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Anyone know the correct cable to connect the EG4-LL V2 server rack batteries to the Cerbo GX? There is a CAN bus and RS485 port on the battery. Signature Solar has a video o them doing it. They say in the video you need a modified cable to do it, but don't give any information about the cable.
I got this working today. I was worried that it wasn't possible because I haven't found much helpful documentation out there, but now that it's working I'm happy with how it works.
I bought this cable from Signature Solar. https://signaturesolar.com/victron-communication-can-bus-cable-for-eg4-ll-batteries/. I'm not sure if this cable is special, but I tried a regular CAN-bus cable and a regular ethernet RJ-6 and couldn't get those to work.
Plug one end into the CAN port on the master battery (after setting the inverter protocol on the master battery), and plug the other end into the BMS-CAN port on the Cerbo. I could only get it to work in 1 direction, not sure if cable direction is a requirement (?). Also on the Cerbo, I kept a CAN-bus terminator plug in the other BMS-CAN port. Not sure if that's required but it's working and I haven't tried to remove the terminator.
Once it's working, the Cerbo sees it as a Battery Monitor device, and it appears to control charging voltage(s) properly according to the settings in the manual.
I tossed my smart-shunt into a big box of other Victron stuff I now longer need ;)
No more Shunt, EG4-LL is a "Device" (battery monitor)
Not even as a backup device to confirm the EG4 voltage, current and SOC? You could always leave it disconnected from the cerbo and access it via Bluetooth.
1 more toy to play with....;)
I’ve got 2 batteries right now and both show up in the Cerbo. In the Cerbo I can see that there are 2 battery modules online. I don’t think you can see individual cell voltages and SOC. The aggregate SOC seems correct. Overall it shows more of the BMS info than I expected. I bought the 6-slot rack so will probably just fill the rack with 4 more batteries now that I’ve seen it working.
Hey, Are your EG4-LL V2 sending "High voltage alarm" warnings to Victron @ 100% SOC? I got EG4-LL version one and it is working except getting warnings. Please see my post on DIYsolarforum. Thanks
https://diysolarforum.com/threads/please-help-eg4-ll-v1-with-updated-victron-firmware-generating-cell-over-voltage-at-100-soc.58723/
https://diysolarforum.com/threads/eg4-ll-v1-sending-high-voltage-alarm-warnings-to-victron-100-soc.55542/
The cable from Signature Solar (https://signaturesolar.com/victron-communication-can-bus-cable-for-eg4-ll-batteries) is $9.25 with pins 4 & 5 on the battery CAN port going to pins 7 & 8 on the Cerbo GX BMS-CAN port. One direction only. You could make one in a pinch with standard RJ45 ends. My problem is that I have 3 of my EG4-LL v2 48v batteries but it only shows the Amps and Watts for the Master battery. The voltage and percentage are correct because those are essentially synced between the 3 batteries. The cerbo detects that 3 batteries are connected and shows that in the setting so I believe the communication through the COM In/Out ports to the other two batteries is working correctly but it does not appear that it sums the watts and amps for all 3. My SmartShunt shows the totals just fine and I am using it as my default battery meter but I'd prefer to use the EG4 for better accuracy if it worked correctly. I pinged Signature Solar about it last week but have not heard anything back yet.
After 2 unanswered support tickets, 3 unreturned voicemails, and a direct call pickup over 4 weeks I finally got a response from Signature Solar about this. I'm sure they are stretched thin, but wow! Their response:
"So I was looking through the manuals trying to find a more concrete answer for you but I'm unable to see where, if any change can be made to view the battery bank as a whole outside of only showing capacity. Maybe you could reach out to Victron tech support and find out what you need to do over there. It just doesn't look like we'll be able to view the battery bank as a whole coming out of the Cerbo GX."
I wrote back and suggested that this is an EG4 issue and not Victron because the Cerbo is only going to display the data that is sent to it and the EG4 should combine the data through the COMM ports first before sending.
Looks like there is no solution to see all the batteries. Perhaps they'll fix this in a future update.
I am having the same issues. Of course signature solar hasn’t been any help. I really expected a lot more out of there customer service team then I’ve gotten. Maybe they are crazy understaffed???
Anyways, I am shocked more people are not complaining for this to get fixed. Do they not know how it is supposed to be? Or does it work for some people?
I bought the same cable and it seems to work. I've got (2) V1 12v/400ah and (1) V2 12v/400ah. I've got an interesting thing going on, my battery % is showing 194+%. Checked and re-checked everything. It's also only reporting that I have 600ah total. I've reached out to Signature Solar today and I'm hoping/waiting to hear back. I've seen on YT that Signature Solar/EG4 and Victron are working together so it's nice that this is working. Honestly thought it'd work a little better out of the box but it does take time to figure out the bugs.
Mr. Justin, Hopefully, we can help each other. First of all, I am assuming that you have watched this YouTube (link below) that talks about having the EG4-LL V2 as the master in the chain. I purchased six EG4-LL V1 (48 volt) and presently using three of them with updated firmware with my Victron products. I looked at your posted photos and as you can see from my similar posted photos, I don't see the incorrect SOC, and installed capacity values, which probably could be due to me only using EG4-LL V1. Can you test by connecting only EG4-LL V2 and then EG4-LL V1 only to your Victron setup and see if the VRM reports correctly? I also really need your help. Have you played with EG4 BMS_TOOLS software and is your Victron VRM reporting any battery cell over voltage at 100% SOC? As you can see from my post (link below) on DIY solar forum, I cannot use the default Victron mppt values and I had to lower my absorption voltage to 55 volts in order to stop the VRM warnings and alarms and prevent individual battery cells from over charging. Can you please post a screen capture of your Victron mppt values showing the values that you are using. I know that you have a 12-volt setup but for my 48V setup, I just need to multiply your numbers by four. I really appreciate for posting your mppt values
https://youtu.be/elHLWUkTVX8
https://diysolarforum.com/threads/please-help-eg4-ll-v1-with-updated-victron-firmware-generating-cell-over-voltage-at-100-soc.58723/
Hey,
So with the V1 12v batteries they won't communicate with anything other than the BMS tool. That's why when the V2 12v came out I purchased it. The battery % seemed to resolve with the latest Cerbo release. To answer your question, no I don't get any alarms at full charge. Honestly, my setup has worked well until I added the new battery that was suppose to communicate. I've attached a picture of my MPPT settings, these might not work for all but it has for me. Now, if the battery is controlling everything via a Cerbo, these settings don't matter as the battery dictates this information
Thanks so much for providing information. Your MPPT absorption & float values (times four) are very close to the default Victron values (which I had to lower to stop the alarms and individual battery cells from overcharging). I don’t know why I am getting the warnings/alarms. I need to do some more troubleshooting by using my other three EG4-LL V1 batteries which don’t have the updated firmware. Just for your information, the three EG4-LL V1 which I am using in my Victron setup are able to communicate with my Victron products because I updated their firmware based on this YouTube video from EG4 Electronics (link below), however I don’t recommend anyone to update until I figure out why I am getting the alarms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5AkytbGUlE&list=PLgzBYLv266tYiE43vDl6gPOjTSrLltdyr&index=45
When I have 1x V2 + 1x V1 attached the Cerbo correctly reports 800 Ah installed capacity but when I add a 3rd and 4th V1 battery to the chain it incorrectly reports 1000 Ah in both cases when it should be 1200 Ah and 1600 Ah respectively.
I was running the latest firmware on the Cerbo (V3.21) but also tried rolling that back to v3.19 and v2.94 without those changes resolving this issue.
Your system has 1x V2 with 2x V1 batteries right? so your installed capacity for 12v 400 Ah batteries should be reported as 1200 Ah.... Is that correct and what you are seeing?
If so would you mind telling me what firmware version your Cerbo Gx is running on so I can give that a try?
Thanks everyone for providing information. I had three EG4-LL Version one connected to cerbo gx and using smart shunt and everything has been working. I recently updated the EG4-LL V1 firmware and it appears that the cerbo gx is talking to them (as mentioned above). Should I now remove the Victron smart shunt? And is the cerbo gx now ignoring the data provided by the smart shunt? Thanks in advance for your reply. Here are two photos of my setup but they photos aren't showing the communication cables going between the batteries and the cerbo gx.
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