Hey team wrenches, I ran a lab for years and the cheapest flashes battery's all failed, Blue planet is a great battery but they have moved out of the 48 vdc market, Fortress filled that void and l have only one warranty issue, a cracked display and they were quick to get one shipped. LiFePo4 aka LFP works and is very stable, I used to only run with outback but added solark to the list with great success, battery comms are good, it is an all in one so time will tell. I do my best to stay with manufactures that have time in the industry and did not buy the competition just to kill it. What l can say is buyer beware, some of these newbies will be gone along with the warranty, not all but some. I am not an invester and will look very closely at who a new manufacture is befor putting my money and name behind it. Fun times
On Sun, Sep 14, 2025, 7:31 AM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches < re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote: > Although I only have a handful of Midnite systems up and running, I will > say that the Powerflo16 battery to AIO setup is dead easy. No dip switches > (YAY!) No discovery process. They just work. I really like it. The downside > is that the app is very limited in terms of visibility into the individual > battery capacities. The only real way to determine if they are all working > is to view the aH capacity figure that is displayed inconspicuously in the > app. They include comm cables with each battery for both inverter to > battery comms (special pinout, only needed for the master battery) and a > straight-through Cat5 cable for interbattery communication. Oddly, the AIO > defaults to PYLON protocol, so the first order of business is to change > that to > "Midnite" in the battery settings. And as I mentioned in another thread, > Midnite doesn't seem to send the right aH capacity to Solar Assistant (I am > working with SA support on a workaround). > > Pro tip: I don't think it is documented, or certainly not well documented, > but you only need to turn on the master battery. All others should turn on > in sequence, as long as the circuit breakers are all on first. > > On my first installation, I purposefully broke the communication daisy > chain temporarily to see what happened, and everything kept working. There > was no inverter shutdown, parallel fault, etc. The AIO simply renegotiated > the new quantity of batteries in the chain and displayed the new aH rating > for the quantity of batteries still in the comms sequence. That is a huge > benefit over other batteries and inverters that go into crisis mode and > shut down when communications are lost. > > EG4 works great after the initial setup, but it's not as simple and > straightforward as Midnite. You have to dig into the menus to configure the > protocols on both the batteries and inverters. I believe I have called for > support on every single installation for one reason or another, but found > the support to be very easy to reach, knowledgeable, and efficient. Again, > this is based only on a handful of installations. > > I would not call my opinions statistically significant, but I have no > problem recommending either setup. > > > > Jason Szumlanski > Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group > NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP) > Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956 > Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208 > > > On Sat, Sep 13, 2025 at 11:25 AM Drake Chamberlin via RE-wrenches < > re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote: > >> Having followed the battery - inverter discussions with interest, it >> seems like a lot of communication problems are encountered. >> >> It seems like the least problematic setups are Midnite batteries and >> inverters. EG4 setups seem to be getting good ratings also, with the >> possibility of having short lived inverters. >> >> Would you say that this is an accurate assessment? >> >> Thank you, >> >> Drake >> >> >> *Drake Chamberlin* >> >> *Athens Electric LLC* >> >> *Ohio Electrical Contractor’s License 44810* >> >> *NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional* >> -- >> >> _______________________________________________ >> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance >> >> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org >> >> List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org >> >> Change listserver email address & settings: >> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >> >> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the >> other: >> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/ >> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >> >> List rules & etiquette: >> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm >> >> Check out or update participant bios: >> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org >> >> _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the > other: > https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/ > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > http://www.members.re-wrenches.org > >
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