Good day everyone,

I purchased a Shoto SDC10-Box 5 (5.12kWH) 16 Cell battery and need some assistance on the battery settings to use.
I have a Kodak OG548 Inverter, I have Solar Assistant and waiting for my cable to arrive.

So my question is what settings should I use without the cable and then which setting should I use with the cable.

I require assistance on the following:
Shutdown battery voltage
Battery float charge voltage
Battery absorption charge voltage

It is probably too low, but I was conservative as I do not want to damage the battery.
I currently have it se to:
44.0v
53.4v
54.0v

I was thinking to set it to the below settings, but just wanted someone to confirm if its correct.
42.0v
56.0v
57.6v

Below is info about the battery:

General Data
• Model: 51.2-100 16Cell
• Nominal Capacity (kWh): 5.12
• Rated capacity: 100AH
• Operating voltage range: 42V to 57.6V
• Boost Charge / Float Charge Voltage: 57.6V / 54V
• Depth of Charge: 90%
• Usable Capacity (kWh): 4.6
• Charge Voltage: 57.6V
• Discharge Voltage: 48V
• Nominal Voltage: 51.2V
• Maximum Parallel Units: 16
• Communication Port: RS485 & CANBUS
• Cycle Life: ≥5000 @ 25°C
• Humidity: 5%-95%
• Altitude: ≤ 4000m
• Certificate: TUV(IEC 62619)/CE-EMC/UN38.3
• Installation Method: Rack Mount / Wall Mount
• Terminal Stud: M8

Charge / Discharge Current
• Max 100A (1C)
• Recommended 50A (0.5C)

10 minutes ago, GerhardZA said:

I require assistance on the following:
Shutdown battery voltage
Battery float charge voltage
Battery absorption charge voltage

It is probably too low, but I was conservative as I do not want to damage the battery.
I currently have it se to:
44.0v
53.4v
54.0v

I was thinking to set it to the below settings, but just wanted someone to confirm if its correct.
42.0v
56.0v
57.6v

 

11 minutes ago, GerhardZA said:

Boost Charge / Float Charge Voltage: 57.6V / 54V

So there you seem to have the recommendation...

Charge/absorb 57.6V
Float 54V

and I would not go as low as 44 or even 42V... let's see, assuming the cells are still balanced at the bottom (not all that likely) that would be 2.75V or 2.625V per cell... and potentially quite a bit lower, you are hurting the cells with this... I would say 2.9V or 3V per cell as cutoff is probably a good number to aim for... 46.4V or better yet... 48V...

 

back to charge/absorb, the 57.6V is actually, again assuming perfectly balanced cells, 3.6V per cell which is the absolute maximum recommended Voltage for LiFePO4's, I'd say, 3.5 or better yet 3.45V per cell is treating them more kindly for a longer (happier :-)) life... thus 56V or better yet, 55.2V charge/absorb, the float of 54V is 3.375V per cell and should be fine...

 

 

I have the same battery in a different box and run on voltage settings. You can charge at 56.4V, float at 54V and cutoff at 45V. Some cells need to reach 3.5V for the balancing to activate.

53 minutes ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

 

So there you seem to have the recommendation...

Charge/absorb 57.6V
Float 54V

and I would not go as low as 44 or even 42V... let's see, assuming the cells are still balanced at the bottom (not all that likely) that would be 2.75V or 2.625V per cell... and potentially quite a bit lower, you are hurting the cells with this... I would say 2.9V or 3V per cell as cutoff is probably a good number to aim for... 46.4V or better yet... 48V...

 

back to charge/absorb, the 57.6V is actually, again assuming perfectly balanced cells, 3.6V per cell which is the absolute maximum recommended Voltage for LiFePO4's, I'd say, 3.5 or better yet 3.45V per cell is treating them more kindly for a longer (happier :-)) life... thus 56V or better yet, 55.2V charge/absorb, the float of 54V is 3.375V per cell and should be fine...

 

Thank you for this.

I miss read that boost / float charge voltage... 😞

I have these settings configured now. Will monitor during loadshedding and maybe adjust a little bit if needed.

Thank you for the assistance

5 hours ago, GerhardZA said:

Thank you for this.

I miss read that boost / float charge voltage... 😞

I have these settings configured now. Will monitor during loadshedding and maybe adjust a little bit if needed.

Thank you for the assistance

Are you able to see the actual voltages per cell as well as the detail like when the cells are balancing?

This is really your starting point before determining what the settings should be on the inverter. 

Looking at the actual cell voltages also takes into account any voltage losses between the Inverter and the battery.

If you set the absorption voltage to low the batteries will never reach full charge (absorbed 100% of its AH rating) which may or may not (depending on the BMS) impact cell balancing. A lot of BMSes will start balancing when any single cell reaches 3.5v while the battery is still receiving a current. Once the current drops to Zero balancing will only continue if the battery reached 100% SOC (absorbed 100% of its AH rating).

Setting the charge voltage to high causes micro cracks in the cathodes which in turn impacts battery life

It is a fine balance to get this correct, seeing what is actually happening to cell voltages and AH absorbed is the only way to get this 100% accurate.

Thank you Gerhard for this data.  I entered the same parameters that you mentioned

I note that the SOC lags about 2-3 hours behind the measured voltage

I don't understand the way the SOC lights behave:  At the moment 1 and 2 flash slowly on and off together.   The RUN light remains solid as the solar panels are providing 650 watts and the house draw is 390 watts.

Where is the ON/OFF switch for this battery?
And what does the Reset switch do?

Once last week the battery voltage dropped to 49V and the red ALM and RUN flashed for several hours

Yet today we had a 4.5 hour load-shedding and the battery still registered 52.1V at the end of it at 08h00

Edited January 12, 20233 yr by chrisc

On 2023/01/12 at 3:23 PM, chrisc said:

Thank you Gerhard for this data.  I entered the same parameters that you mentioned

I note that the SOC lags about 2-3 hours behind the measured voltage

I don't understand the way the SOC lights behave:  At the moment 1 and 2 flash slowly on and off together.   The RUN light remains solid as the solar panels are providing 650 watts and the house draw is 390 watts.

Where is the ON/OFF switch for this battery?
And what does the Reset switch do?

Once last week the battery voltage dropped to 49V and the red ALM and RUN flashed for several hours

Yet today we had a 4.5 hour load-shedding and the battery still registered 52.1V at the end of it at 08h00

The reset button is used to turn it on or off, hold it down for 3 seconds.

 

You can download the manual from this very forum:

 

 

Thank you.  Mine is a SDC10-Box 5

Is there much difference?

 

9 hours ago, chrisc said:

Thank you.  Mine is a SDC10-Box 5

Is there much difference?

The shoto batteries look to be very much the same inside, it's just the housing that is different. The SDA10 is a rack mount battery and the SDC10 is stackable. They are both 16S 5.12kwh LFP batteries and use the same seplos BMS.

Next question...

Where can I get another, identical battery?   The SHOTO batteries advertised for sale all seem slightly different

and.. what are the DIP switch settings please?

Edited March 5, 20233 yr by chrisc
left something out

On 2023/03/05 at 2:38 PM, chrisc said:

what are the DIP switch settings please?

This is for CAN comms to the inverter.

For 1 battery all DIP switches are down: 00000000

For 2 batteries it is.. master: (5up) 00001000, slave (1up): 10000000

Remember to restart the batteries when changing DIP settings.

CAN DIP ADDRESS SETUP.pdf

Edited March 6, 20233 yr by jumper

Ok, I have managed to find one and will collect it tomorrow.  It going to cost R26795,00 which does not sound too bad to me

Further questions:|
The DIP switch setting are straightforward
The RS485A and B sockets like like regular RJ45 (LAN) sockets.  Is a regular LAN patch cable used?
How do you restart the batteries?   There is a RESET button but no physical switch

Thanks very much for your assistance

41 minutes ago, chrisc said:

The RS485A and B sockets like like regular RJ45 (LAN) sockets.  Is a regular LAN patch cable used?

Yep you can use a regular straight-through LAN cable. You usually get one with the battery.

41 minutes ago, chrisc said:

How do you restart the batteries?   There is a RESET button but no physical switch

That's the on-off button. Hold for 3-5 seconds and the battery will shut down, press it again and it will switch on.

Hi Jumper, 

Regarding the CAN what settings do I need to do on the inverter? 

I have an Axpert RCT VM3 and the Shoto SDC10 single battery. 

So all the dip switches will be down. 

Thanks

11 hours ago, javadog said:

Hi Jumper, 

Regarding the CAN what settings do I need to do on the inverter? 

I have an Axpert RCT VM3 and the Shoto SDC10 single battery. 

So all the dip switches will be down. 

Thanks

Unfortunately the axperts don't work directly with the shoto/seplos as the PYL setting forces RS485 over the BMS port on the inverter. Only Soltaro and Weco battery settings use CAN on the inverter. There have been whispers of shoto support in the axpert firmware, but the code has apparently been deactivated for now.

I just run on USE mode with 56V bulk and 54.5V float.

Hi Jumper 

Thanks, yeah its kinda frustrating because on the official Shoto info page it states Voltronic aka Axpert and all the other ones are compatible. 

http://chinashoto.com/userfiles/4cd5d807dc514b838f58401c8f3a3e9f/files/SDC10-Box5英/SDC10-Box5.pdf

I guess we will have to wait and see

 

5 minutes ago, javadog said:

Hi Jumper 

Thanks, yeah its kinda frustrating because on the official Shoto info page it states Voltronic aka Axpert and all the other ones are compatible. 

http://chinashoto.com/userfiles/4cd5d807dc514b838f58401c8f3a3e9f/files/SDC10-Box5英/SDC10-Box5.pdf

I guess we will have to wait and see

 

Yeah I think by compatibility they mean it can be used with that inverter, but not necessarily with working comms between the two. I think it is listed as compatible with so many inverters because technically it can be charged with any 56V power supply as the BMS takes care of everything and doesn't require comms... it's just advertising.

Nice to see it confirms that wall mounting them is fine though.

On 2022/12/06 at 1:41 PM, GerhardZA said:

Thank you for this.

I miss read that boost / float charge voltage... 😞

I have these settings configured now. Will monitor during loadshedding and maybe adjust a little bit if needed.

Thank you for the assistance

So the Max charge current means more Amps pulling from Solar and the grid settings will mean more draw from eskom at night? and this Inturn reduces battery life?

16 minutes ago, Raiden2912 said:

So the Max charge current means more Amps pulling from Solar and the grid settings will mean more draw from eskom at night? and this Inturn reduces battery life?

Max charge higher than grid charge will have the effect you mention but you could also charge from Eskom during the day. Battery life is typically based on cycles and deeper depth of discharge will allow for less cycles.

Just acquired a Kodak 7.2kW inverter.  I,presume that the battery type,is set to,USE and the charge and float.values are as above?

Only been in use a day but seems more efficient than the Axpert it replaces 

On 2023/04/07 at 7:21 AM, jumper said:

I just run on USE mode with 56V bulk and 54.5V float.

13 hours ago, chrisc said:

Just acquired a Kodak 7.2kW inverter.  I,presume that the battery type,is set to,USE and the charge and float.values are as above?

Only been in use a day but seems more efficient than the Axpert it replaces 

Those values should work just fine. I also have the timed absorb set to 120mins to make sure it spends that long at 56V for the balancing to work properly and reach 100% SOC.

Anyone been able to connect the SDC10-Box5 to a Growatt SPF5000TL-HVM? Which ports and Li  Protocol (36) to use? 

My Axpert Mecer 5KW inverter is connected to a Shoto 5.12kwh (16s) lithium battery. This is setup purely as a backup system - no solar.

The inverter and battery BMS are monitored via Solar Assistant. 

I have the following battery settings enabled on the inverter:

I'm encountering a phenomenon where the grid charges the battery to only 96% state of charge (SOC). Following this, the battery gradually discharges to reach the float charge voltage. Several hours later, the SOC percentage begins to decrease gradually and continues to fall over the course of several days. I would greatly appreciate any insights into the possible reasons for this and any advice on how to address the problem.

On 2023/08/20 at 8:55 PM, Vassie said:

I'm encountering a phenomenon where the grid charges the battery to only 96% state of charge (SOC). Following this, the battery gradually discharges to reach the float charge voltage.

This is likely because the inverter is not staying at the absorption voltage for long enough and going to float before the battery is at 100% and not allowing cell balancing to take place. At 96% is usually when the battery is balancing and needs up to 1 hour for it to hit 100% and the BMS to stop the charging. I am not sure if SA actually controls the inverter to keep charging until 100% or merely reports what is happening, but it doesn't look like it keeps it in absorb until 100%.

First thing I would do is change the absorbtion voltage to 56.4V, I needed that to get the battery to 100% and then change the timed absorb setting to 60mins and see if it manages to get to 100%. While it is balancing the battery will look like it is switching on and off, but it will be changing from charging to standby and back for quite a while before hitting 100%, this is because the BMS will be limiting the charging current while balancing. It also won't climb up, it will jump from 96% to 100%.