Sol-Ark and EG4-LL Lithium Battery BMS Communications

Cable for LL Battery Firmware Upgrade
www.amazon.com...
LifePower4 LiFePO4 Battery: signaturesolar...
EG4-LL Battery: signaturesolar...
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Recommended Solar Inverters:
6.0kW Off-Grid - EG4 6000EX-48HV Split Phase Inverter
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6.5kW Off-Grid - EG4 6500EX-48 Inverter:
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- Features: 6500W Output | 8000W PV Input | 500V VOC Input | UL 1741 Certified
3kW Off-Grid - EG4 3000EHV-48
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[@RickPearson]

Thanks for the clear directions...Just placed an order for two V2's and a rack. Looking forward to working with you all moving forward.

[@JeffClearwater]

Well done Team! SS is really rocking it to bring DIYers and pros alike quality equipment to make solar way more accessible! Great work!

[@JKKDIFLY]

First off, thank you for making closed loop communication possible! One quick note to EG4. The new manual doesn't have the dip switch setting info in it like the old manual did. Now, for V1 only owners, here is what seems to be working for me on my 12K. Just did this today so... First, the same cable that works with BMS_tools can be used to update the firmware one battery at a time. Each battery address has to be temporarily set to on,on,on,on (one at a time) and the BMS power cycled before they will program, and the cable has to be in the RS485 port. Once this is done, there are no setting screens like in the V2, it just works. Once all batteries are upgraded, the battery that will be hooked to the Solark has to be addressed to on,on,on,off and have a cable from this batteries CAN port to the Solark's CAN port. The other batteries connect to this one through the comm ports. Now on the Solark, go into Battery Setup and enable BMS Lithium Batt and set it to 00. Tell it OK and you should end up back on the main screen and see a new Li-Batt info button. Press the Li-Batt info button and you should see the relevant information on your batteries. One potential downside to this is that the battery set to on,on,on,off will no longer show up in BMS_tools.

[@JKKDIFLY]

Update! I seem to have discovered 1 little issue. With closed-loop communication, my 4 batteries were only charging at 100A total and the rest was going to the grid where before, everything went to the load and batteries until they were charged. Somehow when the EG4LL's told the Sol-Ark about themselves, the Sol-Ark only picked up on the 100A limit for one battery. On the Sol-Ark I had to go into Battery setup, Charge and increase the 100A limit. I increased mine to 160A.

[@josepht1575]

@@JKKDIFLY when you say "the same cable that works with bms tools..." are you referring to the one they linked to buy? or the one that came with the batteries?

[@JKKDIFLY]

@@josepht1575 The cable with the usb adapter on one end and RJ45 on the other end.

[@josepht1575]

@@JKKDIFLYI upgraded the firmware on all the batteries but the sol ark's only showing one battery and it seems it's the last battery in the chain. Do you have any suggestions? does the dip read out have to be in order or it doesn't mattery as long as they are all different and the master is set to on on on off? Did you need an upgraded sol ark firmware? I think my firmware is a year old

[@JKKDIFLY]

@@josepht1575 I don't know about the SolArk update requirement. Mine was updated about a month before I set up the battery communications. Are all your batteries V1? If all V1'S I don't think the order matters. As far as cabling, connect the CAN port on the battery set to on,on,on,off to the CAN port on the solark, then connect the batteries to each other through the comm ports. The solark won't tell you how many batteries are connected. The nominal capacity should reflect how many you have. I have 4 so my nominal capacity shows 400 (100 X number of batteries). When I switch one battery off my nominal capacity drops too 300.

[@WiSeNhEiMeR-1369]

Howdy EG4 Electronics , ... WOWSER = Constant CHANGES ... I just began installation of my THREE (3) New EG4-LL V2's in my older (

[@sgtspaulding9461]

We’re you able to set up a V2 as a master and the older batteries as slaves? I bought 3 older batteries and would love to know how to set them up with my Sol-Ark 12k.

[@hobbsdirtranch9650]

Thanks for this!! Very much appreciated

[@mmpiano119]

Awesome update! Now all y'all need is the UL cert on the LL v2. Impressive update here!

[@poke8181]

It works! Got my first batch v2’s working.. used the usb to rs485 cable that came with the batteries, cut the end off of a cat 5e cable and put orange in D+ and orange/white in D-, flashed all 6 batteries and now I have working comms with my Sol-Ark 12k!

[@Alaskan32]

I keep getting a “initialization failed, please check bms connection” “clear flash failed, please update agin” error did you do anything special to get yours to work? Thanks.

[@poke8181]

@@Alaskan32 Hmm, nope just set the dip switches to all down, then power cycled the battery so it’s using the new address, no need to mess with the breaker switch, just turn the batt off and back on with the power switch. Make sure you go into the device manager on your windows machine and check that the updater is using the same com port as your usb/rs485 cable. I’m assuming you’re plugging that into the rs485 port on your battery and not the canbus port? And did you make a cable using the usb/rs485 adapter that came with the batteries?

[@Alaskan32]

Hey thanks for replying, all dip switches down and bms reset, I made a Ethernet cable using the solid orange and the orange and white plugged into the usb D+ and D- on the adapter that came with the battery. I tried the original cable too to see if the bms software would work and it did. And the com ports match device manager. Also it’s plugged into the correct rs485 port. Might just have to order their adapter. Thanks for your help.

[@poke8181]

@@Alaskan32 dumb question but did you strip the orange and orange/white wires so that they are making contact with the D+ and D- ports in the usb/rs485 adapter?

[@Alaskan32]

Yea bare copper into each port lol good question nothings dumb at the moment

[@paulhurst3226]

Is this firmware going to fix the battery SOC issue? Mine's at 54v, saying it's at 100% SOC after like 7 months.... that's not right...

[@noduddeals979]

I have to charge up using voltage as the limiting factor! SOC has not been working for our eg4-ll V1 batteries as it slowly creeps down hope yours aren't junked from this issue.

[@johnashley1230]

I really like the product, but things like this make me worry. It would be nice if this was explained or fixed.

[@noduddeals979]

@@johnashley1230 🙌 Ikr. it's buried deep on the forums; how was I supposed to know this before we spent $7000 on them.

[@paulhurst3226]

@@noduddeals979 what charger are you using?

[@micklaws5520]

Where can I find the comm cable for CanBus between SolArk and the V2 battery? Also, I am a bit confused. Do I use the 48V V1 new firmware to upgrade my V1 batteries so they communicate with my V2 master Battery? These are great batteries and I am very happy with them

[@AmericanBornPatriot]

What if i don't have the v1 and have the standard Lifepower4 model? Will they still be able to communicate? Will my steps be different than what is shown in this video? I went ahead and updated the flash on the lifepower4 models. I haven't yet flashed the new V2.

[@justme1966]

Where can I get the info I need to make the cable between sol-ark and battery after it has been flashed, or is it standard ethernet?

[@onthelake9554]

Nice Job James . Now that you have comms worked out with all the main players , have you guys thought about selling a 16s 48v BMS for the DIY crowd with Comms . That would be well received I think .

[@JasonBedient]

So does the instructions in the PDF for setting the protocols and Sol-Ark defined not work? I can't get that to do anything with my V2 EG4-LL's. The only way to connect them is to connect via USB to the batteries?

[@ddthames]

Will the EG4-LifePower4 (battery without screen/interface) work closed loop with Sol-Ark 15k?

[@sgtspaulding9461]

I hope so. I was told they would work when I purchased the Sol- Ark. Did you figure out how to do it?

[@oks3ranch]

Nice. Does this EG4 LL V1 firmware update provide closed loop support with the Schneider XW Pro 6848 also? If not when will that update be available?

[@godelrt]

Does rapid shutdown work with sol-ark shutting down the EG4 LL batteries?

[@TheSattarfamily]

Trying to setup CAN coms with Solark15K and Eg4_LL v2. Followed setup procedure outlined in this video. Solark inverter is not seeing batteries. I do have an early batch of EG4-LL v2 batteries i suspect since I ordered them as they were released last year. 1. How to confirm that these batteries require a BMS update firmware and 2. where is the BMS Updater software and corresponding BMS firmware update files (they are not present under EG4 web site Downloads section). Thank you.

[@JoeyDee86]

Is communication between the two REALLY that simple? In a Sol-Ark video they recommended manually inputting battery parameters incase communication fails, as it would reset to defaults. You would think you could “set” new defaults based on what you’re currently getting from the wire…

[@Uncorkedautomotive]

Can we use the free cable we got when ordering from Signature Solar "RS485 USB Battery Communication Cable"

[@poke8181]

Yes

[@ericopiela8489]

@@poke8181 No

[@danielbaker716]

I did follow procedure on my eg4-LL v2 batteries to set CAN protocol to SLK for my sol-ark 8k, but sol-ark is not showing correct total ah, or state of charge %. I suspect there are parameters that need to be checked/set on the sol-ark side ? I would be nice to see a step by step video on that to complete this integration process

[@nickpatel5419]

Is this UL9540 certified? What about the Powerpro?

[@unitedcountryarkansasprope3029]

Can anything be done about the Lifepower4 batteries?

[@sgtspaulding9461]

Did you figure it out?

[@unitedcountryarkansasprope3029]

I don’t think there will be support for these batteries.

[@sgtspaulding9461]

@@unitedcountryarkansasprope3029 I have already purchased 3. They will work with the Sol-Ark 12 but they just won’t communicate as effectively as they could? Or they won’t work with the inverter at all? I haven’t hooked them up yet.

[@Colindstuart]

Is there a video for solark and the LL-S?

[@uarcab]

Really like Sol-Ark and LifePower4, but they can't talk. Could you get an LL v2, and connect it to a group of LifePower4 batteries and have the whole set talk to the Sol-Ark?

[@eg4electronics]

LifePower4 is comms are coming soon!

[@benjaminbaum2900]

@@eg4electronics Is there a place to sign up to be notified when the LifePower4 comms are updated to be compatible with the Sol-Ark? Thanks.

[@jeffmotes2129]

@@eg4electronics any update? I have 15 Lifepower4 batteries I’m wanting to connect to a Sol-Ark 15k

[@uarcab]

@@eg4electronics Any updates on this?

[@sgtspaulding9461]

@@eg4electronicsany updates?

[@jsmalone]

is this upgrade necessary for ALL inverters or just Sol-Ark?

[@MahimaMoksha]

Is a firmware update required to get the inverter settings to show up? What is the correct dip switch setting for master? I have 1 v1 and 2 v2, (just ordered one more). I don't get any configuration settings when pressing the button on the front.

[@TheBossGrand]

If we only have v-1's and sol ark, do we need the firm ware updgrade?

[@jamesshowalter6362]

Yes, but this shows how to do that, no v2 needed

[@yamlcase230]

Can you add the pinouts to your description?

[@CampPrevost]

Did you ever get this info? Goes into just enough detail to leave you unable to finish :).

[@bschmitty77]

Did you ever find this information?

[@yamlcase230]

No. I ended up contacting sol-ark and they just sent me a cable. There's a couple of tutorial videos out there, but neither one worked so I've been trying to find the time to call sol-ark back and have them walk me through the process.

[@veemilafricanmovie]

Can you please share a link to where I can buy the usb adapter to perform the code update on V1 batteries?

[@eg4electronics]

What is your email address? I'll have someone reach out.

[@daimonvilppu6439]

Does the 48V firmware also work for the 24V EG4-LL V1?

[@WiSeNhEiMeR-1369]

HOWdy How about for GROWATT ? Do the EG4-LL V-1 or V-2 need a new / UPDATED Firmware ? COOP the WiSeNhEiMeR from Richmond, INDIANA ...

[@energetictv9340]

Same question

[@intraspan01]

Hello. I am running the GROWATT 6kW and EG4-LL V1 x 2. My units worked when installed 6 months ago with BMS Communication through RS385 port. No updates were needed. Did you have success?

[@gregthompson3355]

I have 6 v2 batteries and I'm trying to do the update, but the firmware zip file that is on the webpage doesn't have a hex file that I can see. Where is the actual firmware image for v2? Use the hex in the v1 package?

[@gregthompson3355]

Clarified with signature solar that the firmware file for v2 batteries is the included bin file (not hex like v1)

[@jamescarnathan6278]

got 5 of 6 v1 units updated today. the 4th one decided to go tango uniform. the bms won't come back on. anyone else have any issues with this?

[@btrippy5344]

Thanks for the info! Where can we find the software and firmware? Also, I see the amazon link but you mentioned you are selling a complete kit on your website which I'm not finding either.

[@eg4electronics]

signaturesolar.com/complete-all-in-one-off-grid-solar-kit-kit-e0000?

[@eg4electronics]

Firmware can be found here eg4electronics.com/downloads/

[@bobv8041]

@@eg4electronics I think he meant kit as pertaining to the cable and adapter and not a solar system.

[@z3r0_ko0L]

@@eg4electronics what about for Growatt inverters? in the downloaded folder there is no firmware file for Growatt inverters like it show in the video

[@jamesschmucker8282]

How do I program my newest version Eg4LL battery. It has 6 dip switches,but manual only says use 4 to set it up? I can't seem to get any help anywhere on this.

[@eg4electronics]

We suggest emailing Signature Solar's tech team at [e-mail]. They should be able to get you taken care of!

[@danielbaker716]

page 13 of the install manual is completely wrong. It should be: - install document is NOT good, NOT accurate, and needs revision ASAP. pages 10,11, 12 and especially page 13 needs revision to correct and clarify installation process. There are currently significant errors regarding DIP settings, and how to access protocol screen.The procedure documented on page 13 is totally wrong. What I found out from tech support was: - turn master battery off - set DIP to ID:64 , which is all-on 111111 - power on master battery - click any button to wake screen - click-hold return (3rd) button for 5 sec, and release..... - set protocol - click 'enter' (4th) button - turn off master battery power - set master battery DIP to 100000 - turn power 'on'

[@renof2505]

What is the pinout of the CAN port on the EG4-LL Ver. 2? I cannot find it and need to make a cable to go to my Sol-Ark 15k.

[@bschmitty77]

In the same boat did you find this info?

[@renof2505]

@@bschmitty77 Yes, I found the Sol-Ark pinout in the Sol-Ark battery communications and integration guide V3.0. I used a regular RJ-45 cable and cut off one end and only connected pins 4, 5, and 6 in the connector I put on. You could likely use a regular cable with all pins but I didn't know what was on the other pins in the EG4-LL and didn't want to risk it.

[@danielbaker716]

@@renof2505 , I just installed a EG4 cabinet with EG4-LL v2 batteries, and am trying to set up to talk to a Sol-Ark 8k..... Is there a decent video or manual showing step by step? Do I need to make a cable, really ?

[@renof2505]

@@danielbaker716 I think you can use a regular ethernet cable. I just took out the unused wires to be sure since I have the connectors and tool it was fairly easy. Have you connected the power cables already and have it working without communication?

[@dangoras9152]

What about last year's batteries...

[@clintelawson]

This doesn't show how to select Solark on the LCD screen on the V1. Please advise.

[@eg4electronics]

Once the V1 has been flashed and power cycled you are good to go for Sol-Ark comms

[@nad.merheb]

@@eg4electronics once the V1 batteries are flashed with the new firmware it will show the menu on the screen like V2's ???

[@danielbaker716]

@@eg4electronics , I was able to set the EG4-LL CAN protocol P02-SLK for sol-ark, but Sol-ark is not showing same state of charge as EG4LL batteries. I'd like to see a specific video or manual step by step integrating LL v2 batteries with a Sol-ark, including setting on the Sol-ark side to be sure they are talking.

[@nad.merheb]

hi,, once the V1 batteries are flashed with the new firmware it will show the menu on the screen like V2's ???

[@JKKDIFLY]

Mine don't. They have the same menu information and button labeling and function they did before the flash other than the info on the top line of the screen changed. The V1's have multiple files to pick from to flash so once the V1's are flashed they are already in the mode you need based on the hex file you picked where the V2's have a single file to flash that contains the info for multiple inverters and you have to go through the menu to pick the inverter you want it to talk to.

[@nad.merheb]

@@JKKDIFLY THX FOR THE REPLY, you're answer is a bit complicated for me, if i have a growatt how can i choose the hex file & can you show a video of your flashed V1 screen menu, many thx

[@JKKDIFLY]

@@nad.merheb This video is specifically about EG4LL closed loop communication with Sol-Ark inverters, nothing about growatt. Nothing about the V1 screen or button function change after the flash except the text on the top line. The buttons on the V1 are only used for looking around, before and after the updated firmware. To make any changes to the V1 you have to use a computer to update the firmware with a program that you download. Within that program is where you select the particular hex file you want to update the firmware with. Once updated and restarted the BMS follows the new instructions you just uploaded to it. The only choices in the software at this time are Victron, Sol-Ark and Scneider, which I assume should be Schneider.

[@nad.merheb]

@@JKKDIFLY thank you for that clarification

[@mikecreamer8308]

DO NOT TRY THIS ON 24V V1 BATTERIES. it will brick the bms. They updated the website to comfirm 48v only

[@MahimaMoksha]

I spent a number of hours trying to get this to work today, including a call to signature solar tech support. I currently have one v1 and 2 v2 with another on the way. My v1 keeps failing despite different com cable configurations. Both the v2 do not have the protocol setting menu so I thought a firmware update is needed to populate that...? The firmware update connects and sends the upgrade file but won't proceed to burn ("reset bms" pops up after clicking to proceed to burn). Frustrating time waster.