Hi guys

Thanks for an informative forum. 

Can anyone help. Also please excuse my ignorance as I have no clue about data coms what so ever. 

Problem I have is a Sofar ME3000SP Connected to a generic lithium DIY  powerwall battery. The Sofar has a RS485 coms port and my battery BMS has a RS232 coms port. 

I think I have managed to find the BMS protocols for my battery BMS but I can’t find the ME3000SP protocol. Was wondering if one of you clever fellows may have it. 

I’m  hoping that if I can get the two protocols there may be some way of getting them talking to each other, maybe with a raspberry pi or something. 

Thanks 

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

The ME3000SP has two RS485 communications ports and a CAN port, one RS485 port that you can attach to and speak *their* modbus protocol (to get stats etc from the Inverter) and one RS485 / CAN port that attaches to a battery system BMS.

You can email Sofar to get the modbus protocol, but all that will get you is data from the ME3000SP itself.

What you need to do is see what battery systems the ME3000SP supports in the setup (which depends on the firmware version) - for example I use mine with Pylontech.  Perhaps your DIY powerwall BMS will support one of those protocols?  If so then all you would need is a RS485 <-> RS232 converter.

If not then you would need to obtain the protocols for the battery systems that the ME3000SP supports that you can then write a protocol converter to convert from one of those to whatever protocol your BMS uses.

Hope that helps!

Martyn

 

1 hour ago, martynw said:

Hi Chuck,

The ME3000SP has two RS485 communications ports and a CAN port, one RS485 port that you can attach to and speak *their* modbus protocol (to get stats etc from the Inverter) and one RS485 / CAN port that attaches to a battery system BMS.

You can email Sofar to get the modbus protocol, but all that will get you is data from the ME3000SP itself.

What you need to do is see what battery systems the ME3000SP supports in the setup (which depends on the firmware version) - for example I use mine with Pylontech.  Perhaps your DIY powerwall BMS will support one of those protocols?  If so then all you would need is a RS485 <-> RS232 converter.

If not then you would need to obtain the protocols for the battery systems that the ME3000SP supports that you can then write a protocol converter to convert from one of those to whatever protocol your BMS uses.

Hope that helps!

Martyn

 

Hi Martyn

Thanks for taking your time to reply, to be honest I know nothing about data coms and don't really have a clue where to start with this.

My BMS has four terminals marked VDD, TXD, RXD and GND, at the moment I can connect a Bluetooth module for a phone app that uses all four terminals or a PC module that only uses the TXD, RXD and GND terminals.

I have got one of these RS485 to RS232 converters

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LVVI1XI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've also ordered these 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00006IRQA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071DS5GTW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2PALI197JW80Z&psc=1.

I've emailed Sofar several times asking for the protocols, but I never get a response from them.

At the moment because I don't have a BMS connected to the inverter it's in fault mode and doing nothing but displaying grid, solar and consumption kW,  but even that doesn't make any sense. it's like the grid and consumption figures are reversed. Not sure if this may be due to it not communicating with the battery yet. Basically all I have is a glorified inaccurate data logger.

Edited September 28, 20196 yr by Chuck

Probably a really stupid question to ask.

I did wonder if it would be possible to set it as a lead acid battery as this doesn't look for a bms and then edit the charge/discharge parameters to suit my battery? Just a thought as the bms itself will monitor the battery cells and shut off the battery if something was to go wrong.

Would need to figure out the best settings before changing anything.

Edited September 28, 20196 yr by Chuck

 

5 hours ago, Chuck said:

Thanks for taking your time to reply, to be honest I know nothing about data coms and don't really have a clue where to start with this.

No problem, ultimately if this type of thing isn't your forte then I suspect you will struggle to develop a protocol converter that works reliably!

What BMS is it?  I'd be surprised if the supplier doesn't offer a way to integrate with common Inverters.

5 hours ago, Chuck said:

I've emailed Sofar several times asking for the protocols, but I never get a response from them.

Sofar usually reply, but in this case as I said they probably won't be able to give you the protocols of the third party BMS systems as they don't belong to Sofar, they belong to whomever the battery system manufacturer is.

5 hours ago, Chuck said:

but even that doesn't make any sense. it's like the grid and consumption figures are reversed.

That sounds like the CT clamps aren't fitted correctly, make sure they are on the correct feeds and facing the right way round, they need to be on the main grid incoming supply and the Solar PV feed to the Consumer Unit and 

5 hours ago, Chuck said:

Just a thought as the bms itself will monitor the battery cells and shut off the battery if something was to go wrong.

The problem here is that with no communication to the BMS all the Inverter will be doing is measuring voltage / current of batteries.  While this works with lead acid, lithium is entirely different - if you search the forum you'll see other people trying the same thing with other Inverters and for example Pylontech batteries ..... it never seems to work very well.

Hey Guys,

I'm hoping that someone on here can help me - I have lost connection with the wifi data logger in my ME3000SP.

I can see the AP_807xxxxxx OK but when I try to access it I just get "Unable to join this network AP_807xxxxxx".

It all worked fine until a few weeks ago, I'm tearing my hair out trying to sort this. Please help.

Niknek

Hi, 

I have an me3000sp and recently hooked it up to a new Seplos 15kw battery with a seplos  v3 BMS, I am struggling to get comms between the battery and inverter. I hope some one can help me please?.I have a connection between the can of the battery and the can on the Inverter, but it throws up a fault if is set the inverter to general lithium . It works ok of i use the default setting that is used for lead acid.

Thanks in advance