Youda Posted August 20, 2020 Author Share Posted August 20, 2020 (edited) Last year, I added a wallbox to my solar, for charging electric vehicles. It's a single-phase 32A, so the max charging power is roughly 7.5kW. Some details are written in my previous post here: https://powerforum.co.za/topic/2322-youdas-off-grid-lab/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-58507 Personally, I don't own an EV, but for the nine months in a year the solar production is so excessive, that I have no use for all that power. Therefore, I offered EV charging for free and published the wallbox location on the PlugShare.com and on some other local charging maps too. Since then, curious EV drivers are stopping by, mostly just to check whether the charging a car from solar is really possible. And yes - it is Some of the cars that stopped for charging were Mitsubishi (hybrid), Citroen C-Zero, Hyundai Ioniq, Fiat 500e and the last one, just couple of days ago, was Hyundai Kona. Hyundai Ioniq: Fiat 500e: Hyundai Kona: Most of the drivers are charging just for 30 minutes or so, which equals to 3-4kWh and 15km of range. On the chart below, it's marked as "EVSE". If I do remember correctly, just one driver stayed longer than hour and took 8kWh. That equals to 30-40km, based on the model of the car. By the way - is there anybody else on the forum, charging his EV from the off-grid solar? If so, do you offer free charging to the other drivers or not? Edited August 20, 2020 by Youda Yellow Measure, Power Me, Louisvdw and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Power Me Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 If I owned an EV (and I do want a "Volvo XC40 Recharge" and I do still have my many years old Tesla M3 deposit still in place) I would be charging it at home. I am not sure why there are no DC "fast" (they don't have to be fast, just DC) chargers for home PV owners as they would be so much more efficient, than the process of converting PV array to AC and then AC back to DC battery charging in an EV, and certainly if/when I can afford an EV I would investigate this DC charging possibility. My preliminary investigation revealed that actual data communication would be necessary with the EV rather than the simple pulse based communication used in AC charging. The EV cost problem in SA is that our useless SA Gov always implements the exact opposite of what they should be implementing. A pure EV in SA costs a small fortune as firstly EVs are not subsidised like in 1st world countries, but they in fact occur additional import duties as they don't have an ICE. I think I remember seeing figures like 25% import duty on pure EV vs 18% for an ICE vehicle. Additionally, because an EV has an expensive battery inside which makes the vehicle itself expensive, this pricing pushes an EV above the luxury vehicle threshold and so an EV then incurs an additional luxury vehicle tax. Such is the insanity on this continent. Youda, ___ and Fuenkli 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RikH Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 36 minutes ago, Youda said: By the way - is there anybody else on the forum, charging his EV from the off-grid solar? Yes, look here. 37 minutes ago, Youda said: If so, do you offer free charging to the other drivers or not? No, for several reasons. first my driveway is appr. 100 mtrs long and when my wife comes home and my car is already parked there will be issues with maneuvering the cars and we don't want that for strangers. Second, we have "only" 36 panels so enough for the house and the car around the year but not much more than that. And around the year it is only possible since we can still netmeter everything. Nice to share you excess power to one who can use it instead of just not generate it! Youda 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youda Posted August 21, 2020 Author Share Posted August 21, 2020 23 hours ago, Power Me said: If I owned an EV (and I do want a "Volvo XC40 Recharge" and I do still have my many years old Tesla M3 deposit still in place) I would be charging it at home. I am not sure why there are no DC "fast" (they don't have to be fast, just DC) chargers for home PV owners as they would be so much more efficient, than the process of converting PV array to AC and then AC back to DC battery charging in an EV, and certainly if/when I can afford an EV I would investigate this DC charging possibility. My preliminary investigation revealed that actual data communication would be necessary with the EV rather than the simple pulse based communication used in AC charging. The EV cost problem in SA is that our useless SA Gov always implements the exact opposite of what they should be implementing. A pure EV in SA costs a small fortune as firstly EVs are not subsidised like in 1st world countries, but they in fact occur additional import duties as they don't have an ICE. I think I remember seeing figures like 25% import duty on pure EV vs 18% for an ICE vehicle. Additionally, because an EV has an expensive battery inside which makes the vehicle itself expensive, this pricing pushes an EV above the luxury vehicle threshold and so an EV then incurs an additional luxury vehicle tax. Such is the insanity on this continent. Hi @Power Me The main reason for the lack of PV based DC-to-DC EV chargers is that it would be a niche product. Such devices will eventually appear on the market, but it will take years from now. Speaking of communication this problem is already solved: While the AC chargers are using PWM, the DC chargers are based on CAN BUS. There's also a second type of DC chargers, based on ETHERNET communication. But these are being deployed only in China. Prices of the EV's, expensive batteries and the "support" of the goverment(s) is a very sad story. But SA is not alone, here in Europe some countries do have subsidies, some other have not. It's not even harmonized across the EU. Personally, I would say that the biggest think for the e-mobility will be the time when corporations will start to buy EV's for their fleets and later this EV's will hit the secondary market. There's not much people who can afford to buy a brand new ICE vehicle, and even less people can afford a brand new EV. There was a smart move from some of the manufacturers, for example Renault and NIO. These two offer an "empty car" where the battery in the car still belongs to the manufacturer. Therefore, the consumer don't have to pay CAPEX nor duties for it, but he's renting the battery with a fixed monthly fee. To be honest, I don't like this business model, but for some other consumers this could be the way to get their hands on a brand new EV. BTW: Owning a Volvo or Polestar EV would be so cooooool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youda Posted August 29, 2020 Author Share Posted August 29, 2020 (edited) Hi guys, based on the fact that many forum users are trying to understand how to use Pylontech batteries efficiently, I've extracted some of the internal configuration values. It's from a stack of 8xUS3000. What instantly catched my eye are especially these values. So I added a couple of my comments and thougths: Total Num : 8 //Number of maximum daisy-chained bricks supported by the firmware. Present Num : 8 //Number of actually daisy-chained (RS485) bricks.Shut time : 72.0 H //If the brick is not charged/discharged for 3 days, it will auto-power off.Balance Volt : 30 mV Balance Start : 3360 mV //Looks like the BMS is able start balancing cells at this voltage it's not //a static top-balancing, as I know that the BMS chip is able to stop balancing //at a much higher voltage, if all the cells are at roughly the same voltage level.Recommend chg voltage : 53250 mV //This is what inverters like Axpert are reading //from the BMS and using as CC.Over VoltageR : 51000 mV //Strange, that this is triggered at 51V, given //the recommended CC=53.2V.High VoltageR : 52500 mV High Voltage : 53900 mV //Just 650mV of margin between recommended CC=53.2V and alarm.Over Voltage : 54000 mV //Just 750mV of margin between recommended CC=53.2V and panic. A complete list goes here. Please note that the column "Battery" means actually a CELL while the column "Power" means a single US3000 BRICK: Protect Attribution --------------------------------- Item Battery Power Over Voltage : 3700 54000 mV Over VoltageR : 3600 51000 mV High Voltage : 3650 53900 mV High VoltageR : 3500 52500 mV Low Voltage : 3050 46000 mV Low VoltageR : 3100 47000 mV Under Voltage : 2900 44500 mV Under VoltageR : 3250 49000 mV Sleep Voltage : 2500 38000 mV Charging OT : 61000 61000 mC Charging OTR : 55000 55000 mC Charging HT : 59000 59000 mC Charging HTR : 55000 55000 mC Charging LT : -9000 -9000 mC Charging LTR : -5000 -5000 mC Charging UT : -11000 -11000 mC Charging UTR : -5000 -5000 mC Discharging OT : 61000 61000 mC Discharging OTR : 55000 55000 mC Discharging HT : 59000 59000 mC Discharging HTR : 55000 55000 mC Discharging LT : -9000 -9000 mC Discharging LTR : -5000 -5000 mC Discharging UT : -11000 -11000 mC Discharging UTR : -5000 -5000 mC Charging OC : 102000 mA Charging OC Alarm : 50000 mA Charging OC AlarmR : 40000 mA Discharging OC : -100000 mA Discharging OC Alarm : -50000 mA Discharging OC AlarmR : -45000 mA OC Delay : 15000 mS OC Release : 60000 mS Charging OC2 : 200000 mA Discharging OC2 : -200000 mA OC2 Delay : 100 mS OC2 Release : 60000 mS Discharging SC : -400000 mA SC Delay : 0 mS SC Release : 60000 mS Charging Max Cur : 10000 mA Balance Start : 3360 mV Balance Volt : 30 mV Shut time : 72.0 H BUV/PUV time : 2400 S Sleep ctrl state : OFF Sleep every day StartTime : 20:00 EndTime : 08:00 HwSleepInfo HwSleepStatus : OFF HwSleepTime : 6 S HwWakeupTime : 60 S Data Save every day StartTime : 00:00 EndTime : 23:59 Save Interval : 1800 S Power System Information --------------------------------- System is idle Total Num : 8 Present Num : 8 Sleep Num : 0 System Volt : 49381 mV System Curr : -367 mA System RC : 352367 mAH System FCC : 585266 mAH System SOC : 60 % System SOH : 99 % Highest voltage : 3294 mV Average voltage : 3292 mV Lowest voltage : 3290 mV Highest temperature : 23000 mC Average temperature : 21875 mC Lowest temperature : 21000 mC Recommend chg voltage : 53250 mV Recommend dsg voltage : 47000 mV Recommend chg current : 296000 mA Recommend dsg current : -296000 mA Hope this helps all the young scientists that are developing their own monitoring and control solution for the batteries and inverters Youda Edited August 29, 2020 by Youda Fuenkli, Marius De Kock, Yellow Measure and 3 others 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Power Me Posted August 29, 2020 Share Posted August 29, 2020 (edited) Thanks for this info. What battery state do the parameters with the "R" appended at the end refer to, or when to do they become applicable? For example; High Voltage = 53.9V but high VoltageR = 52.5V I have just had a thought, that perhaps parameters with "R" appended are for reference or are perhaps recommended safe values? (ie non "R" = marketing supplied and "R" appended = engineering proposed limits ) Edited August 29, 2020 by Power Me Added an after thought Youda and Calvin 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitheido Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 Dear Plonkster/Youda, I am having a strange problem with my Pylon Tech US2000s - I previously had 16 bricks (2 stacks of 8 bricks) connected to a Victron GX device - I just added 4 new bricks (3rd stack) to make 20 total and now the CCL on the battery parameters page of the Venus GX is limited to 300A - effectively 15A per brick. If I disconnect the 4 new batteries, the CCL goes back to 400A for the 16 old bricks, if I connect the new 4 batteries alone, the CCL is 100A. The expectation is 25A per brick so 500A CCL for 20 bricks. What can I do to get the batteries from limiting the charge current? I have 20kw of panels mounted - any way to force the CCL to a higher value? I have checked and the 16 old bricks have firmware version 65.9.1 whereas the 4 new bricks have firmware version 66xx - is an upgrade required to same firmware? I also eliminated temperature as an issue - batteries read 25 to 30 degrees depending on time of day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitheido Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 On 2020/08/29 at 11:57 AM, Power Me said: Thanks for this info. What battery state do the parameters with the "R" appended at the end refer to, or when to do they become applicable? For example; High Voltage = 53.9V but high VoltageR = 52.5V I have just had a thought, that perhaps parameters with "R" appended are for reference or are perhaps recommended safe values? (ie non "R" = marketing supplied and "R" appended = engineering proposed limits ) I thought perhaps 'R' referred to 'recovery' - so 'Over Voltage' for example is 3.7v per cell and the system will clear the error and resume normal operations 'Over VoltageR' when the voltage drops to 3.6v per cell Power Me and Youda 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyon Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 On 2019/06/06 at 9:41 AM, Youda said: Hi guys, just an update to Pylontech BMS + Axpert/InfiniSolar data connection: The original information that I've received from MPP Solar, that BMS RJ45 cables are the same for MPI Hybrid and PIP, was found to be wrong. Actually, the wiring of the cable is a bit different, so here's the update: Just for the reference, the live pins on the Pylontechs' side are still the same 1&2, protocol RS485. But the RS485 pins on the Axpert and on the InfiniSolar differ from each other. That's the reason, why you need a different cable for each type of the inverter. Hope this info will be help someone... Hello all. Does this cable config work on the Pylon battery to Axpert king inverter and for how long is that system running for now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Power Me Posted October 25, 2020 Share Posted October 25, 2020 On 2020/10/18 at 8:56 PM, Nitheido said: I thought perhaps 'R' referred to 'recovery' - so 'Over Voltage' for example is 3.7v per cell and the system will clear the error and resume normal operations 'Over VoltageR' when the voltage drops to 3.6v per cell Recovery or Release, that a good thought, thanks for this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paja-fve Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 Hello guys. This forum looks to be frequently visited by lot of people Does anybody run the Batteryview SW against the Pylontech Force H2 battery? I hope the HV battery could be an evolution of their products. I dont have the RS232-USB in hands yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youda Posted November 8, 2020 Author Share Posted November 8, 2020 On 2020/10/31 at 2:00 PM, paja-fve said: Hello guys. This forum looks to be frequently visited by lot of people Does anybody run the Batteryview SW against the Pylontech Force H2 battery? I hope the HV battery could be an evolution of their products. I dont have the RS232-USB in hands yet. Yeah, the current 3-phase hybrid inverters from almost every manufacturer now are using HV batteries (where allowed voltage range is typically 200V to 400V DC). LV, aka 48V DC batteries are being used for 1-phase inverters mainly. Speaking of Pylontech, their HV and LV batteries are talking different protocols. Therefore, BatteryView version intended for US2000/3000 is incompatible with H48050 of Force H2. If you want to try it out, I have a BatteryView version for HV batteries as well. It works with H48050 (aka PowerCube-X1), but I don't know whether is will work with Force-H2 too. Anyway, RS232-to-USB coverter, together with a correctly wired communication cable is a must, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youda Posted November 8, 2020 Author Share Posted November 8, 2020 On 2020/10/22 at 11:11 AM, Barryv said: Hello all. Does this cable config work on the Pylon battery to Axpert king inverter and for how long is that system running for now? Yes, PIP-5048MK and Axpert King are the same machines. RS485 cable for one of them will work with the other too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bafaro69 Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Hello Youda, I read the various explanations given with great interest. I just received an update of my pylontech batteries so that my 18 us2kbpl batteries can communicate with the LV-HUB and my three growatt inverters SPF5000 HVM-P in rs485, but my problem I cannot run batteryview , a message like in the following image will appear and terminate the connection. Can you help me ? Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bafaro69 Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paja-fve Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 On 2020/11/08 at 4:25 PM, Youda said: Yeah, the current 3-phase hybrid inverters from almost every manufacturer now are using HV batteries (where allowed voltage range is typically 200V to 400V DC). LV, aka 48V DC batteries are being used for 1-phase inverters mainly. Speaking of Pylontech, their HV and LV batteries are talking different protocols. Therefore, BatteryView version intended for US2000/3000 is incompatible with H48050 of Force H2. If you want to try it out, I have a BatteryView version for HV batteries as well. It works with H48050 (aka PowerCube-X1), but I don't know whether is will work with Force-H2 too. Anyway, RS232-to-USB coverter, together with a correctly wired communication cable is a must, of course. Thx, for some reason I've missed your reply. I'll do the Max232 HW driver and try to connect. If I see the console prompt, I'll go ahead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paja-fve Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 The management module (FC0500M-40) for Force H2 has 3 RJ-45 communication ports RS485 (used for Goodwe ET communication), CANBUS and RS232. It is little bit strange, that the GND is not defined in the pinout table. I'd expect that midlle pins are used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurePower Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 (edited) On 2021/01/10 at 1:25 AM, Bafaro69 said: I have the exact same error now with BatteryView 3.0.17 since my US2000+ Pylons have been updated to v2.4. However BatteryView 3.0.3 seems to connect just fine. Also, since v2.4 firmware, BatteryView 3.0.3 has been displaying the incorrect battery amps from the Pylons as well. I don't think its a BatteryView issue more a Pylon firmware problem. I am looking for either a newer firmware or the previous available one. Any help will be appreciated. Edited January 26, 2021 by PurePower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurePower Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 On 2021/01/26 at 4:49 PM, PurePower said: I have the exact same error now with BatteryView 3.0.17 since my US2000+ Pylons have been updated to v2.4. However BatteryView 3.0.3 seems to connect just fine. Also, since v2.4 firmware, BatteryView 3.0.3 has been displaying the incorrect battery amps from the Pylons as well. I don't think its a BatteryView issue more a Pylon firmware problem. I am looking for either a newer firmware or the previous available one. Any help will be appreciated. Sorted my issues out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bafaro69 Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 On 09/01/2021 at 23:25, Bafaro69 said: Bonjour, J'ai finalement résolu ce problème de blocage de batteryview avec l'aide d'un ingénieur Informaticien. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FixAMess Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 What is the latest version of BatteryView.exe and where can I get it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatboy Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 On 2021/01/30 at 12:37 PM, Bafaro69 said: Bonjour, J'ai finalement résolu ce problème de blocage de batteryview avec l'aide d'un ingénieur Informaticien. Hi What did your IT guy do to resolve the error message. I am experiencing the same using version 3.0.22. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bafaro69 Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 Il a juste changé la langue de l'ordinateur, du français à l'anglais. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurePower Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 On 2021/01/28 at 12:46 PM, SolarNoob said: @PurePower Could you please share the versions of BatteryView that you have? Thanks! Download the 2 zips I posted on that thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurePower Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 (edited) I am looking for V2.5 firmware for the US2000 or US3000A Pylontech battery. If anyone can share, it will be highly appreciated. And for the record @Youda, your setup is amazing! Its very impressive on what you have done so far. Edited March 11, 2021 by PurePower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.