HOW TO: USED & Cheap Valence U27-12XP Lithium batteries. Repair, Communication & Software issues

Hello and welcome to my channel
If you have found this video you have probably bought looking at getting some Second hand / Used Valence U27-12XP lithium batteries. Your U27-12XP Will most likely be the new a green model I however have the older black model in this video but the interface is the same.

01:24
Getting these batteries to communicate with the computer via the diagnostic software it can be difficult. USED U27-12XP’s often arrive with damage or completely cut communication cables. But don’t fret it’s possible and not too difficult to repair these. As I’ll show in the video.

I show the creation of a Communications cable using a RS-485 serial to USB adapter. With two of the most popular models of adapters off Amazon and associated problems.

The first most popular small black adapter worked, The second most popular option which is the larger blue cased adapter supplied insufficient voltage and wouldn’t work

Getting the Valence battery diagnostic software to work and talk with the batteries can also be difficult. in this video I cover a variety of common issues people have and do my best to explain how to fix them. After all the Software was last updated in 2012. It is generally easy to google and find a download link for the 12.12 Version of the software.

”No battery Found” this is the main issue people come across and it can be caused by a variety of reasons

Hardware issue - 09:58
A common issue is the instructions for cheap Chinese RS-485 to USB adapters can have the data pins polarity switched.

The Valence manual refers to A- & B+ data pins whilst the adapter refer to A+ & B-. An easy oversight during cable construction

Software issues

COM PORT: 11:49
The valance software doesn’t automatically find which COM port to us use and the Dropdown menu doesn’t function. “COM” followed by the current port number needs to be manually typed in. Port number can be discovered in Device manager. Example type in “COM4”

SB-485 to USB adapter drivers: 13:19
In device manager when you have found your USB device check that the drivers are installed. Windows is quite good at searching for and installing the drivers automatically.

Admin Permissions: 14:07
Full admin permissions need to be given to the root folder of the software and program files. The software itself also needs to be run in administrator mode.
.NET FRAMEWORK: 15:29
Your computer needs .Net Framework 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 installed on running. This can be found in Windows features, details in the video.
The operating system I only tested this one a borrowed WINDOWS 10 laptop. Although more tricky this can be set up via a virtual machine running WINDOWS 10 on a Mac however more complicated.

finding Module ( battery ) ID
Use the locate battery button to discover the model number for the battery / or if using multiple batteries use the scan tab.
Additional information.
If your battery is flashing a green LED every 20 seconds it is in sleep mode which means the internal BMS is this activated to conserve power, The battery is still usable in this state. When connected to a computer it will wake up and flash every five seconds. Once disconnected from the computer it will return to sleep mode after two minutes.

The valance diagnostic software only reads information from the battery it can’t do anything or change any settings.

Please remember that the U27-12XP does not feature a true battery management system and cannot protect itself ( without a Valence Master U-BMS or third part Compatible BMS ) in the event of undervoltage, over voltage, on low temperature charge. Please consider as many people with smaller U27-12XP Battery banks don't use an external BMS so building these safety protocols into your electrical system is important. Follow my van build series to find out how I did that in mine.

I hope this video has been found helpful and that you have got your batteries talking to your computer.

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