I currently have 5KVA Multiplus with a 150/70 VE.Can MPPT charge controller using ESS with CCGX.
My current VRLA batteries are in need of replacement and was looking at replacing them with Pylontech US2000B or US3000 batteries. According to this article its not possible
https://www.victronenergy.com/live/battery_compatibility:pylontech_phantom
Is this still that case as it its not possible at all or are there limitations?
Hi Byrons,
The short story is sorry but no, this combination is not supported.
There is no documented mechanism to elegantly prevent the VECan MPPT from charging the Pylontech when it does not want to be charged (specifically when in fault or cold).
The long story:
In the beginning, before Victron's DVCC and CANbus functionality was robust, field tested and proven reliable, BYD batteries (which are similar in many ways to Pylontech) were able to use a system of 'allow to charge' and 'allow to discharge' dry contacts.
There are documented hardware terminal points on the BYD BMU, there is an assistant to support this in VEConfigure, and a function in VE.Can MPPT's to respect the signal that they are not allowed to charge.
This was inelegant in many ways, and replaced by the now STRONGLY encouraged use of the DVCC and CANbus features which allow much better control, data and feedback. The allow to charge and discharge contact support still exists and is possible for BYD but is mostly depreciated.
Back to the point and your Pylontech. The VE.Can MPPT's did not receive the same firmware feature upgrades as the VE.direct MPPT's in DVCC functionality.
This meant that when it came time to do the thorough field testing of the Pylontech programming, configuration and installation, It was decided to document and support the best and recommended configuration, rather than all possible.
So it was not tested in favour of the current solution.
Another bump in the road for you, if you do decide to go with a CANbus based battery and your VE.Can MPPT is to remember that they need independent CANbus ports, as one operates at 250 kb and the other at 500 kb. So you will need to use a VenusGX which has 2, instead of a CCGX which only has 1 - or your CCGX will not be able to see your solar production.
To keep your CCGX, you may wish to look into unmanaged lithium batteries that do not require a CANbus connection, OR perhaps replacing the VE.Can MPPT with a VE.Direct model.
Sorry it's not much good news, but now you know the situation.
The Pylontech US2000B has an undocumented (documented?) connector which could be 3 relay contacts exposed on the front panel, labelled NO1/COM1 ... /COM3, guessing it could mean « Normally Open 1 » and I currently check them on various conditions.
Perhaps Victron could get the indications given with these contacts, perhaps a valuable info that could appear on the Victron/Pylontech integration live page.
If indeed, 2 of these apparent contacts could signal the allowance ti charge/discharge, the same hardware scenario could be used for Pylontech and VE.Can MPPT when a vgx id not available.
Will post my findings about these contacts soon or later.
As I am also at the point of combining PylonTech batteries with VENUS GX and SmartSolar 150/100 MPPTs with VE. CAN.
As I understand, the compatibility has been checked and approved by Victron now according to the following post:
https://www.victronenergy.com/live/battery_compatibility:pylontech_phantom
Section 1.4:
MPPTs with a VE.Can port
New Model (2019 and later) VE.Can MPPTs are also supported from firmware version 1.06 and above. Be aware that some GX devices (e.g. CCGX) only have a single CANBus interface, and that is required for the battery communications. So if you use a new VE.Can MPPT, it must also be with a GX device that has more than one CANbus interface, e.g. the Cerbo GX.
Old model VE.Can MPPTs (pre 2019) are not supported.
Can anyone please confirm?
