Ok,

I did do a prius plug in conversion using 72 40ah cells, a plug in supply ev electronic controller and a Zivan charger. Had it running beautifully for 6 years, then bought an EV and repurposed the cells into home energy storage, using an australian ZEVA (Zero Emisions Vehicles Australia) BMS, it is very very good too, and reasonably priced, plus 'he will program the BMS with the correct CANBUS data if you happen to know it, or the company are happy providing it.

Im ok doing the mech and elec work, but this CANBUS programming is sadly beyond my skill set.

Thanks buddy.

Hi @anthonyevsi have tinkered a lot with the Livoltek/ Saltaro product. Livoltek have made it to South Africa & from what I understand, its an ODM product that is aka Soltaro, GC Solar, Synapse to name a few. 

I own an installation company & reached a point where we ran out of Lithium battery stock for the residential market & then I had to get creative & get a plan to get Installations done. 

No body had ever taken the Livoltek battery & used it with a 3rd party inverter successfully as the battery has a CANbus protocol that will not allow the battery to discharge a voltage or unlock until it sees a match of this heart beat same CAN protocol message from the inverter to allow discharge. Many users just used the Hyper 5000 or similar & used them as all in one. 

Needless to say, we approached the OEM & had to sign an NDA for them to release us rights to develop our unofficial third party use of this battery. We have reverse engineered this CANbus protocol to work with our inverter of choice which is Voltronics ODM aka, Axpert, Mecer, RCT, Kodak, MPP Solar. What I can say is that the battery is magic & the quality is great, we have used the Lib protocol to pair these to the Voltronics machine to great affect. Our inverter is RS485 Comms capable & the Battery is CANbus. 

What you would like to achieve is very possible. However, I understand the nature of the unlocking the battery side of things. The inverter side of the tech might be slightly different or a lot of the same I am not sure. Have you approached Soltaro for this holy grail of CANbus protocol document. This document in the right hands can realise your project successfully. 

Hi Steve87,

Thanks for the reply.

I am about to write an email to Soltaro support asking them what CANBUS commands the inverter is requesting from the battery BMS.

I have done something similar with LUXPowertek where they were really good, and passed on the inverter CAN requests, and then ZEVA BMS wrote those commands into his bms, and that has worked really well for 3 years. 

I`m hoping Soltaro is as good.

There is now a huge growing community out there that are reusing old or accident damaged vehicle EV batteries for storage, and it makes sense to do so, its perfect recycling.

Thanks for your interest.

I have sent Soltaro an email requesting the inverter canbus requests commands, hopefully they come back with some seful data.

just had a reply from Soltaro, they have declined the information, stating that it is confidential.

Cant see how that is, the information for the parameters of the battery are published by the battery manufacturer, in their case i beleive the use LifePO4, and the purpose of the bms is to protect the battery, and we all know what the safe operating parameters are for LifePO4.

shame they have declared that as their position.

Hi friends,

I have installed the system using Axpert VM 4 5600-48.
It's my first installation, so I'm not really sure how good or bad is it. Still exploring.
Thank you for having me approved here!

 

4 minutes ago, d15i said:

Hi friends,

Welcome to the forum.

42 minutes ago, d15i said:

Hi friends,

I have installed the system using Axpert VM 4 5600-48.
It's my first installation, so I'm not really sure how good or bad is it. Still exploring.
Thank you for having me approved here!

 

Good to have you! Welcome.

Hi all, 

 

Adding onto the topic, I have a Kodak MKSIV 5.6, with a Dyness A48100 battery. Been trying to get the battery coms working. So far when I have it set to PYL, I find that the battery icon and brackets around  the battery figures flash. Does anyone know if that indicates successful communication? Or should only the small battery icon flash? Or is it the Li-ion icon that should flash? 

 

Thanks! 

Edited January 22, 20233 yr by Shark111
Typo

1 hour ago, Shark111 said:

Hi all, 

 

Adding onto the topic, I have a Kodak MKSIV 5.6, with a Dyness A48100 battery. Been trying to get the battery coms working. So far when I have it set to PYL, I find that the battery icon and brackets around  the battery figures flash. Does anyone know if that indicates successful communication? Or should only the small battery icon flash? Or is it the Li-ion icon that should flash? 

 

Thanks! 

@Shark111 hi, if you have indeed set the inverter to PYL, and you have unsuccessfull comms the inverter will flash a code 61 indicating loss of comms.

So if you think you have comms, unplug the bms cable and wait until 61 appears. It may take a while. If it indeed appears you had good comms. 

Edited January 22, 20233 yr by BritishRacingGreen

4 hours ago, Shark111 said:

Hi all, 

 

Adding onto the topic, I have a Kodak MKSIV 5.6, with a Dyness A48100 battery. Been trying to get the battery coms working. So far when I have it set to PYL, I find that the battery icon and brackets around  the battery figures flash. Does anyone know if that indicates successful communication? Or should only the small battery icon flash? Or is it the Li-ion icon that should flash? 

 

Thanks! 

If the brackets flash you have succesful bms communication.

Thanks all, The icon and brackets were flashing so I think its working!

18 minutes ago, Shark111 said:

Thanks all, The icon and brackets were flashing so I think its working!

Great, there is also another yest you can petform to verify connectivity. If you are unable to set the option settings for bulk and float voltages in the menu, it means that the bms is overriding your attempt. 

So far we did one installation of these VMiV 3600 inverter a growcol branded unit from GC Solar. Client upgraded from a Must inverter to this unit. Nothing but problems so far. The MPPT controller is so unstable and never reaches the peak performance of the Solar panels. Wattage jumps around like a mad rabbit. From 600 instantly drops to 0 then jumps back to 300watts. its very unstable.  The Panels 4x415Watt panels get on average only 350-600watts out of them. Connected a different inverter and full peak is there so its inverter related issues here. Also had the inverter at my own place to try and test it same symptoms, cant get it stable on my old panels thats been running for almost 8 years. Contacted GC Solar. They have no clue. Asked for a firmware file also cant assist. Asked for a refund not interested, their technical staff is so uneducated they don't even know how to load the firmware. Asked them to please get me the firmware they just answer with all sort of excuses and delay tactics. My client insisted on this inverter so now they blame me for being useless. Growcol does not answer their emails either. I am sure its firmware related as i have seen this before but nothing from the GC Solar or growcol. logged in via Solar assist software it shows firmware version 61.

Sidenote. I agree with one user here why do we need RGB on an inverter. I myself run a Axper 7.2kv and disabled the Stupid and anoying RGB light. So dum and not adding any function to the inverter.

This is only my second time i delt with GC Solar and i would not recommend these people. Sorry to say but they have no clue what they doing. I should have known when you walk in by their Warehouse and they in the dark during load-shedding. Could not even print a basic invoice. They were the only people with this inverter so had no choice. Il rather stick with my other suppliers thank you.

Forgot to add its a VMiV 3.6kva Growcoll inverter so not sure if the firmware on this page

 

will work but might be not worth testing as GC Solar might not swap the unit out if its the wrong firmware.

 

Edited June 20, 20233 yr by Henry2501

2 hours ago, Henry2501 said:

So far we did one installation of these VMiV 3600 inverter a growcol branded unit from GC Solar. Client upgraded from a Must inverter to this unit. Nothing but problems so far. The MPPT controller is so unstable and never reaches the peak performance of the Solar panels. Wattage jumps around like a mad rabbit. From 600 instantly drops to 0 then jumps back to 300watts. its very unstable.  The Panels 4x415Watt panels get on average only 350-600watts out of them. Connected a different inverter and full peak is there so its inverter related issues here. Also had the inverter at my own place to try and test it same symptoms, cant get it stable on my old panels thats been running for almost 8 years. Contacted GC Solar. They have no clue. Asked for a firmware file also cant assist. Asked for a refund not interested, their technical staff is so uneducated they don't even know how to load the firmware. Asked them to please get me the firmware they just answer with all sort of excuses and delay tactics. My client insisted on this inverter so now they blame me for being useless. Growcol does not answer their emails either. I am sure its firmware related as i have seen this before but nothing from the GC Solar or growcol. logged in via Solar assist software it shows firmware version 61.

Sidenote. I agree with one user here why do we need RGB on an inverter. I myself run a Axper 7.2kv and disabled the Stupid and anoying RGB light. So dum and not adding any function to the inverter.

This is only my second time i delt with GC Solar and i would not recommend these people. Sorry to say but they have no clue what they doing. I should have known when you walk in by their Warehouse and they in the dark during load-shedding. Could not even print a basic invoice. They were the only people with this inverter so had no choice. Il rather stick with my other suppliers thank you.

Forgot to add its a VMiV 3.6kva Growcoll inverter so not sure if the firmware on this page

 

will work but might be not worth testing as GC Solar might not swap the unit out if its the wrong firmware.

 

 

 

i had the very same unit for approximately 48 hours. nicely removed it and took it back. 

on paper, they seem to be very nice units. 

BUT...

VM model, fans run permanently. 

massive buzzing comming from them and could hear it through all my appliances aswell. 

i didnt even get that far to connect PV, as this was majority the reason for purchasing it. 24v, with big enough PV and bypass to run all my essentials and some. 

 

to my advantage, i asked them for almost 2 weeks to wire up a demo unit for me to see and test. they did not do it. so i asked all my questions verbally, and they where answered, satisfying all. yet, when i got home, the unit did not perform as promised. 

the technicians are a little all over yes. 

first they told me its not pure sine, but modified sine, thats why its buzzing. - could very well still be the fact, i never tested with a scope. 

Then their techs told me they buzzing noise was because of a bypass line/circuit that was blown and that i overloaded the unit. luckily i had the app connected for the approximately 48 hours i owned it, and showed them the history that it never exceeded 700w output.

the refund was agreed on. i waited 14 days, and on the last day when i was already fuming, they offered a replacement unit, installed at their cost. 

i asked if its still going to buzz, and fans run permanent. and are they willing to cut open the metal mesh over the fans to reduce the noise. and they where dumbstruck that there where metal mesh over the fans. i refused, and demanded the refund. 

 

i wont be purchasing from them. and glad i got it refunded before even getting to firmware issues.

 

OH, and the inverter is meant to have the correct charging algorithm for lithium without BMS. 

On 2023/06/20 at 10:20 AM, Henry2501 said:

The Panels 4x415Watt panels get on average only 350-600watts out of them.

@Henry2501, what is the Vmp and Voc of the 415Wp panels? 

 

On 2023/06/21 at 10:10 PM, Kilowatt Power said:

@Henry2501, what is the Vmp and Voc of the 415Wp panels? 

 

VOC 47 ( NOCT)

Vmp 39 ( NOCT) so four panels are = 156 we get this constant voltage out on the screen but wattage is all over. On a full sunny day yesterday- sun all day no clouds we got a measly 1.1kw out the solar panels. That should have given the client atleast 5-6 units. not 1.1. Thats unexceptable.

I know where you going as the inverter mppt controller only kicks in at 125Volts but we also used a 5kw VMiii on the same panels and we get full Solar capacity it also runs at 120-450Volts DC mppt. ( I did all the tests just to make sure its nothing on the installation)  Its basicly the same mppt controller just a bigger unit. Everything points to the Inverter. GC solar said its not their responsibility to update the firmware on all the units they import. Another bull excuse. Then we said please give us the firmware, then they said no if we update it then the warranty is null and voided. I then contacted the CEO but hes just avoiding my calls now. So basically i have a unusable Inverter and i am taking it further with GC Solar. They are a useless company. Now they want me to wait 14 working days for one of their useless technicians to come out and try and update the firmware. where they should have a service desk to quickly update it. Seriously. its 10minutes. sorry i am ranting just a bit frustrated.

4 hours ago, Henry2501 said:

VOC 47 ( NOCT)

Vmp 39 ( NOCT)

It's advisable to always use STC values, which in any case will be higher than NOCT

4 hours ago, Henry2501 said:

I know where you going as the inverter mppt controller only kicks in at 125Volts

According to the VM IV manual, the start-up voltage is actually 150Vdc +/- 10Vdc so work with 160Vdc. The manual goes further to explain that Voc of PV modules should be higher than the start-up voltage. All in all, your 4 panels in series still meet the minimum requirements.

5 hours ago, Henry2501 said:

but we also used a 5kw VMiii on the same panels and we get full Solar capacity it also runs at 120-450Volts DC mppt.

I agree. The problem appears more like a bug in the charge controller firmware.