Mcskippster
Member
I am so please I found this group
Fogstar rack battery owner myself.
We thought, well I thought it sensible to test some equipment out before my Company decided on providing any type of Solar system or advice.
Its been a journey good and bad.
In no particular order the following comes to mind concerning fogstar and general thoughts from reading all your comments on both the batteries and solar in general.
Fogstar.
I have 6 of the fogstar rack batteries connected by can
10kw 20 x 500w panels
20 Tigo TS4 with logger ect a must for my location.
1 x 8kw ecco sunsynk Inverter.
The Solar asistamt software on a pi3 a must!
Home assistant on a Khadas running on rs485 to the inverter and one to the batteries.
Im working on weather schedling and the SA unit helps a lot and not worth me building something for the price of the software and the pi running home assistant.
Over all apart from battery cabling and the method of battery connectivity for the price I'm happy with the Fogstar product, it's very similar to the Jakkiper battery but certainly not internally built to the quality of the Jakki.
When out of warranty I will rebuild them but suspect battery tech will have moved on substantially.
Serviceability when out of warranty is hampered by the welded connections and tatty wireing these were built to a price.
However they work well and are grade A cells.
A nice display on each.
Easy connectivity to the 8kw ecco sunsynk we have purchased and are testeing.
Dreadful instructions and the password is for only the box on the protocol page in Chinese and that caused confusion.
No acess to the main settings via the bms software which yes they may feel would invalidate warranty but I'm.not to happy about that.
Does anyone have the main admin password not the protocol.one.
Pre order.
The process wasn't.a good experiance with no updates when.the shipment was late.
Credit where due they arrived although 1.5 months late.
Emails.igmored, excuses they realy should invest in a decent ticket system and update there customers.
All the battery cables for connectivity to each other were present and setup was easy.
The cabinet an excellent quality however mine damaged, again poor comms but we came to an agreament and these things can happen.
So.far I'm.in week 3 with variable UK weather the batteries have performed well.
Hopefully.the heat pads work and this helps in our variable winter if the packs get cold.
Warranty.
I kept the voice call.
" We will do what we can" nor exactly confidence boosting.
Luckily if anyone has an issue our of warranty and needs to change a cell they can of careful be replaced and tapped with a bar and that may be useful.info.
8.year warranty we will see.
15 year life time.will.tell.
Overall they work offer good value but come with poor customer service in my experiance.
It's not every day ine drops 8k on 5 batteries to test.
So other thoughts.
Sunsynk hybrid 8k is a great product.
Confusing instructions
Confusing hard to find detail.serup info and no support from.sunsynk if your a diy person so be warned they like qualified people, good and bad with that.
My unit sadly has a time.clock fault but although initial slow support this has not gone to the factory and have been.advised if required the unit will.be swapped for another new one.
Ohh Solar assistant to the rescue as the times out I created an automation using thr solar assitant acess to turn on off peak charging while I wait for a fix or new unit.
Anyway hope.thats help someone I have lots of other things I could add but it's getting late.
I would.be interested in hearing from those with the same batteries as I am unsure about the equalisation voltage I'm having problems getting the battery to stop charge and equalise and wonder what others are using as other mention details is sparse and I can't be bothered to ask for support as often ther is no reply from fogstar' " what do you want the password for" was the last comment on thr phone.
So at present going by others lifpo4 defaults.
Float on lifpo4 isn't.an issue, see the off grid garage videos on the subject And please buy Andy a spat
Pls ask if you have a.questiion and if anyone knows how to get the pace bms admin password for these fogstar rack batteries or you have it pls pass it this way.
For those interested the data images are from Solar assistant.
There are lots of ways to monitor your batteries.
The bms software
RS485 to a solution such as Solar Assitant, your inverter although often less detail. Home.assitant some other logger required, a smart shunt such as the Victron bluetooth one.
I have been lucky enough to be able to buy the equipment at trade and the payback works as does the equipment in general.
I had no additional discounts from Fogstar or incentives of any kind.
if this was provisioned for a customer I doubt it is cost effective for many and although I see the value and return and the education value doubt many will opt for a hybrid system something I feel has advantages over a purely AC grid tide system.
Solar technologies can now work cost effectivly however it can be a bumpy journey getting there.
Since poaying the above I have found this battery charging chart which clearly lists the required voltages.
https://footprinthero.com/lifepo4-battery-voltage-charts
split from hi-jacked thread
Fogstar rack battery owner myself.
We thought, well I thought it sensible to test some equipment out before my Company decided on providing any type of Solar system or advice.
Its been a journey good and bad.
In no particular order the following comes to mind concerning fogstar and general thoughts from reading all your comments on both the batteries and solar in general.
Fogstar.
I have 6 of the fogstar rack batteries connected by can
10kw 20 x 500w panels
20 Tigo TS4 with logger ect a must for my location.
1 x 8kw ecco sunsynk Inverter.
The Solar asistamt software on a pi3 a must!
Home assistant on a Khadas running on rs485 to the inverter and one to the batteries.
Im working on weather schedling and the SA unit helps a lot and not worth me building something for the price of the software and the pi running home assistant.
Over all apart from battery cabling and the method of battery connectivity for the price I'm happy with the Fogstar product, it's very similar to the Jakkiper battery but certainly not internally built to the quality of the Jakki.
When out of warranty I will rebuild them but suspect battery tech will have moved on substantially.
Serviceability when out of warranty is hampered by the welded connections and tatty wireing these were built to a price.
However they work well and are grade A cells.
A nice display on each.
Easy connectivity to the 8kw ecco sunsynk we have purchased and are testeing.
Dreadful instructions and the password is for only the box on the protocol page in Chinese and that caused confusion.
No acess to the main settings via the bms software which yes they may feel would invalidate warranty but I'm.not to happy about that.
Does anyone have the main admin password not the protocol.one.
Pre order.
The process wasn't.a good experiance with no updates when.the shipment was late.
Credit where due they arrived although 1.5 months late.
Emails.igmored, excuses they realy should invest in a decent ticket system and update there customers.
All the battery cables for connectivity to each other were present and setup was easy.
The cabinet an excellent quality however mine damaged, again poor comms but we came to an agreament and these things can happen.
So.far I'm.in week 3 with variable UK weather the batteries have performed well.
Hopefully.the heat pads work and this helps in our variable winter if the packs get cold.
Warranty.
I kept the voice call.
" We will do what we can" nor exactly confidence boosting.
Luckily if anyone has an issue our of warranty and needs to change a cell they can of careful be replaced and tapped with a bar and that may be useful.info.
8.year warranty we will see.
15 year life time.will.tell.
Overall they work offer good value but come with poor customer service in my experiance.
It's not every day ine drops 8k on 5 batteries to test.
So other thoughts.
Sunsynk hybrid 8k is a great product.
Confusing instructions
Confusing hard to find detail.serup info and no support from.sunsynk if your a diy person so be warned they like qualified people, good and bad with that.
My unit sadly has a time.clock fault but although initial slow support this has not gone to the factory and have been.advised if required the unit will.be swapped for another new one.
Ohh Solar assistant to the rescue as the times out I created an automation using thr solar assitant acess to turn on off peak charging while I wait for a fix or new unit.
Anyway hope.thats help someone I have lots of other things I could add but it's getting late.
I would.be interested in hearing from those with the same batteries as I am unsure about the equalisation voltage I'm having problems getting the battery to stop charge and equalise and wonder what others are using as other mention details is sparse and I can't be bothered to ask for support as often ther is no reply from fogstar' " what do you want the password for" was the last comment on thr phone.
So at present going by others lifpo4 defaults.
Float on lifpo4 isn't.an issue, see the off grid garage videos on the subject And please buy Andy a spat
Pls ask if you have a.questiion and if anyone knows how to get the pace bms admin password for these fogstar rack batteries or you have it pls pass it this way.
For those interested the data images are from Solar assistant.
There are lots of ways to monitor your batteries.
The bms software
RS485 to a solution such as Solar Assitant, your inverter although often less detail. Home.assitant some other logger required, a smart shunt such as the Victron bluetooth one.
I have been lucky enough to be able to buy the equipment at trade and the payback works as does the equipment in general.
I had no additional discounts from Fogstar or incentives of any kind.
if this was provisioned for a customer I doubt it is cost effective for many and although I see the value and return and the education value doubt many will opt for a hybrid system something I feel has advantages over a purely AC grid tide system.
Solar technologies can now work cost effectivly however it can be a bumpy journey getting there.
Since poaying the above I have found this battery charging chart which clearly lists the required voltages.
https://footprinthero.com/lifepo4-battery-voltage-charts
split from hi-jacked thread
Last edited:
