DangerousDave
New Member
Hi newbie here, looking for some help. I’m building my own grid-tied Solar system with battery storage in the Uk. After much research I chose to use:
2 x Sunsynk Ecco 3.6kW SG04LP1 inverters. These will work in parallel and gives me 4 solar strings to us.
1 x SEPLOS Mason 280L and x16 Grade A EVE LF280K Battery (making 14,4 Kwh).
19 x 420W Jinko Tiger Neo TOPCon N-Type 54cell All Black Monocrystalline solar panels in three strings (not installed yet).
I built the battery, no issues but, when not connected, I hit the reset button, it momentarily boots-up but then shuts-down with a zero SOC warning. Supplier says this is normal and it will remain running once fully charged.
I got the inverters on-line (AC connected), they came with a message to contact Sunysnk for a Firmware update, which I did and they updated them quickly (within 24hrs) but gave no details other than it has been updated. At this point I have no Solar and was planning to use the inverter to charge the battery at night on a cheaper tariff and run the house (as far as possible) from the battery. To begin with I thought I would work with a single inverter and the battery and worry about parallel inverters later.
I also purchased a USB to R425 cable and installed BMS Studio from Seplos on my Laptop.
I then hooked-up the battery and connected the CAN BUS cable but nothing. It seemed a chicken-and-egg situation in that the inverter cannot see the battery as the battery BMS isn't running? So I hooked in a bench PSU to the battery, it sprung into life and into run-mode and happily charged (slowly) from the bench PSU. I was also able to login via BMS Studio and all seems to be working fine. I was able to change the battery capacity from the default 200AH to 280AH as built. I changed the BMS protocol to 'PYLON_CAN protocol. I have the latest Seplos BMS with the auto-balance board and the maximum cell volt difference is 4mV which I think is Ok. The inverter now has comm's with the battery and seems happy, it can see the voltage, SOC etc and this shows on the inverter display, After a while the inverter cut-in and started to charge the battery at 40A (which is currently the charge-rate set in the inverter), This was fine and after a couple of hours or so the battery SOC indicated 100%. At this point the battery-shut down (i.e. no run LED) but appears to be in a sleep-mode but still has comms with the inverter (which indicates 100% SOC) and it still displays data on BMS Studio, so would seem the inverter is in standby but the BMS is still communicating with the inverter. If I look at the ‘LI BMS’ page on the inverter I see all the usual battery info read via the CAN BUS.
So I now set my inverter to use the battery to supply load to the house but nothing - the battery remains in "sleep" mode. I have tried endless settings on the Inverter and I am convinced I have it set properly to charge at night and discharge through the day but the inverter just won't activate the battery and use power from it. Also, if I simply turn-off the AC to the inverter, it should now stay up and run from the battery but nothing, the inverter shuts down and at this point the battery also shuts down.
I can't seem to get round this? Also if I restart the inverter (i.e. restore AC power) it won't reconnect to the battery (even if I press the BMS reset button) as the BMS will not go into run mode. The only way I get them talking to each-other is to use the bench PSU to produce a voltage that wakes the BMS. Once they are talking, I can remove this voltage and the two will stay up (as the inverter seems to trickle charge the battery) but the battery never supplies load.
I had thought now that the battery is fully charged, when pressing the reset button it would wake-up and go into run mode and be ready to discharge but (if not connected to the bench PSU) it won't wake or power-up simply by powering-up the inverter, so the inverter flags an error and states “no battery”.
Looking at BMS Studio (for anomalies) I see that 'Total discharge capacity" is '0' so perhaps the battery is telling the inverter there is no power that can be supplied? I believe this may be because the BMS has not had a chance to self-calibrate? But how can I discharge the battery if it won’t connect? As far as I can see there isn't any way in BMS Studio to manually set a capacity? Also looking at the Real-Time Data Messages, they state (every second): “Mode: Turn off, Alarm: None, Current (A) 0, Remaining capacity: 277.76, Total Capacity: 280, Total discharge capacity 0, SOC(%) 99.2”. So again, I think the Inverter reads this as saying there is no capacity in the battery so the BMS keeps the battery in the shutdown (sleeping) state?
So I'm in the position that the battery is fully-charged but thinks it has zero capacity but I can't activate it to discharge so that it learns it's capacity. I have searched the web for answers, checked out the "Off-grid Garage" series of videos about Seplos batteries on YouTube but I can't find anything, so I am out of ideas? I may be wrong but I'm convinced the issue is with the battery rather than the inverter, I'm 99% sure I have the inverter set to discharge the battery but charge overnight and given that I can see comm's between them I would have thought this should happen?
I've also hooked-up the auxiliary (UPS) load to the inverter, this would supply power-out (island mode) should the main AC fail but again, if I kill the main AC feed the inverter just shuts-down and won't draw power from the battery.
One other thing that looks odd is, if I look at the battery screen on the inverter it shows< “ Battery voltage: 53.46V, Battery Current 0A, Battery temp 6.3C, SOC: 99%, SOH: 100%, Battery charge voltage: 57.6V, Charge current limit 0A, Discharge current limit 0A”. So again, if the discharge current limit is zero then does that not mean there is no capacity to discharge? BMS Studio shows the “Max discharge current” as being 180A which is not what the inverter is stating?
Does anyone have a working Sunsynk inverter to Seplos BMS V3 (latest 0.5 firmware) working and what was their experience in getting them to work together?
In particular, if you have a Seplos battery using the latest V3 BMS (firmware 0.5) should the battery stay awake in run-mode when charged but with the DC disconnected (i.e. no external voltage)?
Any help much appreciated?
2 x Sunsynk Ecco 3.6kW SG04LP1 inverters. These will work in parallel and gives me 4 solar strings to us.
1 x SEPLOS Mason 280L and x16 Grade A EVE LF280K Battery (making 14,4 Kwh).
19 x 420W Jinko Tiger Neo TOPCon N-Type 54cell All Black Monocrystalline solar panels in three strings (not installed yet).
I built the battery, no issues but, when not connected, I hit the reset button, it momentarily boots-up but then shuts-down with a zero SOC warning. Supplier says this is normal and it will remain running once fully charged.
I got the inverters on-line (AC connected), they came with a message to contact Sunysnk for a Firmware update, which I did and they updated them quickly (within 24hrs) but gave no details other than it has been updated. At this point I have no Solar and was planning to use the inverter to charge the battery at night on a cheaper tariff and run the house (as far as possible) from the battery. To begin with I thought I would work with a single inverter and the battery and worry about parallel inverters later.
I also purchased a USB to R425 cable and installed BMS Studio from Seplos on my Laptop.
I then hooked-up the battery and connected the CAN BUS cable but nothing. It seemed a chicken-and-egg situation in that the inverter cannot see the battery as the battery BMS isn't running? So I hooked in a bench PSU to the battery, it sprung into life and into run-mode and happily charged (slowly) from the bench PSU. I was also able to login via BMS Studio and all seems to be working fine. I was able to change the battery capacity from the default 200AH to 280AH as built. I changed the BMS protocol to 'PYLON_CAN protocol. I have the latest Seplos BMS with the auto-balance board and the maximum cell volt difference is 4mV which I think is Ok. The inverter now has comm's with the battery and seems happy, it can see the voltage, SOC etc and this shows on the inverter display, After a while the inverter cut-in and started to charge the battery at 40A (which is currently the charge-rate set in the inverter), This was fine and after a couple of hours or so the battery SOC indicated 100%. At this point the battery-shut down (i.e. no run LED) but appears to be in a sleep-mode but still has comms with the inverter (which indicates 100% SOC) and it still displays data on BMS Studio, so would seem the inverter is in standby but the BMS is still communicating with the inverter. If I look at the ‘LI BMS’ page on the inverter I see all the usual battery info read via the CAN BUS.
So I now set my inverter to use the battery to supply load to the house but nothing - the battery remains in "sleep" mode. I have tried endless settings on the Inverter and I am convinced I have it set properly to charge at night and discharge through the day but the inverter just won't activate the battery and use power from it. Also, if I simply turn-off the AC to the inverter, it should now stay up and run from the battery but nothing, the inverter shuts down and at this point the battery also shuts down.
I can't seem to get round this? Also if I restart the inverter (i.e. restore AC power) it won't reconnect to the battery (even if I press the BMS reset button) as the BMS will not go into run mode. The only way I get them talking to each-other is to use the bench PSU to produce a voltage that wakes the BMS. Once they are talking, I can remove this voltage and the two will stay up (as the inverter seems to trickle charge the battery) but the battery never supplies load.
I had thought now that the battery is fully charged, when pressing the reset button it would wake-up and go into run mode and be ready to discharge but (if not connected to the bench PSU) it won't wake or power-up simply by powering-up the inverter, so the inverter flags an error and states “no battery”.
Looking at BMS Studio (for anomalies) I see that 'Total discharge capacity" is '0' so perhaps the battery is telling the inverter there is no power that can be supplied? I believe this may be because the BMS has not had a chance to self-calibrate? But how can I discharge the battery if it won’t connect? As far as I can see there isn't any way in BMS Studio to manually set a capacity? Also looking at the Real-Time Data Messages, they state (every second): “Mode: Turn off, Alarm: None, Current (A) 0, Remaining capacity: 277.76, Total Capacity: 280, Total discharge capacity 0, SOC(%) 99.2”. So again, I think the Inverter reads this as saying there is no capacity in the battery so the BMS keeps the battery in the shutdown (sleeping) state?
So I'm in the position that the battery is fully-charged but thinks it has zero capacity but I can't activate it to discharge so that it learns it's capacity. I have searched the web for answers, checked out the "Off-grid Garage" series of videos about Seplos batteries on YouTube but I can't find anything, so I am out of ideas? I may be wrong but I'm convinced the issue is with the battery rather than the inverter, I'm 99% sure I have the inverter set to discharge the battery but charge overnight and given that I can see comm's between them I would have thought this should happen?
I've also hooked-up the auxiliary (UPS) load to the inverter, this would supply power-out (island mode) should the main AC fail but again, if I kill the main AC feed the inverter just shuts-down and won't draw power from the battery.
One other thing that looks odd is, if I look at the battery screen on the inverter it shows< “ Battery voltage: 53.46V, Battery Current 0A, Battery temp 6.3C, SOC: 99%, SOH: 100%, Battery charge voltage: 57.6V, Charge current limit 0A, Discharge current limit 0A”. So again, if the discharge current limit is zero then does that not mean there is no capacity to discharge? BMS Studio shows the “Max discharge current” as being 180A which is not what the inverter is stating?
Does anyone have a working Sunsynk inverter to Seplos BMS V3 (latest 0.5 firmware) working and what was their experience in getting them to work together?
In particular, if you have a Seplos battery using the latest V3 BMS (firmware 0.5) should the battery stay awake in run-mode when charged but with the DC disconnected (i.e. no external voltage)?
Any help much appreciated?