Johan-Henry

Thanks @Steve87, this is great information, appreciate your insight and explanation.

I am also interested in this subject, particularly for areas in Cape Town that is supplied by Eskom. @Praemon I assume you are located in an area supplied by the Cape Town municipality? If so, as far as I understand what the installers are saying to you is correct, you have to have an inverter on the list regardless of wether you are feeding back to the grid or not. The part I am getting mixed signals for is for when you are in an Eskom supplied area within Cape Town - I assume (and hope) then what @WannabeSolarSparky and @Steve87 is saying is correct? Blue region on Boundary map: https://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/Maps and statistics/Electricity Distribution Licence and Area Boundaries.pdf

There has been allot of arguments back and forth about "floating" LiFePO4 batteries on this forum, the facts are as follows: You need to charge your batteries to a high voltage (as per the cell configuration) to get the pack to balance, then as soon as the balancing is within acceptable levels, the charge current to the battery needs to stop - now some do that by dropping the "charge" voltage so that the batteries are not forced to absorb or dissipate energy as heat anymore, but a properly designed system will be instructed to cut charging to the battery by the BMS. I have learned the hard way that if you keep your lithium batteries at a high cell voltage, they will not last.

I have the 5000TL and if you are referring to setting 14 being in SNU, as far as I know the these inverters do not allow the charging of batteries from utility if they are in battery mode (supplying load from batteries). There is a note in the manual in the setting 14 block - "If this off grid solar inverter is working in Battery mode or Power saving mode, only solar energy can charge battery. ". Therefore to charge the batteries from utility, you have to be in bypass mode. If you set program 1 to Utl, it should charge batteries from utility and switch to bypass mode when utility is available (i.e. gen started) and back to battery mode when utility is not available (gen not started).

I am moving and have 6 x 255W used panels that I am willing to sell, VOC 37.5. Need to sell all 6 unfortunately, not just one. Cape Town area. Message me if you are interested.

@hoohloc Hi. I installed the latest firmware 3 firmware files that I could find on Powerforum for the main board, comms board and BMS. On the app it shows 500.09/002.03. I also have 3 fairly new Pylontech US3000C batteries, maybe their firmware also has something to do with the max charging setting working well over BMS. As mentioned, the max charging value changes based on SOC, but I see it regularly hitting 111A.

F2809_GW500.09_20201029_A.bin = main firmware F030_SK022_07_ 20200714.bin = bms firmware STM32F030CC_SK036.01m.bin = comms bord firmware They are provided in the various google drive links in the forum. Its a bit confusing unfortunately. This is only applicable to the Growatt SPF5000TL.

I can confirm that the issue is fixed with the latest comms board firmware. I struggled a few days with this particular upgrade. Since running all three available firmware upgrades (main firmware, BMS firmware and comms board firmware) the inverter is performing very well and communicating reliably over BMS with my Pylontechs. Data comms over the wifi dongle to the Growatt server has also been working well. I shared my experiences with the comms board upgrade here: https://powerforum.co.za/topic/6430-growatt-firmware-updates/?tab=comments#comment-98625

FYI program 36 only becomes visible if you change the program 05 to Li, so change 05 to something else and then back to Li, then immediately after you can select protocol 04 as program 36 shows up then. The default protocol is 02 if I remember correctly.

@hoohloc I am not sure what inverter you are using, but my Growatt 5000tl did the same with my Pylontech bank of 3 batteries on Li setting using BMS with the L02 protocol selected. It severely limited charge current. After contacting Growatt, they advised that I should use L04 for the protocol selection (option 36). This increased the max charge current to 111 A for my bank of 3 Pylontech US3000C batteries. This max charge current tapers off to lower values as the SOC reaches full level.

Hi @Neil27 I found the reset instructions with the firmware from a post by Fatboy here: There is a video on how to do it as well as a tips.txt file: 1£¬connect battery well£¬disconnect grid utility£¬ 2£¬press the second and the third bottom at the same time£¬ 3£¬password 305 4£¬up or down to page 34 5£¬press enter bottom to get into rst setting 6£¬press enter bottom to reset£¬wait for a while£¬it will finish resetting Basically it resets the device to factory defaults. I found this step is essential when upgrading firmware, before upgrading and after. The screen going blank after a fw update also happened to me, luckily there is a recovery procedure at the end of one of the update instruction files: NOTE: Sometimes updating may fail, you may close the inverter by disconnect battery break and close ISP tool and disconnect USB line. Confirm the inverter is not power by battery or PV or utility. Then you connect USB line again, and open ISP tool do the same step as above, after you press Flash button, you let the inverter power on. Wait for several minutes the update will go on.

Hi all. I had this exact same problem with the comms board upgrade on my spf 5000 tl. It was stuck at Send Start. Eventually I got it to flash by following these steps: Switch off all source (PV and AC) input and remove all load. Inverter must only be connected to batteries Reset the inverter using the button procedure as described in the fw update procedure docs (pressing 2nd and 3rd button together and entering the password) Exit the reset menu and power down the inverter. Power down the batteries as well. Disconnect the batteries and remove bms cable if present as well as the wifi dongle. Connect the USB cable to your PC and connect the batteries again. Power up the batteries and the inverter. Flash the firmware file now - mine worked at this stage (finally!) Power down everything again, connect bms, wifi dongle, etc. and power up again. I guess you can reset to factory settings again with the button procedure as recommended by the flash instructions if need be. Configure all settings - now it should work as intended. After the comms board update my wifi dongle works again on the 500.9 firmware with BMS active (Li setting 02)

Hi all. Thanks for the firmware provided in this thread, I have successfully updated my 5000TL using it to 500.09 in preparation for my new Pylontech batteries arriving. Problem is that program 24 is now gone and my grounding box does no longer work correctly after the update. Anybody had the same problem? Thanks

Never mind, looks like I made a mistake taking the inverter main input feed through the earth leakage protection.

Hi All. I have installed a grounding box I made myself, basically a 220VAC power relay that is able to handle 60A, to be actuated by the dry contacts of my Growatt spf 5000 to connect neutral and earth when running in island (battery) mode. I have enabled setting 24 and everything seems to work as it should, however the power relay is a tad slower than the internal switchover relay - causing the earth leakage feeding the inverter from Eskom's side to trip when going back to grid as the neutral and earth is still connected at the inverter for a milisecond or 2 longer. Can anyone provide some advice? Is there perhaps a setting to adjust the timing of the dry contacts relative to the internal switchover? Or am I doing something horribly wrong? I have started with this whole grounding box addon because when in battery mode, the neutral and earth are no longer connected and I see "earth not connected" fault warnings on my test plugs. Thanks

Mine works with growatt + date, i.e. growatt20201012

I think it is related to what is discussed here: https://powerforum.co.za/topic/5164-growatt-inverter-pylontech-batteries-bms-comms-guide/page/12/ Basically the mppt charges the battery to 100% and then cuts solar production completely (to protect the LFP battery according to Growatt) and resumes charging when the battery gets down to 95% (depending on the firmware version you are running) I am currently using this inverter with an AGM bank (5. AGM) and it does not happen as the mppt keeps on float charging and can immediately use only solar when the load requires it. Below is my current profile for today - you can see as the batteries gets full the solar just starts to taper off and then ramps up again when needed: Maybe you can try a USE profile with voltage settings what people recommend for older Axpert inverters when using LFP batteries (at your risk, I am not clued up enough to know what the implications will be on battery health...). A battery manufacturer should be able to provide some advice on the voltage settings. This is the exact reason why I am holding off on upgrading to LFP batteries with this inverter - hopefully there can be a firmware released in the future to remedy the situation

AGM battery setting, firmware 500.07/002.03

I am currently running AGM batteries and now, with loadshedding, I am in Utility first (line mode) most of the time to ensure my batteries are always fully charged. The inverter seems to keep the batteries in float all the time from the utility - but there are periodic breaks every night, mostly at around 1am for 40 min and then again at around 4am for about 15 min according to the data logs, where the inverter stops the float charge and starts it back up again. It seems timed and happens regularly, so it must be an intentional timer triggered function. Therefore this does not only happen with lithium profiles, also with AGM. I assume they must have a reason for it. Mine starts back up charging fine again, so it does not bother me at all, just thought I would mention it.

Is there a changelog somewhere on exactly what the differences are between 500.07 and the 500.08 you attached?

Discussed here I believe https://powerforum.co.za/topic/5535-growatt-data-missing/

Yes, the password is growatt + the current date i.e. growatt20200902 - got that info off here: https://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1984968

Thanks @plonkster for the insightful reply. So for the scenario where you would want to use the Growatt SPF5000TL with a Pylontech stack (max charge current limit issues aside) connected to solar and utility, would it then be better for the health of your Pylontechs to: Leave BMS disconnected, set appropriate voltage levels so that everything is voltage controlled - thereby giving up on an accurate SOC reading but avoiding micro cycling Connect BMS and endure some micro cycling on the top end Avoid the Growatt SPF5000TL - LFP combo until they have sorted all of this with some firmware workarounds

Hi All. So I am still trying to make sense of this 95% 100% SOC charge micro cycling explained here. I stumbled onto this: https://marinehowto.com/lifepo4-batteries-on-boats/ as provided by another thread: In that article (I did not read the whole, long thing so might have missed other info...), if you search for "DURATION AT TARGET VOLTAGE (Over-Absorbing):", you will see that keeping a LFP battery at 100% SOC at the absorption stage (constant voltage) for a long time (like what is done with AGMs or GELs) is very bad and charging needs to be cut, stopped completely at this stage and voltage needs to drop lower. They should not be kept in float. As @SiliconKid mentioned, these inverters cannot power the load from solar without going through the battery (I assume the inverter does not have the ability the sync with the utility and blend power - therefore you need the battery to help the solar panels provide as stable output), therefore we are now in a state where the MPPT cannot give any more current to the battery, cannot bypass the battery, and therefore needs to shut down completely. Everything starts back up as soon as the LFP battery's voltage reduces to safe levels again. Anyway, so to me it seems to be ok - if I understand it correctly. I am still curious as to how other (cheap) inverters handles this situation. It looks as if they should do the same, except if they can blend utility and solar to power the load without batteries (like the 5000ES)

Good day all. I have the Growatt 5000TL HVM (firmware 500.07/002.03) with wifi and currently running with AGM batteries and a few solar panels. To be honest, it is working quite well. I am looking into upgrading to lithium batteries in the near future and stumbled onto this thread. It seems the Pylontech batteries have a good reputation and it seems that most of the issues regarding the BMS comms with the Growatt is sorted with the firmware I have, however I am unsure of this 95% - 100% solar to battery switching all the time being described here. Is this considered to be normal behaviour for these (cheaper) inverters or is Growatt the only ones doing it? Will it not be detrimental to battery life in the long run? Also the loss of comms issue, is this only related to the Dyness batteries or does it also occur with the Pylontech with BMS comms? Thanks