out. This 7% to 1% thing just started.

I went 22 days without hitting 100% SOC on my batteries and I can see the cells have gotten a little unbalanced.

I expect it will take my batteries 4-6 hours of sitting at 54v+, for top balancing to bring them back with in my tolerance of cell imbalance.

 

[watchdoc]

Sounds good, try to get a good 4-6 hours of top balancing over the next few days.

So, was "top balancing" simply not a feature these batteries originally had? I saw the firmware update months ago but I thought it was just for keeping multi battery banks balanced.

 

[Zapper77]

So, was "top balancing" simply not a feature these batteries originally had? I saw the firmware update months ago but I thought it was just for keeping multi battery banks balanced.

Previous firmware would stop balancing if you applied even the smallest load.

(It seems like) the New firmware will continue to balance even when a small load is applied and will continue until the battery drops below a specific voltage.

 

[watchdoc]

Previous firmware would stop balancing if you applied even the smallest load.

(It seems like) the New firmware will continue to balance even when a small load is applied and will continue until the battery drops below a specific voltage.

So, interesting behavior from my Growatt/EG4. I typically leave the inverter off when I'm not charging my Leaf to reduce idle consumption. The Growatt will charge the battery with the inverter off BUT it does not appear that it will top balance with the inverter off. My battery showed 100% this morning with the cell voltages all in the 3.36v range. I watched it for half an hour and there really wasn't anthing going on. Turned the inverter on and it immediately starts charging past 100% and you can see the cells balancing. This sort of jives with other charging bahaviors with the inverter off.

 

[n2aws]

So, interesting behavior from my Growatt/EG4. I typically leave the inverter off when I'm not charging my Leaf to reduce idle consumption. The Growatt will charge the battery with the inverter off BUT it does not appear that it will top balance with the inverter off. My battery showed 100% this morning with the cell voltages all in the 3.36v range. I watched it for half an hour and there really wasn't anthing going on. Turned the inverter on and it immediately starts charging past 100% and you can see the cells balancing. This sort of jives with other charging bahaviors with the inverter off.

Without seeing it for myself, I suspect what is happening is:

- The batteries are above the "cell balancing" voltage, so they start balancing
- you turn off the inverter/charger
- the cells continue to balance until they drop below the balancing threshold (and then they stop)
- they no longer balance until you apply a charge again getting them above the balancing threshold.

To be clear, the top balancing itself has nothing to do with the inverter at all, aside from the inverter keeping the cell voltages high enough for the battery BMS to trigger balancing.

 

[Zapper77]

So, interesting behavior from my Growatt/EG4. I typically leave the inverter off when I'm not charging my Leaf to reduce idle consumption. The Growatt will charge the battery with the inverter off BUT it does not appear that it will top balance with the inverter off. My battery showed 100% this morning with the cell voltages all in the 3.36v range. I watched it for half an hour and there really wasn't anthing going on. Turned the inverter on and it immediately starts charging past 100% and you can see the cells balancing. This sort of jives with other charging bahaviors with the inverter off.

I say this statement below but just know that it is correct in theory but the voltage may be different in real-life.

Batteries will only balance when full and the voltage is above resting voltage. *
*Simplified statement above

 

[watchdoc]

Without seeing it for myself, I suspect what is happening is:

- The batteries are above the "cell balancing" voltage, so they start balancing
- you turn off the inverter/charger
- the cells continue to balance until they drop below the balancing threshold (and then they stop)
- they no longer balance until you apply a charge again getting them above the balancing threshold.

To be clear, the top balancing itself has nothing to do with the inverter at all, aside from the inverter keeping the cell voltages high enough for the battery BMS to trigger balancing.

Of course the inverter "has something to do with it".... The Growatt is what charges the battery. You guys are clearly more knowledgable than I am but my point is the Growatt 's charge controller charges differently with the inverter on vs off. Here are two examples I've noticed.

1. The aformentioned balancing behavior
2. When the inverter is off, the Growatt ignores my "back to solar" settings and will continue to charge from the grid until the battery is full. If I turn the inverter on, it will follow the parameters I set. This situation occurs somtimes overnight when the idle consumption drops the battery to a state in which it forces a grid charge. This may have been related to my 7% to 1% imbalance issue but it's happened enough times that I've noticed turning the inverter on will make the charge controller only charge from solar "OSO" as I have have it set.

 

[Batavian]

We updated the firmware recently and not the manual. This is a minor problem and ill have someone look into it

I haven't seen an update to the manual. Is it coming soon?

 

[Zapper77]

But 57.1 is over the maximum charge voltage according to the manual for both the EG4 batteries and hub. 56.2 is what I have in the comm hub?

Closed vs open communication.

With no communication, I'd expect the charge settings to be more conservative.

 

[Scat]

It’s all in the file you download. A how to guide and what you need sir

This may help:
To get to the file: Guide on updating a EG4 Lifepower4 battery.PDF

Resources - EG4 Electronics

EG4 Electronics

eg4electronics.com

then in search box enter: Lifepower4 48

you must download the file: Lifepower4-51.2V-100ah-firmware.zip

attached is the file: Inside of the Lifepower4-51.2V-100ah-firmware.zip.txt
it contains a list of files that are in the file: Lifepower4-51.2V-100ah-firmware.zip

Contents of the Lifepower4-51.2V-100ah-firmware.zip.txt

These are the file inside: Lifepower4-51.2V-100ah-firmware.zip

Folder: Changelogs
File: Changelog Lifepower4 51.2V 100ah BMS Firmware.xlsx
Folder: Firmware Vx.xx
file: YS00_SW0214_HW0205_Update.binc
file: YS00_SW0332_HW0207_Update.binc
Folder: README If using Com-Hub
file: Guide for changing Baud-Rate the on the EG4 Lifepower4 Communication Hub.pdf
file: Guide on updating a EG4 Lifepower4 battery.pdf
file: Lifepower4 historical data guide.pdf
file: Link to youtube video for updating lifepower4 batteries.txt
Link:

 

[Markus_EG4]

Here this might help as well EG4 Jarrett created this. Its better then the video

 

[Scat]

Here this might help as well EG4 Jarrett created this. Its better then the video

@Markus_EG4 Thank you for these documented instructions.

 

[millsan1]

I read the whole thread, I really did.

I want to upgrade my entire bank of batteries and hub.

I would like feedback on my plan, to make sure i don't do something dumb.


I know the process is to upgrade each battery, 1 at a time, disconnected, set to all down. That seems like a PITA.

I saw in the thread that people were connecting to their chain and just selecting the ID for each battery and doing the upgrade. In order to do this, is it safe to say I just need to take the load off the whole bank, in my case by turning off DC breaker in my 18, disconnecting the hub, then plugging into the chain and doing the updates?

Once that is done, I would update my hub, and again, I believe I understand that is simply a matter of disconnecting everything from the hub and running update.

Once those two are done, and everything is connected back to each other and breakers on, is it accurate that I should then go into the hub and up the charge voltage? To what voltage? I am also a little unclear how the hub controls the voltage from the 18. Can anyone explain that?

TY

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

I saw in the thread that people were connecting to their chain and just selecting the ID for each battery and doing the upgrade. In order to do this, is it safe to say I just need to take the load off the whole bank, in my case by turning off DC breaker in my 18, disconnecting the hub, then plugging into the chain and doing the updates?

I've tried connecting to the top battery in the bank and then changing the ID in the BMS test tool and doing the update and it worked. However, I have also bricked a BMS simply by updating the firmware so I can tell you sometimes they're finicky, in the future I'll only do the slow one battery-at-a-time method.

Once those two are done, and everything is connected back to each other and breakers on, is it accurate that I should then go into the hub and up the charge voltage? To what voltage? I am also a little unclear how the hub controls the voltage from the 18. Can anyone explain that?

It was recommended to me to use 56.6 so that the SOC will rise to 100%.

The HUB is like a conductor, it tells whatever inverter is connected to it when to start/stop charging, how much current/voltage, and where the SOC is for the entire battery bank.

 

[ksmithaz1]

Completely disconnect the batteries from your bus. No need to fiddle with the switches but isolate the rs485 on each as you walk down ie unplug the daisy chain, and simply update the id in the tool as you walk down. No matter how you slice it you have to update them one at a time, just disconnect, plug in set the modbus id in the tool, update, reconnect, lather rinse repeat. You don't have to set the modbus id on each battery and flip it back.

 

[Mpgrimm2]

New info....
So has anyone picked up and tried the Eg4 standalone LifePower4 Automatic Updater dongle yet?

EG4 LifePower4 Automatic Updater Dongle

Signature Solar provides solar panels, off-grid solar systems, grid-tie, and hybrid systems. Quality solar inverters, bifacial solar panels, complete solar kits, solar batteries. Featuring brands such as EG4 Electronics with their solar battery, LifePower4 and EG4 LLifePower4 and EG4 LL

signaturesolar.com

.
Edit
Found the other thread... Lifepower4 battery automatic updater

EG4's latest firmware for the LifePower4 battery via the Automatic Updater. Experience hassle-free updates to version 3.37 or 2.19 (depending on battery hardware) without needing a laptop or desktop.

Purpose of update: Improves load balancing efficiency

Please note that the firmware update via the dongle is locked to the listed firmware revision, guaranteeing that your LifePower4 batteries get equipped with the latest stable firmware.

 

[jarred125]

New info....
So has anyone picked up and tried the Eg4 standalone LifePower4 Automatic Updater dongle yet?

EG4 LifePower4 Automatic Updater Dongle

Signature Solar provides solar panels, off-grid solar systems, grid-tie, and hybrid systems. Quality solar inverters, bifacial solar panels, complete solar kits, solar batteries. Featuring brands such as EG4 Electronics with their solar battery, LifePower4 and EG4 LLifePower4 and EG4 LL

signaturesolar.com

.
Edit
Found the other thread... Lifepower4 battery automatic updater

If you buy this, use code lifepower4 which makes it free.

 

[EG4_Jared]

New info....
So has anyone picked up and tried the Eg4 standalone LifePower4 Automatic Updater dongle yet?

EG4 LifePower4 Automatic Updater Dongle

Signature Solar provides solar panels, off-grid solar systems, grid-tie, and hybrid systems. Quality solar inverters, bifacial solar panels, complete solar kits, solar batteries. Featuring brands such as EG4 Electronics with their solar battery, LifePower4 and EG4 LLifePower4 and EG4 LL

signaturesolar.com

.
Edit
Found the other thread... Lifepower4 battery automatic updater

It definitely simplifies the firmware update for the lifepower4 batteries.