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. 

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, 20215 yr by Coulomb

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?

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....

since I bought my Pylons a year ago, was starting to get a bit envious of the Hubble, but now I feel better😋

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.

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, 20215 yr by PurePower

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.  

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? 

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.

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. 

 

 

Thanks for the very informative photos PurePower. 

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, 20215 yr by PurePower

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!

 

 

 

 

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.

hi, i have a burned PMU, 8 of the MOSFETs are dead. i am desperately (because of ongoing load shedding) looking for a PMU for US3000 OR US2000.  I am in Joburg

I bought 19 x Pylontech US2000 B Plus and H48050 Power Cube Batteries as Spares or Repairs. 

I have fixed 15 of them so far, but I have 3 potentially available for spare parts, (the other one i'm attempting to recover).

The boards appear to be similar in purpose across the range with the triple battery packs in each units '15s' 'battery'(being made up of 3 x 5s2p packs).

I'd think that the mosfets would be the type of ones in all cases?

I actually cut out individual cells packs, tested and rebuilt one of the 5s2p packs to make a perfect working one from the best of the salvaged cells.

On 2022/09/20 at 5:21 PM, sgadd32 said:

I bought 19 x Pylontech US2000 B Plus and H48050 Power Cube Batteries as Spares or Repairs. 

I have fixed 15 of them so far, but I have 3 potentially available for spare parts, (the other one i'm attempting to recover).

The boards appear to be similar in purpose across the range with the triple battery packs in each units '15s' 'battery'(being made up of 3 x 5s2p packs).

I'd think that the mosfets would be the type of ones in all cases?

I actually cut out individual cells packs, tested and rebuilt one of the 5s2p packs to make a perfect working one from the best of the salvaged cells.

Do you still have those 3 modules available? I also wanna rebuild a cell pack

I will need one complete us2000 to salvage some spares if available 

Do we know who makes this boards ?

I've been searching for "Phantom SA"  , Phantom SA CMU , Phantom NF4.E2 , Phantom V10R04 and all other combinations ... NOTHING shows up.
So if someone needs a spare board ... where to get it ? Who's manufacturing them ?

I am currently also searching for spares.Please if anyone got dead pylontech batterys, let me know. I just want the boars.

I am looking for 2 cell pouches from a US2000 module. If anyone has cell pouches or a dead pylontech US2000 series, i will be glad to take it off your hands. 

On 2022/10/21 at 1:48 AM, Jaxone said:

Do we know who makes this boards ?

I've been searching for "Phantom SA"  , Phantom SA CMU , Phantom NF4.E2 , Phantom V10R04 and all other combinations ... NOTHING shows up.
So if someone needs a spare board ... where to get it ? Who's manufacturing them ?

Pylontech makes their own BMSs, and they won't sell them without the box and cells...

I have 2 x US2000 Plus stripped because of damaged swollen cells. Removed and discarded 8 single cell packs for safety reasons. Rest available for spares if needed. Boards all good. Remaining cells not tested. Pretty sure lots can be salvaged. 

Would anyone here be able to assist with my repair attempt?

I had 2 US2000 fail with obvious swollen cells, I swoped out one cell pack to try make a healthy battery, however the battery now only charges to 80%, however the total US2000 voltage shows as full (53.2V)

Battery view shows that the swoped cell pack only gets to around 3.3V per cell while one of the other pack shows over voltage 3.6V, thus the total voltage gets to the 53 plus voltage.

I have tried an external regulated power supply to recharge, but once at the 53.2 volts BMS stops the charging with the unbalanced cells.

Any idea how I can balance these?