Pylontech firmware update
In order to be at a good level with our Victron elements, I open this discussion to know if some of you are used to updating their Pylontech battery and if so do they have any recommendations to make to us?
Have they noticed a better behavior of the cells following an update (max/min)? Less HV? Etc…
Thank you for your feedback
Best regards
Pylon, when I last looked, do not want end-users updating their batteries (like many others), this is to be driven through their support and supplier network. So these questions are best asked of those organisations.
Typically where end-users are able or encouraged to update, this is included in the apps they make available to you, such as BYD which will auto-update when you connect, if required.
So if you find yourself hand-making cables and scouring the internet for firmware files from random fora, then it is best left alone unless you have an issue, and in that case contact their support or your supplier for advice.
I also have pylons, if your not having issue’s there is no reason to update them (like victron systems)
If there are problems pylontech support will look in to that and if needed provide an update, but they never recommend to update because there is a “new version”
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I agree!
In my opinion, it is only necessary if you have 2 Pylontechs with different firmware that don’t work together.
It is definitely a discussion to be had with Pylontec.
We have had to update banks before but because we needed the information on the can bus which their older FW did not publish. So really it is done for troubleshooting purposes.
But really the newer FW and batteries all report high low and address. So there is no need beyond that for updates, or at least i have not found a need so far.
Even with banks with different FW and models. New guy is master and you are good to go.
I agree with you all about practicing the “don’t touch if everything works” technique, but if not, did updating fix your problem? Because in my opinion, but I could be wrong, when Victron updates, it fixes some problems, right? So why not with them too…
Batteries are far less complex beasts, so there isn’t much to “fix”.
Even in the victron world, the inverters generally are getting features added to the microcontrollers, there is the occasional fix, and they are more complicated than a BMS, but also very mature.
Pylon have introduced some new features as well, min/max cell data was one, DCL on the 5000’s (iirc) was another.
I wouldn’t confuse the work that goes into the GX, which is a large software stack, with many moving parts to a BMS.
Pylon in particular have a very mature BMS, so I can’t recall specific issues that actually needed firmware to fix a bug (in recent times).
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I fully agree.
Years ago I had one case that an old system could not be made to work with a new one. Only a firmware update solved the problem. But I hadn’t experienced that in the recent past.
Hello @lxonline , a small addition to what you just wrote, namely “New guy is master and you are good to go”, to be more precise you have to put the most powerful one with the most recent firmware in master and not just a new one.
Nice addition @maa
Usually newer unit is newer firmware. I have never had customers add smaller units, so never thought about that being an issue.
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Manual says, on the Features chapter, last item…
For US5000
For US2000C
And so on… 
Battery-Firmware Upgrades are usually not required. It is tested and running since years, there is not much to fix for existing hardware.
If you google for “bricked pylontechs” it is another good reason for just leaving them alone.
The upgrade-process is kinda complex and not end-user-friendly, means: wrong file, and you just bricked the battery. (Bricking := turn something into the functionality of a brick 
)
But you can recover it, as a combination of keys will get you to the bootloader, which you can’t brick… 
Of course, brown pants are required.
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Come on gentlemen, what’s with that sarcastic tone? Just because you’re scared of Pylontech updates doesn’t mean you should scare the bravest among us who might consider them necessary.
Do you know the adage of the famous French playwright and poet from the early 17th century Pierre Corneille who wrote in Le Cid: “To conquer without peril is to triumph without glory!”
So I promise, I’ll make a nice simple procedure to follow just in case
Are you feeling lucky?
Then dive in…
In the end, a battle won easily is just victory, one won with great sacrifices is history…
Even with victron updates just doing them for the sake of having the latest is also not an encouraged practice.
As anyone who does software knows one fix is another thing (unintentionally) negatively affected sometimes.
I have some systems from 2019, never updated except on original install. All running well. They are stable and no new features are needed or required.
For me though personally because Pylontec don’t make it an open process, and the fact that is can void your warranty makes it not such an attractive idea.
BYD have theirs open and easy through BE Connect as do Victron with Victron Connect, that is what makes doing the updates on commissioning best practice and the updates don’t change the warranty agreement either.
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Unfortunately it does not highlight facts such as there are actually two versions of firmware depending on the hardware version of your Pylontech so you run a much higher risk of bricking it. That said, I also managed to “brick” one of 6 of the same batch so the process is not that robust. (sent Pylontech data dump and was guided by them through out) Fortunately Pylontech has a tool to recover from this unless you applied the wrong firmware that is
We all agree, these updates should be done with great care and of course if everything works in your system you should not do them.
This good practice is the rule for any system.
However, as I had a small problem on my system I carried out the update and I admit to being pleasantly surprised because I noticed an improvement.
Unfortunately, and despite my promise, I will not put my update procedure online because I do not want to attract everyone’s wrath, but if some of you need it I will be happy to help you and share my experience in private messaging on the forum.
You’re welcome to share your experience, but we don’t want to become a repository for pylon documentation and firmware (or any other manufacturer), that we want to encourage people to get via official sources.
Yes @nickdb of course