question

andries-van-den-berg avatar image
andries-van-den-berg asked

Pylon Tech shutting down my system

I have a single phase system with 2 x Mulitplus II 5000's and 8 x US3000 Pylon Tech batteries.

The Pylon BMS seems to hit a standstill at 88%, glitch???

The system started shutting down sporadically without any fault indication or errors reported.

I looked into it and saw that the systems charges up and when it gets to 88%, the SOC doesn't advance but current is going into the batteries, it then jumps up after a while to 96%, so it seems the SOC is not reporting correctly in this time. This is happening every day, but once in while the whole system will shut down in exactly this time period for a completely unknown reason.


This is the typical scenario when the system shuts down:


There are no errors or notifications I can see of why the system turned off.

Also of concern is that the max charge and discharge currents show under battery parameters are 296A, indicating the data for 4 batteries and not 8. This was like this before I installed the hub and after.

I spoke to a local victron support agent and he said he had the same issues on a site and installing a Pylon Tech LV communication hub sorted out his problem. I installed the hub and everything seems the same. The max charge and discharge currents are still 296A and the system still get's stuck at 88% and the very next day the system shut itself down again without any fault indication.

The hub seems to be working correctly as it's showing a blinking light on the second light, indicating 2 connected banks, all 8 Pylons are all flashing lights in sync.

The DVCC settings are as follows:


The only thing I changed is that SCS - Shared current sense was OFF, I turend it ON to mach the settings that is working fine in my BYD system. I did that today after this last system failure.


I have many sites running with Pylon's and GoodWe hybrid inverters that haven't given me a day's problems, I also a have a 3 phase site with Multiplus II's and 3 x BYD 11.8 B-Box's that is running perfectly.


I really need help understanding how to solve this issue.


Thanks

Andries

ESSPylontech
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2 Answers
Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Hi @Andries van den Berg


I looked into the VRM logs, and it says 'switch position - off' when the units are in off state...


can you check if there is something is connected to (one of the) remote switch connections? (M)


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andries-van-den-berg avatar image andries-van-den-berg commented ·

Hi Daniel


Thanks for this, I think this is the answer yes. We have all the devices linked and connected to 2 safety switches, so there is a lot that can go wrong with the wiring of the remote on/off switches, great feature by the way!

VE.Bus System [0]
Switch Position

So this column indicates weather the e-stop is pressed if I understand you correctly?

We will check all the wiring and see if we can pick up where there is a loose connection, or something.

I honestly did not know you can download the logs via the protal, I must say Victron is really good for troubleshooting like this, alot better than that other german inverter manufacturer!

Good job!

Thanks!


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Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ andries-van-den-berg commented ·

Hi @Andries van den Berg

Thanks, hope you get it sorted, will you update us on the results?


(btw, Victron is a Dutch company ;)

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andries-van-den-berg avatar image andries-van-den-berg Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Hi Daniel


We found a loose wire in the fireman's switch outside the property, it was exactly that, the remote NC line was intermittently being activated. It was probably based on temperature and breaking the line seemingly randomly.


Thanks for the effort to help me resolve this.

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dayandnight avatar image
dayandnight answered ·

Hello @Andries van den Berg,

I am not sure if I can really help.I am running a system with 8 Pylon US2000 and it works without nearly any problems.

First: I am wondering why you are using the hub? With eight pieces Pylon batteries it will work without the hub, too. The hub shouldn't make any additional problem, but nobody knows! ;-)

Second: Do you know all documents from Victron for Pylontech batteries? There are special parameters which are different in comparison to other brand. I don't have either the technical background nor any experience with other brands, but I think the expertise from Victron according to Pylontech batteries have to be reasonable and there are different to BYD batteries.

So for DVCC all parameters are off.

Here is a link I used to setup my Pylontech stack.

pylontech setup

In this document, there is mentioned that the absorption voltage should be 52V - I have read a thread where it was discussed that the absorption voltage should be different from the Victron recommendation with 52,0 V instead 51,6 V - so I did.

I see same behaviour as you mentioned, that the SOC stay for a long time around SOC level 88 / 89% and than rises within some few minutes to 100% SOC. I think this is normal and all parameters for charging are controlled by the Pylontech BMS. For my understanding this is "as designed", normal and okay. But again I am not the expert in charging algorithm.

Success!

DayAndNight








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andries-van-den-berg avatar image andries-van-den-berg commented ·

Thanks for the reply.

I did setup the site according to the same specifications you did from that exact page.

It doesn't say anything about he shared current sense under DVCC, mine was off originally and now it is ON, does not seem to change any behaviour though. one the BYD setup it is ON, so I thought I will try it.

I installed the hub because the local support agent told me it would solve the problem, the reply below from @Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) points to what I think is the actual problem. I connected all 8 batteries on CAN before and it was actually working fine, or the same. So, it looks like it did nothing different and was a complete waste of money from the looks of it. The system has the same values and I can't see a difference.

I'm sure the SOC stuck at 88% is a result of "not thorough" programming. There has to be many ways to solve a little issue like this from a software point of view. Anyway, if the system works, it's not the end of the world, it's like comparing Mercedes and Tata, on one you expect everything to work perfectly, on the other you are OK if something doesn't work 100% all the time... I was expecting it work though.

Energy going into the battery has to translate to more stored energy (gain in SOC), energy can also not just jump from 88% to 100% in an instant, that would require a massive impulse energy input, like a lighting strike ....I'm just saying.

This is a big system that cost the customer lots of money, they will probably never notice this, but I just feel it could be better...

Anyway, I love Pylons, great value for money!

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