8 hours ago, waynehooper said:

Is there a updated firmware for this inverter (Watchpower app shows  Main CPU 00052.00 and secondary CPU 00030.07) that allows you to change the bulk and float voltages in the LIB setting?

I'm not aware of updated firmware (DSP or display) for this model and chipset. I'd be very surprised if any factory firmware ever allowed you to fiddle the bulk and float voltages as sent by any BMS. With the Axperts' propensity for overshoots, it would be a really handy feature.

6 minutes ago, Coulomb said:

I'm not aware of updated firmware (DSP or display) for this model and chipset. I'd be very surprised if any factory firmware ever allowed you to fiddle the bulk and float voltages as sent by any BMS. With the Axperts' propensity for overshoots, it would be a really handy feature.

I am doing a manual workaround for stage 6. Using the SolarPower/WatchPower app to temporarily increase charge amps to 40a, and the bulk charging voltage to 56v.

To avoid the F08 error I watch the battery % charge and when it gets over 95% I change the charge voltage back to 54v.

Hi Wayne, 

I had the same issue. Ensure your Max Ac Charge current is set to 20amps not higher.

I actually have mine set to 20amps Max Charge Current - saves on electricity and I don't mind the trickle charge. I am running 4x 1.5kw 12v hubble batteries with a battery balancer.

Below are my User settings I found to work best for me.

Float is set to - 54.8v

Bulk is set to - 56.4v

Cut off set to - 46v

I noticed when I upped the Max Charge Voltage to 30a or even 40a then I would get that error even though my solar panels are capable but it seems the batteries don't like it, even if Hubble says it can do 40a for 4x 12v batteries in a bank. I use 20a max.

 

Do you exhaust all of your 5kw during stage 6?

 

I get through stage 6 easily which is 4 hours for us.

 

Hope that helps

 

Edited February 20, 20233 yr by Devanté

4 hours ago, Devanté said:

I noticed when I upped the Max Charge Voltage to 30a or even 40a then I would get that error even though my solar panels are capable but it seems the batteries don't like it, even if Hubble says it can do 40a for 4x 12v batteries in a bank. I use 20a max.

Do you exhaust all of your 5kw during stage 6?

I get through stage 6 easily which is 4 hours for us.

Thank you for the advice, I will give 20a a try. The Hubble voltages are a bit higher than the CFE ones, so will try it with the Cfe recommended settings.

Our stage 6 was 9 hrs today and the shortest time between 2 3hr loadsheddings was 1 hr. Had to do 40a for the hr to get the battery up enough to keep us going for the next 3 hr session . 
 

On Wednesday we have 4 3hr sessions, not looking forward to that  .

 

Edited February 20, 20233 yr by waynehooper

Good luck man

Just remember on AC we only get 20a max from our grid.

Also check the highest amperage your battery can take.

On 2023/02/20 at 10:51 PM, Devanté said:

Good luck man

Just remember on AC we only get 20a max from our grid.

Also check the highest amperage your battery can take.

Looks like the 20A setting is working. I changed to the LIB setting on my Axpert 5.6kva and set the charge rate to 20A. Has been two charge cycles and no F08 errors yet!

Edited February 22, 20233 yr by waynehooper

Hi Wayne,

 

Glad to hear it's working, yeah that error gave me nightmares. 

I am not sure why we get the error when the max charge current is set to higher than 20a, I assume the batteries don't like it or something to do with th inverter but ay, at least there is a fix 

Edited February 22, 20233 yr by Devanté

14 minutes ago, Devanté said:

I am not sure why we get the error when the max charge current is set to higher than 20a

My wild guess: BMS asks for a voltage close to its never-exceed maximum, inverter overshoots this target, battery BMS panics and disconnects from the inverter, inverter power flow goes crazy without the battery to stabilise it and fault code 08 results.

Edit: And with lower charge current, there is less chance of a large enough overshoot to make the BMS disconnect.

Edited February 22, 20233 yr by Coulomb

I think you might have hit it on the nail.

I unfortunately do not have a BMS on my 12v lithium batteries so I use User settings however I did notice on the battery balancer, A huge spike in current when I set my max charge current to 40a even 30a. So I think it might be overloading or like you said exceeding the max that's when the error kicks in and the inverter restarts.

20amps is actually ideal since I get that from my panels during the day so I almost don't even use the grid.

 

Edit- the batteries do have BMS but not as smart as yours, only there to protect the battery from overcharge, etc. Does not handle Amp/V hence the battety balancer

Edited February 22, 20233 yr by Devanté

38 minutes ago, Devanté said:

I think you might have hit it on the nail.

I unfortunately do not have a BMS on my 12v lithium batteries so I use User settings however I did notice on the battery balancer, A huge spike in current when I set my max charge current to 40a even 30a. So I think it might be overloading or like you said exceeding the max that's when the error kicks in and the inverter restarts.

20amps is actually ideal since I get that from my panels during the day so I almost don't even use the grid.

 

Edit- the batteries do have BMS but not as smart as yours, only there to protect the battery from overcharge, etc. Does not handle Amp/V hence the battety balancer

I have been at the inverter when it gets the F08, and you can hear the loud click on the battery when the BMS disconnects, and right away the inverter ring turns red and the F08 pops up on the inverter.

What you says makes total sense, unfortunately, the Axpert firmware is not setup properly yet to handle the larger lithium batteries, and it is something they are going to have to address going forward. 20A on one 5.2kwh battery is fine, but when you have multiple batteries it will take too long to re-charge.

2 hours ago, waynehooper said:

20A on one 5.2kwh battery is fine, but when you have multiple batteries it will take too long to re-charge.

I think if 20 A turns out to be the practical limit for 1 battery module, then with n modules, you should be able to set the maximum charge current setting to 20n amps of charge current, since the extra battery capacity should stabilise the voltage, and each module should only see 20 A (assuming that they are properly wired and the current shares reasonably well).

Edited February 22, 20233 yr by Coulomb

On 2023/02/20 at 9:00 AM, waynehooper said:

I have a Mecer SOL-I-AX-5M4 Axpert MKS IV 5600va that I am using with a CFE-5100s 5.12kwh battery (firmware has been updated). I have been using the USER setting with the recommended battery settings as the LIB setting forces bulk and float charge voltages to 56v and this results in a F08 error on the inverter when the battery is full. The inverter then drops power and restarts.

My problem is that the USER setting does not show the correct battery voltage so charging tapers off, ie. when the battery is at 82% it is only charging at 2.35A. This is fine in stage 3 and 4 as over time it the battery will get to 99%. However under stage 6 the battery is at 82% and we have 3hrs load shedding in East London.

Is there a updated firmware for this inverter (Watchpower app shows  Main CPU 00052.00 and secondary CPU 00030.07) that allows you to change the bulk and float voltages in the LIB setting?

 

Hi Wayne, 

Same model invertor Mecer SOL-I-AX-5M4 and same F08 issue.

please let me know if you come right! Ill give feedback if I find a solution for mine.

On 2023/03/20 at 7:52 AM, AndrewB5 said:

Hi Wayne, 

Same model invertor Mecer SOL-I-AX-5M4 and same F08 issue.

please let me know if you come right! Ill give feedback if I find a solution for mine.

I dropped the charge rate to 20A and CFE updated the firmware on the battery. Since then it has been stable.

However the CFE batteries discharge down to 90% and then recharge back up to 100% constantly. They updated the firmware to limit the discharge to 95%, but since then I have been having constant problems with the battery and inverter restarting. I even had a F60 error on the inverter and battery gave an error as well.

They are investigating, so hopefully will have a solution soon.

Edited March 25, 20233 yr by waynehooper

On 2023/02/22 at 10:30 AM, Coulomb said:

I think if 20 A turns out to be the practical limit for 1 battery module, then with n modules, you should be able to set the maximum charge current setting to 20n amps of charge current, since the extra battery capacity should stabilise the voltage, and each module should only see 20 A (assuming that they are properly wired and the current shares reasonably well).

I hope you can assist me with some advice.

What 5Kwh battery would you recommend to use on the Axpert 5.6kw that talk to the BMS and not have to use the USER setting?

I have looked at the Pylontech UP5000, what are your thoughts as there is a pylon setting on the Axpert 5.6?

Sorry, I don't make recommendations, but also I don't know anything about commercial batteries or their BMSs.

Hi all

I am desperately needing help and cannot seem to find correct answers.

I have an axpert 5kva inverter currently running firmware 20.13

My wife accidently plugged in our tumbledryer and it went to error 08. I have tried all the obvious solutions but I understand it is probably the firmware bugs and would like to flash that. I did try doing the kettlekomp 72.20e but had no luck with communications, later I found out this is for a 64v and see that it failed for a reason.

I only have 1 chance to flash the firmware so I am hoping someone like @coloumb would be able to assist me on correct firmware.

Thanks in advance

12 hours ago, Justin 2 said:

Hi all

Welcome to the forum.

12 hours ago, Justin 2 said:

I am desperately needing help and cannot seem to find correct answers.

It can certainly be overwhelming at first.

12 hours ago, Justin 2 said:

I have an Axpert 5kva inverter currently running firmware 20.13

I believe that indicates that it's an Axpert VM II, or possibly a clone thereof (there seem to be many VM II clones about at present). Sadly, some clones cannot be firmware updated at all; hopefully yours is not one of those.

12 hours ago, Justin 2 said:

My wife accidently plugged in our tumbledryer and it went to error 08.

I'm not convinced that this was the cause of the problem, but it might be. If it was, unfortunately, a firmware update is unlikely to fix it.

12 hours ago, Justin 2 said:

I understand it is probably the firmware bugs and would like to flash that. I did try doing the kettlekomp 72.20e but had no luck with communications, later I found out this is for a 64v and see that it failed for a reason.

Sadly, I think it's unlikely to be a firmware problem. Certainly 72.20e is totally the wrong firmware; it's for an Axpert MKS, which has totally different hardware (e.g. the flash space in the processor is twice the size of yours). Luckily, the firmware reflash tool prevents attempting to load such badly wrong firmware. Of course, it would have been helpful if it said so, rather than merely failing.

12 hours ago, Justin 2 said:

I only have 1 chance to flash the firmware so I am hoping someone like @coloumb would be able to assist me on correct firmware.

You can try multiple firmware reflashes. The problem is if you pick certain firmwares that the reflash tool doesn't prevent you from trying, you can brick the inverter. In that sense, yes, you would only have the one chance.

In this case, you are fortunate, in that there is a firmware update with 20.13 and 20.14 in the same file. So that indicates that they are probably compatible. Even better, while 20.13 is dated 2018, 20.14 is from November 2022, about as recent as you are going to get for this model. I have uploaded that file into the files section, click on the link below. Good luck. As I say, I don't expect this firmware to solve your problem, but it might, and it's something you can probably do yourself.

 

Edited July 2, 20233 yr by Coulomb

Hi Coulomb thank you for getting back to me. Sorry about how the post came out I did not realize each paragraph was a post. I will try the firmware and let you know. Another issue I see is that it is reading voltages incorrectly on the ac input side, since our incident it is showing 175v in where it would before the fault show 220v. 

15 minutes ago, Justin 2 said:

[ AC input ] ... since our incident it is showing 175v in where it would before the fault show 220v. 

That also suggests a hardware fault, unfortunately. Or possibly the EEPROM has lost its contents. Has it perhaps changed some settings?

Oh, and 175 VAC in South Africa these days may actually be real. Can you check with a multimeter? Only if you can do it safely, of course.

So I have a backup inverter generator we use for cloudy days so that is our ac supply as I don't want anything to do with eishkom. That gives me a stable 220ish volts and to note it was not running at time so ac circuit was not active. Also all settings have remained the same. 

Apologies but just looking at the firmware is it the .13 or .14 that I should be using? I would assume .14 but rather check first

8 hours ago, Justin 2 said:

is it the .13 or .14 that I should be using?

The .14. I assume that the .13 is the one you have now, so you even have a way to revert back to the original firmware if 20.14 doesn't work out.

KODAK OG3.24Plus model .

im assuming its the AXPERT king 3kw. (its 24v model, with removeable screen centralized in the bottom, MKS model to my knowledge as it has a decent fan algorithm)

 

listed below is my current firmware as seen on the inverter display. 

U1 51.80

U2 02.68

U3 00.24

U4 01.10

 

using the bluetooth app on my phone, the following (doesnt show U2 02.68) 

Main CP Version 00051.80

Bluetooth CPU version 00000.24

SCC CPU 00001.10

 

 

is there any new releases? 

 

i have noticed to day that i have to set the bulk charge duration for it not to go to float early when some clouds came over. need to add, its the first time i have experienced this myself. 

4 hours ago, Flouw said:

KODAK OG3.24Plus model .

I'm assuming its the AXPERT king 3kw.

Yes, it is.

4 hours ago, Flouw said:

MKS model to my knowledge as it has a decent fan algorithm)

Kings are not MKS models; it's just the VM (Value line Mppt) models that have the really bad fan control. Presumably this keeps the cost down slightly. I think most owners would prefer to pay a few more dollars and have the reasonable fans.

Kings (except King IIs) do have one thing in common with the MKS models: 145 V max solar chargers.

4 hours ago, Flouw said:

listed below is my current firmware as seen on the inverter display. 

U1 51.80

My understanding is that 51.80 is the 24 V equivalent of 71.80 for 48 V Kings, and 71.80 is quite old.

4 hours ago, Flouw said:

U2 02.68

This is also quite old. But unless you use the battery BMS to inverter direct cable, this doesn't matter much.

4 hours ago, Flouw said:

the bluetooth app on my phone, the following (doesn't show U2 02.68) 

Yes, that's really irritating, isn't it? Many people like using the app, and that means that sometimes vital information isn't available.

4 hours ago, Flouw said:

is there any new releases? 

There is.

Pardon me not making up a fancy "screenshot" image and posting it to the files section; it's getting late here.

I don't recall where I found this; I collect firmwares.

PIP-3024MK v51.97.rar

There is presumably a 52.00 or similar that is equivalent to the 72.00 firmware for 48 V models. The PV dips and freezes were fixed in about 71.94, so hopefully you have those fixes in 51.97.

Firmware upload instructions for models with removable displays.

4 hours ago, Flouw said:

i have noticed to day that i have to set the bulk charge duration for it not to go to float early when some clouds came over.

Welcome to the premature float bug. Please don't expect to find it fixed in factory firmware; the premature float bug is a proud Voltronic tradition since at least 2013! They never fix this bug, or even admit to its existence. In the VM firmwares, they have a completely separate premature float bug in a completely separate part of the code (separate because the VM firmwares don't support paralleling), yet the bug lives on.

4 hours ago, Flouw said:

need to add, its the first time i have experienced this myself. 

This eternally mystifies me. But I guess that's one reason that they admit that there is a bug; somehow it doesn't happen all that often. They also have a long time constant on the absorb to float transition. That seems to be a bandage that prevents the premature bug from striking with short clouds, but it's not a proper fix and slightly reduces the life of everyone's batteries.

I may get around to lightly patching 51.97, though my last blind patch (where I can't test the patched firmware on a real inverter) resulted in some crashes, so I'm a bit shy now.

@Coulombthank you fie the response. 

 

Is there some sort of changelog available for the firmware versions? 

 

The float bug... i only realised later on that the bulk duration was set to 5min only. Thus time start seems to be triggered once it hits the bulk voltage. What i have notices. If you attack the bulk voltage with high charging amps. It definately take some more time to absorb. Once you drop the amps. The voltage sags quite a bit. I have set it to Auto. And its been hitting bulk voltage every day. The battety does discharge during the evening to the back to grid voltage which i have set rather high. Still playing around with this.