I recently installed a set of EcoWorthy Server Rack 48V 100aH batteries with my Victron system (Cerbo Gx, Multiplus-ii, and others). These batteries talk with the inverter over CAN (using a “Victron” protocol as selectable over the app, or other compatible protocols like “Pylontech”).
Generally everything works well for the most part - CAN packets are accepted, the touch screen shows correct info for the battery (voltage, current, etc). The battery was successfully configured to control charging, and to be used as a “Battery Monitor” on the GX and VRM. The one problem I am facing is that on the VRM Dashboard, the graph showing historic consumption/production is not correct. Instead of showing actual consumed energy, the consumption graph always shows a graph total power input (it is always equal to solar+shore regardless of what the actual consumption was). Here are two graphs showing that consumption=production, while at the same time the battery capacity is changed (because consumption was not actually equal to production). One is solar-only, the other shows solar+generator=consumption when generator is run:
Note that switching the “Battery Monitor” to be my Victron SmartShunt fixes this issue. I spoke with both my Victron Dealer and the battery manufacturer. The Victron Dealer pointed out that the battery history page from the EcoWorthy Battery does not show history, which may be causing this, but they do not know for sure. The Battery manufacturer says they do not know how Victron calculates consumption, and that they do not get support from Victron engineering and believe their protocol is correctly implemented, but would be happy to work with Victron on a correction if they had a way to get in touch.
For now I am using the smartshunt as the battery meter to work around this issue, however the battery meter and the actual battery do not always agree on the battery percentage, and it’s annoying to not be able to display the actual batteries report of the state of charge and instead have to be constantly toggling between the two. I’m looking for advice on how to correct this issue (or if the correction requires a protocol change from EcoWorthy, how I can help get them connected with Victron support to update their CAN protocol).
(Edit): I took a look at the Victron document VE.Can Registers Public, and am wondering if the historic data is populated by the registers defined in Section “1.16 History values (new)”. But this section is defined as “Read Only”, and I would expect it needs to be “Read Write” for the battery to be able to populate these.
Below is a screenshot of the Battery’s history page on the GX device:
How can I get some help with this? I first tried going through my dealer and they were unable to help with this and could not refer me further. I tried working with the battery manufacturer and they could not help because it required assistance from Victron which they were also unable to get. I tried posting a detailed thread (read above) and had no engagement.
It’s very frustrating that there is zero path forward to get this resolved with Victron or even hear back, and that it’s not something that can be resolved by a dealer. I hoped for better support when investing in a Victron system rather than going with a cheaper competitor.
@pwfarnell@guystewart Tagging you because you seem to be active in the forums and work at Victron. Is there anyone that could help with this? It seems like a small change or providing info to the battery manufacturer would fix this, but it has not possible without any support from Victron.
I am not a Victron employee, like most of the active members of the forum I am a volunteer as explained in the community guidelines. I am afraid your question is outside my knowledge as I only know Victron batteries.
@Maik I am talking with the battery manufacturer, who is interested in creating a firmware update to make their BMS talk the protocol correctly, but it’s unclear from the Victron documentation what is needed. As I pointed out in my first post, the protocol for the battery history is read-only from Victron, not a write command.
@pwfarnell sorry I thought I read on your tag that you worked at Victron, my bad! I read the guidelines but was not clear how I can get the support I need since I followed all the pathways offered and hit dead ends.
They aren’t doing anything out of the ordinary for the can protocol there are guys on gut who have workong drivers with correct addresses to communicate fully.
Here is a good start read. From the old community.
And a technical paper openly available
guystewart
(Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager))
7
I am working on expanding the promotion of batteries that have completed the full BMS-Can specification compliance tests.
The process for a manufacturer to get their battery into the program is via the regional Victron sales manager - they can be contacted here - Contact - Victron Energy
The sales manager will review the request from the manufacturer, and if they appear to be a good fit, will write them a recommendation to Victron Energy R&D team to start the process of receiving the latest specification and testing protocol.
That should be enough to get you started, and if that proceeds should connect the manufacturer to the engineer who can help them with that history register issue.
I seemed to have missed this last message but will forward this info to them.
For now I am making up for this by using a Victron Smartshunt as my primary monitor, which works and gives me most of the feature needs. But there seems to be some difference in offset because when discharging slowly over time the battery hits zero percent faster than the smart shunt.
Is this a case where I should do a zero current calibration? Or should I just occasionally reset the Smartshunt SOC to match the battery?
Your experience is exactly why we do not support customers that want to bring their own batteries to a configuration. Most of the so-called “budget” batteries have shitty BMS’s. Many of them advertise compatibility with Victron, but most of them haven’t actually done all the testing. If the battery shows up in the Victron device list they claim success. I have tested MANY third party batteries with Victron systems and even helped get one on Victron’s 3rd party compatibility list.
I’ve heard this so many times that I’ve come up with the following analogy. Some people buy a premium car that requires premium fuel, but put in regular fuel to “save money” and then complain about the experience. I have heard more times than I can count that people want Victron because it’s a high quality product but then want to “save money” by buying Big Bubba’s Cheap Battery to go with it. It just makes no sense. Buy once, cry once. Or, more elgantly stated by Ben Franklin “The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”
Consider asking for a refund on those batteries and then go buy something on Victron’s 3rd party battery list. It’ll just work. Pytes V5° batteries would be a good choice for you to consider. Plug them in, the Victron GX device recognizes them, and configures all the DVCC settings. It’s just that easy.
