question

paulcooper avatar image
paulcooper asked

Multiplus II GX regularly rebooting and causing MPPT RS to go offline

Summary

My Multiplus II GX keeps on rebooting itself multiple times a day and sometimes it loses connection to the MPPT RS on reboot. When this happens, I have to do a manual reboot for the MPPT RS to be found again.

Background

I have a Multiplus II GX connected via VE.Direct to an MPPT RS, and via BMS-CAN to a BYD BMU. I have v500 firmware and v2.92 Large installed on the MPII GX. The MPPT RS has v1.10. The BMU contains the latest firmware from BYD. The MPII GX has an ethernet connection and comms testing has confirmed that this is a reliable connection

The system has been very stable for 18 months until October when it failed twice. This month it is failing every day (only during daylight hours) and, I suspect, when a state transition is happening (e.g. below Active SoC to above Active SoC).

I initally thought that it might be an intermittent cable issue however both cables have been removed and replaced and the system has immediately recovered. The connections are sound and no comms errors have been reported.

I have done some initial diagnosis and have captured the relevant /data/log/messages.

Symptoms

The symptoms are as follows:

  1. Rebooted on 16 December at 11:44, 11:48, 11:52, 11:57, 12:00, 12:06.
  2. Each time, the VE.Bus state changed from Ext Control to Bulk (although this may be a symptom rather than the cause). At the 12:00 reboot, the MMPT RS went offline and didn't come back. This meant the batteries stopped being charged as the MPPT RS had no data from the BYD BMU.
  3. I noticed the MPPT RS was offline at 13:09 and manually rebooted the MultiPlus II GX. It reported that the connection to the BMS was lost but this is an artefact of the main problem.
  4. The MultiPlus II GX then rebooted itself at 13:44, 13:48, 13:51 and 13:58. This time the MPPT didn't go offline. However, notice the times - exactly two hours after the previous reboots. I suspect a firmware issue.

Looking at the messages logs it seems that every time the MPII GX rebooted, there was a period of time (1-2 minutes) where nothing was added to the logs. So nothing obvious although the preceeding messages contain a lot of ipv6 related details.

I have logs that I can provide to Victron support and am more than willing to open up the remote access.

Multiplus-IImppt rsfaultreboot
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2 Answers
nickdb avatar image
nickdb answered ·

Is the GX set to reboot on loss of comms? Its a setting in the VRM tab on the GX.

bde80f58-d7ca-4c73-9f8d-faee5622c3fd.jpeg


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paulcooper avatar image paulcooper commented ·
Thanks for the suggestion @nickdb but no, it is switched off.
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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image
mvader (Victron Energy) answered ·

Hi Paul, there is a known issue, which is that on certain batches the GX card in the MultiPlus-II GX can reboot when the DC voltage goes over 55V.

Details in attached PDF:

2021-05 Easysolar-II GX and Multiplus-II GX display reset.pdf


All the best, Matthijs


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paulcooper avatar image paulcooper commented ·

Thanks @mvader (Victron Energy). My MPII GX has serial number HQ20519I6H8 and so is one of the affected units however the battery voltage when these reboots occur is only 53.1V. Nonetheless, the symptoms sound similar in that I'm not getting a full reboot of the system – the screen goes blank and then it displays "Victron Energy" and then the usual cycle of status information.

The additional problem I'm having is that the VE.direct connection to my MPPT RS goes down (but not every time) until I do a manual reboot of the MPII GX.

I have attached a two files:

  1. A screen grab from VRM showing 10 reboots starting at 11:45. At 12:01 the MPPT went offline until I did a manual reboot at 13:09.
  2. A file containing the concatenated messages files which I have annotated to show the spontaneous reboots together with the manual reboot.

I'm hoping that someone can look at this for me please. Many thanks.

Horseway Head Barn - VRM Portal.pdf

messages.txt

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paulcooper avatar image paulcooper commented ·

My MP II GX rebooted today exactly the moment the battery voltage reached 54.00V. It must be the same issue and so I will contact my dealer to arrange a repair. My serial number starts HQ2051 so it is one the the affected units.

I am still puzzled though by my other more serious problem which is occasional disappearance of the MPPT RS. This problem does not rectify itself and requires a complete reboot of the MP II GX for the MPPT RS to reappear. From what I've seen though, this problem only occurs during the GX restart issue, so they are possible related.

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Related Resources

MultiPlus-II Product page 

MultiPlus-II Manual

MultiPlus-II 230V Datasheet 

VE.Bus Error codes

Additional resources still need to be added for this topic

Faults with Victron equipment are best discussed directly with your dealer - this can be formalised with this support request form.

MPPT RS Product Page

MPPT RS Datasheet  

MPPT RS Manual  

MPPT Error codes

MPPT RS Manual Error codes

MPPT RS Training Video