Sol-Ark 15K w Fortress E-Flex no longer supported closed loop?

[CopperTopper]

I installed a Sol-Ark 15K with 12K of DC coupled solar last fall. There was originally 2- E-flex batteries and we installed the other 2 a month later totaling 4 batteries. The system has been working fine in CAN closed loop communication for months up until recent. I have called Sol-Ark and asked what is going on and they said that closed loop is no longer supported with Fortress and to put it in open loop. This is not an option. Anyone know of what is going on? It seems like there has been a software update or something and all of a sudden no more closed loop? WTF!

 

[chrisski]

Installed last November, I have 4 X Fortress e-Flex w/ an Outback, and I'm unfmailiar with "Open" or "Closed" loop, but I am having a bit of trouble keeping these charged. The inverter and MPPTs read 100% and the batteries read 25% to 50%.

I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

 

[Alkaline]

Makes perfect sense if sol-ark is gearing to release its own batteries

 

[Oldphile]

There hasn't been a Sol-Ark firmware update since 2022.
Fortress now has their own line of inverters. They probably modified battery communications to work with their own inverters.

 

[Brucey]

There hasn't been a Sol-Ark firmware update since 2022.
Fortress now has their own line of inverters. They probably modified battery communications to work with their own inverters.

Are you sure? Didn't they disable a feature on the gen input recently?

 

[Brucey]

Sol-Ark 7.2.2.2 firmware?

I just had the 7.2.2.2 firmware pushed to my 15K and I was wondering what the improvements/changes are with this version? Sol-Ark does not provide a changelog on their website so my guess is as good as any on what actually has changed. Side note, after the upgrade I did receive a continuous F62...

diysolarforum.com

 

[Oldphile]

Are you sure? Didn't they disable a feature on the gen input recently?

Yeah I'm sure, my first system was updated to 7.2.2.2 Jan. 2023

 

[Balthazar-B]

I installed a Sol-Ark 15K with 12K of DC coupled solar last fall. There was originally 2- E-flex batteries and we installed the other 2 a month later totaling 4 batteries. The system has been working fine in CAN closed loop communication for months up until recent. I have called Sol-Ark and asked what is going on and they said that closed loop is no longer supported with Fortress and to put it in open loop. This is not an option. Anyone know of what is going on? It seems like there has been a software update or something and all of a sudden no more closed loop? WTF!

Did Sol-Ark (or Fortress, if you talked with them) indicate what had changed that disabled closed-loop communication? If Sol-Ark has not pushed out a firmware update to the 15K in well over a year, was it a recent BMS change that Fortress pushed out?

Since UL9540 certification with Sol-Ark inverters evidently is dependent upon closed-loop comms, would this mean therefore that Fortress ESS has lost its UL9540 certification with that change, thus rendering it non-compliant with code (at least in California, where UL9540 is mandatory)?

ETA: My installer has communicated with both Sol-Ark and Fortress tech personnel in the past two days, and both say that there has been no change in support for closed loop comms between the eFlex and 15K platforms, IOW it's supported. @CopperTopper, if you're willing to PM me the name of the person with whom you spoke at Sol-Ark, we'd like to contact him/her directly and try to resolve the disconnect.

ETA2: Brian Powell from Fortress reached out to me directly and re-confirmed that closed-loop with the 15K continues to be supported. He said that any customer who encounters a problem with this setup should engage the Fortess support organization by opening a ticket or calling them.