Maybe a dumb question. I have a lot to learn. I bought a BVM-712 to install in a new to me truck camper this weekend (2013 Lance 825). I will use the VictronConnect Android App to monitor. I note that the setup wizard will ask me to input the battery capacity. Unfortunately, I don't have a clue what my battery's AH rating is, and would appreciate advice on how best to proceed. The battery is a single 12 volt flooded lead acid. The label on top reads "MARINE-RV" ;"EXTREME CYCLE DUTY"; "Distributed by ABSS, Everett, WA." That, along with a yellow "8/18", is the only information provided. (I have reached out to the named distributer, but haven’t received a reply yet.)

My question is, how important is it for me to ascertain the battery’s capacity rating and input that into the app? Is it required for State of Charge and Time to Go? If I just guess, will the monitor self calibrate over time? If I should instead manually determine the capacity, any suggestions for how best to do that either using the BVM itself, or a DVM?

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Hi

I have a new project for an off grid three-phase installation. As this is my first three-phase project, I am looking for informations, schematics on this subject. Could you direct me to the documentation on this subject? Thank you.

Nim

I observed an inconsistency of readings on my supervision, indeed the curve of percentage of charge went from 86% to 100% in a single blow (10 mins which is my sending frequency) while the sunshine was decreasing, here is a picture to illustrate:

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Thanks

My MultiPlus II 48/3kva is configured with critical loads on AC-Out-1 and geysers and kitchen appliances of around 28A on AC-Out-2.

There is no energy meter being used as my understanding from the ESS YouTube webinar 2016 is that this is the preferred configuration.

This is late on a cloudy rainy day. Panels can produce up to 2300W from what I’ve seen in the week they’ve been connected.

I have seen screenshots where there is a separate box on Venus display for critical loads and another for AC loads. Per my screenshot below, I only have AC Loads.

How do I split out critical loads?

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Hello everyone,

My use case is probably pretty unique, but here it is.

I’m converting a big box truck into an RV as a hobby of mine. I installed a 50 amp 120/240 receptacle on the vehicle and my idea for how the electrical would go is:

Shore power L1, L2, N, Gnd -> 50 amp 2 pole main breaker

Main breaker L1, N, Gnd -> subpanel

Main breaker L2 -> multiplus AC input

Sub panel N, Gnd -> multiplus AC Input

Multiplus AC output L1, N, Gnd -> subpanel (other hot leg)

Is there any problem with doing this? Any issue with the power assist since the neutral from shore power is forwarded to the subpanel from the main breaker

Hi Look for help from some experts

I have installed an off grid system with multiplus inverter , smart solar charger , Venus controller with 5 Kva avr backup generator with 10kva lithium batteries. All lights etc low voltage.

The gennie is a 5kva AVR 240 v autostart connected to the venus for remote start stop

The system has been running fine on solar all summer. Finally connected the generator to auto run as winter is approaching, with less sunlight and build nearly completed

I have a few issues that are beyond my knowledge.

When the generator was first connected it wouldn’t run, so I read this forum and changed a few settings to get it to accept . It now charges etc.

The problems I have are.

1. When the generator is running, the dimmer lights flicker badly.

2. Range Cooker which is apparently voltage sensitive cuts out the oven when on genie

3. When running on genie the multiplus is very noisy, loud buzzing enough to keep you awake

4. Is it possible to get more charging power out of the genie so as not to waste the potential input.

5. when genie not in use there is sometimes some background noise but nothing as bad as when genie running.

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Off grid system.
2 x 100/50 MPPT Blue Solar (Plan is to put 4 x 275/300W solar panels on each)

1 x 1500w generic inverter to 230V 24V system.

Main loads are fridge, small stereo system, lights (led bulbs) and sometimes small kitchen appliances (mixer).

Looking to upgrade battery banks. We are looking at a 6 x 220Ah batteries.

The problem is we don't know witch type of batteries to choose, AGM or GEL.
In the future we may get higher power inverter.

Does this system require AGM because of the charging / discharging currents? We are leaning towards the GEL because of longer life. Do the GEL batteries have temperature above witch they shouldn't be charged?

Hi All,

Need a little advise before purchasing one of the above...

I have just bought a VW Caddy with a Euro 6 engine and alternator, my plan is to convery it to a camper with a multiplus and solar/mppt fitted. I have some Victron AGM Battries (2x 60Ah in parallel) and want to be able to charge them from the altrnator when driving.

Being a euro 6, do I have to use a BuckBoost? Or as I'm using AGM, can I use a Orion-Tr DC-DC Converter?

Thanks

I moved my geysers and laundry appliances onto as yet unused AC-Out-2 on my Multiplus today in the hope that we could make better use of massive amounts of wasted solar I have because my critical loads are too small.

The MP2 manual lead me to believe that battery power would not be used to support loads on AC-Out-2:

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While unlikely that both geysers will turn on at the same time, and I could add a control device to ensure they don’t, pulling 50A out of a lead acid bank is probably not a good recipe for longevity.

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My ESS was configured with a minimum SoC of 80% but seeing the above I pushed that 95% and when the batteries hit that, the inverted backed off and the geysers drew direct from the grid.

What are my options to only support the loads on AC-Out-2 with available solar and leave the batteries to only support essential loads on AC-Out-1?

Hi guys,

I would kindly ask the owners of 48/5000/70 Multis to confirm here if they ever seen charge currents over 50A in their systems.

I have installed two identical ESS systems in last year and none of them were able to charge with more than 50A even the solar power was plenty enough, all excess power is dumped into the grid. The REC-BMS LFP battery BMS didn't limit the charge current at such a low value.

Please see the pics below for exemplification.

Thanks,

Mihai

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Is it possible to still use DVCC with VE.Can smart solars? The information on the CCGX states that VE.Can solar chargers are not supported, however, I just need clarification that this is also the case for the newer Smart Solar devices.

Many thanks.

Hello,

I'm planning an off-grid installation with four solar panels, a SmartSolar MPPT 100/20 (48V) and a MultiPlus II 48/3000/35-32.

I'm wondering how I could monitor my system and I see (at least) two options:

1) Raspberry py

In this case I'd need to get:

• UTP cable + MK3-USB interface to connect MP II to the Raspy
• VE.direct cable + VE.direct to USB interface to connect the MPPT to the Raspy

Is that right? Or can I connect the MPPT directly to the MP II? In the latter case I don't need to buy VE.direct to USB interface

2) MultiPlus-II GX 48/3000/35-32

In this case I'd need to get only:

• VE.direct cable from MPPT to MP II GX.

Is that right? As MP II GX has only one VE.direct port, is there any other way to connect MPPTs to it, in case I will expand my system?

Do I really need MK3-USB interface with MP II GX? What's the purpose of USB port??

Which option do you suggest?

Sorry for the large amount of questions and thanks in advance for helping me to have clear ideas :-)

Matteo

Hi,

I have following setup:

2x 130W solar panels in series.

1x MPPT 75/15 connected to a 180Ah battery.

As I connected the panels yesterday (very cloudy day) I noticed that the voltage reading ("solar voltage" in Victron App) fluctuates very much. I had readings going from 20V to 36V in just a second. It keeps dancing very much. The sky was cloudy, but there was no visible fluctuation in light intensity. The open voltage of the panels stays steady at 36V. The charging output of the charger was also stable on 13,7V.

I was wondering whether this is normal behavior or not.. Could it be that the mppt has difficulties tracking the MPP under low light conditions? I did not have the ability to check the behavior under 'normal', say, bright sky light conditions.

Thanks for the advise!

Hi There,

Im having trouble with an ess system. When there is a power failure in the early afternoon, there is also still plenty solar power available. The problem is that freq shifting is not cutting back power fast enough on the gridtie inverter leading to overvoltages on the battery.

The setup consists of 10kWh lithium pack with 8kVA quattro and 4.4kWp of solar panels on a 4.6kVA solis. The system uses a ac current sensor to monitor pv production.

I have already tested with higher freq values, but still response times are too slow.

Is there a specific grid code which will work better. Currently i have nrs 097 selected.

Any suggestions on what im missing?

Initially power on the gridtie cuts back nicely, but then ramps up and continue to produce at max power until the battery or invertter switches off.

Hi Im after a list of brands that work with frequency shift to reduce output. Ive used fronius before that works well and ive heard SMA will aslo work, im wondering what other brands people have had success using, in particular im trying to find out if anyone has managed to use a Solis inverter as cost wise this would be great. Thanks

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Hi,

Are the Blue Solar panels rated for applications out at sea where they will be exposed to a high amount of salt water? I cannot see anything in the certification section of the VE website however have noticed other panel manufacturers either specifically exclude or include this type of application/exposure in their documents.

Hi, there isn't a way to know where this error 21 come from. We realised that this error came often when a client just buy a MPPT to us, not a full solar kit. And this happended when there is many solar panels or batteries.

The last case, the client has 6 solar pannels 160W 2s 3p, 960W and 5 batteries in 12V for a MPPT 100/50. (Already told this client to improve his install before change the MPPT)

I have MPPT 150/85 with Inverter Quattro 8KVA and SuperCap batt of 7.1KVA. System not setup to put power back into “Grid”. ESS is enable and setup to only run on “Grid” when batt is depleted. During day the batt charges to 100% and at night the batt is drained until 5% is left resulting in switching to “Grid”. Next morning the PV’s kicks in charging the batt. Once SuperCap batt is on about 85% the Grid will be dropped and system switches to solar power. My question: I would like my system to switch off Grid when batt is charged up to 30%. Reason being is that I have sufficient PV power to both run the household and charge the batt at the same time. My installer informed me that due to the way a SuperCap batt operates it is not yet possible to modify switch over setting. Regards Danie

Does Multiplus AC Out 1 and AC Out 2 share the same Neutral? Are the bonded together and is it a problem if I wire the neutrals together and AC2 Out is tunned off? I don't want to make my campfire inside of RV. haha

Multiplus 12|3000|120-50

TIA

Hello everyone,

I'm using 3 MultiGrid and Pylontech Battery without any load at the output. This setup has no particular purpose at this moment, but my task is to prepare a GUI for a communication between the Venus GX and a PC using Modbus. So I use ESS Mode 3. I'm frequently switching between ESS Keep Battery Charged Mode (to charge the battery when I'm away) and ESS External Control (to test and to run my Modbus GUI).

Both modes ran perfectly for about a month, which means I could charge and discharge the battery with energy from/to grid through Modbus communication. Until one day, on which the settings in MultiGrid might have been changed. Since that day, both modes don't work:

In ESS Mode 3, Venus GX doesn't react to the setpoint I sent, but data such as battery SOC can be read as usual. In Keep Battery Charged Mode, the battery is not charging, and most confusingly, these LEDs Mains On, Absorption and Inverter are on at the same time.

I've used Victron Toolkit App to understand this LED combination, but this combination is not available both in the app and the manual. How can these problems, or most importantly, the Keep Battery Charged problem could be solved?

Your help is highly appreciated. Thank you.

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Hello

I've noticed that setting the output "OFF voltage threshold" for the "user defined algorithm 1" to a higher voltage than the current battery voltage, will keep the load ON.

And it will keep on depleting the battery until you have a dead battery.

Secondary I have a problem when I hook up a 12V 3A POE switch. (using 15cm 6mm² leads to load)

Initially it works, but when the algorithm turns the output OFF and then back to ON, the output will oscillate fast ON-OFF-ON-OFF... forever.

It looks like a over-current protection kicks in to fast, or the MPPT 75/10 is not able to provide the 50A startup current that it is advertising in the datasheet.

For diagnostic purposes it would help to see the measured reason for this behavior in the VictronConnect App.

Hello everyone,

the manual says "off load current" <80mA.

I understand that's with the unit 'on' but no load connected.

But what's the quiescent current when unit is off by remote switch function (L/H pins)?

Looking forward to receiving your replies cheers!

Hello,

Thanks,

Stuart

I'm looking over the manuals and specifications for the MultiPlus 24/2000 and 24/3000 (the 120V versions) I may be reading too much into this, but I have the vague impression the 24/2000 product is older and maybe not as well supported? Is it still getting firmware updates?

I'm pretty sure the 2000VA will run the load I want (A Kill-A-Watt tells me it's no more than 1500VA) and this is intended to be in a sort of portable so I do like the lower weight of the compact 24/2000. But, I don't want to be a product that is about to be end-of-life'd

Good Day All you incredibly helpful people

I have a strange question and am hoping someone more knowledgeable can help. (Obviously)

We have Wireless internet service provider type high sites that run on 24v DC. We use 6 x 12v 100Ah AGM batteries for various reasons. 3x in Parallel with x 2 to get 24v

One thing we have noticed is that the the two banks over time end up slightly out of sync and as we all know thats bad. I have been toying with the idea of the Battery balancers but then ran into the IP43 charger with this Multiple 12v outputs. This is great as each output will charge the 12v to where it should be and as I understand it should be a very neat solution rather than having to go through the process of the Balancers.

Now to the actual question: "The IP43 charger seems to have a common negative. This blows my idea out the water. Is there a way to do what i am trying to achieve here or should I
A - Check myself into the Looney Bin, or
B - Move on and just use the 24v Charger with a balancer"

Any (Constructive) input will be greatly appreciated.

hi all

Currently, we are preparing an installation of a number of cabinets for deployment at remote mine sites, each containing a SmartSolar MPPT 75/15s. For remote access to the device, we are utilizing the VE.Direct port, to connect via a Serial to Ethernet bridge to the MS Windows VictronConnect application.

The issue that we have discovered is that during firmware update, the load output of the device switches off at about the 4% mark. The SmartSolar’s load output controls power to all of the down-stream network connectivity hardware, including the Serial-to-Ethernet converter, network switch and Ubuiti WiFi radio. This causes the update to be interrupted, with no possibility of it starting again without physical intervention at the Cabinet. The latter will not be possible as the mine site will eventually be inaccessible.

Any ideas are welcome. Alternative VE direct software, how to block VictronConnnect from checking latest firmware downloads, etc would be appreciated.

Michael

It appears that the only version of VictronConnect (VC) downloadable from the AppStore is 5.13 which is compatible only with OSX 10.12+. Is a version of VC available from somewhere that *is* compatible with OSX 10.11? My mac is so old I can't upgrade it any more (or at least nothing is offered why I ask for an update).