Battery calibration - Details of the stages

Has anyone written up a detailed description of the battery calibration process, and what the end user should expect to be happening?

Mine was triggered earlier today, so I got the start notification via the app and on the portal followed by the full speed discharge to around 48-49 V on the battery, and now the battery is in the idle state.

Just frustrating at the moment as I have decent solar gen and the battery has been sat in the idle state for 1 h 25m so far. If it remains like this then the calibration charge cycle will mainly be grid import and the solar gen for today will be over.

Just been on the live chat, which confirmed 1h 40m with the battery sat idle is not normal, so they have restarted the calibration.

Simon_C when my system was installed the battery was part full, the commissioning started and the battery drained down to 4%. Nothing else happened after, the battery never charged to 100% off grid, it charged from solar of course but then as the house needed it, it drained down again.
As my system was installed in January it took several weeks of this before there was enough solar and not enough house demand for the battery to reach 100%.
I never received a commissioning ended message either.

I know this isn't as described in the manual but it's what happened to me and the system seems to have worked fine regardless.

Geoffrey

The re-started calibration did not hit the required high battery voltage, so GE had to trigger another type of charge calibration that ran at 1.13 kW until the battery voltage reached 57 V.

It took a very long time (with grid import at peak tariff rate), but it appears to have gained back the full capacity of the battery.

I know because I forgot that a calibration wipes the user settings for timed charge, so my overnight car charge managed to empty the GE battery within a few hours of it being full. Doh.

Now recharging on a good solar day at least.

Calibration Stage 1 - Discharge to 44v
Stage 2 - Set 0%
Stage 3 - Charge to 57v
Stage 4 - Set 100%
Stage 5 - Balance
Stage 6 - Write Battery capacity flag Ah

During Stage 1 as it gets below 48v it begins throttling
During Stage 4 at old 100% or over 55v throttled

Hi Dragon (sorry, don't know your name)
I've just had a battery installed 2 days ago and have the message“Your installer has started to commission your system. We’ll let you know when they’ve finished”
Does this mean it hasn't yet been calibrated?
It's currently at 100% having been charged by solar and the voltage is showing at 53.1.

I've some experience with batteries on canal boats and SOC monitors. These systems use lead acid batteries so don't discharge to zero but do calibrate over a period of time by using the 100% charge as their reference.

Does your SOC work purely on voltage or is it a combination of voltage and tracking charge and discharge current?

Thanks very much.

Peter

My inverter was installed in Sept and on the dashboard there is a message saying starting calibration on 15th Sept. It looked to calibrate ok that day but the calibration completed message didn't appear until 28th Oct! No idea why!

TheDragon (GivEnergy), could you possibly add expected time scales for each step (or a way of calculating them) so that users can flag up for example if the system is spending too long in the 0% state and get someone from GE to re-trigger the calibration.

Also is it possible for the user to set say the charge rate once a calibration has started so that the charge is better aligned with either good solar generation or a cheap tariff time period? If it is possible, which method should be used to set the charge rate, App, WebPortal - Inverter Settings, WebPortal - Inverter - Remote Control, or GivTCP?

One thing I have picked up from the beta firmware thread is that the AC Charge To % needs to be set to 100% before the calibration is started, regardless of whether the AC Charge is activated or not.

Simon_C AC Charge To % needs to be set to 100%

Golden Nugget! Should there be a checklist to follow?

Simon_C Also is it possible for the user to set say the charge rate once a calibration has started so that the charge is better aligned with either good solar generation or a cheap tariff time period?

Calibrated twice recently, for the 4074 and today for the 4073 beta BMS. For both I lowered the charge rate to match solar generation for some of the calibration period and it works OK. I used the WebPortal - Inverter Settings (Battery Options) to adjust the Charge Rate.

Regarding timings, a lot depends on the original SOC and which batteries you have.
For ours, the overall charging time was just over 9 hours, but some of that was at a reduced rate of about 2kW as the sky was a bit cloudy today.
The bit at the end when it gets to 90% and starts throttling took just over 2 and half hours. About 90 minutes of that appears to be the batteries balancing once the SOC reaches 100%.

Woodlands Correct Its almost impossible to tell. I did 4 today manually, watching them, ordering them on my Chrome tab, as the order I think they will finish. Im always wrong

Ubarrow have the message“Your installer has started to commission your system. We’ll let you know when they’ve finished”
Does this mean it hasn't yet been calibrated?
It's currently at 100% having been charged by solar and the voltage is showing at 53.1.

Me too. I got the “started commissioning” message when my battery was installed and then the same when the second battery was installed but I never got any commissioning finished messages. The batteries both drained down but I never saw a forced charge to 100%.
It seems to be working ok regardless, but I’m confused as to whether it would be improved with a manual commissioning?