StepbyStep

Sunsynk 5kw with Sunsynk Lfp battery for extended warranty as per clients request. 12 x 550wp JA solar panels 6 East and 6 North on Mppt1 and Mppt2. Yesterday hot hot hot on the roof in Potch. I measured the temp on the panel surface at 61°C. Bit of shading on the North panels some tree tops needs trimming. Will install second Sunsynk battery as soon as client have the funds.

Hi @Sidewinder I'll have a look around if we have a copy of 1.46 somewhere but it'll take a couple of days.
We didn't upgrade the battery in the end - we think it was remotely done or it was already running on 1.46. 

More batteries-pros
Backup in case one or more dies
Load is shared so less stress on one battery incl fewer cycles (potentially)
Upgrades are less investment as smaller capacities are cheaper
Cons
More cabling and complexity
Larger install footprint
More points of failure (could be a pro as well)
Added effort to balance (?)
 
One battery-pros
Smaller install footprint
Less cabling and associated complexity 
Cons
Single point of failure 
Greater stress on the single battery
Upgrades may be a larger investment as often you can’t mix sizes

Hey Guys so its that time of the year again and we have a whole Host of Giveaways lined up some to watch out for would be the New Solis S6 6KW Advanced Hybrid (Beast) we are busy with a long term review in real world conditions with the Solis S6 the Unit we are giving away has already gone through a preliminary review but we may give more of this brand away in the future. 
Magneto has given us some wonderful product to review and give away MAGNETO Lithium-LiFePo4 Rack Mount 48V 5.1 KWh also note the great prices on those units  and a  Magneto Thermo Tank also promise of more nice items to give away in the future. 
Then we Have the Revo Inverter and battery Combo (not listed on our online store yet but soon) there will be some terms and conditions on this giveaway however an exciting product squarely aimed at Sunsynk and Deye.
We are also receiving a very nice Battery from Halo Energy to give away the 113AH HALO Eclipse WM-5 48V 1C however this will only be in about 5 Weeks time but still a very nice compact battery.  
Power2SA is giving us one of their VTC Vxl5100W 5.1kWh LifePo4 battery 51V/100Ah Rack Mount to review and test this is also a very nice rack mount battery with Bluetooth and WIFI features decent cycle count compatibility and scalability and we will give this away to a lucky forum member. 

I don't think JHB is using theirs. Our geyser is chowing electricity.

The CT Coil seems to be installed correctly. It's there in the 1st picture.
All fixing has been put on hold because I'm female AND his daughter. I can't beat the double negative. 

I found my system was always drawing a little from grid. Mostly at night. The answer turned out to be that most systems will stop drawing from the battery if load falls below a threshold amount AND there is grid power. In my case about 220ish W.  So when all the fridges all happened to be not running at the same time, and there was grid power, the system would draw from grid until something knocked the total load above that threshold. I started running my outside lights at night, which reduced but did not eliminate the problem. I could put in some big ass halogens, but then with the increased load for several hours, I may run my battery down earlier. So, like you, I just leave it.

My inverter is a Goodwe. But I know from other posts on this forum that it is not the only one that works in this way.

For 5K it's pins 3 & 4 and for 8K it's 5 & 6.

If there is a reading above the CT coil on the flow chart that is power coming from (positive reading) or going to the grid (negative reading)
If there is a reading above the house in the flow chart, that is power going to non essential loads.

Ripple switches (if the municipality is using them) are a minefield for anything but a bog standard electrical setup.

Once upon a time I had a solar geyser, with an electrical backup. I asked an electrician to put a timer switch onto the backup supply. Which he did. This really only invoked the backup in the early morning and there was still a thermostat, so if the water was still warm from the day before, electricity usage was not great.

Then we had a run of overcast days and the water got colder and colder. Why wasn't the backup kicking in? I checked the timer switch.
The answer was eventually traced to this. And it's hard to predict exactly what will happen and when but
1) Timer is on, municipality sends the signal to turn the ripple switches off.
2) Timer is off, municipality turns the ripple switches on again, but the signal never gets to my ripple switch because the timer prevents it.

The solution in this case was to move the timer so that it was between the ripple switch and the geyser.

How one controls this via the aux port on the Sunsynk it is not a puzzle I can solve in my head, but I think the potential for this problem is still there.

I wonder if COJ are using ripple switches at the moment. It's very hard for them to control with load shedding. Say they send the off signal at 6 am. Then my area is shed from 8 and they send the on signal at 10. Oops! My geyser isn't turning on.

@mzezman Thanks! 

If there's a reading above the CT coil, e.g. 2158 Watts, is that the power that's fed to the non-essentials? So it's not going to the grid?
If the above is true could you send a photo of your system flow chart, please? The Father part of my solar installation works better with as much proof as possible.

Hehe, that item in the bill comes with the territory 🤣

Arrow should point to the inverter, not the grid. The CT should be on the main incoming eskom feed. The circuits between the CT and the inverter will then be 'non-essential' and then you can export to them because the CT will. Block exporting to the actual grid

Thanks
From the specs you can see that Capacity is 100Ah and Nominal Charge/Discharge Current is 50A
On this page of your inverter, you should make the following settings:
Type - Lithium
Batt capacity - 100Ah
Charge amps - 50A
Discharge amps - 50A
Also, untick 'BMS_Err_Stop'
On this page, set Amps to 50A
Except for the Batt Capacity, your inverter should read all other values also directly from the battery BMS. I assume that a comms cable is installed between the inverter and the battery - correct?
Can you maybe please post a picture of your BMS screen (like the one below) - just to make sure?
 

My suggestion is "Return the RIOT and get Solar-Assistant."
I never got my RIOT to work.

In my opinion, this is a bit harsh. As an end user, and someone still with lots to learn and lots of questions, I actually personally think its better to have individual threads with clear descriptions and titles which makes it easier to search for key words related to questions or issues I may have. Just my 5c...

There is currently an issue with communication between Sunsynk and Hubble. Hubble is in the process of rectifying the problem. 
 
Personally, I also think it’s a Sunsynk issue as every time there is a firmware update, these issues seem to surface. 

In order to get the RIOT to work you need to connect as follows:
Or (option 2):

In the 2nd config, the RIOT acts as/emulates a BMS - it translates the RS232 console to Canbus.
This is not necessary as SunSynk firmware has direct support for Hubble AM-2 via Canbus.
A RIOT is not required at all in a SunSynk / Hubble AM-2 installation.

I've tested both and prefer the first option where the SunSynk is direct connected via canbus to the AM-2 BMS.

NOTE: You need special RS485 cable to get RIOT to communicate with SunSynk (only pins 7 & 8 connected)
Normal Ethernet LAN cables do not seem to work with the RIOT MOD port.
See page 11 of "Cloudlink Setup Guide v4.0.pdf" https://www.hubblelithium.co.za/_files/ugd/c0fc0a_ed19d4bfa78f4873846638e251a62ed4.pdf

Remember to configure the RIOT:


If you have Solar Assistant you can share the SunSynk RS485 modbus port with a splitter.


I prefer Solar Assistant over RIOT as
Solar Assistant allows access to sensor data via MQTT for integration to Home Assistant & Grafana Solar Assistant is local - no cloud required

Jinko was my first choice because of the good reviews in Australia and because it's a tier 1 but there wasn't any stock when I was looking so I went with something different. 
I'd still go with them if I had a choice. Or money. Or more roofspace.

Not sure if SA can update it directly, but if you get the firmware from Hubble Support you can use the SA cable with a laptop to install it. Support provides an app to do the install that way. 
I don't have a Riot link but don't like the idea that I need internet access all the time. SA work offline and has great realtime stats.

Is your BMs errror stop function ticked under battery settings? Apparently if that is on and there is a BMs error the Inverter will shut down and restart. Check that. 

Think it would be the RS232 cable.

I have both and SA is much better. SA supports mqtt+HA+Node Red.
AFAIK, you can use an SA USB-RS485 cable with a laptop to update firmware.

Not found mine very useful to be honest. 

I understand. Looking at your first set of screenshots your battery went down to around 55% overnight and then the solar started charging it again. So that is not excessive.
I am sitting with the same battery usage and management scenario as you. Only one battery but it has been sufficient up to now.
So if you wish to keep it at 80%, then there is no alternative but to use grid power to charge them during the night.
The battery will discharge even if you switch off everything. The Inverter itself consumes around 50W.
Something else that I noticed on your first set of screenshots is around 50V Solar on both MPPTs during nighttime. Where do your solar panels generate that voltage from at night? 
After sunset mine drop to zero as expected. 

Hi everyone,
I joined the solar world by the end of 2021 and am still super happy about the investment we made.
While watching the SolarAssistant charts and graphs, I see that our inverter (it's a Sunsynk 5kWh) discharges the Hubble AM2 battery to less than 80%, although the timer settings on the inverted do basically say "charge under 80%". See screen grab here:

And here, on the chart side of things, you can see that it discharges quite quickly down to ~80%, but then keeps consuming the battery for much longer, basically until the sun kicks back in at ~8am:

And last screen grab, here, you can see that the battery is being discharged at night time, despite it being already under 80%:

My question: Is it normal that the battery keeps discharging [at a low level] throughout the night, or is there something wrong with my system?
Thanks so much for your expertise – and your thoughts,
Marc