[RE-wrenches] Sunny Island/Fortress E-vault

Tue Sep 19 20:52:20 PDT 2023

Glenn:

Thank you for that important clarification.  I keep mixing up the concept
of Fortress supporting the integration with SMA versus SMA not supporting
the integration with Fortress.

Fortress is all over how you make the marriage work.  When I spoke with SMA
to ask a question unrelated to the battery choice, I let slip that I was
integrating Fortress batteries.  It was like a switch had been flipped:
The telephone support tech almost hung up on me.  I was told that if you
are connecting Sunny Islands to Fortress batteries all tech support on any
subject would be suspended.  I needled the answer I was looking for out of
the dude but it was given very reluctantly.

This is very awkward.  When I was asked to bid this job I did what I
thought was due diligence by looking thoroughly at the Fortress site for
guidance.  I assumed if Fortress thought the coupling would be happy, SMA
felt the same way.  I must admit it reminded me of many of my romantic
relationships.  I got a bit of PTSD just thinking about it.

I hope this does not cause problems getting information out of SMA in the
future. Fortunately for me the warranty is long over.  Also fortunate for
me is the resource of the experience pool here at the good old wrenches
forum.  Thanks to all of you for chiming in.

William Miller

Miller Solar

17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422

805-438-5600

www.millersolar.com

CA Lic. 773985

*From:* RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] *On
Behalf Of *Glenn Burt via RE-wrenches
*Sent:* Tuesday, September 19, 2023 6:43 PM
*To:* Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches
*Cc:* Glenn Burt
*Subject:* Re: [RE-wrenches] Sunny Island/Fortress E-vault

In my comversations with SMA, they made it clear they do not support closed
loop comms with anyone at this time.

YMMV

-Glenn

Sent from my 'smart'phone, so please excuse typos and spelling errors.

------ Original message------

*From: *Kienan Maxfield via RE-wrenches

*Date: *Tue, Sep 19, 2023 3:17 PM

*To: *RE-wrenches;

*Cc: *Kienan Maxfield;

*Subject:*Re: [RE-wrenches] Sunny Island/Fortress E-vault

That's actually incorrect, Fortress totally does support closed-loop with
the SMA Sunny Island inverters. Here is their integration guide. This has
all of the instructions and coms wiring, etc. -
https://learn.fortresspower.com/external/manual/sma/article/introduction-useful-links?p=dc8b9a9c1b3f410556835193e66f2257c662403dfb3da4056e618e954e8381d2

Thanks,

Kienan Maxfield
Technical sales, Technical Support

*Green-Go Solar Distribution*

*kienan at dist.solar <kienan at dist.solar>*

*(801) 631-5584 <(801)%20631-5584> (Cell)*

*www.distribution.solar <https://www.distribution.solar/>*

------------------------------

*From:* RE-wrenches <re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org< a="">> on
behalf of Kirk Herander via RE-wrenches
</re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org<>
<%3cre-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org><re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org<
a="">></re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org<>
<%3cre-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
*Sent:* Saturday, September 16, 2023 8:33 AM
*To:* RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org<
a="">></re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org<>
<%3cre-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
*Cc:* Kirk Herander <kirkh at vermont.solar< a="">></kirkh at vermont.solar<>
<%3ckirkh at vermont.solar>
*Subject:* Re: [RE-wrenches] Sunny Island/Fortress E-vault

Jerry,

Who is the maker of the Blue Planet/Outback SOC box interface you mention?

On Sat, Sep 16, 2023 at 9:30 AM Jerry Shafer via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

Mac, wrenches

SMA and fortress can only open loop and with a fixed temp sender its fine.
Now on the blue planet and open loop with outback, you need a SOC box that
they can make for you, it will interface with the blue planet and command
the genny.

Fun times

On Sat, Sep 16, 2023, 6:04 AM Mac Lewis <maclewis1 at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi William,

Are you doing open loop or closed loop communication?  I'm not sure if
Fortress can do a closed loop with SMA or not.

We struggled to get the open loop to work well with some Blue Ion
batteries, not from a charging sense but from a sense of getting the auto
gen start to trigger correctly.  Basically, the SOC algorithm was always
way off.  For a while we were using an external voltage trigger and we
could get the generator to start OK before BMS shutdown.  We have since
added a Namaka box and are using the "Ext BMS" setting for battery type in
the Sunny Island and it has been working very well.

I think the difficulty arises because the Sunny Island is so
State-of-Charge centric and you can't manipulate the SOC algorithm without
that Ext-BMS setting (and solid communication).  One weakness of the
ext BMS setting is that it won't fall back on Voltage settings if battery
communication goes down, but this is a weakness throughout closed loop
communication for many manufacturers.

Let us know if there is a Fortress to SMA communication solution.

On Fri, Sep 15, 2023 at 11:11 PM Jerry Shafer via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

William, Wrenches

Yes I do and it does require some basic electronics to make it work
correctly, you will need to remove the ttemp sender and make a
resistor pack to simulate the 77 degree reading otherwise it will not
charge properly, for the first one I used a breadboard to set the temp for
what I wanted to see then build a more solid state shrink wrap resistor.
Doing this will prevent undercharge by the SMA and your customer will be
happy to see the full state of charge at the batteries.

OldSchool fun times

On Thu, Sep 14, 2023 at 2:12 PM William Miller via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

Friends:

I am commissioning an E-vault battery array to an existing SMA Sunny Island
System.  Does anyone have any experience with this they could share?

Thanks.

William

Miller Solar

17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422

805-438-5600

www.millersolar.com

CA Lic. 773985

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-- 

Mac Lewis

"Yo solo sé que no sé nada." *-Sócrates*

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