FoxESS Community - Owners & Installers Forum

Hi
I am new to the FoxCloud 2.0 app (on IOS) and to using solar efficiently.

I have an 18kwh battery, PVs and no EV.

My tariff gives cheap energy from 0200-0500 and is most expensive between 1600-1900.

I would like to do 2 things:

(1) set a forced charge from 0200-0500. I cannot set a Force Time Charge on the battery screen. It tells me "Unsupported Function Code". I think I have successfully used "Mode Scheduler" to Force Charge during this time - I will have to see if it works tonight. I've got Min SOC on grid and Max SOC and Forced discharge cutoff SOC all set to 10% and Max AC power for forced discharge set to 0W.

(2) Get the system to use the grid (not the battery) from 0500-1600, so that the battery is used during the expensive tariff time. I have no idea how to do that. Using the "Mode Scheduler" I could choose various Work Modes: Back up, Feed-in Priority, Force Discharge or Self-Use. I do not know which of those will force it to use the grid and not the battery. Or if this is even the right way to think of it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Can you attach a screenshot of your settings you've setup?

Thankyou! Here you go:

Here's the error message I get from the force charge function:

You can’t use the normal charge periods and scheduler together (they are mutually exclusive) which is what that less than helpfull error means.

You’ll either have to do what you want with the standard charge periods, or use the scheduler force charge option instead.

On point 2. You can set the work mode ‘backup’ for the time period you don’t want the battery to be used, it will hold the battery level and use the grid for the house loads.

Thanks. That's good to know. So last night, with the mode scheduler set to charge between 0200-0500, it did not charge (AGAIN). That is the third night that it has not worked...

Thankyou for your comment on "backup". I'll do that for the time between 0500-1600 then so that (if the battery charges) the battery can be used during the peak tariff time.

aseagull wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2025 7:14 am Thanks. That's good to know. So last night, with the mode scheduler set to charge between 0200-0500, it did not charge (AGAIN). That is the third night that it has not worked...

Looking at that top photo, and the lower schedule your force charge schedule is being set with a MaxSoC of 10% - it should be 100% - this setting tells the inverter when to stop charging and at 10% it will never start (the rest of the settings are correct).

Hi I'm experiencing similar issues using the mode scheduler.

I was having daily error Codes (64) and Fax carried out a firmware update on my inverter.
We ran through my mode scheduler to make sure I wasn't doing something daft.
Min Soc 15%
Max soc 100%
FD SoC 25%
FD Pwr 0W

After the firmware update the inverter successfully charged the batteries between 1-4pm but nothing between 10-12pm and 4-7am.

Fox ESS support did a setting re-set for the mode scheduler which didnt work.

They recommended a full power off - which I did

Still noting

Inverter seems to be stuck in standby mode.

SunnyD wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 7:24 am Hi I'm experiencing similar issues using the mode scheduler.

I was having daily error Codes (64) and Fax carried out a firmware update on my inverter.
We ran through my mode scheduler to make sure I wasn't doing something daft.
Min Soc 15%
Max soc 100%
FD SoC 25%
FD Pwr 0W

After the firmware update the inverter successfully charged the batteries between 1-4pm but nothing between 10-12pm and 4-7am.

Fox ESS support did a setting re-set for the mode scheduler which didnt work.

They recommended a full power off - which I did

Still noting

Inverter seems to be stuck in standby mode.

Can you post a screenshot of your schedule settings please - and do you by chance use, or have you ever used the agile integration that Fox offers?

No we don't use the integrated agile function as our 15kwh battery needs topping up during the day so we schedule charging at lower rates (see attached)

Ok, they are definitely set correctly.

Couple of things to check - if you look at your inverter screen is the time showing correctly.

Just to check the inverter is running - on the Inverter front panel, press and hold the check button (2nd from right) - if it says 'Stop' then it is running in which case press the right hand 'exit' button, if it says 'Start', release and press the check button again and the inverter will start.

Failing that it does sound as if the inverter manager has crashed (not following timed events) - and the remedy to that is usually a restart. When they asked you to turn it off and back on again, did the screen go totally blank before you restarted it (i.e. you have to also turn off your batteries).

Thanks Dave
We had a bit of to and fro with Fox today.
They tested the force charge function which was triggered from their end. Therefore, they asked us to let the system run with no changes.
It charged at 1pm (on top of the solar we had already received) so we will see what happens for the rest of the day/tomorrow but I have no faith that this is the end of it!
Watch this space.

Update: I signed out of the App and deleted it and handed control over to Fox to try and eliminate a suggestion that I was causing the issues (!)

However, it now looks like everything is operating as it should. This is great but it suggests that the issue is with the app rather than there being any hardware problems.