I was wondering why my battery was empty and checked the setup again. Turns out that the charger doesn't seem to show and handle the wattage that is actally put out by the panels:

Charger display: 16v 1.8A

Multimeter readings: 30v 3.4A (measured on the disconnected panel cables)

How is this possible? (The battery is not full, and also pluging in a laptop or something doesn't increase the reading.)

Could this have to do with a firmware update lately? If yes, how can I roll back the firmware?

Thank you

Victron Multiplis 12/3000/120

I have the above on our narrow boat, we have 5 leisure batteries, the inverter stops inverting 12v to 240v around a battery level of 84%, one we run the engine and increase the level it starts again.

This morning it took say 40 mins to reach 87% from the low of 83%, but only say 10 mins from 87% to 100%.

Via the VE buss connection can I set it to invert to say 60% of battery capacity? If so what is the setting I look for.

Many thanks in advance,

Six months ago, following multiple user complaints, I posted this, outlining how Victron MPPT controllers consistently fail to fully charge batteries in intermittent sun, due to a bug in their "smart" Absorption timer algorithm.

"Fast" forward to last week, and finally a supposed solution is given in terms of an update to Firmware 1.42.

Except it's not.

[image]

[image]

Nothing has changed with v1.42 at all. The controller is still resetting to its shortest absorption period every time a cloud goes over, and dropping to float when the batteries are desperate for charge. And yes - I manually ensured the battery V was under 12V every sunrise, and I did isolate all loads during the day for these tests - that difference in Amps between the app and the Trimetric is just Victron's apparently poor accuracy (another problem in its own right).


This isn't some obscure, niche problem. This is core function - reliably controlling the absorption stage length is the fundamental point of a controller. It's been reported again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again. We have a suspected case where it's ruined someone's batteries as a result. For it to take six months for this to be addressed, while adding pointless gimmick charts to the app instead, was poor enough. For it to now turn out to be a non-solution is unacceptable.

I'm addressing this squarely at you @mvader (Victron Energy Staff). You promised this was being fixed when I first bought it up. Your response here determines whether I take this unit back for a refund.

I currently have one Blue Nova battery setup and showing in the color control.

[image]

Am thinking about getting another identical unit as above and wiring it in parallel to this and then putting the input from the inverter onto one battery and output on the other. Am wondering though how this would show in the color control? Do i run another RJ45 cable to the color control and would 2 show up in the display? Currently the control is showing the charge % and temperature for the above battery but not sure if it could display those details for both batteries? Anyone have any feedback on this? Am sure i wouldnt be the first to do this.

In a rapidly changing technology with new equipment entering the market every other day surely some form of qualified tech support is vital?

Victron, as far as I have discovered, relies on the generosity of existing customer, who are not necessarily expert, or its dealer network who are of widely varying knowledge and who's primary concerrn is to sell equipment.

Other than the stalwart efforts of the Victron Community Manager there seems to be no way that reasonably critical questions can expect expert response in a reasonable time frame.

Am I missing some further level of support escalation or should I just stick the wires where I think they should go and hope I'm not going to blow things up and presumably void my warranty?

hi,

I 'm installed a set with BMS (Not victron, it is 123smart) for my lithium batteries and i connect it in quattro in the Lithium specific mode which use AUX1 to allow charge and TEMP1 to allow cischarge.

My problem even if i bought a lot of equipment (Venux, BMV712...) to command my Mppt solar (Victron 150/100) and the battery protect (BP65 used connect the 12V load) with the respectively ON/OFF remote of each equipments, i haven't found how connect the remote control of these equipements.

I found different possibilities but i'm not sure :

- Program K1 relay of quattro to close it 10s after the activate of AUX1 of quattro (Aux1 input is activate by BMS to allow the charge) and connect this K1 relay on ON/OFF remote of MPPT. it enable the charge of mppt.

- Program K2 relay of quattro to close it 10s after the activate of TEMP1 of quattro (Temp1 is activate by BMS to allow the load - inverter of quattro) and connect this K2 relay on ON/OFF remote of battery protect. it enable the load (12V) through battery protect.

OR

Set, for MPPT and Battery Protect, the specific voltage of used.

What do you think about these solution and maybe have you another solution?

This new version of "REC-ABMS for Victron CCGX" communicates with a GX Device using CAN. It sends Max Charge Current & Voltage and Max Discharge Current along with Battery Voltage, Temp & SOC. The GX Device uses DVCC & SVS to control all Inverter / Charger & MPPT Solar controllers to comply with the charging / discharging limits. Ok, so that sounds good, huh? But I also want to have contactors set to voltage levels in case the CAN bus goes down.

The previous version of the BMS suggested just the traditional two contactors - HVD & LVD to provide High Voltage Disconnect of the charge bus and Low Voltage Disconnect of the DC load bus.

But this version offers a Main Contactor for both HVD & LVD for Victron inverter / charger devices. And another Contactor expected to be used for HVD on non-Victron Charging sources. And though it is not shown in this diagram, I am sure they expected a third contactor for LVD to disconnect DC Loads.

[image]

Is this genius or overkill?

I questioned the new functionality, and the manufacturer offered to disable it to make it functionally equivalent to the old version. But I am an Engineer, so I tend to think "here is a Solution, now lets go find a Problem..."

Any thoughts appreciated.....

Andy

----

P.S. And....

I was expecting the fail-safe MultiPlus Inverter/Charger control to be made with a Charge Control signal to AUX1 and Discharge Control to T1 with the Assistant loaded "Two wire BMS (016A)"...

But they are suggesting Charge Control using the Assistant "Input Current Limit Control (0142)" and the AUX1 signal. And programming the Inverter's DC Input Low Shutdown voltage for Discharge Control.

Some REC users I have enjoyed reading before: @paulb @drmi @Boekel @Poppycock @Hakon Ingvaldsen @Eirik @Ceri.w

Hi all,

I have a small solar setup in my converted van. 2x 100W panels wired (10AWG) to a Smartsolar 75/15 with newest firmware. The controller feeds a 105Ah Trojan lead acid deep cycle battery. For the load side I use the load output of the Smartsolar 75/15 as I'm only running small loads (mostly <5A).

What I realized is that my Solar output voltage drops from the should be 18-19V as soon as there is a bit of load (>1A) to 14-16V. This leads to the situation that especially during absorption the battery output is below the desired voltage. Also the overall watt I'm getting from the 2x 100W panels seems really low (~70-80W with direct midday sun exposure).

Any ideas what the issue could be? Wire sizing shouldn't be the issue as I'm running 10AWG wires between the panels/controller/battery, which should be more than enough). Could suboptimal connections/wire connectors create this issue (e.g. I have a breaker switch between the panel and the controller)? And is my assumption correct that the issue must be somewhere between the Solar Panel and controller, or could an issue on the battery/load size also create this effect?

Thanks for your help!

Alex

[image]

Hello Vicron comunity

I want to protect the life time of my HE batteries at best.
We use them in default mode.
I read that I could unload them at 0%.
But what is the optimum level of discharge to maximize lifetime? 20% / 25%?

thank for your help

I have a Victron Quattro 48V, 8000Va 110 Amp UPS in my office server room. The equipment runs through the UPS, but there is no backup when the power supply fails. Further to that, I have a GX Color control screen with the UPS - if i plug this in whilst the UPS is on, everything is fine. But if the UPS is off, it will not turn on whilst the color control is plugged in. Once i unplug the color control, the UPS turns on and power supplied to the server equipment.

Hi Guys I have just bought a BVM712 to go into my Motorhome Battery bank 1 is 12 Volt Primary House bank, And Batteries number 2 are 24 volt truck batteries, Question is can I just hookup the Positive battery lead only as No. 2 on the shunt just to read the Volts ?

I have a brand new MultiPlus Compact 12/2000. I currently have it hooked up to two Type 34AGM batteries and a 165AMP alternator (will be installing two 170Ah LiFePO batteries tomorrow). I also have 800w solar array, but let's leave that out for now.

Hooked up to it, I have a Dometic Brisk II AC unit.

Current behavior is that the inverter trips into fault mode when the compressor kicks in. Here's the supporting data that I have and which has me scratching my head:

On 110vac shore power, the following occurs:
Off-High fan - no compressor - max amp pull is 3.8amps

Off-On compressor - max amp pull is 43amps, but settles down at 7.6-8amps

I installed a hard start capacitor on the AC unit and this is what I get now:

On 110vac shore power:

Off-High fan - no compressor - max amp pull is around the same 3.8amps
Off-On compressor - 20.32amp

Here's the problem:

When I run from the inverter - no shore power, the source is the two Type 34 batteries and the 165amp alternator, the inverter trips into fault mode at 12.38amps.

According to my calculations, that's just shy of 1400watts. Even if it did get higher, to the 20.32amps I get on shore power, that would be 2235 watts. The Compact 12/2000 has a sustained wattage rating of 2000watts, but can spike up to 4000w. Both of the numbers I am getting are within the spike and well below the rating of 2000w for the 12.38amp trip.

All wiring to/from inverter, batteries and alternator are 2/0 and the longest run is 10'.

What am I missing here?

I cannot find any reference to the possibility of connecting smartsolar output directly to a battery bank already fed from a multiplus. Is this a simple task or do I need some form of combiner?

I use relay K1 on a 15kw quattro to switch a 12kw water heater on when my battery bank is >99% and off when it is <98%. I also have a 7kw EV charger. The system has a 8.2kw and 4.4kw arrays on AC Out 1 and a further 5.8 kw on an mppt direct to the batteries - 3 x 13.8kw BYD's. The system is running ESS. The ac load on the ccgx appears to show the total ac loads not the inverter load. If i run an assistant can i control a relay when the inverter load is high? I am happy for both loads to be on if the solar is putting out 12kw as the inverter load will only be 4kw and the 12kw boiler will cycle on and off as the batteries drop below 98% and get charged back up. Would appreciate some input and ideas

thanks

dave

@guystewart

Hi,

I have two independent Victron 180 W solar panel connected to MPPT 75/15. I have burned both MPPT 75/15, first by getting corroded connection, and second one by testing what exactly went wrong and mixed wires. Found also issue with MC4 connector.

I am planning later on to increase capacity from 360 W to 480 W using 2 x

240W HIT Panasonic Sanyo Solar Panel

The reason is that 240W HIT has exactly the same footprint as Victron 180W, as I do not want to increase boat windage and making installation simple task.

Victron online utility suggested to use MPPT 100/20 for HIT 240W. So I would like to buy two of MPPT 100/20 for couple extra bucks, instead of MPPT 75/15, one for each panel.

Questions:

Will Victron MPPT 100/20 work fine with single Victron 180W solar panel?

When I upgrade down the track, will MPPT 100/20 work fine with single 240 W HIT panasonic panel?

If you see any alternative solution, please advise

thanks Franc

Whats the difference between battery sense with a black cover and the one with a blue?

Hi - I have a SmartSolar MPPT 100/30 with a BMV-712 charging a Lifeline 125Ah AGM. The Lifeline documentation states temp compensation should be set to 0.013V/F. I'm horrible at math...can you tell me what the setting should be in the controller in mv/C? Thanks!

Installing a multiplus 12/3000 with v.net battery controller and blue power panel. System appears to be functioning properly but the overview screen gives me a consistent 9-10 amp drain even with no load. By that I mean completely disconnecting any loads from the battery switches forward. Anyone have a suggestion? I'm fresh out of ideas.

System:

Color Control GX (2.33)

BMV-712 Smart (connected to GX via VE.Direct1) (4.01) Bluetooth network for MPPT Charger

MultiPlus Compact 12/2000/80-50 120V (connected to GX via ethernet) (430)

SmartSolar Charger MPPT 150/35 (connected to GX via VE.Direct2) (1.42 - updated on Wednesday from 1.39) Bluetooth network with BMV

3 Renogy 100 AH Lithium batteries in parallel

Was 4, now 5 Renogy 100 Watt Mono Panels (VOC: 21.6V, ISC 6.24A) 5th panel added today for testing. Wired in series.

BMV is autoselected as the Battery Monitor on the CCGX and

10 Gauge solar cables to SmartSolar MPPT 150/35 from the panels

6 (edit - originally said 4) Gauge wire between MPPT and batteries - 6.5 feet. Shutoff on positive and buss bar between them.

4/0 wire from batteries to MultiPlus 14' away. Uses same bus bar as the MPPT.

Salt Lake City, UT area if that matters.

Question/Issue:

I am measuring 101.1 Volts and 5.1 Amps on the wires coming from the solar panels. This was done with the wires removed from the MPPT and measuring at the point where they would be connected.

The MPPT controller is only showing about 1/2 the amps and only about 90% of the volts (see screen shots).

Why would there be that big of discrepancy?

I have had this problem for a few weeks now. With 4 x 100 panels I was only getting a max of 320 Watts according to history - for the most part it was down in the low 200's. This is with 90-100F outside temps in full sunlight around 1pm.

I added a fifth panel for testing to see if it made any difference.

I've seen other posts here about solar output only being about 1/2 of expected, but no real solution. I've checked the wiring, polarity, measured everywhere I could,

Any ideas?

Screen shots:

[image]

[image]

[image]

Hi guys,

I am building a caravan system that has a 24/5000 multiplus, a 24/375 Phoenix and an Orion 24v-12v converter. I have a bms that will switch a relay, can i wire all of the remote swiches for each device in series through one relay or do they need a relay each? I want to use this feature for a low voltage disconnect.

Cheers, Al.

I have a Quattro 48/5000, a Bluesolar MPPT, and a Batrium BMS hooked into the Color Control and when I go to select the limit for AC input current, it is greyed out and says the following:

"This setting is disabled. Possible reasons are "Overruled by remote" is not enabled, or and assistant is preventing the adjustment. Please, check the inverter configuration with VEConfigure"

How do I change the "Overruled by remote" setting? It sounds like I might need to buy the adaptor to connect my computer to the CCGX so I can run VEConfigure on the Quattro and enable "Overruled by remote" on the Quattro.

Am I right with this thinking or is there some other (better) way of doing this?

Thanks!

Hello Guys,

I hope you are doing fine. I have some issues with my installation. I have a 3-phase backup system of quattros and a solar inverter connected at the output of the quattros. AC input of quattros is connected to the grid and feed-in is allowed.

Please have a look at these two pictures

[image]

Here AC-in power = - 4761 W

[image]

But in the menu, AC-in power = - 2324 W

Why the two values are very different? -4761 W is more than the double of - 2324! And I thing -2324 is the correct value as solar production is 2580W and power going into batteries is 216W, then the surplus feed-in energy must be around 2580 - 216 - power loss in quattro.

Thanks for your answer.

The historical graphing data appears to be missing entirely ie none of the graphs are visible in the VRM. The only reasonable explanation I’ve been able to come up with is an issue on Victron’s end. Is everything operational at the moment?

[image]

This screen shot is from: Manual-Quattro-5k-120V-(firmware-xxxx4xx)a-EN-ES

The main Question is that now there is contradiction in description how the Search mode works. first is say "no-load" then it say you can adjust the "shut down" and "Turn on" levels.

What we are facing as problem is that in reality Search mode will only be active if there is litarly ZERO LOAD AC on the inverter, so what is the need for the load levels defination?!!

We are trying to get the ACout 2 relay work as a deferrable Load controller, the issue we are facing is that we need the following condition to happen in AND not OR logic to activate our water-heater so we can make sure that we are

1- Not affecting the batteries absorption cycle by sucking current from it during Absorbution, which will be the case if we use ONLY a voltage set point.

2- Create a very narrow operation window for the deveriable load to work in

Is there any possibility to make a programmable relay logic conditions in AND not OR?

[image]

I have two MultiPlus inverter/chargers already running ESS, but would like to add some additional charging capacity without the need for additional inverting. I am only interested in doing so if the other Victron charging equipment can be integrated with my Color Control GX, and ideally used with the "Scheduled Charging" feature of the ESS assistant. From what I am reading in the manuals, this does not appear to be possible however. Can anyone provide any input on this?

I am trying to figure out how to get the ability to control the inverter on a Multiplus from a remote panel. I don't see the option on the Color Control and thought I needed a Digital Multi-Control to do this. The system has the color control and a BVM700 attached to the system. Thoughts on where to hook the Digital Multi-Control?

Hello! I have the following situation here: I have 6 Canadian Solar 300w monocrystalline panels connected to one key of two available in my string box and in one of three of my charge controller (MC4). The question is: can I get other 6 panels from Byd 330w pollycrystalline and use the available connections in my string box and charge controller?