Ektus

Hi guys, let me share the recent update of my solar lab!
Originally I had 20kWp of PV on the roof, which was great, but the available space was not utilized optimally. Namely because there was the chimney blocking part of the west roof. Not to mention long shadows it casted each winter. After a couple of years I demolished that chimney (with the big help of my friend Kobra) and built a new fireplace, plus new chimney that freed the space on the roof.
For a shame, width and height of the panels that I had was not ideal, so even with the chimney removed I was still unable to utilize space optimally:

Therefore, I was continuously looking at the PV modules market each year, in order to find new panels that would fit better. As you might know, the manufacturers of PV modules are introducing new models each year, with their dimensions derived from the physical size of the actual solar cells used. And as solar cell makers are gradually able to produce bigger silicone crystals (that the cells are cut from), the PV modules are getting bigger and bigger, even when the number of cells per module stays within the standard amounts (like 72, 144 etc.).
Finally, in 2025 I found PV modules with the size of 1961 x 1134 mm, which was perfect for me as it would fill the roof from side to side almost completely, while still allowing me to put 4 rows of panels on it. So I went for 500Wp double-glass/bifacial, all-black panels and bought 3 palettes of them. Although these panels are bifacial, they are NOT transparent as the space between the cells is of opaque black color. On the other hand, putting bifacial panels on the dark roof makes no sense anyway. The price was excellent (for me) 77USD + VAT per panel. Let's see how these double-glass panels will hold up in the long run.



Firstly, I had and idea to remove all the old panels by myself, but found it being too labor-intensive. Looks like I am getting old, to be honest. So, after removing 18 panels out of 72 (with the help of my friend Vitek) I gave-up and called a third friend of mine, David, who is running a business of building large PV power plants for factories and other commercial customers. David's guys were amazing and after a couple of days, all the old panels were down, aluminium rails repositioned and leveled. Also, the new rails for fourth row of panels were added and finaly there was 86 panels installed.
West roof:
East roof:
Now it's 43 kWp of solar, composed of 6 strings:
East: 14s + 14s +14s
West: 14x +14s +16s
To be continued...

Good news, problem solved!

I found a newer version of Batteryvew, 3.0.29, this version worked on Win11 without giving the error.
I did directly a back-2-back test with old 3.0.28, which still doesn't work, so it's not related to any region setting in my case etc.

Kind regards

"The BMS should really be able to take the punch & not allow higher than required voltage/ amps."
Yes , that's my point exactly.  My take on this is that the BMS is pre-configured in order to serve its mandate , that is to protect the battery chemistry from critical over charging and over voltage.  If you even have the intention to 'hammer' your battery , then the BMS must be able to protect the chemistry from the 'hammering' . If a number of protection states have been recorded in succession , the BMS should passify and allow no more until the user is made aware of it  . 
In the end , the only way a owner should be able to 'hammer' a lithium battery , is to use up cycles quickly , but that should be it ! If cells become swollen , the BMS has not done its work , thats it.

***DISCLAIMER: Use at you own risk. You may brick and/or damage your batteries
How to upgrade firmware of the Pylontech batteries
If it works okay, do not touch it! If it does not work okay, contact your dealer. If your dealer is not helpful, contact Pylontech support. If Pylontech support is not answering, then you can try to upgrade the firmware. Connect laptop PC to the Pylontech battery:
1) First, you'll need to make (or purchase) a serial cable in order to connect a laptop to CONSOLE port of the battery.
Older models of Pylontech batteries are using RJ-11, while newer models are equipped with RJ-45.

Wiring on the right is suitable for all the new models, including US3000C, US5000C, Force H1 and Force H2:

2) A lot of people are struggling with making a working cable, because in some versions of Pylontech user-manual there's a missing information on the GND pin for the RJ-45 console port. Other people are unable to connect since they swapped TX and RX. So, here's the actual pinout of console port for RJ-11 and RJ-45:

3) Grab a Windows laptop PC equipped with a physical DB9 serial port and connect it to the battery stack via the cable above. As an alternative, you can use cheap USB-to-SERIAL converter, for example FTDI-based.
WARNING: Console port is RS232, with positive and negative voltage levels. Therefore, you have to use true RS232 serial-port interface, NOT UART 3.3 or 5V!
4) Download and unpack Pylontech_Tools.zip from the link bellow.
The password for the ZIP file is: Youda
5) Start the BatteryView software:
For batteries with a very old firmware, BatteryView 2 works the best. For new batteries, use BatteryView 3.0.28 or newer. Select the respective COM port and use 115200 baud-rate 6) Now you can perform diagnostic tasks, or update battery's firmware.

Updating Pylontech firmware:
1) When updating firmware, the best is to power-down whole stack, remove all the LINK cables between the batteries and then turning-on just one battery at a time and perform the FW upgrade on it. Then repeat the process for the next battery. Updating batteries while online in a stack works too, but you will get alarms and red lights.
2) There are several models of Pylontech batteries and the firmware is INCOMPATIBLE between most of them:
If you flash a wrong FW in the battery you will brick it. FW numbering is INCONSISTENT between the models. Fox example: For an old battery with certain PCB the FW2.4 might be the most-recent, while for a new battery with a different PCB and chipset the most-recent version would be FW1.9. In other words - higher number does not automatically mean that the firmware is newer, nor better! 3) If possible, it's preferred to update FW via BatteryView 3.0.28 while using following rules:
For updating US2000C, US3000C and US5000 select the whole ZIP file that includes two BIN packages inside and perform update. The BW3.0.28 will be able to pick right BIN file inside the ZIP package automatically. DO NOT select BIN package manually. When updating US2000 and US3000 then you must select the correct BIN file manually, for a shame. 4) Due to the silicon chip shortage Pylontech changed the BMS chip for some of the produced batteries. Therefore, for some models there are two different firmware branches. One for the original chip and the other for the new chip. Luckily, when upgrading FW via the ZIP method desribed above, the BW3.0.28 will choose the correct branch (BIN file) automatically.
 

5) This list indicates firmware version suitable for the each model and what file to flash:

Model: US2000plus
FW: V2.9
FLASH: us2000b_v2.9_Crc.bin
Model: US2000plus95
FW: V3.4
FLASH: us2000B_Plus_V3.4_Crc.bin
Model: US3000
FW: V3.4
FLASH: us3000a_V3.4_Crc.bin
Model: US2000C (original chip)
FW: V2.8
FLASH: NT1.7+2.8.zip
Model: US3000C (original chip)
FW: V2.8
FLASH: NT1.7+2.8.zip
Model: US2000C (new chip)
FW: V1.7
FLASH: NT1.7+2.8.zip
Model: US3000C (new chip)
FW: V1.7
FLASH: NT1.7+2.8.zip
Model: US5000 (original chip)
FW: V1.3
FLASH: US5000 ST+NT 1.3.zip
Model: US5000 (new chip)
FW: V1.3
FLASH: US5000 ST+NT 1.3.zip
 
6) If you have a bricked battery, you can use Pylontech Upgrade Tool V1.0.9 from the Pylontech_Tools.zip to recover it via flashing a correct firmware. The process is as follows:
Connect the debug cable to this software and the battery (attention: at this time please do not switch the battery on), then 1. open the software, click Immediate Update. 2. Click Connect. 3. Click Browse to select the correct firmware. 4. Then click Program and switch on the battery by hard switch and the red soft start button immediately. This will bring the battery back to normal. 7) When updating firmware, it's the best to turn-off all the batteries in the stack and remove all the LINK cables.
Then power-on a single battery and perform FW update on it.
Repeat for the remaining batteries in the stack.
Reconnect all the LINK cables and start the stack as normal.
Although it is possible to perform FW update while the battery is running in the stack, you will get alarms and red lights when you'll do it that way.

8 ) Firmware packages mentioned above are packed in this archive:
Download and unpack the ZIP budle from the link bellow.
The password for the ZIP file is: Youda
 
Youda