On 2020/07/31 at 12:06 PM, Gnome said:

Good luck, if you succeed come back and post so others can use that as a guide

I finally managed to get the firmware updated on both units, dsp and mcu. All I had to do is to reflash 2:49 AGAIN and then the mcu worked fine. Not sure what went wrong with the first reflash. The FTDI cable worked fine. (Bought from Matrix warehouse, UGREEN, USB > Serial)

Both Units are now on 2:49 (U2) and 71.92 (U1) and working in parallel. 

But I now have 3 new challenges:
1. The Slave Inverter gives the 61 (Communication with battery lost) error. This is because only the Master is connected to the Pylontech bank. Do I just ignore it?
2. I could not get Watchpower on laptop to connect to Master. I tried the USB > USB Micro like before with no success. Also tried the USB to RJ232 with no luck. Is this something to with the new firmware? (I can get comms on the android app via bluetooth)
3. The Master gave a 04 warning this morning. Battery bank at 10%. Previously Utility would kick in at 20% and utility charging max set to 2A worked perfect for me. Setting is SLB UCB an 05 set to "PYL". Is this firmware, parallel or settings issue?

2 hours ago, Plaashaas said:

I finally managed to get the firmware updated on both units, dsp and mcu. All I had to do is to reflash 2:49 AGAIN and then the mcu worked fine. Not sure what went wrong with the first reflash. The FTDI cable worked fine. (Bought from Matrix warehouse, UGREEN, USB > Serial)

Glad to hear - also to debunk myths like "FTDI232 is a TTL level RS-232 serial port, it 100% will not work with Axpert."

 

2 hours ago, Plaashaas said:

The Slave Inverter gives the 61 (Communication with battery lost) error. This is because only the Master is connected to the Pylontech bank. Do I just ignore it?

My own experience is that the King simply does not work in parallel mode with PYL setting.  (I have not tried it since 71.86, but it was a disaster)  I had to revert to USE setting.

 

1 hour ago, Plaashaas said:

I could not get Watchpower on laptop to connect to Master

Are you running the latest version? 1.13 SP. 9 is needed for latest King firmware.

 

2 hours ago, Plaashaas said:

The Master gave a 04 warning this morning

Do you get solar input?  With my parallel setup on 71.86 the system could not see PV once it had gone overnight.  I had to do a complete power-down every morning for PV to be restored.

I have not had the courage (or need, I have done a work-around) to try my Kings in parallel with PYL setting since 71.86.  I will be very interested to hear how yours go.  Has the PV issue been resolved?  Also the over-charging?

26 minutes ago, Calvin said:

Do you get solar input?  With my parallel setup on 71.86 the system could not see PV once it had gone overnight.  I had to do a complete power-down every morning for PV to be restored.

Should add: this was when using PYL setting.  This was "resolved" by changing to USE.

29 minutes ago, Calvin said:

Do you get solar input?  With my parallel setup on 71.86 the system could not see PV once it had gone overnight.  I had to do a complete power-down every morning for PV to be restored.

I have not had the courage (or need, I have done a work-around) to try my Kings in parallel with PYL setting since 71.86.  I will be very interested to hear how yours go.  Has the PV issue been resolved?  Also the over-charging?

When I left this morning it was still dark but later could confirm PV is coming in and charging the battery. "PV issue", I presume there was/is a issue with Firmware? What should I look for?
"Over-charging" too soon to say. 

7 minutes ago, Calvin said:

My own experience is that the King simply does not work in parallel mode with PYL setting.  (I have not tried it since 71.86, but it was a disaster)  I had to revert to USE setting.

Will check it tonight after a day in "PYL". Care to share USE settings?

My setup at this stage is like this. But only Inverter 1, Master is connected to the Pylontech BMS. Not sure how the slave will handle this?

 

17 minutes ago, Plaashaas said:

only Inverter 1, Master is connected to the Pylontech BMS. Not sure how the slave will handle this?

With 71.92, my understanding is that it should handle everything properly.

30 minutes ago, Coulomb said:

With 71.92, my understanding is that it should handle everything properly.

Great thank you. So I should just ignore "61" on slave? 

1 hour ago, Plaashaas said:

Care to share USE settings?

My settings may not be very relevant as I have a micro-controller based system that reads data from the pylons and the inverters and manages the system, by changing target voltages and switching between Line and Battery mode by disconnecting the grid with a contactor.  (It essentially performs the same function as something like ICC)

The most important settings are the charging settings:
Setting 26 (bulk) : 52.5V  this gets SOV to 100 but prevents overcharging
Setting 27 (float) : 50.5V  this reduces SOC to about 99.7%, but reduces the fast ageing that occurs in these batteries when kept at high voltages
Setting 29 (battery low) : 41V this stops the low battery warnings

I have experienced lots of issues with the inverters either not going to float mode, or continuously switching between float and bulk - essentially it looks like they cannot agree and slaves continuously override the master.  I still need to investigate whether this is a calibration issue or not.  For now my management system changes the bulk setting to 50.7V once the battery is full, and back to 52.5V the next day.

1 hour ago, Plaashaas said:

"PV issue", I presume there was/is a issue with Firmware? What should I look for?

Very simple: no PV at all, except if the inverters are started (from completely off) when the sun is shining!  It was a bit of a deal-breaker...

 

37 minutes ago, Plaashaas said:

So I should just ignore "61" on slave? 

Not very re-assuring, is it?  But, if it works...

2 hours ago, Plaashaas said:

So I should just ignore "61" on slave? 

Are you saying this occurs with main firmware version 71.92 and removable display firmware version 02.49, and setting 05 (battery type) = PYL? I would have hoped that this would not happen.

3 minutes ago, Coulomb said:

Are you saying this occurs with main firmware version 71.92 and removable display firmware version 02.49, and setting 05 (battery type) = PYL? I would have hoped that this would not happen.

That is correct. Warning 61 on Slave (SL) unit. U1 71.92 and U2 2:49

5 hours ago, Plaashaas said:

That is correct. Warning 61 on Slave (SL) unit. U1 71.92 and U2 2:49

Also picked up more serious problem. The max charging current randomly jumps around. Whilst watching the settings it would change on its own from 10A, 50A, 110A, all within about 2 minutes. I manually changed it to 120A (4x30A US3000) but it would change to anything else. This explains why my bank did not charge full on a perfect day. 

Before the 2nd inverter, and array, it would be at 100% SOC around 14:00 on a day like today. 

I can confirm that the PV was working although not to full potential, probably got clipped because of the lack of load or in this case restrictions on Max charging current. 

10 hours ago, Calvin said:

Do you get solar input?  With my parallel setup on 71.86 the system could not see PV once it had gone overnight.  I had to do a complete power-down every morning for PV to be restored.

This seems to be resolved with 71.92.

8 minutes ago, Plaashaas said:

Also picked up more serious problem. The max charging current randomly jumps around. Whilst watching the settings it would change on its own from 10A, 50A, 110A, all within about 2 minutes. I manually changed it to 120A (4x30A US3000) but it would change to anything else. This explains why my bank did not charge full on a perfect day. 

Before the 2nd inverter, and array, it would be at 100% SOC around 14:00 on a day like today. 

I can confirm that the PV was working although not to full potential, probably got clipped because of the lack of load or in this case restrictions on Max charging current. 

Mine was doing the same thing. It can’t make up it’s mind as to the amount of batteries attached. Hence the jumping around of the charge current value. However when I set the value at 140a on ICC it seems to be allowing full solar charge without jumping around. 
I’ve  also set my  charge voltage to 52.3v and it’s charging to around that value 

6 hours ago, Plaashaas said:

Whilst watching the settings it would change on its own from 10A, 50A, 110A, all within about 2 minutes.

Is it always those three figures?

Does the "P03" figure on this screen jump about, as @Richyrich seems to be finding?

 

4 hours ago, Coulomb said:

Is it always those three figures?

Seems to be random because this morning it was 40A when I checked. I will monitor for a longer period and report back. 

4 hours ago, Coulomb said:

Does the "P03" figure on this screen jump about, as @Richyrich seems to be finding?

I will have to check. 

 

I have also set the "back to Grid" Voltage to 48% and found the batteries at 22% this morning charging from grid. So that worked. The Max charging V (AC) seems to be stable meaning if I set it to 2A it accepts and keeps the setting. 

11 hours ago, RichieRich said:

Mine was doing the same thing. It can’t make up it’s mind as to the amount of batteries attached. Hence the jumping around of the charge current value. However when I set the value at 140a on ICC it seems to be allowing full solar charge without jumping around. 
I’ve  also set my  charge voltage to 52.3v and it’s charging to around that value 

Is this a Pylontech bank? You are charging to 100%+? This cant be good?

4xUS3000B ‘s with a recommend charge rating of 37amps each so 140amp should be fine. Having said that, My system can’t produce 140amps of charge. The best I’ve seen is around 80amps to the batteries. Yes getting 100% charge. Just takes a little longer to get the last few percent. Victron recommends 52v. 
 Today I’ve changed my charge voltages to 52v. So let see what happens. 
 

Edited August 12, 20205 yr by RichieRich

Just some feedback for you guys, especially since @Plaashaas asked about it in another topic. 

I am not experiencing these problems yet, however I don't make use of the Pylontech batteries, I use the Narada AGM batteries.  

10 minutes ago, Blowdart18 said:

Just some feedback for you guys, especially since @Plaashaas asked about it in another topic. 

I am not experiencing these problems yet, however I don't make use of the Pylontech batteries, I use the Narada AGM batteries.  

@Coulomb This is with regards to the Max charging current "drift" or "random changes". 
Seems to be unique to Pylontech then?

@Blowdart18 Do you have inverters in parallel? 

@Plaashaas  Yes - I have two in parallel.  However as the day goes I will check the system just to make sure that i am not seeing anything funny. 

 

Only thing is found yesterday is that I drain my batteries from about 01:00 in the morning, yesterday i had to dry clothes before i left home and the system switched to grid at around 07:00 due to back to grid setting. 

 

At first it jumped to maximum charge amp of about 80amps and there after settled to 2amps up until Solar picked up the charging and load function. However I believe this might be a setting related to SBU as I use ICC for battery timing. 

12 hours ago, RichieRich said:

Mine was doing the same thing. It can’t make up it’s mind as to the amount of batteries attached. Hence the jumping around of the charge current value. However when I set the value at 140a on ICC it seems to be allowing full solar charge without jumping around. 
I’ve  also set my  charge voltage to 52.3v and it’s charging to around that value 

I have tried setting my Solar charge setting higher and it still does the same thing.  Switched back to USE this morning and all is smooth again.  I didn't experience this on 71.86 so must be firmware related. 

I have also noticed on the latest firmware that the SUB option is no longer working correctly,  it pulls the full load from the grid with the solar charging the batteries.

Hi King users,

I have had a 3KW King installed for 2 months now. I have it in SBU mode and it works flawlessly as far as I can see. I use 2 x 8 LiFePO4 batteries with a separate battery management system to give me around 5.6 KWh at 24V. The battery type is set as "user". I have 1300W of solar input, so it is a reasonably small system. The solar panels only deliver about 900W max at this time of year, but this is due to the solar azimuth during Jul/Aug. I use around 4.5 kWh/day and batteries are fully charged around 13h00 on a sunny day. The only gripe that I have is that the SOC calculations are obviously not for LiFePO4 batteries (maybe applying to lead acid or glass lead acid cells?). Consequently, when the battery voltage drops below 3.15V/cell, it gives a low voltage warning. Extremely irritating. Because of this I switched the warnings off. I download the inverter data using the USB port on the inverter and self-written software in R.

Does anyone have an idea of how the SOC calculation is performed by this equipment? Is there any way to change it?

Kind regards,

wf

15 hours ago, Coulomb said:

Does the "P03" figure on this screen jump about, as @Richyrich seems to be finding?

Yes it does. Within a space of 2 minutes it would be P03, P01, P02, P04, P04. 

The bottom figure stays at "G01"

Max charging current keeps jumping about as well. Surely they are related. 

The Slave (SL) inverter does not have "bns" section in the "menu", only the master (H5) 

37 minutes ago, Plaashaas said:

Yes it does. Within a space of 2 minutes it would be P03, P01, P02, P04, P04. 

The bottom figure stays at "G01"

Max charging current keeps jumping about as well. Surely they are related. 

The Slave (SL) inverter does not have "bns" section in the "menu", only the master (H5) 

The max charging value is connected to the number of batteries present.  The P01-P04 indicates the amount of batteries that is currently connected, thus when the inverter sees less batteries it drops the charging value

Edited August 12, 20205 yr by Bloubul7
addition

Tested the issue of the changing battery count on 71.93 and it still occurs.  I'm guessing that the bug most likely resides in the display unit firmware. 

11 minutes ago, Bloubul7 said:

Tested the issue of the changing battery count on 71.93 and it still occurs.  I'm guessing that the bug most likely resides in the display unit firmware. 

I believe that you are right - the display unit seems to deal with all external communications.

Is yours on 2.49?