Sol-Ark, EG4 Communications Hub/LifePower4 - Solar Assistant configuration

[JaxLax]

@JaxLax , Solar Assistant (SA) will only run on an ARM processor, I don't know why they won't make it capable of running on X86 or even as a virtual machine, except for the possibility that they want to keep it locked down so everyone has to pay $55 for their software. However, I think they could make it more capable and instead just add a freemium model that you can pay to upgrade to a premium feature set rather than lock us out of the other hardware combinations and still keep it secure with license keys or something.

anyways... Home Assistant (HA) is running as a virtual machine on my Synology which enables me to run a camera system and my complete home automation on a single device. Ideally, I would host SA as another VM, but as aforementioned SA doesn't allow it.

So at a minimum, you need two Pi's, however HA runs much better with stronger hardware than what the Pi offers.

I run the SA on a Pi 4 directly off the 48v from the batteries using a step-down, not sure how long it will last but it's been running like a champ for weeks now. Also, I didn't want any moving parts on the Pi to fail so I have this fanless case that works great.

Got it.
We have a pi out in a cg1500 in the middle of the yard for christmas lights in this case: Argon One and we haven't had a failure in years now. Oh and the pins are exposed as we use them for an external fan mounted to the box.

Not worried too much about this one, as like yours, it'll be in a insulated garage area with the equipment so fans won't be needed. Probably end up running both off the batteries and just keep them close to one another and a powered ethernet switch for connectivity. Maybe make a small perforated box to keep the kids from touching or going after blinking lights.

 

[euphonius]

I wanted to share with the community how I was able to get Solar Assistant to read all my inverter data from my Sol-Ark 15K, AND also read all the individual battery data from my EG4 LifePower4 batteries so I get the best of both worlds, thorough data from "each" of my 12 batteries and all the details from my Sol-Ark while maintaining the PV Pro access also.

In my scenario, I have a Sol-Ark 15K and 12x EG4 LifePower4 batteries. In order to have closed-loop communication with the Sol-Ark and the LifewPower4 batteries, the EG4 Communications hub is required. The hub plugs into the batteries and then plugs into the Sol-Ark and makes them all appear as one giant battery to the Sol-Ark.

Very nice approach! My situation is slightly more complex in that I have TWO Sol-Ark 12K inverters and eight 100Ah batteries comprising three older G4LL/GYLL and five EG4. (Like the EG4 units, the G4LL batteries have two RS485 ports. Back when I was running just the G4LL/GYLL batteries with a Magnum/Midnite system, Solar Assistant was able to capture data from all three batteries.)

Right now Solar Assistant can see the two Sol-Arks via the RS485 USB cables (supplied by SignatureSolar with the EG4s) running from the RS485 CANBus battery port in the Sol-Arks. But so far I've not managed to capture individual battery data into the Solar Assistant RPi3B+. Happy to buy the EG4 comms hub if that'll do the trick. It says it works only with EG4 batteries, but that's got to include the EG4's predecessor, the G4LL/GYLL battery that first took the DIY world by storm.

I'd welcome your thoughts on whether your solution will work with two Sol-Arks and a mix of EG4 and G4LL batteries! Thanks!

I'm also planning an MQTT circuit to my OpenEVSE EV charging station so I can tell it to charge only when a) sufficient PV is available and b) after the battery bank is fully charged. I believe Solar Assistant has an MQTT server onboard.

Thanks!

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Very nice approach! My situation is slightly more complex in that I have TWO Sol-Ark 12K inverters and eight 100Ah batteries comprising three older G4LL/GYLL and five EG4. (Like the EG4 units, the G4LL batteries have two RS485 ports. Back when I was running just the G4LL/GYLL batteries with a Magnum/Midnite system, Solar Assistant was able to capture data from all three batteries.)

Right now Solar Assistant can see the two Sol-Arks via the RS485 USB cables (supplied by SignatureSolar with the EG4s) running from the RS485 CANBus battery port in the Sol-Arks. But so far I've not managed to capture individual battery data into the Solar Assistant RPi3B+. Happy to buy the EG4 comms hub if that'll do the trick. It says it works only with EG4 batteries, but that's got to include the EG4's predecessor, the G4LL/GYLL battery that first took the DIY world by storm.

I'd welcome your thoughts on whether your solution will work with two Sol-Arks and a mix of EG4 and G4LL batteries! Thanks!

I'm also planning an MQTT circuit to my OpenEVSE EV charging station so I can tell it to charge only when a) sufficient PV is available and b) after the battery bank is fully charged. I believe Solar Assistant has an MQTT server onboard.

Thanks!

Interesting setup, I’m curious how both inverters are displayed in Solar Assistant “SA”.

With all your batteries more or less EG4 I think they all support the Narada communication type. I presume in SA your battery settings are using the inverter settings? If so you need one more USB to RS485 cable that can allow communication from SA to the batteries to see them individually in SA.

The Hub simply tells the Sol-Ark it’s seeing one big battery and speeds, slows reduces and stops charging using aggregated data from the batteries. Think of it like a conductor that is in charge of telling the locomotive what’s going on with all the other cars combined. That said it won’t enable you to see each individual battery, instead it enables closed loop communication for the LifePower4 batteries to the Sol Ark.

If you want to test maybe disconnect one sol-ark and use that cable on one of the batteries to enable communication to SA.

Happy to also chat verbally and share ideas if you want to hit me up.

Cheers!

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

I'm also planning an MQTT circuit to my OpenEVSE EV charging station so I can tell it to charge only when a) sufficient PV is available and b) after the battery bank is fully charged. I believe Solar Assistant has an MQTT server onboard.

Thanks!

You are correct is has MQTT communication abilities, in my case instead I prefer Home Assistant be the broker so I can see all the raw communication via the MQTT browser plug-in.

Regardless if HA or SA is the broker, the automations to charge your car based on solar output/battery charge will be something you create automations for in HA.

The sky is nearly the limit on automations with HA from sending push notifications, making changes to the Sol-Ark or even making direct API calls etc, once you get the data from SA over to HA a world of possibilities open up.

 

[euphonius]

Interesting setup, I’m curious how both inverters are displayed in Solar Assistant “SA”.

With all your batteries more or less EG4 I think they all support the Narada communication type. I presume in SA your battery settings are using the inverter settings? If so you need one more USB to RS485 cable that can allow communication from SA to the batteries to see them individually in SA.

The Hub simply tells the Sol-Ark it’s seeing one big battery and speeds, slows reduces and stops charging using aggregated data from the batteries. Think of it like a conductor that is in charge of telling the locomotive what’s going on with all the other cars combined. That said it won’t enable you to see each individual battery, instead it enables closed loop communication for the LifePower4 batteries to the Sol Ark.

If you want to test maybe disconnect one sol-ark and use that cable on one of the batteries to enable communication to SA.

Happy to also chat verbally and share ideas if you want to hit me up.

Cheers!

Here's how the two Sol-Ark 12k inverters are displayed in Solar Assistant inverter view, obviously after dark with no incoming PV.



I've reached out to Signature Solar about the EG4 Comms Hub to double-check that it can read the older G4LL/GYLL batteries alongside the current EG4s. Per your suggestion, I did try using one of the RS485 USB cables to connect a battery to the SA, but I couldn't get it to work with Narada, Modbus or other protocols. I'm far from being an expert at networking...

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Here's how the two Sol-Ark 12k inverters are displayed in Solar Assistant inverter view, obviously after dark with no incoming PV.

View attachment 168108

I've reached out to Signature Solar about the EG4 Comms Hub to double-check that it can read the older G4LL/GYLL batteries alongside the current EG4s. Per your suggestion, I did try using one of the RS485 USB cables to connect a battery to the SA, but I couldn't get it to work with Narada, Modbus or other protocols. I'm far from being an expert at networking...

You’ll want to update your firmware on your batteries if they’re not the latest.

Afterward, to connect SA you need to make sure your first battery is set to 2 according to the documentation, but in my experience that’s only if you’re connecting SA on the first battery.

EG4 battery setup in SolarAssistant

How to connect an EG4 battery to SolarAssistant.

solar-assistant.io

In my case my first battery is actually 1, and that is where the HUB connects, then when the cable jumps to the second cabinet my top battery, #7 is where SA connects and reads all 12 batteries.

Besides a few batteries being a little older this should work. If not try removing the RS485 between one set of batteries and see if you can establish connection with a single battery, one that doesn’t use address 0 or 1

 

[euphonius]

So using two USB to ethernet cables and a splitter I connect one cable to the spitter and the PI, this gives me all the details from the inverter, then I connect the other cable to my battery #7 in my second cabinet. In solar assistant, I tell it to use the following settings and it works.

Thanks so much for your tinkering and advice, MaikaiLifeDIY! I'm curious about the little cable that connects the splitter to the CANBus port in your Sol-Ark 15K. Did you make that cable using standard RJ45 plugs and ethernet cable? If so, what's you pin pattern? Or would any short ethernet cable work, pinwise?

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

This little guy?


I made that, it is a standard patch cable using the standard sequence on both ends.


I didn't want a long cable dangling in the Sol-Ark wire compartment so I decided to make a small mini chord to keep things tiddy.

 

[euphonius]

Nice work. I'll assume that the cable flips over between one end and the other to achieve the same 1-8 pinout pattern. Seems to me the little 12-inch cables supplied by Signature Solar with each EG4 battery to daisy chain them would also work. RS485 is a higher voltage standard but safe to say that's not an issue over such short distances.

Signature told me today that the EG4 comms hub will not read my older G4LL batteries; I hope they are wrong.

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Nice work. I'll assume that the cable flips over between one end and the other to achieve the same 1-8 pinout pattern. Seems to me the little 12-inch cables supplied by Signature Solar with each EG4 battery to daisy chain them would also work. RS485 is a higher voltage standard but safe to say that's not an issue over such short distances.

Signature told me today that the EG4 comms hub will not read my older G4LL batteries; I hope they are wrong.

The cable is straight through to avoid any pin out issues.

Have you had any success getting SA to speak with one battery?

Once you do, pushing that data over MQTT to HA allows for some beautiful dashboards.

Check out my mobile view that I’ve been polishing up since my initial post.

 

[euphonius]

Solar Assistant sells an RS485 splitter similar to the one you've made (though they are out of stock), but they do NOT have the cable that goes from the splitter to the battery, suggesting the battery vendor should have this. (Signature Solar does NOT have this.) So this leaves me with a couple more questions:

• What is that black cable running between the splitter and your No.7 battery? Where did you get it?
• Are you saying you run one cable from the EG4 Comms Hub to your No.1 battery and another to your No.7 battery? What are those cables? And where did you get them? (Don't think you posted a picture of your EG4 Comms Hub and its connections.)

Best thanks!

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

I made a video that hopefully explains this clearly and easier than pictures and text.

For convenience here is a link to that splitter available on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0069LVUPS?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

[euphonius]

Brother, you just made my day! A splitter and comms hub will arrive on the brown truck in coming days, and I'll let you know whether my results are as good as yours. The rub will be how/whether the comms hub processes data from the three older batteries, which are branded G4LL/Lifepower4. Signature Solar says the hub will not read them, but Solar Assistant had no problem reading a daisy chain of three of these back in my Magnum/Midnite system.

Thanks again! I hope others can benefit from this setup as well.

 

[muaddib721]

I wanted to share with the community how I was able to get Solar Assistant to read all my inverter data from my Sol-Ark 15K, AND also read all the individual battery data from my EG4 LifePower4 batteries so I get the best of both worlds, thorough data from "each" of my 12 batteries and all the details from my Sol-Ark while maintaining the PV Pro access also.

In my scenario, I have a Sol-Ark 15K and 12x EG4 LifePower4 batteries. In order to have closed-loop communication with the Sol-Ark and the LifewPower4 batteries, the EG4 Communications hub is required. The hub plugs into the batteries and then plugs into the Sol-Ark and makes them all appear as one giant battery to the Sol-Ark.

View attachment 161171
When connecting Solar Assistant to the inverter and using the Inverter data for the battery, all you get is one giant battery in Solar Assistant also. Having one giant battery isn't very helpful because then I can't track the individual characteristics of my batteries like, the state of charge of each battery, which batteries are supplying current, their temperatures, and their cycles.

So using two USB to ethernet cables and a splitter I connect one cable to the spitter and the PI, this gives me all the details from the inverter, then I connect the other cable to my battery #7 in my second cabinet. In solar assistant, I tell it to use the following settings and it works.

View attachment 161219

View attachment 161678

View attachment 161172
In solar assistant I can now see all my LifePower4 batteries, the Communications Hub sees all the batteries, the Sol-Ark sees one giant battery and PV Pro is still happy and working with the Wifi Dongle.
View attachment 161173

To summarize, what I have is options and both reporting tools Solar Assistant and PV Pro can run simulatneously, plus with Solar Assistnat I get all the added benefits of seeing all the batteries, reports, Home Assistant inegration etc and my system is fully functional with closed loop communication.

Happy to answer any questions, I couldn't find a solution for this on the forums so I figured I would post mine and how I did it.

Cheers and enjoy

I'm definitely going to set my system up the same way. By the way I just submitted my diagram for my system for approval by Sol-Ark for warranty purposes and the tech guy said "I did forget to say this in the previous email, for EG4 batteries we don't support the communication. I know they say they have communication with the inverter but we do not support it so it could fail just warning you about that. " When I got that reply I knew I needed a new solution to monitoring my system. I believe they are going to eventually have "true closed loop communication" but until then I definitely want the same solution you so graciously provided for us. Once question I have the EG4 LL V2 batteries so I would just go from the inverter to the Pi skipping the com hub you have... correct? It looks like you have USB hub attached to your Pi... or am I wrong? If you do I would love to know which one you use. Thanks for the answers in advance.

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Hi @muaddib721

Forgive me but I think you may have misunderstood what Sol-Ark said. YES, EG4 is not on Sol-Ark's certified/approved/tested battery partners list, however, the RS485 communication used by the EG4 batteries and the Sol-Ark have been an industry standard for low-speed communication since the early 1980s. That said RS485 is a standard that any manufacturer can add to products with a need for this type of communication. However, the way the data within the standard is sent is using a protocol known as MODBUS which is used to read/write. The modbus layer is where manufacturers like EG4 are able to observe and transcribe what is needed to communicate with the Sol-Ark and add it to their product, with/without certification.

In other words, anyone can get their battery to work with Sol-Ark if they choose to, with or without Sol-Ark's official badge of compatibility/partnership.

So what does this mean, closed loop does work with Sol-Ark between the EG4_LL and with the LifePower4 batteries, HUB is required for LifePower4. Best of all the communication from EG4 products to the Sol-Ark behaves the same as the behavior of say KiloVault which is on the Sol-Ark partner list.

I have the EG4 LL V2 batteries so I would just go from the inverter to the Pi skipping the com hub you have.

You don't need the ComHub for closed-loop communication between the EG_LL V2 batteries and the Sol-Ark. Closed loop works natively between these two device types with the correct configuration, see page 18.

It looks like you have USB hub attached to your Pi... or am I wrong?

I don't have a hub, I have two cables, one that connects to the Sol-Ark and one that connects to the battery bank.

See if you can get your batteries talking to the Sol-Ark "closed-loop" following those instructions and then let me know how it goes.

 

[muaddib721]

Hi @muaddib721

Forgive me but I think you may have misunderstood what Sol-Ark said. YES, EG4 is not on Sol-Ark's certified/approved/tested battery partners list, however, the RS485 communication used by the EG4 batteries and the Sol-Ark have been an industry standard for low-speed communication since the early 1980s. That said RS485 is a standard that any manufacturer can add to products with a need for this type of communication. However, the way the data within the standard is sent is using a protocol known as MODBUS which is used to read/write. The modbus layer is where manufacturers like EG4 are able to observe and transcribe what is needed to communicate with the Sol-Ark and add it to their product, with/without certification.

In other words, anyone can get their battery to work with Sol-Ark if they choose to, with or without Sol-Ark's official badge of compatibility/partnership.

So what does this mean, closed loop does work with Sol-Ark between the EG4_LL and with the LifePower4 batteries, HUB is required for LifePower4. Best of all the communication from EG4 products to the Sol-Ark behaves the same as the behavior of say KiloVault which is on the Sol-Ark partner list.


You don't need the ComHub for closed-loop communication between the EG_LL V2 batteries and the Sol-Ark. Closed loop works natively between these two device types with the correct configuration, see page 18.


I don't have a hub, I have two cables, one that connects to the Sol-Ark and one that connects to the battery bank.

See if you can get your batteries talking to the Sol-Ark "closed-loop" following those instructions and then let me know how it goes.

I do have them talking to each other... but as I've noticed on many post PV Pro and the Sol-Ark basically see my three LL batteries I currently have connected as one bit battery. I already ordered the Solar Assistant orange Pi already loaded and will set things when it gets here so I can see more information about my batteries. On your reply about the USB connections... in the video it looks like you have 4 USB ports. On the PI you have one USB connected to the Sol-Ark Battery com via a splitter, another USB from PI to Battery rack, and another USB from the Pi to the Victron Smart Shunt. It also looks like you still have one USB available. Reason I'm asking is I will need at least 3 maybe 4 USB's on the PI. I will want the first obvious two, 15k to PI, Pi to first battery rack, Pi to Power Pro batteries when they arrive, and Pi to Smart Shunt.

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

I do have them talking to each other... but as I've noticed on many post PV Pro and the Sol-Ark basically see my three LL batteries I currently have connected as one bit battery. I already ordered the Solar Assistant orange Pi already loaded and will set things when it gets here so I can see more information about my batteries. On your reply about the USB connections... in the video it looks like you have 4 USB ports. On the PI you have one USB connected to the Sol-Ark Battery com via a splitter, another USB from PI to Battery rack, and another USB from the Pi to the Victron Smart Shunt. It also looks like you still have one USB available. Reason I'm asking is I will need at least 3 maybe 4 USB's on the PI. I will want the first obvious two, 15k to PI, Pi to first battery rack, Pi to Power Pro batteries when they arrive, and Pi to Smart Shunt.

A couple points of clarification for consideration.

1. Solar Assistant (SA) can only communicate with one source at a time for battery information. If I want to view the data from the Victron shunt, I have to stop the connection in SA, and switch the USB input selection to the port the Victron is connected to. Afterward, if I want to flip back to direct communication with the EG4 batteries, I have to repeat the same steps forgoing active communication with the Victron. Basically, it's one or the other, multiple simultaneous battery measurement sources cannot be monitored at the same time (maybe SA will add this in the future, but I have no awareness of whether it could be included in their upcoming development plans).
   
   
2. If you want to see the individual battery data in SA, you can only do this by directly getting the data from each battery. SA cannot parse the aggregate battery data communicated to either the ComHub or the Inverter into individual battery data.

The reason I have the shunt is for validation, if I ever feel like the data from the batteries could be wrong, the shunt is my single source of truth that accurately measures the entire volume of energy in or out of the batteries. I keep it connected to SA so that in a remote situation I can toggle settings in HA and view it remotely, otherwise, if I'm onsite, I use the Victron app with Bluetooth to look at the shunt. Yes, I could purchase a CerboGX and make the shunt data always local and remotely accessible, but I don't need the data bad enough to justify purchasing another $300+ dollar device for this purpose.

If you decide it's a must-have to simultaneously see the individual battery data from all your different types of batteries, "assuming they're supported by SA", then you'll need multiple Pis with SA for each battery type/protocol. If you went down this road, you would have to toggle back and forth between different SA instances. The only way to combine that data into a single location would then be to feed that data from your multiple SA instances using MQTT to Home Assistant and build a dashboard.

Hopefully, that helps, if you want to soundboard your ideas or share your plans I'm always willing to find a quick time for a phone call, private message me if interested.

Cheers!

 

[ddeatrich]

I wanted to share with the community how I was able to get Solar Assistant to read all my inverter data from my Sol-Ark 15K, AND also read all the individual battery data from my EG4 LifePower4 batteries so I get the best of both worlds, thorough data from "each" of my 12 batteries and all the details from my Sol-Ark while maintaining the PV Pro access also.

In my scenario, I have a Sol-Ark 15K and 12x EG4 LifePower4 batteries. In order to have closed-loop communication with the Sol-Ark and the LifewPower4 batteries, the EG4 Communications hub is required. The hub plugs into the batteries and then plugs into the Sol-Ark and makes them all appear as one giant battery to the Sol-Ark.

View attachment 161171
When connecting Solar Assistant to the inverter and using the Inverter data for the battery, all you get is one giant battery in Solar Assistant also. Having one giant battery isn't very helpful because then I can't track the individual characteristics of my batteries like, the state of charge of each battery, which batteries are supplying current, their temperatures, and their cycles.

So using two USB to ethernet cables and a splitter I connect one cable to the spitter and the PI, this gives me all the details from the inverter, then I connect the other cable to my battery #7 in my second cabinet. In solar assistant, I tell it to use the following settings and it works.

View attachment 161219

View attachment 161678

View attachment 161172
In solar assistant I can now see all my LifePower4 batteries, the Communications Hub sees all the batteries, the Sol-Ark sees one giant battery and PV Pro is still happy and working with the Wifi Dongle.
View attachment 161173

To summarize, what I have is options and both reporting tools Solar Assistant and PV Pro can run simulatneously, plus with Solar Assistnat I get all the added benefits of seeing all the batteries, reports, Home Assistant inegration etc and my system is fully functional with closed loop communication.

Happy to answer any questions, I couldn't find a solution for this on the forums so I figured I would post mine and how I did it.

Cheers and enjoy!

I don't understand.

"So using two USB to ethernet cables and a splitter I connect one cable to the spitter and the PI, this gives me all the details from the inverter, then I connect the other cable to my battery #7 in my second cabinet. In solar assistant, I tell it to use the following settings and it works."

You're using a splitter and have a cable plugged into the splitter to the raspberry pi. But then you connect an Ethernet to USB adapter to your battery #7? Ethernet going to battery #7 and then USB end going to the solar assistant pi? Why do you even need the splitter to begin with if you're just connecting 1 cable to the inverter and the other cable to the battery?

 

[muaddib721]

A couple points of clarification for consideration.

1. Solar Assistant (SA) can only communicate with one source at a time for battery information. If I want to view the data from the Victron shunt, I have to stop the connection in SA, and switch the USB input selection to the port the Victron is connected to. Afterward, if I want to flip back to direct communication with the EG4 batteries, I have to repeat the same steps forgoing active communication with the Victron. Basically, it's one or the other, multiple simultaneous battery measurement sources cannot be monitored at the same time (maybe SA will add this in the future, but I have no awareness of whether it could be included in their upcoming development plans).
   
   
2. If you want to see the individual battery data in SA, you can only do this by directly getting the data from each battery. SA cannot parse the aggregate battery data communicated to either the ComHub or the Inverter into individual battery data.

The reason I have the shunt is for validation, if I ever feel like the data from the batteries could be wrong, the shunt is my single source of truth that accurately measures the entire volume of energy in or out of the batteries. I keep it connected to SA so that in a remote situation I can toggle settings in HA and view it remotely, otherwise, if I'm onsite, I use the Victron app with Bluetooth to look at the shunt. Yes, I could purchase a CerboGX and make the shunt data always local and remotely accessible, but I don't need the data bad enough to justify purchasing another $300+ dollar device for this purpose.

If you decide it's a must-have to simultaneously see the individual battery data from all your different types of batteries, "assuming they're supported by SA", then you'll need multiple Pis with SA for each battery type/protocol. If you went down this road, you would have to toggle back and forth between different SA instances. The only way to combine that data into a single location would then be to feed that data from your multiple SA instances using MQTT to Home Assistant and build a dashboard.

Hopefully, that helps, if you want to soundboard your ideas or share your plans I'm always willing to find a quick time for a phone call, private message me if interested.

Cheers!

Definitely appreciate the offer for a quick phone conversation... I may take you up on that but I think I'm almost there. I understand that I would have to disconnect and re-connect to each USB connected source of information in the software, not a problem, I'm a nerd from way back. And I also plan to use the smart shunt for the same reasons you are.... You video states that you can see all twelve batteries when you connect the PI to battery 7.... how do they show up in SA? As 12 packs with totals for each pack? That's my understanding from other videos I've seen on SA. If that is true then I'm good. That's all I'm hoping for. And thank you for your time and consideration. Time is the most precious commodity in life. I have attached diagram of my battery setup minus what I'm planning to add with PI & SA. Any advice is appreciated. Also, Sol-Ark has approved my diagram.

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

I don't understand.

"So using two USB to ethernet cables and a splitter I connect one cable to the spitter and the PI, this gives me all the details from the inverter, then I connect the other cable to my battery #7 in my second cabinet. In solar assistant, I tell it to use the following settings and it works."

You're using a splitter and have a cable plugged into the splitter to the raspberry pi. But then you connect an Ethernet to USB adapter to your battery #7? Ethernet going to battery #7 and then USB end going to the solar assistant pi? Why do you even need the splitter to begin with if you're just connecting 1 cable to the inverter and the other cable to the battery?

The splitter at the Sol-Ark is used so the EG4 CommHub can send aggregate battery information to the Sol-Ark (Closed Loop) and the other side of the splitter is used for Solar Assistant to pull/push settings/readings to and from the Sol-Ark.