newly commissioned Fortress eFlex 5.4 weirdness
MJSullivan56
Registered Users Posts: 42 ✭✭
I have recently commissioned a pair of Fortress eFlex 5.4 kWh batteries purchased from NAWS. Today for the first time I did a
test of the new system by switching off the AC power to the inverter and
letting the critical loads "run" off of the batteries only. After six
hours all appears to be well with one exception: one of the batteries is
showing 2 LED lights while the other is still showing 4 LEDs. The two
batteries share a common pos and neg busbar (Victron Lynx). Both
batteries are showing blinking "run" lights. Both are also connected via
the communication cable and terminated on both ends. This behavior
doesn't seem logical to me and I'm worried I might have a defective unit. Besides opening a ticket with the Fortress folks (who have yet to respond to my support request) any ideas?
Comments
These batteries need to go through a "configuration" process--And if not, they may not connect to the battery bus?
Do you have a good volt meter you can measure the battery terminal voltages? And do you have an AC+DC Current Clamp DMM so you can see what current is flowing to/from the two batteries?
https://www.solar-electric.com/lib/wind-sun/Fortress_eFlex_installation_manual.pdf
https://www.solar-electric.com/lib/wind-sun/eFlex-Firmware-Update-Guide.pdf
Have you contacted NAWS support yet? I do not work for them--Just help here running the forum (we are all volunteers here)--Many manufactures usually expect their distributors/retailers to provide first level customer support.
Only other thing to check (besides all connections clean and tight, no heating from poor connections or crimps) is that you wire the two batteries properly to ensure proper current sharing (equal wire resistance from chargers/loads to parallel batteries):
http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html
-Bill
Battery voltage does vary with load/charging current--Although Lithium Ion batteries have much less voltage dependence vs current than Lead Acid.
One member here had to cycle his Li Ion batteries (different brand, I think) to get the BMS values to match up to "actual" State of Charge (BMS originally reported battery empty when only 1/2 AH capacity discharge).
Anyway... You might be the expert here--Especially after working with the support engineers.
I don't want to mislead you--I am not qualified to do much more than read the manuals.
-Bill
controll breakers, surge protector), Zomeworks (two-UTRF-168) 9 panels on each, 2 fixed pole arrays with 6 panels on each, 24 Rolls Surrettes S-1660 (2 v) for a 48 v battery bank, various MidNite circuit breakers, combiner boxes, Zephyr Power Vent, Hydrovolt, MidNite Solar surge protector for AC/DC circuits. Honda generators; 800, EU2000i, EM3500sx, EM6500. Generac 8000.
Off road Jeep trailer M416 conversion. 4 Kyocera 40 watt PV panels, Outback FX 2012 MT, Trimetric 2025 RV, 4 Optima Blue Tops, 400 watt AirX wind turbine (12 v), Morningstar Sunsaver S20 w/LVD disconnect , MidNite battery capacity meter, various fuses,.
NEW 12/21: Sold the Jeep trailer, so that's gone. The Home system is I am redoing completely, retiring the "old" home systems except still using Kyocera solar panels, etc. New permitted system: roughly 16,000 watts of solar panels (54 panels, Kyocera and REC), spread out on 2 Zomeworks, 2 Powerfab pole top mounts, and a large Snap N Rack ground mount (8000 watts with grade beam footings).. 2 Outback 8048A with load centers, 4 Outback flex 100 charge controllers, 4 combiner boxes, multiple surge protectors, Mate 3s, HUB 10, FNDC, 2 Lynx 1000 amp bus bars, 6 Fortress E Flex 5.4 Lithium Batteries, Square D Stu 223 disconnect, lots of matched battery cables, circuit breakers, fuses, etc. Still finishing ground mount, inspector said to finish system and then final, estimate 2-3 weeks, no anticipated problems going well. Kohler 14kW RESA, Honda EM6500, etc.
Min Cell Volt Num = 5 or 2
I would have guessed that both batteries should have the same "number" (5/2/whatever)? That would seem to be a non-trivial variance (not knowing what the heck it is).
-Bill