May 18, 20197 yr We recently installed the following system: Axpert 5Kw Inverter 6 x Canadian 335w Solar panels 1 x Huawei 100ah 48v Battery Settings on inverter is as follows: 01: SOL 02: 30A 03: UPS 11: 30A 12: 49V (reason for 49V is that we don't use to much Battery power during the day) - Does it make sense to you guys ??? 13: 51V (Same as floating V) - is it fine like this?? 16: OSO - Should I add utility also? 26: 53.5V - (As per attached pic taken from the Huawei battery user manual ) - do you guys agree?? 27: 51V - (As per attached pic taken from the Huawei battery user manual ) - do you guys agree?? 29: 47V - Will 47V be about 70% DOD ?? Extra Questions: 1. For some reason the inverter is on "SL" status (Slave) and I don't know why? 2. When the Battery reaches 49.4v I get error "04" (Battery voltage to low) and the Battery Icon on the inverter screen is indicating 1 bar only?? 3. We can run the pool pump (750w) inc. the Fridge etc. total load of about 850 to 900w ......but as soon as the load is to much it struggles to go over to Utility immediately and basically cuts the power supply to the house (not tripping any earth leakages) and after about a minute it will switch over to Utility and start everything up again..... this only happens when the pool pump is on. Is it something to do with the pool pump trying to re-start again?? Guys your input will be much appreciated Please keep in mind that I'm not an Electrician or Solar expert and are new to this so please can we keep the inputs "Simple" ? Thanks
May 19, 20197 yr 22 hours ago, GrahamS said: 01: SOL That means the inverter will switch the loads to the grid at sundown. This is good if you want to preserve maximum battery energy for load shedding, but to get maximum use of the battery, you would use SBU. Quote 02: 30A You could go to 50 A. Quote 12: 49V (reason for 49V is that we don't use to much Battery power during the day) - Does it make sense to you guys ??? Yes. You might even want to bump it up to 50 V. Quote 13: 51V (Same as floating V) - is it fine like this?? See how it goes. This is the voltage at which the battery starts discharging again, after having the loads supplied by the grid. Quote 16: OSO - Should I add utility also? I like to put this on a timer; setting OSO at 7am and SNU at 10pm. But you'd want a computer to do that automatically. I use Node Red running on a BeagleBone (similar to a Raspbeyy Pi). Quote 26: 53.5V - (As per attached pic taken from the Huawei battery user manual ) - do you guys agree?? 27: 51V - (As per attached pic taken from the Huawei battery user manual ) - do you guys agree?? Yes, that seems to be the received wisdom for 15S batteries, such as yours. Quote 29: 47V - Will 47V be about 70% DOD ?? No, that's dead empty. 30% SOC would be about 48.7 V, rested, no load. Quote 1. For some reason the inverter is on "SL" status (Slave) and I don't know why? Presumably, setting 28 is something other than SnG. Turn off the "power" switch to be able to change this setting. Quote 2. When the Battery reaches 49.4v I get error "04" (Battery voltage to low) and the Battery Icon on the inverter screen is indicating 1 bar only?? The inverter considers 2.0V more than the low cutoff voltage (setting 29) to be "low battery" and will issue the warning. At 49.4 V, presumably there will be small dips due to heavy loads going off (even a fridge starting could be 1 kW briefly). If you are able to run a patched firmware, this will be changed to 0.5 V above the low voltage cutoff. You didn't say your exact inverter model (there are about 4 models that are "Axpert 5 kW"), so I can't say if yours is eligible for patched firmware. See Can I Update my Firmware, and if so to what? Quote 3. We can run the pool pump (750w) inc. the Fridge etc. total load of about 850 to 900w ......but as soon as the load is to much it struggles to go over to Utility immediately and basically cuts the power supply to the house (not tripping any earth leakages) and after about a minute it will switch over to Utility and start everything up again..... this only happens when the pool pump is on. Is it something to do with the pool pump trying to re-start again?? It may well be that the start-up current for your pool pump (often 7 x the running power, so 750 x 7 = 5 250 W) is too much for your battery to handle. Your battery is rated at 50 A max discharge (or charge), so that's less than 2500 W AC load (less because the inverter isn't 100% efficient). It may be possible to find some sort of soft start gizmo for the pool pump. But once the pump is on, it's just a 750 W load (perhaps 950 VA due to the power factor of motors), and should not be much of a problem for your inverter or your battery, if your other loads are light. Edited May 19, 20197 yr by Coulomb White space forum bug.
May 19, 20197 yr For my RCT Axpert’s 5kva units the manual recommends a minimum of 200ah for the battery pack. I expect due to discharge rate, when under load.
May 19, 20197 yr Author Hi Thanks for the reply its much appreciated. Yesterday as well as this morning the inverter had issues going over to utility on a 2kw load and error "20" which is not in the manual occurred. Should we rather set the Inverter to Utility as first priority when running the Dishwasher or Tumble dryer? I have attached photos of the error as well as the inverter Model. thanks guys
May 19, 20197 yr 25 minutes ago, GrahamS said: Yesterday as well as this morning the inverter had issues going over to utility on a 2kw load and error "20" which is not in the manual occurred. Ah. Well, your machine is a clone, so it's hard to say what that's about. I can't find reference to fault code 20 in the Voltronic Power 73.00 firmware. I think some clones have been reported as having weird problems switching to and from utility. 25 minutes ago, GrahamS said: Should we rather set the Inverter to Utility as first priority when running the Dishwasher or Tumble dryer? Either that, or purchase another battery to parallel with the first.
May 19, 20197 yr Author Thanks Coulomb I also realized now that it is a clone after reading the tread on "Clones"
May 19, 20197 yr Author 3 hours ago, Coulomb said: Ah. Well, your machine is a clone, so it's hard to say what that's about. I can't find reference to fault code 20 in the Voltronic Power 73.00 firmware. I think some clones have been reported as having weird problems switching to and from utility. Either that, or purchase another battery to parallel with the first. Here is a photo of the software version
May 19, 20197 yr 1 hour ago, GrahamS said: Here is a photo of the software version Ah, a familiar version number. 😉 I've just checked, and I can't see how fault code 20 gets generated. My first guess is that it arrives by CAN packet, but I assume you don't have paralleled machines, so there would be no source of CAN packets. So: a mystery, unless they patched our patched firmware! 😮
May 19, 20197 yr Author No parallel machines, but i do have the card in the inverter for parallel connection though...
May 20, 20197 yr 8 hours ago, Liz said: How does one know if you have a clone? One follows the steps in this post: Do I Own a Clone?
May 20, 20197 yr Author SO I have monitored the Battery yesterday from 17h30 up until this morning 05h43... 17h30 - Inverter running on Utility, Battery on 49.5v 19h20 - 49.2v ..., I decided to charge with utility power 20h00 - fully charged and on 51v float, at this stage I did switch the Utility charge off and the volts dropped to 50.3v 20h10 - 50.1v 21h30 - 49.2v 05h43 - 49..1v The discharge indicator on the battery itself was on during this 12 hour period We were on Utility the whole time. Does all it of this make sense.....I clearly do not understand Battery Chemistry ???
May 20, 20197 yr 3 hours ago, GrahamS said: Does all it of this make sense Sure. With the utility charger off, even with the utility powering the loads, something has to power the electronics in the inverter-charger: the processor, lighting the display, relays, other electronics, comes to a non-trivial 35 W or so. So that's why the discharge LED is on, and a small part of the reason for the battery voltage to be falling. But batteries of all kinds will fall in voltage after a charge, till they reach a resting voltage, often around 3.33 V per cell for the LFP chemistry. That's just under 50 V for a 15S battery. So any voltage above about 51 V is a sort of fluffy region where there isn't real energy behind it. The same happens with lead acid. A typical 12 V battery will float at 13.8V or 13.5 V with very little current, but will fall back to a resting voltage of about 12.8 V, even when fully charged. All battery voltages are also affected by temperature. There is also a self discharge effect (much worse with lead acid) that gets worse with age. So the takeaway message is: voltage is not a good indicator of state of charge, especially for LFP at middling SOC. Edited May 20, 20197 yr by Coulomb
May 20, 20197 yr Author Ah great thanks. I thought that maybe the inverter BMS and the BMS of the Battery itself is not communicating with one another.
May 20, 20197 yr 6 hours ago, Coulomb said: One follows the steps in this post: Do I Own a Clone? Thank you!
May 20, 20197 yr 1 hour ago, GrahamS said: I thought that maybe the inverter BMS and the BMS of the Battery itself is not communicating with one another. The inverter firmware doesn't communicate with the battery BMS, and that's a pity. A few very recent models can with a special cable, but they have an RS-485 interface built in. The Axperts don't.
May 20, 20197 yr 15 hours ago, Coulomb said: One follows the steps in this post: Do I Own a Clone? Hi Coulomb We are very newbies and wonder if you could assist (all your posts show a magnitude of knowledge!). We have the following set-up: 4 string of 2@300W panels Axpert 5 kVA inverter 2 x Huawei lithium batteries. The problems we are having is following: · Panels seem to be picked up during early (South African time) low intensity light by inverter. When intensity increases, e.g. 09h30, the panels are switched off and system runs on batteries (thus no charging). · Pool is scheduled to start at 11h00 which then causes system to trip and bypass to UTI. This eventually switches to panels, where input is ~1.6 kV and output is ~1.3 kV, so pool runs solely from solar which also charges batteries. · When pool goes off at 14h00, system immediately goes to batteries only, without using any more solar power for charging. · When we get home, system runs on batteries registering about 49V, and thereafter quickly goes to UTI. This continues rest of evening, cycling between UTI and batteries · Currently system registers load between 400-500 W when pool is not running. · Biggest issue is it seems the system is not charging the batteries from solar, or does not recognize solar during day unless a heavy load (e.g. pool) kicks in. So instead of running off grid, we are running mostly one grid. Our current program settings are as follows: 01 Sbu 02 40A 03 APL 04 SdS 05 USE 06 Lrd 07 Trd 09 50Hz 11 40A 12 48V 13 51V 16 SNU 18 bOF 19 rEP 20 LON 22 AON 23 bYE 25 FdS 26 53.5V 27 53.5V 28 SNG 30 OnE 31 SbE Your advice would be highly appreciated!
May 21, 20197 yr 6 hours ago, Liz said: Axpert 5 kVA inverter ... · Biggest issue is it seems the system is not charging the batteries from solar, or does not recognize solar during day unless a heavy load (e.g. pool) kicks in. So instead of running off grid, we are running mostly one grid. You didn't give the exact inverter model. Is it perhaps a King? Others are having problems with the solar power going to zero for 30 seconds, and later going to zero until the PV is turned off and on again (or next day). If unsure, a photo of the sticker on the side with the bar-code will tell us. 6 hours ago, Liz said: Our current program settings are as follows: Your settings seem reasonable, except perhaps setting 02. You didn't say the capacity of your Huawei battery, but from other posts, they seem to be a bit larger than the Pylontech US2000s, so perhaps this setting can be increased. What is your exact battery model?
May 21, 20197 yr 4 hours ago, Coulomb said: You didn't give the exact inverter model. Is it perhaps a King? Others are having problems with the solar power going to zero for 30 seconds, and later going to zero until the PV is turned off and on again (or next day). If unsure, a photo of the sticker on the side with the bar-code will tell us. Hi Coulomb Here is photo of the sticker as well as the firmware. I read the clone forum, but we are told ours is a custom build unit.
May 21, 20197 yr 4 hours ago, Coulomb said: You didn't give the exact inverter model. Is it perhaps a King? Others are having problems with the solar power going to zero for 30 seconds, and later going to zero until the PV is turned off and on again (or next day). If unsure, a photo of the sticker on the side with the bar-code will tell us. Your settings seem reasonable, except perhaps setting 02. You didn't say the capacity of your Huawei battery, but from other posts, they seem to be a bit larger than the Pylontech US2000s, so perhaps this setting can be increased. What is your exact battery model? 4 hours ago, Coulomb said: Your settings seem reasonable, except perhaps setting 02. You didn't say the capacity of your Huawei battery, but from other posts, they seem to be a bit larger than the Pylontech US2000s, so perhaps this setting can be increased. What is your exact battery model? We have two of these: 48V, 100 amp, 4.8 kwh Previously we had 8X100 amp lead acid and then system run perfectly, just the batteries did last through the night. Thank you for your assistance
May 21, 20197 yr 2 hours ago, Liz said: I read the clone forum, but we are told ours is a custom build unit. Sorry, many details nail this as a clone. Alas, it's also one that can't have the firmware updated, though if you complain enough, you might be able to get a replacement control board that fixes that problem. Several clone owners have reported problems with the solar charge controller (the MPPT if you like). It likely isn't a firmware issue, since it's well known patched firmware, which as it happens yours truly had a hand in writing. There is a small chance that they patched the patched firmware and introduced a bug. You seem to have been promised a genuine Voltronic Power machine, and plainly didn't receive that, so I think you need to complain to your supplier. Maybe they will replace it for you. It's entirely possible that they were tricked themselves. In case you need to convince them that it's a clone: * Only clones come with patched firmware, the letter C in 72.70c means it is patched * The barcode is applied over the main sticker, and has 16 digits, and is in the wrong format * the cent symbol instead of the Greek letter phi * the lack of the small sticker with the manufacturing date Edit: by "custom unit" they may be referring to the patched firmware, which is custom in a sense. Ironically, you would now like to customise it to suit your battery, meaning you'd want the LF (for LFP, lithium iron phosphate) flavour of patched firmware, and can't because of the firmware update issue. Edited May 21, 20197 yr by Coulomb
May 21, 20197 yr And this is why mine have failed because this sticker wasn't on mine and I adjusted the settings and getting a code 09 error now.
May 21, 20197 yr 39 minutes ago, Coulomb said: Sorry, many details nail this as a clone. Alas, it's also one that can't have the firmware updated, though if you complain enough, you might be able to get a replacement control board that fixes that problem. Several clone owners have reported problems with the solar charge controller (the MPPT if you like). It likely isn't a firmware issue, since it's well known patched firmware, which as it happens yours truly had a hand in writing. There is a small chance that they patched the patched firmware and introduced a bug. You seem to have been promised a genuine Voltronic Power machine, and plainly didn't receive that, so I think you need to complain to your supplier. Maybe they will replace it for you. It's entirely possible that they were tricked themselves. In case you need to convince them that it's a clone: * Only clones come with patched firmware, the letter C in 72.70c means it is patched * The barcode is applied over the main sticker, and has 16 digits, and is in the wrong format * the cent symbol instead of the Greek letter phi * the lack of the small sticker with the manufacturing date Edit: by "custom unit" they may be referring to the patched firmware, which is custom in a sense. Ironically, you would now like to customise it to suit your battery, meaning you'd want the LF (for LFP, lithium iron phosphate) flavour of patched firmware, and can't because of the firmware update issue. Thank you so much! All your feedback and advice is highly appreciated!
May 21, 20197 yr 7 hours ago, Coulomb said: Sorry, many details nail this as a clone. Alas, it's also one that can't have the firmware updated, though if you complain enough, you might be able to get a replacement control board that fixes that problem. Several clone owners have reported problems with the solar charge controller (the MPPT if you like). It likely isn't a firmware issue, since it's well known patched firmware, which as it happens yours truly had a hand in writing. There is a small chance that they patched the patched firmware and introduced a bug. You seem to have been promised a genuine Voltronic Power machine, and plainly didn't receive that, so I think you need to complain to your supplier. Maybe they will replace it for you. It's entirely possible that they were tricked themselves. In case you need to convince them that it's a clone: * Only clones come with patched firmware, the letter C in 72.70c means it is patched * The barcode is applied over the main sticker, and has 16 digits, and is in the wrong format * the cent symbol instead of the Greek letter phi * the lack of the small sticker with the manufacturing date Edit: by "custom unit" they may be referring to the patched firmware, which is custom in a sense. Ironically, you would now like to customise it to suit your battery, meaning you'd want the LF (for LFP, lithium iron phosphate) flavour of patched firmware, and can't because of the firmware update issue. Sorry to bug again. In your opinion, if we had an original and with our set-up, it would run perfectly and no glitches with pool? Or would you recommend another inverter? Advice much appreciated again.
May 21, 20197 yr 40 minutes ago, Liz said: Or would you recommend another inverter? My 2 cents, unless you are DIY'er and want to keep a hand on an inverter, get a Victron kit for example. Plug and Forget. 🙂 And if you want to follow SA's NRS and SANS regulations, use one that is NRS approved, one that fits your DB board's main breaker i.e. if it is 63amp breaker, don't get a inverter bigger than 3.5kva if you are grid tied. Because when you do go grid tied, that is where the most savings are ito 1) solar panel generation and 2) can use less batteries.
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