PurePower Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 In December 2020, I unfortunately fell victim to a lightning surge from the grid. Various items in my house was impacted. Thankfully my Axpert inverters(x2) survived with no issues, although the Raspberry Pi that runs ICC was effected, Pi booted but USB and network ports dead. My Pylontech bank(5 x US2000 Plus) was impacted as well. The communication ports(console, RS485, CAN etc) was impacted on all 5 Pylontech modules. Fortunately they were still charging and discharging normally but i could not get any info from them. I sent them back to the supplier to get a full report. The report stated that the CMU boards in all 5 modules had to be replaced and Pylontech warranty does not cover surges, so I had to claim from insurance. Got all approvals and all boards were replaced. I commissioned the entire bank after the repairs was done. After a few days I was noticing that 2 modules cell voltages was going over 3.65v during charge and these units were throwing High Voltage and Over voltage errors in the logs. When this happens, it stopped accepting any current and waits for those effected cells voltages to drop below 3.5v before accepting a charge again. This happened over a few days and the SOH counts were increasing for these 2 modules. I decided to pull them out of the bank and to my surprise they were swollen! I was actually was shocked(no pun) when I saw this. I returned those 2 modules back to the supplier and there new report concluded that the cells are damaged from the surge and irrepairable. Their recommendation was to replace those 2 modules, which i did with a US3000C and a US2000. I collected the damaged modules and in the spirit of science, being inquisitive and sharing knowledge I decided to salvage some parts before disposing the cells. I took the following pics: Bottom cover off, we can see 3 x 16v battery packs(notice them being swollen), connected in series. Power Management Unit(PMU) board on the bottom left and Communication Management Unit(CMU) on the bottom right. PMU Top: PMU Bottom, notice all the MOSFETS here.... this side of the board is attached to a heatsink situated on the front right top side of an installed module: CMU Top: CMU Bottom: LED Strip: Internal power cable size 8AWG - 10mm2: Battery Packs: If you counted, there are 10 pouches per pack. A total of 30 pouches in a single US2000 Plus module, equates to 1.6v per pouch. BatteryView software shows 15 cells, so i am guessing that 2 pouches make up a cell of 3.2v. Enjoy the pics. Coulomb, Calvin, Pumba and 5 others 5 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coulomb Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 (edited) 9 hours ago, PurePower said: If you counted, there are 10 pouches per pack. A total of 30 pouches in a single US2000 Plus module, equates to 1.6v per pouch. BatteryView software shows 15 cells, so i am guessing that 2 pouches make up a cell of 3.2v. These are LFP (Lithium Ferrous Phosphate, LiFePO₄) cells, which are 3.2 V nominal, so the 10 cells will be arranged as 5S2P per module (15S2P overall). Interesting to see 8 AWG (close to 8 mm² as it happens) wire being used, good for about 50 A continuous. Edit: the processor seems to be a TI ARM based 32-bit microcontroller, 80 MHz, 256KiB flash. Mouser page. Edited March 22, 2021 by Coulomb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoohloc Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Thank you for the photos bro, this looks like high quality build. Not what we have seen on a post that was made a while back, bashing Pylons. Out of interest, did the insurance pay out for the replacement batteries after you went to the supplier for the second time, to confirm damaged cells? Calvin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calvin Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 55 minutes ago, hoohloc said: this looks like high quality build. Not what we have seen on a post that was made a while back, bashing Pylons Totally agree. I remember reading that post (which made a very unfavourable comparison with Hubble batteries) and thinking - I wonder how objective this is. Quite easy to take a few unflattering photos and use it to thrash the competition.... hoohloc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tariq Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 since I bought my Pylons a year ago, was starting to get a bit envious of the Hubble, but now I feel better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurePower Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 7 hours ago, Coulomb said: These are LFP (Lithium Ferrous Phosphate, LiFePO₄) cells, which are 3.2 V nominal, so the 10 cells will be arranged as 5S2P per module (15S2P overall). Interesting to see 8 AWG (close to 8 mm² as it happens) wire being used, good for about 50 A continuous. Edit: the processor seems to be a TI ARM based 32-bit microcontroller, 80 MHz, 256KiB flash. Mouser page. Thanks Coulomb for the scientific explanation. The cable has been doubled up through all its connections. 4 hours ago, hoohloc said: Thank you for the photos bro, this looks like high quality build. Not what we have seen on a post that was made a while back, bashing Pylons. Out of interest, did the insurance pay out for the replacement batteries after you went to the supplier for the second time, to confirm damaged cells? Yes, fortunately they did under the same claim as the swollen issue occurred within 7 days of the CMU boards being replaced. 59 minutes ago, Calvin said: Totally agree. I remember reading that post (which made a very unfavourable comparison with Hubble batteries) and thinking - I wonder how objective this is. Quite easy to take a few unflattering photos and use it to thrash the competition.... Definitely good build quality. hoohloc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurePower Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 (edited) For the record, I've had these modules for 3 years before this surge issue. It has been cycling everyday, running my entire house(fridge, freezer, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine, kettle, iron, tv's, etc) with the exception of air conditioners, top up on solar geyser and the oven. It's SOH was at 98%. Edited March 22, 2021 by PurePower hoohloc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicoM Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 I have just thrown in my 2 cents in the pylon vs hubble debate. A lot of things where said by people that made it pretty clear they have no idea what they where saying. I have to say the design of the pylon is is pretty good. I know they make there own cells and the is most likely the reason for the pouch style of cell being used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Achmat Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 10 hours ago, PurePower said: For the record, I've had these modules for 3 years before this surge issue. It has been cycling everyday, running my entire house(fridge, freezer, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine, kettle, iron, tv's, etc) with the exception of air conditioners, top up on solar geyser and the oven. It's SOH was at 98%. To what SOC did you cycle the batteries everyday? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurePower Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 1 minute ago, Achmat said: To what SOC did you cycle the batteries everyday? 22% ... gave myself 2% buffer as we know each module doesn't discharge/charge exactly the same. Achmat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurePower Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 My new US3000C wasn't playing well as the master with the rest of the pack. I sent it back to the supplier, Pylontech recommended that the board gets replaced in it. There is only one board in the US3000C module. I should be getting it back in the next day or two. Will post pics of that board as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenMan Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 Thanks for the very informative photos PurePower. PurePower 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurePower Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, ThatGuy said: @PurePower Do you think this is just a problem due to having the US3000C in combination with older models, or do you think that it would happen even if you had the entire bank as US3000Cs? If I were to buy a bank of 4 to 6 US3000Cs, do you think they would "play nice", or would I just be buying a headache? Pylontech's manual says its all compatible, you just have to ensure the latest module is the master. This question is hard to answer as some have had no issues and other have. Its the luck of the draw i guess. Edited March 23, 2021 by PurePower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurePower Posted May 4, 2021 Author Share Posted May 4, 2021 I had my faulty US3000C replaced under warranty and before I sent it back I took some pictures to share with everyone. I did not strip it down completely for obvious reasons. Would have been interested to see what microcontroller and mosfets were used in this model. Not my best pictures but some are better than none. Things to note; the battery packs which houses the cell pouches are now encased in some form of metal with a plastic top cover. The other distinct difference is the new board, now only one single board that handles Comms and Power management, probably costs less from a manufacturer perspective but this is the new V10R04 board revision. The same board is found in the US2000C models. Currently v1.9 firmware is available for them. The other notable difference is the orange cables joining each battery pack in series. I was happy to see the improvements made. So thumbs up to Pylontech! PierreJ, Coulomb and Deon in ZA 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom1 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Hi, i have just looked at the info about the battery teardown and would like to get some info about locating a replacement 16v battery pack as one of my packs in my 2000extra unit has failed. please can anyone help?. By the way I am in UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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