<div dir="auto">Hey team wrenches,<div dir="auto">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.</div><div dir="auto">Fun times</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Sep 14, 2025, 7:31 AM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches <<a href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org">re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">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 </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">"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).</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">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.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">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.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">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.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">I would not call my opinions statistically significant, but I have no problem recommending either setup.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><br clear="all"></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><br>Jason Szumlanski<div><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Roboto,RobotoDraft,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Roboto,RobotoDraft,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Roboto,RobotoDraft,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)</span><br style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Roboto,RobotoDraft,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Roboto,RobotoDraft,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956</span></div><div><font color="#333333" face="Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208</font></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Sep 13, 2025 at 11:25 AM Drake Chamberlin via RE-wrenches <<a href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">
<div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-family:monospace"><span style="font-size:12pt">Having followed the battery - inverter discussions with interest, it seems like a lot of communication problems are encountered. </span></div>
<div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-family:monospace"> </div>
<div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-family:monospace"><span style="font-size:12pt">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. </span></div>
<div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-family:monospace"> </div>
<div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-family:monospace"><span style="font-size:12pt">Would you say that this is an accurate assessment? </span></div>
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<div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-family:monospace"><span style="font-size:12pt">Thank you,</span></div>
<div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-family:monospace"> </div>
<div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-family:monospace"><span style="font-size:12pt">Drake </span></div>
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<p><em>Drake Chamberlin</em></p>
<p><em>Athens Electric LLC</em></p>
<p><em>Ohio Electrical Contractor’s License 44810</em></p>
<p><em>NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional</em></p>
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