LOOK AT ALL THAT POWER!!! Really glad that you've had a positive experience with SS tech support. I've been working with Ty as well. Still waiting on clear answers to my questions, but this makes me hopeful. You're not the first person to commend on the rivnuts. Not sure who though that was a good idea to use those with such small lugs. If you have your batteries running through Solar Assistant, I believe SA takes all the SOCs from the individual batteries and just averages them all together. That's good in theory, unless you have one battery way outta whack. Not sure how Solark figures out the calculation. Thanks for keeping us updated! Love where things are going!
Jeff I’ve had the same issue with the difference in % of charge between Sol Ark and life power batteries. To get them back in sync I have to pull batteries down to about 15% then charge to 100%. Then it is usually within about 2%. I also have to balance batteries about once a month.
I have the EG4 charger and turn all batteries off and breaker to Sol-Ark. I connect charger to bus bar plug in charger then turn on 1st battery to be charged. I monitor charging with Solar Assistant. When charger cuts off, I turn battery breaker off then unplug charger. Then I check voltage on bus bar, it takes a few seconds to go to 0. I repeat process for the rest of the batteries. Next I will turn battery breaker on to Sol-Ark then turn on 1st battery and if you watch voltage on Solar Assistant it will drop some. You do not turn on the other batteries. Turn off battery then turn next one on, let voltage match 1st battery. Repeat til all voltages are the same. Then you can turn all the batteries on. For about a week after balancing they will stay together on discharging but over time 2 of them will not get to 100% charge. I only have 4 so it doesn’t take too long. Does yours do the same? The Solar Assistant sure has made monitoring the batteries easy.
@@geneg7956 pretty much the same. I had three not charging over 70%. I disconnected them from the bank and charged each one separately. They went from 67% to 100% in less than a minute. Don’t understand why because my charger only puts out 15 amps. I recalibrated the batteries per Sig Solar instructions and these three are now about 5% above the rest of the batteries.
@@geneg7956 solar Assistant makes tracking the batteries easy. I’m afraid once I get the BMS working with SolArk I’m going to lose the ability to see each individual battery.
Look's like u have both positive and negative at the top of the bus bar u should have the positive at the top and the negative at the bottom so the charge and discharge flows thro all the batteires instead of the top 2 batteires taking the full load.. That's how I ran mine. Just saying... Keep it up brother
I considered that. And I know that was a concern when using lead acid batteries. But I intentionally decided to connect the main battery cables from one end of the buss. I’ve monitored each individual battery using solar assistance and I have found the battery location relative to the buss connection has had no bearing on the charge and discharge rate of the batteries. When I get my solar assistant back up and running I’ll do another video of the battery monitoring. I’ll explain in another video what I’m doing with Signature Solar Tech support to correct the three batteries not charging completely. These three are batteries 1, 8, and 11.
Great job. Is there any reason you put all this in a container instead of the garage; I assume in case the batteries went up the house would be safe? I ask..because I'm highly considering doing the same thing.
There isn’t much available unused wall space in my garage. I would have had to remove some cabinets I recently installed for my wife. That would not have gone over very well. My intent was to install a system that was as seamless and unobtrusive as possible. Thus I installed the system near my power meter about a hundred feet from my home.
good afternoon. could we use copper washers between the riv-nuts and lugs? i saw a fella (another channel) use the small star "scratch" type lock washer between his riv-nut and lug....stainless steel though.....it filled that dimple in real nice, but looked a bit sketchy to me.
You need copper to copper contact. The star washer physically fills the hole but doesn't provide copper to copper. Using a fill washer still provides only copper to steel contact. That's not good for an electrical connection. The easiest fix is doing what I did. It provides copper to copper contact. Others have drilled and tapped the buss bar which is the best way to do it.
When connected in BMS mode with the Growatt SPF5000 it would not charge higher than 10 amps per inverter. Tech support was not very helpful at the time. I ended up having to set to USE mode. In USE mode the inverters would charge at their maximum output.
@@jeffmotes2129 So would you say this way probably related to running a multi growatt configuration? Have you tried running a single unit with your EG4's? and if so, did you have any commucation issues that way? Great videos btw, very informative.
@@leafnutz2341 i need a absolute minimum of 15kw of inverter capacity so I didn’t try the Growatts in single configuration. The problem I was having is when in Lithium mode of the SPF5000 it would only charge the battery bank at 10 amps. Nothing I tried would increase the charge rate. Tech support was no help. I had to put the inverter in USE mode to get full charging capacity. When I told tech support what I had done they basically said “yeah! It’s working”. Never helped me resolve tge original issue.
@@chrislewis9345 I could have done that but to be honest I was just too tired. Copper buss bar spacers are not uncommon in industrial settings. So I feel good about it other than it looking out of place. I’ll be using a thermal camera to scan all the connections in the near future.
Signature Solar just buys crap from China and resells them. Same as Sol-Ark. Poor designs. The industry is still having growing pains, because there are basically zero standards. Thats why the Pylontec protocol over CAN is being used as a sort of standard for comms. We need to build the standards so the manufacturers have a blueprint. Until then, DIY is going to be frustrating. Hopefully the IEEE will get involved.
LOOK AT ALL THAT POWER!!!
Really glad that you've had a positive experience with SS tech support. I've been working with Ty as well. Still waiting on clear answers to my questions, but this makes me hopeful.
You're not the first person to commend on the rivnuts. Not sure who though that was a good idea to use those with such small lugs.
If you have your batteries running through Solar Assistant, I believe SA takes all the SOCs from the individual batteries and just averages them all together. That's good in theory, unless you have one battery way outta whack. Not sure how Solark figures out the calculation.
Thanks for keeping us updated! Love where things are going!
Great system and info, thank you.
Jeff I’ve had the same issue with the difference in % of charge between Sol Ark and life power batteries. To get them back in sync I have to pull batteries down to about 15% then charge to 100%. Then it is usually within about 2%. I also have to balance batteries about once a month.
How are you balancing them? Letting the SolArk do it through their equalization routine? Or another method?
I have the EG4 charger and turn all batteries off and breaker to Sol-Ark. I connect charger to bus bar plug in charger then turn on 1st battery to be charged. I monitor charging with Solar Assistant. When charger cuts off, I turn battery breaker off then unplug charger. Then I check voltage on bus bar, it takes a few seconds to go to 0. I repeat process for the rest of the batteries. Next I will turn battery breaker on to Sol-Ark then turn on 1st battery and if you watch voltage on Solar Assistant it will drop some. You do not turn on the other batteries. Turn off battery then turn next one on, let voltage match 1st battery. Repeat til all voltages are the same. Then you can turn all the batteries on. For about a week after balancing they will stay together on discharging but over time 2 of them will not get to 100% charge. I only have 4 so it doesn’t take too long. Does yours do the same? The Solar Assistant sure has made monitoring the batteries easy.
I wish Sol-Ark would do it.
@@geneg7956 pretty much the same. I had three not charging over 70%. I disconnected them from the bank and charged each one separately. They went from 67% to 100% in less than a minute. Don’t understand why because my charger only puts out 15 amps. I recalibrated the batteries per Sig Solar instructions and these three are now about 5% above the rest of the batteries.
@@geneg7956 solar Assistant makes tracking the batteries easy. I’m afraid once I get the BMS working with SolArk I’m going to lose the ability to see each individual battery.
Look's like u have both positive and negative at the top of the bus bar u should have the positive at the top and the negative at the bottom so the charge and discharge flows thro all the batteires instead of the top 2 batteires taking the full load.. That's how I ran mine. Just saying... Keep it up brother
I considered that. And I know that was a concern when using lead acid batteries. But I intentionally decided to connect the main battery cables from one end of the buss.
I’ve monitored each individual battery using solar assistance and I have found the battery location relative to the buss connection has had no bearing on the charge and discharge rate of the batteries.
When I get my solar assistant back up and running I’ll do another video of the battery monitoring.
I’ll explain in another video what I’m doing with Signature Solar Tech support to correct the three batteries not charging completely. These three are batteries 1, 8, and 11.
It doesn't really matter, especially when you have SO MANY batteries.
Great job. Is there any reason you put all this in a container instead of the garage; I assume in case the batteries went up the house would be safe? I ask..because I'm highly considering doing the same thing.
There isn’t much available unused wall space in my garage. I would have had to remove some cabinets I recently installed for my wife. That would not have gone over very well.
My intent was to install a system that was as seamless and unobtrusive as possible. Thus I installed the system near my power meter about a hundred feet from my home.
@@jeffmotes2129 agreed on the wife factor..wise choice sir.
good afternoon. could we use copper washers between the riv-nuts and lugs? i saw a fella (another channel) use the small star "scratch" type lock washer between his riv-nut and lug....stainless steel though.....it filled that dimple in real nice, but looked a bit sketchy to me.
You need copper to copper contact. The star washer physically fills the hole but doesn't provide copper to copper. Using a fill washer still provides only copper to steel contact. That's not good for an electrical connection. The easiest fix is doing what I did. It provides copper to copper contact. Others have drilled and tapped the buss bar which is the best way to do it.
Copper washers will work but they need to similar to fender washers to have enough copper to copper contact.
@@jeffmotes2129 thats the angle i was hoping would work, if not like ya said to drill and tap it.
Can you elaborate on the issues you were having with communcations with the Growatt 5000ES and the LifePower4 batteries?
When connected in BMS mode with the Growatt SPF5000 it would not charge higher than 10 amps per inverter. Tech support was not very helpful at the time. I ended up having to set to USE mode. In USE mode the inverters would charge at their maximum output.
@@jeffmotes2129 So would you say this way probably related to running a multi growatt configuration? Have you tried running a single unit with your EG4's? and if so, did you have any commucation issues that way? Great videos btw, very informative.
@@leafnutz2341 i need a absolute minimum of 15kw of inverter capacity so I didn’t try the Growatts in single configuration.
The problem I was having is when in Lithium mode of the SPF5000 it would only charge the battery bank at 10 amps. Nothing I tried would increase the charge rate. Tech support was no help. I had to put the inverter in USE mode to get full charging capacity. When I told tech support what I had done they basically said “yeah! It’s working”. Never helped me resolve tge original issue.
Why not buy a tap n die set and tap a new hole in the bus bar and ignore the rivnut?instead of junking up your install with stacked connectors?
@@chrislewis9345 I could have done that but to be honest I was just too tired. Copper buss bar spacers are not uncommon in industrial settings. So I feel good about it other than it looking out of place. I’ll be using a thermal camera to scan all the connections in the near future.
Signature Solar just buys crap from China and resells them. Same as Sol-Ark. Poor designs. The industry is still having growing pains, because there are basically zero standards. Thats why the Pylontec protocol over CAN is being used as a sort of standard for comms.
We need to build the standards so the manufacturers have a blueprint. Until then, DIY is going to be frustrating. Hopefully the IEEE will get involved.