Hi,
I am a new solar owner, at the bottom of a steep learning curve...
I have a Solis 6K inverter with two LV5200's connected, yet only the 'master' battery appears to be charging discharging.
The master battery operation lights diminish as the battery is discharged but the slave battery lights stay fully lit.
I am unsure whether this is by design but was expecting both sets of lights to operate in tandem.
Also, I cannot find any indication in the inverter set up which indicates the capacity of my attached batteries and therefore cannot establish whether they are both in operation.
Any help or advice warmly welcomed
p.s. I have not been able to establish any contact with Fox for help or guidance
Battery operation.
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Dave Foster
- Posts: 822
- Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2022 7:21 pm
I'm not that familiar with the LV5200 other than to say that I have heard it is often the dip switch settings that stop slave batteries from being seen.
If you don't already have it, THIS LINK is for the LV5200 user manual which shows how they should be wired, what the dip switch settings are and also what you expect from the battery indicator lights.
If you don't already have it, THIS LINK is for the LV5200 user manual which shows how they should be wired, what the dip switch settings are and also what you expect from the battery indicator lights.
Thanks,
I do have the manual and the dip switches appear to correctly set.
It is the battery status lights that are confusing me, namely, does the master battery indicate for both or does each battery indicate its own status? The manual does not address this scenario.
If it is the former- all good..... the latter- I have a problem.
I may be overthinking the situation, but its driving me nuts
I do have the manual and the dip switches appear to correctly set.
It is the battery status lights that are confusing me, namely, does the master battery indicate for both or does each battery indicate its own status? The manual does not address this scenario.
If it is the former- all good..... the latter- I have a problem.
I may be overthinking the situation, but its driving me nuts
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Dave Foster
- Posts: 822
- Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2022 7:21 pm
I'm hoping someone with LV5200's will be able to put your mind at rest, but just a quick thought in the meantime - is it possible from the Solis inverter that you can see the load power, amount of battery discharge or SoC figures?, if you can determine how much the battery has discharged for a given change in state of charge you can work backwards to get to the capacity.
if you can see how much discharge power you have used against the recorded drop in SoC then you would be able to roughly work out your capacity, so for example if you were at 70% SoC and have 2 batteries of 5.12kwh (10.24kwh), and ran them for 2 hours with a 2kw load (4kwh total) you would expect the SoC to drop by approx 40% to 30%
if you can see how much discharge power you have used against the recorded drop in SoC then you would be able to roughly work out your capacity, so for example if you were at 70% SoC and have 2 batteries of 5.12kwh (10.24kwh), and ran them for 2 hours with a 2kw load (4kwh total) you would expect the SoC to drop by approx 40% to 30%
Hah,
Good thinking.... I have checked the Soc % against total load outputs and it would appear that I am operating with a 5kw storage capacity.
Therefore, only one battery!
Thanks very much.
If I hadn't paid attention, and had a modicum of interest or knowledge, I might have missed the faulty battery altogether and been none the wiser.
My installer seems dis interested, claiming that as there are no alarm messages, then all is good.
Now, the battle to get it replaced.....
Good thinking.... I have checked the Soc % against total load outputs and it would appear that I am operating with a 5kw storage capacity.
Therefore, only one battery!
Thanks very much.
If I hadn't paid attention, and had a modicum of interest or knowledge, I might have missed the faulty battery altogether and been none the wiser.
My installer seems dis interested, claiming that as there are no alarm messages, then all is good.
Now, the battle to get it replaced.....
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jerryhawkins
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2023 6:03 pm
Hi,
I have the same setup as you, Solis 6K hybrid, and LV5200 batteries, except I have four of them instead of the two you have. The LEDs on the batteries should all go down roughly the same (not exactly). Can you confirm that the data cable is in place between the master battery LinkPort1 and the slave battery LinkPort0 ? Your DIP switches should be like this:
Master - 0010 0000
Slave - 0000 0001
(My switches with four batteries are: Master 0100 0000, slave1 0000 0001, slave2 0000 0010, slave3 0000 0011).
Like you, I've had no luck getting any response from Fox support for a couple questions I've asked. I've not asked my installer any 'technical' questions as I don't believe they'd know (and I wouldn't trust their answer!), but I have had good support from Solis (albeit slow) via tickets raised on their online support system, when I needed the charge and discharge "limitation" set correctly as well as getting the API key to enable me to add the inverter to Home Assistant and to get remote control access to some settings.
Good luck,
Jerry
I have the same setup as you, Solis 6K hybrid, and LV5200 batteries, except I have four of them instead of the two you have. The LEDs on the batteries should all go down roughly the same (not exactly). Can you confirm that the data cable is in place between the master battery LinkPort1 and the slave battery LinkPort0 ? Your DIP switches should be like this:
Master - 0010 0000
Slave - 0000 0001
(My switches with four batteries are: Master 0100 0000, slave1 0000 0001, slave2 0000 0010, slave3 0000 0011).
Like you, I've had no luck getting any response from Fox support for a couple questions I've asked. I've not asked my installer any 'technical' questions as I don't believe they'd know (and I wouldn't trust their answer!), but I have had good support from Solis (albeit slow) via tickets raised on their online support system, when I needed the charge and discharge "limitation" set correctly as well as getting the API key to enable me to add the inverter to Home Assistant and to get remote control access to some settings.
Good luck,
Jerry
Hi Jerry,
You have brought a wry smile to my furrowed brow
My 'two day' installation has turned into a six week saga, involving a damaged inverter/ faulty power meter and finally one non-functional battery. I concur with your installer views.
On the plus side, Fox have responded and are of the view that it could be a 'firmware' problem.
As yet, I am not clear about the resolution.....
Assuming that eventually my issues will be addressed, I am quite interested in pursuing the Home Assistant route ( I have become an avid consumption / generation /operation watcher) and therefore would appreciate any advice you could offer.
optimistic regards
Mark
You have brought a wry smile to my furrowed brow
My 'two day' installation has turned into a six week saga, involving a damaged inverter/ faulty power meter and finally one non-functional battery. I concur with your installer views.
On the plus side, Fox have responded and are of the view that it could be a 'firmware' problem.
As yet, I am not clear about the resolution.....
Assuming that eventually my issues will be addressed, I am quite interested in pursuing the Home Assistant route ( I have become an avid consumption / generation /operation watcher) and therefore would appreciate any advice you could offer.
optimistic regards
Mark
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jerryhawkins
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2023 6:03 pm
Hi Mark,
Hope you get your issues resolved soon. Following my last post, I got a very short reply from Fox in response to my question about max number of LV5200 in parallel. They conform 12 not 4, but no detail on when this changed, e.g. from serial number X onwards. Older data sheets said 4, latest one said 12. My installer did come up trumps after the recent very strong winds flipped one of my panels and smashed against the one in front (flat garage roof array on plastic 'buckets'). They accepted my argument that they had not put in enough ballast to hold them down against the wind and replaced it without any hassle. Still didn't work and I had to trouble-shoot to find one of the MC4 connectors partially pulled out. They had arranged for an electrician to attend but I cancelled that after I fixed it.
In terms of Home Assistant, I'm just at the start of that journey. I installed Ubuntu Linux on an old laptop and installed HA on that. Bit of a pain to get it installed but it worked after a few attempts. Got the Solis 'integrated', so I can see the sort of info you can see in the Solis app and web pages. It also 'discovered' some other 'smart plugs' I have which shows power used by various specific items. Depending on your 'computer' abilities, HA do offer a 'turn-key' solution with hardware and software (HA Blue) ready configured for you to then add your devices. Google will find endless information for you.
Cheers, Jerry
Hope you get your issues resolved soon. Following my last post, I got a very short reply from Fox in response to my question about max number of LV5200 in parallel. They conform 12 not 4, but no detail on when this changed, e.g. from serial number X onwards. Older data sheets said 4, latest one said 12. My installer did come up trumps after the recent very strong winds flipped one of my panels and smashed against the one in front (flat garage roof array on plastic 'buckets'). They accepted my argument that they had not put in enough ballast to hold them down against the wind and replaced it without any hassle. Still didn't work and I had to trouble-shoot to find one of the MC4 connectors partially pulled out. They had arranged for an electrician to attend but I cancelled that after I fixed it.
In terms of Home Assistant, I'm just at the start of that journey. I installed Ubuntu Linux on an old laptop and installed HA on that. Bit of a pain to get it installed but it worked after a few attempts. Got the Solis 'integrated', so I can see the sort of info you can see in the Solis app and web pages. It also 'discovered' some other 'smart plugs' I have which shows power used by various specific items. Depending on your 'computer' abilities, HA do offer a 'turn-key' solution with hardware and software (HA Blue) ready configured for you to then add your devices. Google will find endless information for you.
Cheers, Jerry