Ecoflow, actual hacking? Bluetooth, extra battery port, etc.

[mosafet]

For all the marketing given to supposed electronics enthusiasts there seems to be a complete lack of any real hacking on these devices.

I managed to acquire a damaged Delta 2 and have been trying to make it work better. eg. Has anyone figured out the Bluetooth protocol so we don't have to use  the "cloud" BS?

Has anyone figured out the extra battery attachments? For example mine has an extra battery port that has a small 6-pin connector presumably to identify the battery or whatever. If we knew how that works then we could make extra batteries ourselves instead of the overpriced stuff.  I know there are other ways to plug in extra batteries but I don't know if they integrate with the built-in firmware. For example using the solar/car port won't be able to charge the extra battery, only discharge. Connecting extra batteries internally works but does the firmware handle that gracefully?

I can't find any information on this stuff. Yes, I know they're pushing social media stuff which is annoying but that sometimes means we get lots of cheap broken stuff when regular people buy in. I was hoping there would be more people hacking on this.  If I can find a broken cheap extra battery I'll figure out how it works but until then I'm hoping someone that has this stuff (maybe given it free.... hint) will help figure it out.

I'm looking at the Bluetooth right now but I don't have much experience with decoding BT so I have much to learn. Internally it looks like the Bluetooth uses the standard cheap serial adapters. If I know the protocol then maybe I can convert it to USB and disable the insecure Bluetooth completely.

Or maybe hack the Wifi to work with local services. The Ecoflow Wifi is a joke, it won't even accept a full WPA2 password which makes in unusable on properly configured networks.

[50ShadesOfDirt]

The eternal tussle between manufacturers (product lock-in) and users (don't want to pay every other day for another printer cartridge).

These "solar generators" are packaged for convenience and expansion, but come at a huge price, with many lock-in characteristics and costs.

I'd just build your own solar generator (youtube vids abound), and you'll come out way ahead, in terms of making it do what you want, and being able to infinitely expand it. This takes diy skills, but I think it is not unlike building a PC desktop, vs buying one from Dell or whomever. A long time ago, I switched from buying desktops, to building my own, as I can save a ton of money, and pump that money back into the specific components I want, all much cheaper and/or better than a Dell-badged desktop.

I can't help with the hacking ... seems to be lots of youtube vids, but I didn't poke through them. Other hacks out there for diy tricks to fake the bluetti out with external batteries instead of solar panels, fed thru panel connectors. Perhaps your model has these as well ...

I wouldn't mind getting ahold of a Bluetti or similar "solar generator", supposedly used/dead, but it would be just to take it apart and see what was in it for myself. I already know that the vendor made a lot of trade-offs to get it conveniently packaged (like smaller batteries and such) and feature-rich (lots of ports, shiny leds), but they most likely wouldn't be the trade-offs I'd make. Still, folks buy these things, so the purchaser crowd with money seems far larger than the diy crowd who wants more from their product, without the restrictions (cloud, etc.)

Hope this helps ...

[FalconFour]

(a year later)

Man I wish this thread weren't a dead-end. It sure would be nice if someone had done some hacking to uncover and unlock some of its secrets. Export raw 48v DC from the Extra Battery Port to transfer juice to other batteries/systems? Wouldn't that be nice?

Spark of inspiration that maybe, this thread found by a web search, might still have some hope in the future...

[Bratster]

I am also interested in this. I have a Delta 2 Max with the extra battery, a wave 2, and the smart generator.

I have started looking at the extra battery port, just the pin out so far.

I did come across a post somewhere where people were successfully able to request API access from ecoflow for their serial number and able to get data from it locally over the Wi-Fi.
Edit: https://github.com/vwt12eh8/hassio-ecoflow

I am also trying to get the raw connectors. The main DC out and the solar/alternator input cables from their new power kits system do fit these connectors and are able to be taken apart with screws. Just have to file down one piece of plastic that "keys" the connector to not fit.

Their European market has a micro inverter product, with a very nice right angle cable for the batteries that I would love to get my hands on, but is only sold in the EU. (The standard cables stick out so much from the side..)

https://eu.ecoflow.com/products/bkw-battery-cable-delta-eb
(I don't suppose anybody in here happens to be in the EU and could maybe buy some of those and ship them to the US?)

Their alternator charger product also has a nice right angle connector for the battery, but there's no separate listing to just buy that cable.



This is what I have so far from my tinkering.


XT150-EF-F-P (Female PCB connector part number)

Pinout marked on Wave 2 PCB
1 Can-H +
2 Can-L -
3 Wakeup
4 SigOut
5 SigIn 1
6 SigIn 2



3ft Cable color/pin (twisted pairs)

1 Violet
2 Orange

3 Blue
4 Yellow

5 Black
6 Red

Edit 10/9/25:

Wave Battery Jumper
Power wires only ~12-14AWG

1 Yellow
2 Green
3 Blue
4 Violet
5 Grey
6 White


PowerStream MicroInverter Cable
Power wires only ~12-14AWG

1 Orange
2 Yellow
3 Not connected??
4 Blue
5 White
6 Brown


Info from Baugp, Reply 6, Thanks

 I haven't tested this yet.

SigOut (pin4) is around 13.5V and if you short between SigOut and SigIn (pin 5 or 6), you'll activate the external battery relay.

For the WakeUp pin to work, you need to short between WakeUp and Negative (Ground) pins. It works the same way as the power button. In fact, if you measure resistance between WakeUp and ground pins while you press the power button, you'll get around 200Ω.

[ChronoEntity]

I came across your post while researching the pinout of EcoFlows XT150 plug for the PowerStream micro inverter. Do you have any further details on the pinout of the XT150-EF-F-P? Specifically if you have any more information on the communication going on through the pins on the port. I am hoping to try and reverse engineer the port enough to use an external battery from another brand.

Also I am located in London if you still want someone to purchase the right-angled cable and ship on to you. Drop me a DM if you are still interested. 

[Bratster]

Not yet,
I just dug my Picoscope out of storage so will be taking a look at the signals on those pins, and maybe seeing if I can decode any CAN data (though that may be a bit over my head). Hopefully dealing with the CAN is not required just to get 48V out.

EDIT: I did just confirm CAN-L/H is correct regarding pinout. CAN speed looks to be 1MBd, the IDs are 8 hex characters so I think that means 29bit IDs, data is up to 8 hex character pairs. EDIT: I am not sure about my CAN findings now.
Need to make up a wiring breakout to have better connections to the signals (just did quick n dirty jam the scope probes in lol)

DM sent about cables, Thanks!

[baugp]

I have more info on this see attached for the pinout.



SigOut (pin4) is around 13.5V and if you short between SigOut and SigIn (pin 5 or 6), you'll activate the external battery relay. Which means, positive and negative terminals of this external battery port will become live!

I haven't tried connecting any external battery though, but I think it would work like how it can be done on Anker battery (linked below).


For the WakeUp pin to work, you need to short between WakeUp and Negative (Ground) pins. It works the same way as the power button. In fact, if you measure resistance between WakeUp and ground pins while you press the power button, you'll get around 200Ω.

[brucehoult]

These "solar generators" are packaged for convenience and expansion, but come at a huge price, with many lock-in characteristics and costs.

Just found this post after it got bumped today.

I got interested in this stuff in April after my second storm-related multi-day power outage (this one was 40 hours) in just over two years, plus probably once a month short outages of anything from under a minute to several hours. And 3- or 4-monthly six hour scheduled outages 9 MA - 3 PM for tree trimming (which clearly isn't enough). Freaking annoying when you work from home. I have a "Blazer Pro 1000" UPS with a lead-acid battery that is rated at 600W, and I think cost as much as an Ecoflow River does now, but even when new it basically gave time for an orderly shutdown, not to continue working for any length of time.

So ... I looked at all the Victron stuff, and some others but everyone recommends Victron, read the manuals etc. But the prices just added up SO FAST.

In the end I bought a Pecron E3600LFP for NZ$2900 (officially US$1600 in the states, but often going for $1400). At literally half the price of the Ecoflow Delta 3 Pro (NZ$5800) for not much less capability, and in some areas I think better features (2x 1200W MPPT vs 1x 1600W and 1x 1000W, expansion supported to 15kWh vs 12kWh) and with only a slightly smaller inverter (3600W vs 4000W) it seemed like a heck of a deal.

And actually not all that much more expensive than good quality LFP batteries alone. From a quick look at amazon it seems like 3kWh of 48V battery costs around US$600 (and I really have no idea which ones are good quality) while Pecron's 3kWh expansion battery sells for US$800. Ecoflow's 4kWh expansion battery is US$2200.

Paying 30% extra for convenience seems reasonable, 175% extra not so much.

I've had the Pecron since June 19. Very happy so far. I've had five unscheduled power outages in that time (I think at least one more while I was sleeping, as I found the oven time flashing, but of course everything powered by the Pecron, including the microwave, was still going). I don't have any solar panels yet, I'm just using it as a UPS and also time-shifting, but in the first full month (July) using just the main unit (3kWh) I cut my electricity bill by 20%. That's between reducing my 7-9 AM and 5-9 PM peak (double price) usage from 15%-20% of the total usage down to 1% (there is still the recessed LED lighting in the ceiling, the water pump unavoidably using mains power). and increased my "free hour of power" usage from ~17% to 30% of the total (I was already doing water heating and clothes and dish washing in that time).

The Pecron app is not bad. Apparently the Ecoflow one is better -- I haven't seen it. It lets me automate time/day-based changes to the AC charging rate and battery level it will use AC to charge to (allowing solar to do the rest, if you have it). What it unfortunately DOESN'T do is allow actions to be triggered by battery SoC, and it doesn't allow an action to be turning the AC power input on or off, or turn the "UPS mode" on or off. I get around the AC input problem using US$15 TP-Link P110 WIFI smart switches for which there are Python APIs to turn them on/off and read the current W and total kWh since midnight.

The app operates via the "cloud", so you can view status and control things from anywhere. But I really really want to be able to at least get the battery SoC or voltage programatically from a PC/SBC.

People on Facebook report success using generic 3rd party 48V batteries instead of the official Pecron expansion batteries, but given the relatively small price premium I think I'd stick to the official one. I'm thinking about one expansion battery (6kWh total) when I get some solar panels. 15kWh seems like more than I'd ever want -- that's a full day's electricity usage for me on most days (I averaged 11kWh/day of paid-for electricity in calendar 2024), and I can't see a point in ever having more than needed to get from sunset to sunrise, at least while I still have a grid connection with cheap 11PM-7AM power.

If you do have some other solar+battery system, you can use it to charge the Pecron at 2400W using the MPPT ports, which can be ganged together as a single 2400W 30V-150V 40A input (they supply the cable to do this).

[Bratster]

Excellent info, Thank you!

I have more info on this see attached for the pinout.


SigOut (pin4) is around 13.5V and if you short between SigOut and SigIn (pin 5 or 6), you'll activate the external battery relay. Which means, positive and negative terminals of this external battery port will become live!

I haven't tried connecting any external battery though, but I think it would work like how it can be done on Anker battery (linked below).


For the WakeUp pin to work, you need to short between WakeUp and Negative (Ground) pins. It works the same way as the power button. In fact, if you measure resistance between WakeUp and ground pins while you press the power button, you'll get around 200Ω.

[Bratster]

I have updated my post (Reply #3) with some more info.

I was able to locate the EU microinverter cables from a random online store that shipped to the US, unfortunately the power wires are only 12-14AWG (which makes sense since the official use is only 800W) so I can't use them to replace the battery jumpers.
Interestingly they don't seem to connect pin 3, Wakeup. So that pin is not necessary for charge/discharge it seems...
(I suppose they could be activating the BMS with the Sig out/in like Baugp mentioned)

I also got the Wave2 jumper and added that info, I tore it apart completely and will try making my own 90degree cable ends. Thinking maybe a basic 3d printed shell, filled with potting compound, then set the salvaged Wave2 connector guts in that with my own 8AWG power wires + signal wires.


I did do a little more poking around with CAN, I think that is over my head. There is a lot of data, I naively thought I would see some plain text info...
I have a huge amount of respect for those that have reverse engineered vehicle CAN data and figured out what things are.