December 12, 20214 yr On 2021/11/07 at 6:45 PM, KempM said: Quick question everyone. I bought the eTower and got it installed and running of a Sunsynk 5kW. The battery charges up again after loadshedding, but has been slowly losing max SOC over the last week. At the beginning of November the SOC after the initial charge was 99%. Today the SOC is sitting at 90%. Basically dropping 1% per day. Any insights into what is going on here will be much appreciated. Which cable did you use to communicate with the inverter, Etower comes with 4 cables ? I cannot get the inverter and battery to communicate?
December 12, 20214 yr Author I'm using the Canbus cable. Canbus port on Inverter and battery. Also make sure to set the battery address to 1.
January 8, 20224 yr On 2021/12/06 at 1:41 PM, KempM said: Attached is the Serial cable configuration you require for the firmware update. E-tower BMS cable config.pdfUnavailable cableetower.pdfUnavailable hi, i need to get my firmware also updated. do you have contact details? will this cable work? https://www.takealot.com/ce-link-usb-to-rj45-rs232-console-ft232rl-1-83m-cable/PLID52029698 Where did you get the cable? the pdf you posted is not available anymore. Thank you
January 8, 20224 yr Author 3 hours ago, Armand Vermeulen said: hi, i need to get my firmware also updated. do you have contact details? will this cable work? https://www.takealot.com/ce-link-usb-to-rj45-rs232-console-ft232rl-1-83m-cable/PLID52029698 Where did you get the cable? the pdf you posted is not available anymore. Thank you Hi Armand, that cable will not work. You will need something along the lines of this https://www.takealot.com/mecer-usb-to-1-serial-9-pin-port/PLID35668474 together with the cable assembled as per the cabletower.pdf doc. The serial port on the battery is a RJ11 connector, so the RJ45 won't fit.
January 12, 20224 yr On 2022/01/08 at 4:42 PM, KempM said: Hi Armand, that cable will not work. You will need something along the lines of this https://www.takealot.com/mecer-usb-to-1-serial-9-pin-port/PLID35668474 together with the cable assembled as per the cabletower.pdf doc. The serial port on the battery is a RJ11 connector, so the RJ45 won't fit. Hi I managed to get the right cable. All 3 etowers was updated. Working 100% now Thank you
January 14, 20224 yr On 2021/12/06 at 8:52 AM, ChadVV said: Hi KempM. I have a 8kW Sunsynk inverter, with 2 off eTower batteries. The BMS is running fine to the battery but if I put on the breakers, the battery gives an alarm light and is not supplying power. Any chance you encountered this and how you fixed it? The battery voltages are within 0.4 Volts of each other so do not think it’s a balancing problem. With the lite range I never needed to pre-charge the DC bus of inverter before so do not think it’s that. Any ideas would be much appreciated. Sorry been a bit MIA. Just a close to this issue. In the end, the issue was with the inverter's DC bus. Had to return it to the distributor for repairs.
February 10, 20224 yr 10 hours ago, NoordSolar said: Is the Etower a 15S or 16S design Seems like 16.
June 25, 20224 yr Hi there. Is the Freedom Won eTower e5000 a good battery and can you recommend it to be installed with a Sunsynk 5kW ?
March 22, 20233 yr 13 minutes ago, One Handy Guy said: Freedom won batteries are manufactured in Laser Park ,Johannesburg Only the Lite range , the eTower is made in china.
April 18, 20233 yr What's the latest firmware version on the eTowers? Mine is about 18 months old and running without issues on my Victron system but I was wondering if there has been a firmware update since. Mine is showing version 1.0.
May 6, 20233 yr I have a: - Victron multiplus II 5kva - Cerbo gx -Freedom won eTower. The eTower shows up on the cerbo, but when I check the firmware version it shows, |--|. Any ideas why this is the case? I experienced two issues which I'm not sure is actually normal.Can anyone comment on these as well? -The battery is rated at a continuous load of 4.7kW with a max discharge at 5,2kW, however I tested the battery with a load of about 4,5kW and the battery switched off. The battery was at about 98% state of charge. -There was another time when the battery switched off with a load of about 3.4kW at around 70% state of charge. Surely the battery can handle these types of loads. Edited May 7, 20233 yr by IM B
June 26, 20242 yr On 2022/01/12 at 4:59 PM, Armand Vermeulen said: Hi I managed to get the right cable. All 3 etowers was updated. Working 100% now Thank you Hi, i know this is old but where can i get this cable?
June 26, 20242 yr I got mine from FW. They actually sent it to me for free. Only had to organize a courier
January 7, 20251 yr I had some shite with mine. One was replaced by FW (bad cells) and the other was repaired by FW (imbalanced cells) I still have an issue with batteries in the bank not showing the same SOC%, differing up to 20% and it seems (after various capacity tests) that capacity on both the new and repaired batteries are more in the vicinity of 3kWh (20% Dod) where it's supposed to be 4kWh. Other than that they're doing just fine. I have no experience with any other LiFePo4 batteries so I cannot elaborate or compare the eTowers to other brands. At least FW came to the party noth times and did not leave me hanging. It took some time though. They're quiet about the SOC% issue now though.
January 7, 20251 yr The main reason Freedom Won have issues with the E-Tower is that it's a rebadged & assembled in China product. They don't have nearly as many issue with their Lite range for Residential and commercial use because they are locally assembled & the QC is much higher. One thing I will say is that in either event when there is an issue they stand up & take responsibility. I have seen issues with their lite range as well & they have never ignored the issues. I don't have issue dealing with them, when the need has arisen.
January 8, 20251 yr 18 hours ago, Steve87 said: The main reason Freedom Won have issues with the E-Tower is that it's a rebadged & assembled in China product. They don't have nearly as many issue with their Lite range for Residential and commercial use because they are locally assembled & the QC is much higher. One thing I will say is that in either event when there is an issue they stand up & take responsibility. I have seen issues with their lite range as well & they have never ignored the issues. I don't have issue dealing with them, when the need has arisen. True. This is the main reason why I chose FW. Their LiTe range was just too expensive for me. The same capacity bank would've cost me double. Even though slow under the new ownership they still offer after sales support which is much better than most other Chinese brands. I've heard horror stories about certain other "cheaper" brands.
January 8, 20251 yr 8 minutes ago, Czauto said: Even though slow under the new ownership they still offer after sales support which is much better than most other Chinese brands. Oh what's this? FW are under new ownership?
January 8, 20251 yr I don't know the details but FW were sold/merged with another company May 2023. Technical works through Electro Mechanica (Pty)Ltd. That's the guys I dealed with with my eTower issues. Directors also changed in 2023. Probably for B-BBEE reasons. It seems Mr. English is still CEO. As I said, I don't have the exact details so don't take my word for this. The below screenshot was taken of the warranty document on their website.
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