Waking up a Pylontech battery

Priapus said:
Yup these batteries are designed to be cycled daily. Not cycling it for 3 days will put it into sleep mode. Not 100% sure on the warranty aspect; but it is a bit of a waste of a very good battery to keep it in backup only mode.
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My LFP batteries have two modes, cycling and standby mode for use as backup only (one of the reason why I chose them). They are actually designed for use in cell towers meaning they can also operate at higher temps without warranty issues
 
TheChamp said:
Hi gents, I am trying to help a friend who is having an issue with his backup system, he has a Pylontech battery connected to a 5kW Axpert King. For some reason he switched off power to the inverter, battery must have somehow ran flat and the BMS switched it off.

Problem now is that the inverter cannot turn on without the battery and the battery is in sleep mode or something, the green power LED on the battery is on but the SOC LEDs are all off.

Is there a way to wake up the battery?
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If the BMS has gone into sleep or protection mode the voltage on the terminals will be zero (well, it will drop to zero as soon as any load is put on it). The issue with this is that most smart chargers wont turn on/supply a charge if there is no voltage so the battery cannot be charged by these chargers.

You do get Lithium chargers that has a specific function to charge them when in sleep or protection mode. The battery should turn on by itself once charged. I do not think their is another way to turn them on as this defeats the purpose of what the BMS is trying to archive. Maybe the manufacturer can help. The battery should not be damaged as the BMS on these are fairly decent.

A Sunsynk inverter has a setting to turn on Lithium batteries that has gone into protection mode which I have personally tested while I was still using my "dumb" LFP's and can confirm that it does work. You dont need communication with the battery to use this function on the Sunsynks.

The axpert type inverters should turn on without batteries connected, I just tested it on my Synapse and it turned on.
 
Koosvanwyk said:
If the BMS has gone into sleep or protection mode the voltage on the terminals will be zero (well, it will drop to zero as soon as any load is put on it). The issue with this is that most smart chargers wont turn on/supply a charge if there is no voltage so the battery cannot be charged by these chargers.

You do get Lithium chargers that has a specific function to charge them when in sleep or protection mode. The battery should turn on by itself once charged. I do not think their is another way to turn them on as this defeats the purpose of what the BMS is trying to archive. Maybe the manufacturer can help. The battery should not be damaged as the BMS on these are fairly decent.

A Sunsynk inverter has a setting to turn on Lithium batteries that has gone into protection mode which I have personally tested while I was still using my "dumb" LFP's and can confirm that it does work. You dont need communication with the battery to use this function on the Sunsynks.

The axpert type inverters should turn on without batteries connected, I just tested it on my Synapse and it turned on.
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Thanks a lot, so there could be something wrong with the inverter as well. We will have to find a way to get the battery to turn on and charge, then see what is up with the inverter.
 
Have you or your friend put a multimeter across the battery terminals ? Surely that would be an easy look.
If there is no alarm light lit i doubt its in any protection mode. Like i showed you earlier mine sit the same way as their sitting at 100% charged & have no load or work to do. Your ones the same but unknown where the voltage is at.
I don't think your problem is the battery
 
Here what happens when their in sleep mode & i throw the main AC breaker off

 
Tun@ said:
Have you or your friend put a multimeter across the battery terminals ? Surely that would be an easy look.
If there is no alarm light lit i doubt its in any protection mode. Like i showed you earlier mine sit the same way as their sitting at 100% charged & have no load or work to do. Your ones the same but unknown where the voltage is at.
I don't think your problem is the battery
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I did, zero volts, having seen yours I am also leaning that way as well, I am hoping to get a spare inverter to test with.
 
Maybe someone else might know the answer to this

When you activate the red "run" button does it by default light up all the SOC LED's or can one count the LEDS lit to get a rough SOC indication.
 
Tun@ said:
Have you or your friend put a multimeter across the battery terminals ? Surely that would be an easy look.
If there is no alarm light lit i doubt its in any protection mode. Like i showed you earlier mine sit the same way as their sitting at 100% charged & have no load or work to do. Your ones the same but unknown where the voltage is at.
I don't think your problem is the battery
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The terminals will show zero as they have been disconnected by the BMS
 
Koosvanwyk said:
The terminals will show zero as they have been disconnected by the BMS
Click to expand...

Which seems to be what he's getting huh.
Either by power off/on or by using the "run" button one would think the SOC LED's should give a charge indication.
Or perhaps an off/on & test the terminals then before the unit goes back to sleep mode might work for a voltage measure.
 
It turns out the Axpert can work without a battery, as long as it is was already on.
If it is off switching it on needs a battery.

I got a spare one here, AC connected and on but it's not budging. I will have to get a 48V to wake up the inverter, remove it and connect the Pylontech, hopefully the battery will also wake up.
 
Sinbad said:
what a kak inverter then
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I am testing with the older version of it, the King was supposed to be an improvement on those, and it says it can work without a battery in the specs, let's see what happens on Saturday, I will hopefully have another wide awake battery to test with.
 
You tried turn the battery off then on & then turn the inverter on before the battery bms gets the chance to put the battery back in sleep.....worth a try maybe.
The rocker on/off not the red button
 
Tun@ said:
You tried turn the battery off then on & then turn the inverter on before the battery bms gets the chance to put the battery back in sleep.....worth a try maybe.
The rocker on/off not the red button
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I tried everything, I think the problem is that the battery has gone into sleep mode because it is flat so unless it can detect something coming from the inverter it won't budge.

Plan for Saturday is to get 4 of the 7Ah batteries to create a 48V battery, switch off the Pylontech, open the fused isolator and connect my 48V replacement to the battery cables.

Grand idea is that the inverter will wake up, while it's busy initializing I will close the isolator, turn on the Pylontech and hope for LEDs.
 
Maybe try 4x small lead acid connected to axpert , remember to set max charge current to 2a , when system booted introduce the pylon/ increase charging amps
 
TheChamp said:
I tried everything, /snip
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if not tried yet, maybe give this a go before the bakkie full of 7Ah batteries..

To reset the Pylontech batteries do the following: [from here]
Turn OFF all the rocker switches on the left-hand side of the batteries
Turn ON all the rocker switches
Press and HOLD the red SW button on the master battery (battery with the CAN cable going into it) for four seconds [the comms cable part will likely not apply in this case]

If it does not work with the inverter and batteries connected also try it with the isolator between battery and inverter open to see if you can notice a difference in battery behaviour (battery just being in standby mode from inactivity will likely be different from battery in low voltage protect -> if in low voltage protect the inverter [trying to] start up current draw could maybe just restart the going into self protect circuit).

Assume you would have thought of this but I will also look at disconnecting the loads from the inverter when trying to restart the battery since you do not know what the inverter is set to in terms of powering loads from AC vs battery as priority , max discharge current, etc.
 
Last edited:
one poster said:
if not tried yet, maybe give this a go before the bakkie full of 7Ah batteries..

To reset the Pylontech batteries do the following: [from here]
Turn OFF all the rocker switches on the left-hand side of the batteries
Turn ON all the rocker switches
Press and HOLD the red SW button on the master battery (battery with the CAN cable going into it) for four seconds [the comms cable part will likely not apply in this case]

If it does not work with the inverter and batteries connected also try it with the isolator between battery and inverter open to see if you can notice a difference in battery behaviour (battery just being in standby mode from inactivity will likely be different from battery in low voltage protect -> if in low voltage protect the inverter [trying to] start up current draw could maybe just restart the going into self protect circuit).

Assume you would have thought of this but I will also look at disconnecting the loads from the inverter when trying to restart the battery since you do not know what the inverter is set to in terms of powering loads from AC vs battery as priority , max discharge current, etc.
Click to expand...
Too late, the test kit is ready for deployment.

IMG_20220203_192816.jpg

IMG_20220203_192716.jpg
 
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