MdF

This has been my setup since Day 1 with loadshedding at its peak.
Haven't changed the system at all. Uses battery for the house all night and then solar when the sun comes up.
MdF

I finally solved this issue. It was the wires to the batteries and probably the wires from the busbar to the inverters. All were of random lengths. The longer wires listed 70mm² on the insulation while the shorter ones were 2 AWG but it turns out the 70mm² was fake. When I cut everything out, it was smaller than the 2 AWG. I ran new 35mm² cables of equal lengths for all of the batteries to the busbar and 70mm² cables of equal lengths to the inverters. All quality tin-plated copper.
I can now charge up to 30KW as expected (70A for each battery limited by the BMS, 100A is the maximum limit but BMS won't allow it and that's fine). I discovered the problem by throwing a DC ammeter onto the closest battery and saw the limitations from when that battery hit 50A. Clearly, it was telling the inverters not to deliver more power and all the other batteries got less than 30A. As that battery went up with SOC, down went the amps. I was chasing inverter problems but it was a BMS issue caused by the "professionals" who installed the system. I knew the wires were not exactly the same lengths but didn't know the big cables were so small. And glad I cut it all out and went fresh because I initially ran all the math to figure how much length to add to each wire and man I would have been pissed at the result not being resolved much.
Batteries required a full drain to get their SOCs fixed too. They were way off, obviously. But even going to full charge and balancing was still way off. Still had to do a full deep cycle to get all of the capacity back. Urgh!

Also, at the start of this thread I apparently only had 3 inverters. I now have 4.

I've read here numerous complains about other battery suppliers using all kind of excuses not to repair batteries under guaranty.
KUDUS to LBSA.
My 5.1 KWH battery is 4 and 1/2 years old 2160 cycles.
Last week I had three random trips.
First one when battery was supplying just over 40 Amps to the house load.
Second one when I changed the set up on my inverters from SUB to SBU.
Third trip just tripped could not see the reason.
Contacted LBSA technical department, was told to bring the battery over.
Took battery over, I was told to wait a while they test the battery.
They found a faulty BMS and one Led.
Replaced the BMS and the faulty led as well as the battery breaker, also they added the earth connection.
Three hours later I was on my way home with basically a brand-new battery.
All done under guarantee.
My sincere gratitude to NIVÉ TIETZ she really demonstrated the significance of excellent customer care.
I would like to stress all done under guarantee.
See attached dashboards.

Noooo, lets put a little more focus on this I think its almost there and you will absolutely love it.

Start from scratch but this time follow the method of not using WIFI or Ethernet to get started...so you connect directly to the Pi via the SA SSID it broadcasts, then once you in we can get it setup and then connect it to your WIFI as a start and then figure out the LAN afterwards.

https://solar-assistant.io/help/getting-started/start-device-wifi#start > this method...

I hope and trust that you will all have a great prosperous and sunny 2026 😀

After quite a few years running solar, my system is finally getting to the point where everything is running optimally.
Eskom only got R115 from me in December and in my books that is almost a big win :)

This year I have planned and budgeted to add another 10 solar panels to get ready for winter and to add my 4th JK powered battery to the system.
Winter 2025 showed me that I am way short of charging power and ended up where I had to give Eskom R400+ for 2 months (June/July) to top up my batteries.
I have north facing roof space to add the 8 new panels, so this should hopefully be enough to keep the batteries topped up nicely through June/July.
The added bonus of the new additions will be when Eskom start implementing fixed fees, I should then be able to disconnect and go fully off-grid.



For all the HA users here as some really nice animated sensor cards and switches.
https://github.com/Anashost/HA-Animated-cards

@10tpeg ,
My view/theory is what you are describing is normal inverter behaviour. Refer to my usage pattern below, when adding a big load to your system.
Just before 8, I switched the kettle on. The inverter supplies the load, but despite having some powerful processor, the Solar production is not instantaneous. It takes a few seconds to ramp up solar production, thus it takes the shortfall from grid, but just for a few seconds (couple of seconds - my monitoring system has a 4 seconds update frequency). At 8, I add more load (warming milk in the Microwave). When the kettle load drops (@8h02), the solar panels don't stop producing energy, but because the load had dropped, the energy has to go somewhere. That somewhere is again the grid. The graph clearly indicates this behaviour. For the life of me I can't think why inverters can't pull/push this energy from/to the battery. Above my pay grade!
Not to long ago, when solar started getting popular, prepaid meters could not handle these "feedbacks", and tripped, and you had to get the Municipality to come and reset the meter. You seem to be very lucky that your particular pre-paid meter does "self reset". Nevertheless, still a bit of a nuisance. You could attempt to get your Municipality to replace your meter with a more tolerant one.
Maybe also try and check your system if my theory is 100% correct, as I suspect that this will only occur when you drop a big load, like a kettle or geyser. Maybe play around with the timing of that, so see if my theory holds.
The Landis Gyr + models of pre-paid meters seem to be very tolerable to feedback.

Thanks MDF. I am aware of this issue when I helped out a neighbour with the same issue. My meter remote is completely wireless - only battery powered and cannot plug into a wall. So this would not be the issue here.

This is quite common with pre-paid meters and any sort of inverter. I recall assisting a neighbour who had the interface unit plugged into a adapter strip which, in turn, was plugged into a trolley inverter. You need to have that direct connection between the interface unit and the actual meter. And I implemented the same solution as you.

Hello everyone,
Nive here, I'm the sales manager at Lithium Batteries SA.
I want to thank all the LBSA fans, I see you, for repsonding to @Krokkedil.
The LBSA batteries use the advanced Seplos BMS- not the PACE BMS :)
Unfortunately, the SOC on the old model is based purely on the voltage of the pack which is not as accurate compared to the Seplos BMS SOC.
We do have the option to put the Seplos BMS in your older model LBSA in order for both to communicate with the inverter and the SOC's to match.

Hi there. I got hold of LBSA and we have been communicating. The New pack has a problem where the SOC drops away to fast. the voltage shows 50V but the SOC shows 8%.
I had to send a lot of pictures of it fully charged and under load.
I will drop it off at their shop in cape town in order for them to check.
The old pack cant be converted to the new style because the cells are bigger and wont fit in the new cabinet. I still need to hear from them if the cant add a smart BMS to the old pack.
The Hubble batteries only run n max 52,6v where the LBSA run on 56.2v and as mentioned above uses different technologies.
I will wait until the LBSA is back then sell the Hubble batteries add the difference and get another and then save for another until I have 4.

You have the option now.
Perpetual use remains - a one-time purchase still grants you lifetime use of SolarAssistant.

You can opt out to continue using your original license terms: one device, non-transferable, with free lifetime updates.

https://solar-assistant.io/help/updates/terms_update_oct_2024

Morning All,
I had an issue with two LBSA units a few years ago where the one unit was showing almost double cycles per day compared to the older one.
I contacted LBSA and after buying their cable as posted in the reply above, I connected via Teamviewer with them. Their technical assistant remotely check the system and we came up with the simple fix that the firmware for the batteries were not the same. A quick download of the latest firmware was done remotely and the problem of cycles was fixed. Now both batteries are tracking the same in terms of cycles per day.
So, get hold of the cable and install the software and let LBSA connect remotely. I am sure they will sort your issue.
MdF

I have been having a similar issue with Solar assistant and connection with my Sunsynk Lifelynk inverter/battery system.    after many days i have found...    When the system switches over to change the solar batteries (cheap rate at night)  the USB to RS232 cable which connects the Ras Pi to the Wifi RS232 in the lifelynk unit disconnects. and will not reestablish the connection.
upon investigating my USB / RS232 (d9) cable i see the cable has NO Shielding/screening,  
So out comes the soldering iron and clippers,
Found and unused USB cable   (Old USB printer / Data cable) cut the end off and solder the RS232 (which has the CH341 controller chip embedded) onto it) to the USB Cable,  
Plugged in and tested.    WOW..... 
set up a charge cycle on the inverter and it remains online (No disconnection)
so far i would say this is resolved for me!!!

I have no need to upgrade nor do I plan on upgrading for the hell of it. I'm just curious to know about any new features (if any) or info that might become available in newer releases. I guess I'm more surprised by the number of upgrade requests that are posted daily. Some of the installers/experts don't know how to configure time of use or other "basic" settings, yet the first thing they request is a fw upgrade.

Okay, so I think I am winning.

Everything is installed and working flawlessly. I have noticed that the installer of my tank system was very very conservative with the float and when the float stops the tank from filling, we are only indicating about 1980lt. So, I'll address that at some stage. The enclosure might need a little tweaking and reprinting too, but for the interim it'll do. Otherwise, I'm happy with how everything turned out. I'll monitor it for a couple of weeks and then start building one for the other tank too.
Thanks for all the help - the inner nerd in me would not have been able to figure this out.

I found the answer, its a setting in the work mode timer

Achieved a good milestone with my system, of completing my panel installation with the wiring. All finally connected and generating.
Being later in the afternoon and overcast, the graph on the Solar assistant was all over the place with me testing the system putting on the kettle etc
Happy so far with this progress.

This story deserves to be turned into a movie!

Had the same issue last year.
When we installed the system a few years ago, we thought it was "cool" to provide some nesting options for birds. But then the large pigeons moved in. Their shyte and noise started becoming a problem. They nested under there and reared three sets of young.
We decided it was time for them to move on. But that took some effort to accomplish. First I hosed down under the panels to try and get rid of their mammoth nest. Then we had to try and get the new chicks out. They were fully fledged but refused to budge. Even spraying them directly with water did not make them move.
Then one day I was up on the roof having a think about what to do next when the two chicks flew out. Well, we initiated exercise Solar Panel Freedom. This operation involved me shouting and waving my arms around on top of the roof to prevent any of the birds returing to the site. It must have been a real site for the neighbours.
My wife then went and got some plastic bags and a couple of pool noodles that we forced into the gap between the panels and the roof.
It worked. But to make us feel bad, all the birds returned to the site and were strutting around looking for access to their nest. This went on for a couple of days with much cooing going on. We felt bad, but then that passed.
After that, I went to Builders and bought a roll of plastic mesh, the hardy type with about a 2cm square in it. I rolled these up into sausages and "stuffed" then in the gap between the panels and the roof. This worked perfectly and was very easy to install. Obviously I used plastic mesh so as to allow free flow of rain water under the panels.
Since then we have been bird free.
Hope this helps.
MdF

For small household with average to low consumption then I truly believe nothing beats the 5.5k sunsynk/deye/solis with at least 8 500watt+ solar panels.
For larger consumption look at the 8k versions of the same brands.
Running mine now for over 4 years without any issues and saving a ton of cash. Run ALL my loads off solar and only have eskom as backup.
As for batteries, in my opinion go for what your budget allows on the lifepo4 type batteries, for maximum savings aim for a 10kWh system.
Pay back time for a system like this is less than 7 years with the cash you will save from reducing eskom

Hi All,
Just want to give feedback incase someone else runs into a similar issue.
The problem was with the Hubble AM5 battery firmware. I think the underlying calculation used to determine SoC was causing an offset that kept on accumulating. Called their support team (really great!) and they did a remote firmware update. Working great now.

Just an update.
 
I asked Solar Assistant if they would be able to crimp the cable for me. They obliged. So R689 for the cable, crimping and delivery overnight. Pins 4 and 5 were crimped exactly as above.
Cable works great and SolisCloud now updates via the dongle again.
 
So the RS485 cable is definitely the best option for SolarAssistant since it will keep SolisCloud communication intact for ease of changing settings and receiving alarms
 

Have you enquired with Solar Assistant whether your batteries are fully supported yet?
They do respond rather quickly if you send them a mail. [email protected] 

TBH Reg, order the items online and do the install yourself.
I had trepidations of doing it but the helpguides are easy to follow.y system up and running with data showing in 15 minutes.
MdF

Reg, make contact with Solar Assistant vai email and ask them for help regarding the cable you are looking for.
They gave me great assistance when I too couldn't figure out the correct cable to buy.
MdF