Inverter ignoring battery

[rw]

Having a frustrating few days with my FoxESS inverter...

In trying to solve an issue with connecting my inverter to HA I've created a new, more frustrating issue.

I'd powered the inverter & batteries down to improve wiring in the modbus connector; the CT clamp wiring was intermittently causing incorrect readings, plus I wanted to connect HA to it.

Having completed the wiring and powered everything back up the inverter is ignoring the battery and just using solar and grid. No charge or discharge to or from the battery has been reported in the app.

You can see in the image below where I powered the inverter back on yesterday afternoon and after that point it ignored the battery completely.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YGstD7jGQjRNS9WLA

Min SOC is 10%, Min Soc on grid is 15% (I use EPS mode so this probably should be higher, Max Soc 100%.

No schedules are configured, I've never used the mode scheduler and is disabled. Values for force charge scheduled on the inverter menu show all 0s.

No errors are reported on the inverter.

These checks seem to be the most common causes of battery issues reported in the forums, which I read fully before posting this.

I've also tried another power down and restart.

There is one setting in the battery menu on the inverter called "BarPwrActive", which I've not touched as I can't find any reference to it online - not sure if this setting has anything to do with the issue, but I have changed no settings since powering down to re-wire the modbus so nothing should be any different.

#perplexed.

Inverter Hardware H1-6.0-E-G2 Version : -Master : 1.27 Slave : 1.02 Manager : 1.44
Battery master ECS2900-2 v1.011, Slaves ECS2900-2 v1.12

[Dave Foster]

Your graph shows that it seeing Load correctly, so your CT clamp is corrected measuring.

Minsoc’s are ok.

Most common cause of blocked discharge is a charge period set with no grid charge i.e. if you are not using the charge periods they must be set to 00:00-00:00.

Second most common is using scheduler - I know you said you don’t have any schedules running, but Fox have been known to set this when it is restarted - set a schedule, disable it - that will clear anything.

Third most common is the inverter is in ‘stop’ mode, if you long press the enter (or tick) key on the inverter keypad it will say ‘Start’ if it’s stopped - if it does select start and set.

Work mode should be either Self Use or Feed-in First.

When you say you’ve restarted, have you also restarted your batteries - they have to negotiate and if the battery has been in alarm it sometimes fails to re-connect.

As you have changed the CT wiring, double check it is enabled in Settings, Feature, Meter/CT - it should have ‘CT’ set.

Not sure why it would have changed but worth checking the battery discharge current in Settings, Battery ‘Max Dischg Cur’ should be set to 35A

[rw]

I appreciate your reply @Dave Foster and I owe you a beer or something for swiftly trying to help.

However, sadly none of these are the issue. Charge periods are all 00:00. There were no charge periods in the scheduler as I'd never used it but I created one to force charge the battery, it did nothing and I disabled it again. Inverter wasn't in "stop", work mode is "self-use". Yes, have tried to restart batteries, once before powering up the inverter and once afterwards. CT is set in features.

Over the last 2 days since this issue started the batteries are slowly depleting, showing 90% SoC despite 0W reported in or out of them since Friday.

Unless any other ideas, I'll raise with installers or FoxESS.

[Dave Foster]

Sorry to say but I think i’ve gone as far as I can - something not stacking up so the best plan now is to raise it with Fox, we really need some remote diagnostics to work out what is going on.

As this started with the CT clamp I think a check that it is reporting correctly (what does the Energy flow on the website show - is load correct, is it positive not negative etc..) without that responding correctly the inverter cannot work out the load and won’t use the batteries.

[rw]

Yeah, my suspicion is the CT clamp also, however, the data reports as expected in the app for load and grid import. Very frustrating. I just wish it would show an error or give me a clue as to why its not using the battery.

Fault report raised with installer. I'll report back here when its working in case I find something of use to others.

[rw]

Still ongoing - now with FoxESS R&D. Will report when I know more.

[Dave Foster]

Still ongoing - now with FoxESS R&D. Will report when I know more.

ok, thanks - i'm very intrigued to know what's causing this one

[rw]

Its now fixed!

Three things were done:

1) Battery master firmware upgraded
2) Reseat the cabling between the battery and the inverter
3) A restart

So not that exciting in the end, but am very pleased to be up and running.

[Dave Foster]

Glad you've got it sorted - I've seen the KH do something similar when it was first released and the battery hadn't been installed properly and there was no alarm - another mode to watch out for, thanks

[Will]

Great to hear you got it sorted and thanks for sharing your experience and solution.