I have two of these and am struggling to get Solar Assistant to communicate with them. Pierre (from SA) has been very helpful but there is only so much someone in PTA can do to help with battery issues in CTN. I have tried two different RS485 USB cables and a RS232 USB cable (all from SA), on both batteries (no connection between them), with various dip switch settings (all off, one on left, one on right, resetting battery after each change) connected to the Solar Assistant Raspberry Pi (tried different USB ports).

Anyone know what might be wrong? Anyone know where I might be able to get some other software to test with or some info on the communication protocol so I can do that myself (I write s/w)?

I have a Kodak (Axpert) 7.2 inverter and as far as I know that does not support Shoto batteries so thats not an option.

Thanks David

Tx. The inverter is connected using the micro USB port. That worked straight away and I have has no issues.

I have a USB to RS485 and a USB to RS232.

No such luck unfortunately. I also tried a powered USB hub and again only the inverter is recognized. Tx for all the help.

I have the same issue with lux powertek SNA 5000 . The shoto batterys has a RS232 while luxpowertek has CAN. Was told to put it on lead acid mode it worked for 2weeks knw during load shedding inverter goes on and off.. 

It seems like coms issue  between inverter and battery. Can somebody assit

7 hours ago, Abdullah Jeeva said:

I have the same issue with lux powertek SNA 5000 . The shoto batterys has a RS232 while luxpowertek has CAN. Was told to put it on lead acid mode it worked for 2weeks knw during load shedding inverter goes on and off.. 

It seems like coms issue  between inverter and battery. Can somebody assit

Lead Acid mode is not correct for a lithium battery, you should use user mode and set the charge voltages manually. What is the exact model of your battery and how many cells? 15 or 16? 48V nominal voltage or 51.2V? That will help to get the correct charging voltages. 16S can bulk charge to 56V and float at 54V.

Is the inverter displaying any errors when switching on and off?

20 hours ago, jumper said:

Lead Acid mode is not correct for a lithium battery, you should use user mode and set the charge voltages manually. What is the exact model of your battery and how many cells? 15 or 16? 48V nominal voltage or 51.2V? That will help to get the correct charging voltages. 16S can bulk charge to 56V and float at 54V.

Is the inverter displaying any errors when switching on and off?

I have the exact same problem, 

 

no error, 

15s shoto 4.8kw, 

 

Battery seems to loose comms, then shut down and restart, very random when this happen, every now and then.

 

I have my RS485 on shoto pin one and 2 RS485 B pin 1 RS485A pin 2.

 

they do communicate but drops then comes back.

 

any advice will be appreciated.

12 hours ago, Riaan_Vorster said:

I have the exact same problem, 

 

no error, 

15s shoto 4.8kw, 

 

Battery seems to loose comms, then shut down and restart, very random when this happen, every now and then.

 

I have my RS485 on shoto pin one and 2 RS485 B pin 1 RS485A pin 2.

 

they do communicate but drops then comes back.

 

any advice will be appreciated.

Afaik the RS485 ports can not be used for inverter comms directly they are for battery to battery comms or PC connection, although it is interesting you do seem to get some comms with the inverter. Only the far left port is for inveter comms which is RS232 on older versions and CAN on newer versions. Newer versions of the seplos BMS can do RS485 over the CAN port, but I've not seen them in the Shoto batteries yet.

If there is anyone out there who does have inverter comms working via the RS485 ports please let us know.

I eventually got mine to communicate with Solar Assistant using the RS232 port and SA controls the inverter. SA had to make some changes to the software. I could not get the batteries to do anything with the RS485 port. So now I have SA monitoring just one of my 3 batteries but they stay more or less in sync so thats fine. The system is working well.

54 minutes ago, jumper said:

Afaik the RS485 ports can not be used for inverter comms directly they are for battery to battery comms or PC connection, although it is interesting you do seem to get some comms with the inverter. Only the far left port is for inveter comms which is RS232 on older versions and CAN on newer versions. Newer versions of the seplos BMS can do RS485 over the CAN port, but I've not seen them in the Shoto batteries yet.

If there is anyone out there who does have inverter comms working via the RS485 ports please let us know.

Will be trying to play with the shoto firmware today.

 

i do have coms, but just randomly falling away, can run for hours, then it dips. 
 

will give feedback after firmware changes on batteries.

1 hour ago, Riaan_Vorster said:

Will be trying to play with the shoto firmware today.

 

i do have coms, but just randomly falling away, can run for hours, then it dips. 
 

will give feedback after firmware changes on batteries.

I have tried connecting to my Axpert via RS485A using the pylontech setting and the BMS is supposed to be using the pylontech protocol, but it didn't work for me. Perhaps there is an error in the protocol implementation that might be fixed with firmware, but I have read on other forums that RS485A/B ports cannot be used for that purpose... I would love to be proven wrong... do let us know.

Howsit guys.

 

so……….

 

after playing quite a bit with the system, I still don’t have a solid solution but strong on my way.

 

just to give a bit of insight on my system to understand what I’m doing, 

 

i have 2 x 5kw lux SNA5000 in parallel setup, 

i have 4x 4.8kw shoto batteries (the older type) before the ones with the fancy LCD, 

 

I communicate on the RS485 port to my inverter- port a on battery 1 to inverter RS485 pin one and two on the RJ45, to battery pin 1 and 2. 
 

I tested quite a bit of methods - remember i do have communication with my batteries from the start, what happens is my system loose comes for a minute then my inverter cuts the AC output, and one only see this in loadsheding (in evening if you also have panels) as the inverter switch to mains or runs on solar. 
 

while we played with the battery firmware upgrade/ down grade, we still had the same problem that we can nou simulate as we know what happens. 
 

while we had the pc connected we decided to to a packed/ data monitor, interesting the system did not drop while we where testing. So we decided that we should terminate the last port on battery 4 thats open on the RS485. We did not have any resisters on this point, so I decided that i will use my battery RS485 on my inverter 2 to terminate, works well, system don’t drop (completely wrong SOC), so we made the resistance RJ 45 plug, plunged in, there my problem is back. (Weird) i plugged back the other inverter , however by doing this i mess up my whole SOC that does not drop as the comms is now confusing as there is 2 inverters talking. 
 

so this morning i removed my jumper cables between my 4 shots, and now have two shoto’s per jumper. 
 

i have my inverter 1 on battery 1,2 with comms to him- read fine (no problems till now) SOC 100%
 

then on my inverter 2 i have battery 3&4 (dip-switch as one and two) with comms cable. (Reads 100% no problems SoC good and all) 

I setup my inverter to not do battery shear so sees the 2 as independent packs.

 

Up to now my system did not reported a communication error. 
 

and should it report it, it will not drop as the other inverter will take load. (Hopefully this will not happen) but its also something to keep in mind) at-least my load is usually low so it should also be ok.

 

im currently of the opinion that there is a firmware bug on the lux side, will still play, till i found the exact problem but for now, my system seems stable, and its a work around to be able to use SOC functions.

 

However if my communication errors dis stop(as I monitor system)- if it stays like this i wil advise. 

on lux inverter 

bat type - lithium ion 

Pack type : 20 (Revo) 

RS 485 - battery pin 1 is b- pin 2 A+ inverter pins exactly the same. 
 

 

as mentioned my shotos is the older type, don’t know if this have an impact. 4.8kw 15 sell.