Lux ac battery controller

ianatkin

EVandPV said:

ianatkin said:

Is there a way to remotely reboot the inverter? Mine has decided to stop using the battery to supply the house load for some reason even though it's still on 14% and I don't fancy crawling around in the loft tonight...

Don't think so, the app has a standby option in local connect mode but no way to reboot.
The reason you still see 14% is probably due to the batteries being a bit out of balance after discharging.
Ours have stopped discharging and the Lux shows 11% left while 2 of the batteries are at 12% and one is at 8%.

My batteries are showing as 13%, 17% and 17% in the Aoboet app. Usually it runs down to 11% then I get another 2kWh or so @ 1.7kW after that, because the battery reporting on the UHomes is... appalling to be polite

chamelion

I really want more batteries for Christmas 😞
So not worth it... Any DIY options?

EVandPV

chamelion said:

I really want more batteries for Christmas 😞
So not worth it... Any DIY options?

There's a guy on here (I forget his username) who bought some cheap cells direct from China and put them together with an ac coupled inverter which all seems to be working well.
I very much doubt you could mix those with Pylontechs though.

philologus

I've seen used 2.4 Pylontechs selling for less than £100.

Each one has15 cells so that works out at £6.60 per cell. If there's a few duff ones it's still cheap if you do a bit of cannibalising.I have a friend who bought some like this and split them to make a battery for his camper van that would keep him going for a weekend instead of relying on a leisure battery or having to find a site with a leccy hook-up.

The cable I bought to check my batteries would be useful for this as it gives info on each cell.

QrizB

EVandPV said:

chamelion said:

I really want more batteries for Christmas 😞
So not worth it... Any DIY options?

There's a guy on here (I forget his username) who bought some cheap cells direct from China and put them together with an ac coupled inverter which all seems to be working well.

That was me!

You're right, I'm not sure how nicely they would play with the Pylontechs but provided they're the same nominal voltage they should might daisy-chain OK.

chamelion

philologus said:

I've seen used 2.4 Pylontechs selling for less than £100.

Each one has15 cells so that works out at £6.60 per cell. If there's a few duff ones it's still cheap if you do a bit of cannibalising.I have a friend who bought some like this and split them to make a battery for his camper van that would keep him going for a weekend instead of relying on a leisure battery or having to find a site with a leccy hook-up.

The cable I bought to check my batteries would be useful for this as it gives info on each cell.

Where you seeing that? For £100 I'd gamble and give it a try...

newbuilder

So why are uhome and pylon techs not compatible then?

QrizB

newbuilder said:

So why are uhome and pylon techs not compatible then?

I know very little about either, so take this with a huge pinch of salt.

My DIY batteries don't have a data connection to the inverter, so the inverter is set to treat them as dumb batteries (the mode intended for lead-acid). There are two wires, positive and negative, and that's it.

Pylontechs and UHome both have RJ45 data connections in addition to power. I'm guessing their data modes aren't compatible. If you ran them dumb (if that's even an option) you could get them to co-exist. You'd obviously miss out on whatever functionality the data connection provides.

philologus

Chamelion: They were on ebay two weeks ago. There were two for sale.They sometimes crop up on places like Gumtree as well.

These are not what you are looking for - but it shows that they do turn up.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/electrical-services/lithium-ion-solar-batteries/1418513333

philologus

Used EV batteries might be worth looking at too.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284394673159?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338365712&toolid=20006&customid=EB32788329&