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SolarConvert

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Everything posted by SolarConvert

  1. Hi @zivva this is awesome! I would like to try this, but just want to double check, do you mean inverter RS485 port pins 1 and 2 need to connect to battery RS485 port pins 7 and 8 respectively? All information that I have found thus far indicated that pins 2/3 or 7/6 were used on the battery side, so 7/8 are a new combination that I hadn’t come across. Also what do you mean by setting the battery ID to 1, do you mean Lithium mode 1 on the inverter, or do you mean the DIP switch on the battery should be set to 1? I’m really hoping this works for me too.
  2. Bad news for this thread, good news for you! I'm sure it will be nice to have accurate battery stats reporting. It is also nice of your suppliers to credit you for the Narada batteries, good on them!
  3. Sorry I ended up swapping the Growatt inverter for a Deye 5kW inverter towards the end of last year. For what it’s worth, BMS comms between the Deye 5kW and Narada battery does not work either, however the Deye does a much better job at estimating the battery SoC, though it is not perfect.
  4. I think we first need to prove that BMS comms between the 5kW Deye and Narada 48NPFC100 actually works. I have yet to see a success story for that combination. I’d be happy to crimp you a cable if you’re in the JHB area, though it’s really trial and error at this point. I still think it might be the battery firmware that needs upgrading before comms will work, but I haven’t had time to do any further investigation.
  5. Hope so too @CCSA10, please let us know if you come right!
  6. The original I got was 5.3MB so I had to run it through Adobe's site to compress it and fit within the 3MB upload limit on this forum. I don't see any difference between the original and the compressed version. It is attached to this post. Please let me know if you figure out how to read values from the battery! Note the following important bits: I tried with Modbus slave 0, 1, 38 and 39 when my single Narada battery dip switch was set to 0 and 1, but still couldn't read data from the battery. This was a few months ago - I haven't tried again since then due to time constraints. narada-bms-modbus-v16_compressed_high.pdf
  7. So it apparently does work on one Deye 8kW inverter and that at least MAIN firmware 3.3.7.1 was needed. Inverter RS485 port pins 2 and 1 need to be connected to battery RS485 port pins 2 and 3 respectively. Lithium mode 16. Not sure whether Narada or Narada RED would behave differently. I am on MAIN firmware 3.3.7.2 with the 5kW inverter and it still doesn't work with one Narada 48NPFC100 and the above configuration. I have tried various permutations. I'm still waiting for feedback from Deye regarding my inverter and battery combination.
  8. Just an update here, I contact my installer and he has established that there is one extra firmware update that is needed from Deye for this to work. I’ll post the result as soon as I have more info.
  9. I’m not sure how many versions of the Narada NPFC series manuals there are. To be honest, I don’t know what to believe anymore, but things still point to BMS comms via RS485 being possible. Here is an extract from the manual I have, though I merely downloaded it from somewhere on the internet, so it may or may not be the latest. The attachment that @CCSA10 received from Deye also seems to state that RS485 comms with the BMS is possible and it aligns with the information that I received from Deye in January this year. I’m attaching it here for reference. If they added the Narada battery to their supported list, they surely should have tested it. Perhaps I need to try to find out who from Deye tested it and how. At this moment I am doubting the Narada battery RJ45 PIN assignments in their (Narada’s) manual. The reason is that I tried to use a Modbus gateway to read some registers from the battery a while back (I created a cable specifically for that) and that failed. But, that may have failed due to me not having the correct register numbers - I got the Narada BMS modbus protocol from a document on scribd. Now that I think about it, there is someone who may be able to confirm or deny the Narada RJ45 PIN assignments and register numbers - the author of Solar Assistant. I would purchase this cable just to confirm the RJ45 PIN assignments, but would then probably end up discarding the cable because I do not want to monitor the battery via USB but instead connect it to the inverter. @SolarAssistant would you by any chance be able to divulge the Narada BMS cable RJ45 PIN assignments? Deye Supported Batteries.pdf
  10. I hadn’t but now I did, as follows: Flip battery power switch to off Disconnect battery from inverter Reconnect battery to inverter Flip battery power switch to on The dip switch shouldn’t make a difference for me since I’m only using one battery, but nevertheless I tried this with dip switch positions 000000 and 100000 with power cycling the battery, but still no luck.
  11. I tried this now. Twisted pair orange/orange-white were crimped on both ends (7&8 on inverter side and 2&3 on battery side). The rest of the pairs were snipped. So each RJ45 connector only has 2 wires which were crimped. I have now tried DIP switch settings 000000 and 100000 on the battery with the cable plugged in but still no change. I changed the Lithium Mode on the inverter from 16 to 00 to 01 to 16 just to cause a “change” in settings, but still nothing. Inverter end: Battery end:
  12. This right here is what I was worried about. I did use more than one twisted pair for the 3 wires from inverter to battery. I may have used wires from different pairs for RS485A and RS485B. What I will do is create a new cable with only pins 7&8 from the inverter to pins 2&3 to the battery using only one twisted pair and will report back. Thanks, I have something to try out now. Your guess is as good as mine. I will only crimp two wires for RS485A and RS485B, the rest will be cut and will not be in the RJ45 connectors.
  13. I am also unsure what to do to test any new configuration, like different RJ45 PIN assignments, DIP switch changes, or Lithium Mode settings. If I unplug and plug in the cable into the inverter/battery and it happens to finally be correct, will I immediately see a difference? Or does the inverter/battery need to be told that settings have changed and that BMS comms must be retried, perhaps by restarting the inverter and/or battery?
  14. @Kalahari Meerkat I am more than happy to check everything again and open to ideas on what else to try. Just to confirm though, the following is from the Narada manual, so this would be on the battery side of the cable: Then this is from the Deye inverter manual, so this would be on the inverter side of the cable: That being the case, what I have understood is that inverter RJ45 pins 7 and 8 should be connected to battery RJ45 pins 2 and 3 respectively. Alternatively if we include GND, then inverter RJ45 pins 6, 7 and 8 should be connected to battery RJ45 pins 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Is that not your interpretation? As I mentioned, I am happy to try out anything at this point. What I am also thinking of trying is the battery DIP switch. Currently my single Narada battery has its DIP switch set to 100000, I will try 000000. On a completely separate note, I know that inverter RS485 BMS port pins 1, 2 and 3 work for monitoring the inverter via an RS485 Modbus gateway because I have tested it. If this port is then used up for BMS comms then I will need to monitor the inverter via RS232, unless the CAN BMS port can be used for monitoring.
  15. Hi @CCSA10, I believe the RS232 port of the battery is only needed for firmware upgrades and PC monitoring, not for comms with the inverter. The way I understood it is that inverter BMS RS485 port needs to be connected to the first (left) RS485 port on the first battery. If there is a second battery, the second RS485 port from the first battery is connected to the first RS485 port of the second battery, and so on. Is this your experience? I also read that the last battery needs its second RS485 port terminated, but read elsewhere that people with other inverters have had success without terminating the last RS485 port. Please let me know if you manage to get your Deye 8kW to communicate to your Narada BMS. I will try to find some time to take a second stab at everything again soon, probably next weekend.
  16. Thanks! And you are correct, my goal is to run non-essentials from the inverter when the grid is down and the AUX/smart load feature looked interesting. AUX feature aside, I actually did want a second changeover switch added when my 5kW Deye system was installed but got convinced by the electrician and the installer to not do this. The electrician asked me to draw a diagram of what I wanted and after I had (rather poorly) drawn the diagram, he said he needed to think about it and would rather come back at a later stage to do this if the installer gave the green light. I basically wanted the second changeover switch to convert the non-essentials to essentials so that the induction hobs that I have (and love) could be used during a grid outage. The installer vehemently objected to this citing that the hobs would bring along the oven (same circuit) and I can easily overload the inverter this way. Using a changeover switch to transfer non-essentials to become essentials amplifies the risk of too many things being be turned on at once, he said. I do not disagree with him and understand his perspective, but still maintain that in emergency situations where we have had several days of grid outage on multiple occasions, it would be a conscious decision to temporarily convert non-essential loads to essentials using the changeover switch and very carefully ensure that the inverter is not overloaded. After all, being able to cook on the induction hobs at medium strength only uses around 700-800 watts, though admittedly someone can boil the kettle on the max setting and use 3kW of power, there is nothing stopping them. That is why currently the hobs and oven are non-essentials. Of course, different solutions to this problem do exist, such as installing gas hobs or buying a bigger inverter, but it is very rare that we ever exceed 5kW usage whilst there is Eskom power (essentials + non-essentials combined) on the inverter and it still appears to me that a changeover switch for emergency situations is the most cost-effective and practical solution to using non-essentials when the grid goes down. So then there would be the two options of running non-essentials during a grid outage using a changeover switch, if the above is correct: A changeover switch transfers non-essentials before the inverter to essentials on the inverter (this is the diagram I tried to unsuccessfully draw), or A changeover switch transfers non-essentials before the inverter to the AUX port of the inverter I agree that with option 1 you would need to monitor that your battery does not get depleted, but apart from that you do not need to make any inverter setting adjustments - the non-essentials will always work once changed over. With option 2, if there is insufficient PV or the battery SoC is too low based on the AUX settings, then the AUX loads will not power on and similarly if there is sufficient PV + battery to power the AUX loads initially, they will be powered down (I assume) as soon as one of the two factors drop below the defined thresholds. At which point one can probably walk to the inverter and lower the thresholds if need be. I initially thought of these thresholds as a possible safety feature to not deplete the battery below a certain threshold, which allows you to preserve the battery just for essentials (the installer guy also likes this extra protection), but if in practice one would always walk to the inverter and lower the AUX thresholds when needed, perhaps then you are right, one may as well just have gone with option 1 for this use case in the first place. Note I have not taken any action yet on the above, I am trying to figure out what the best option is for this use case and this thread made me think that AUX is an option.
  17. Or perhaps someone has some advice on starting from scratch to double check my steps. When testing a pin assignment combination, is it sufficient to plug in the cable and expect a change on the inverter almost instantly? Does anyone else have a Deye 5kW inverter connected to a battery which can only do RS485 (not CAN) and which port do you use, the top left on the inverter?
  18. Hi @Gerrie and everyone else. I am not an electrician so forgive the possible silly question, but would a changeover switch make sense to use with the aux load feature? So for position A of the changeover switch, the geyser/stove/non-essentials are before the inverter, therefore are not connected to the aux port of the inverter. Excess PV can still be used to reduce the costs of the non-essentials. However, in this position, if grid goes out, the inverter cannot power the non-essentials. The advantage though is that the non-essential loads to not count towards the inverter load limit (for example, 5kW on the 5kW inverter). For position B of the changeover switch, the non-essentials are then transferred to the aux port of the inverter. Excess PV can still be used to decrease the costs of the non-essentials. However, in this position, when there is no grid, the non-essentials can still run under "favourable conditions" aka inverter aux settings, but the non-essentials now count towards the inverter load limit (eg 5kW) so one must be extra careful to not overload the inverter. Position B would be used during load shedding / major outages and one would need to watch the inverter usage closely. Position A would be used at all other times. What do you think of the above?
  19. Hi all, I decided to start a new thread about this as I couldn't find other topics about this inverter/battery pair and ended up posting in the wrong topic. According to Deye support, Narada batteries now are supported, though this needs to be verified. I however have not been able to get it right, yet (I hope). I emailed Deye support asking whether the 5kW inverter (SUN-3.6-5K-SG03LP1-EU) could communicate with the Narada 48NFPC100 BMS over RS485. A few days later an agent emailed me back telling me that they want to upgrade my inverter firmware and asked for my serial number. I told them that before upgrading, I wanted to make sure that the upgrade will actually help me, i.e that the inverter would be able to communicate with the Narada battery BMS. They confirmed that after the firmware upgrade, “you can match this battery”. This sounded very positive and the update was done. After several more back and forth emails, the following was established: Lithium mode 16 needs to be used on the inverter Pins 7 & 8 need to be used for the RJ45 pin assignment on the inverter side They couldn’t confirm the RJ45 pin assignment for the Narada battery, but I did find it in the Narada manual Before the upgrade, this was my firmware version: After the upgrade, it was this: After trying the above, as well as various other permutations of RJ45 pin assignments and lithium modes, I could not get the inverter to speak to the BMS. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can assist? Here is what I have tried. Lithium modes 0-16, with special focus on 16 since Deye support said 16 is the correct number: As a side note, pressing the up/down arrows when entering this screen does not cause the Lithium Mode to change even though the “cursor” is there. I need to select another field, then select the Lithium Mode field again so that the up/down arrows work. Annoying but not a big issue. Here are the RJ45 pin assignments I have. Narada 48NPFC100: Deye inverter: From the above, PINs 2 and 3 from the battery need to be connected to PIN 7 and 8 on the inverter respectively. I have tried with the GND connected and without (battery PIN 1 to inverter PIN 6). None of these configurations work, though I am happy to double and triple check if someone thinks that one of these configurations must work. I might just create several cables to test the permutations because right now I have 2 and cut the RJ45 connector off of one end and re-crimp each time I test a new configuration. After changing configuration should I be powering down the inverter, or is it sufficient to just plug the cable in, wait, then go to battery BMS screen? Thus far this is what I see, so BMS comms does not work: Any ideas anyone?
  20. I am resurrecting this thread because according to Deye support, Narada batteries now are supported, though this needs to be verified. I however have not been able to get it right, yet (I hope). Apologies, somehow this thread showed up when searching for Deye AND Narada, but I now see that it was actually about Axpert + Narada BMS comms, so I've started my own thread.
  21. Depending on how into home automation you are, you could use Home Assistant to send yourself a push notification to your (or several) phone(s). Currently I have 2 ways to detect a grid outage - grid voltage drops to 0 on my inverter (the inverter is integrated into Home Assistant), or my CBI ASC for my geyser becomes unavailable (it is not connected to the inverter). I am sure there are other signals to detect a grid outage. Once the signal triggers an automation, you can pretty much do anything. Right now I just send myself a push notification to my phone, but could flash lights in the house, make a light a certain colour, play a sound on a smart speaker, or any combination of these.
  22. Ah I didn't even spot the difference between W610 and W630 when I read your post. I have just ordered the USR-W630, thanks for your advice @Bloubul7 and @KempM!
  23. Thanks @KempM, so to understand, node-red is polling the USR-W610 over WiFi? And you have no latency or bandwidth issues, all monitoring is real-time? If so I'm adding the USR-W610 to my shopping cart now
  24. Great 3rd option, thanks @Bloubul7! I have no idea how much data is transferred when monitoring inverter stats, but presumably with option 2 the Modbus polling is local and you can filter the data at source (by the inverter) with NodeRed therefore transferring less data over wifi, whereas with option 3 all the raw data transfer and polling would happen over WiFi? Or is that not a concern at all? I literally have no idea whether this makes a difference or not I see @kellerza does have an addon for option 3 here and with me struggling to find stock of the Pi Zero WH this is looking like a good option.
  25. Hi all @kellerza I am looking at possibly using your addon. My inverter is far away from my NAS which has Home assistant running in a Docker container. So if I were to emulate your setup then I'd purchase a Raspberry PI, install HassOS on it, hook it up to the inverter and let it push events via WiFi to a remote MQTT server (which also happens to run on my NAS)? Is HassOS not too "heavy" for essentially a bridge from the inverter to the MQTT server? I'm also considering doing what @Bloubul7 and @JuanH did with the RS485 HAT. I'm just wondering which option is better, without having procured the PI yet: Get a PI Zero W, install HassOS and use USB to RS485 (RJ45) cable from Solar Assistant Shop to speak to the inverter, Home Assistant from HassOS running on the PI publishes to a remote MQTT server on the NAS via WiFi which the Home Assistant on the NAS can pick up, or Get a PI Zero WH, add a RS485 HAT, one end of a Cat5e cable connects to the HAT, the other end is crimped with RJ45 to speak to the inverter, install Raspberry PI OS with NodeRed (is this combo correct?) and let NodeRed publish to the MQTT server on the NAS via WiFi. Did I get the above options right? Which option do you think is the better one?

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