A few days ago my 3 quattro 5kw 24V stopped charging my battery bank. The bank will charge from solar or external chargers but not from either AC input.
Either source will keep the level steady and supply loads, but no charger.
Another symptom is even with batteries at 100% the GX still shows bulk charging.
The gen will supply the load needed to stay at whatever % the batteries are at, but won't charge further. Plenty of headroom on the gen, no issue there.
Anyone else seen this? Thx
well no thanks to anyone at Victron, even with a direct email to Guy Stewart, which went unanswered for 4 days, I managed to get the units back charging again.
Anyone else that might have this problem, here is what I did. From VRM dashboard, I went to device list, then the quattro, then remote configure. downloaded the config file, ran it in config3.
Under the charger setting I changed the charger current limits to 0.5 amps higher, then saved, and uploaded the file back to the quattros. I have no idea why this worked or what actually caused the problem to start with.
If you are not familiar with how to do remote config using config3, there are a few steps in there I didn't cover exactly, so read the manual, as it is not all that intuitive. I used to support VE and suggested it was the greatest product ever, and it mostly works great, but the total lack of user tech support is infuriating.
I am not some hobbyist playing with an off grid system in my spare time, I have been installing electronics for 35 years and now I run a commercial research vessel contracted to the US military and when my shit don't work, bad things happen and my clients don't exactly like that.
I have been struggling for 4 days trying to figure out why my batteries won't charge and using a f'kg honda generator keeping the batteries up, this is not an acceptable level of support from an international business like VE.
VE, Put some techs on the phone and act like a real business. /rantoff @Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager)
Hi @Ur12VMan,
First, good to hear you got it working.
Apologies if I somewhere set the expectation that emailing me is a fast track to individual support, but it's just not scalable.
The Victron support model is outlined in the community guidelines and the Victron Support page. It doesn't include a direct call centre to Victron, but instead we run training around the world for our 1000's of dealers who then need to support their installers and end-customers.
I'll be the first to admit this isn't always perfect, especially when you need urgent help on a boat. The best solution we have is to find a dealer that understands that requirement and is willing to provide that level of support, and then negotiate a service contract with them so that they can be there when you need it.
From my end, the best I can do is make as many Victron resources as possible available and easy to find over the internet as possible so that people can self help to a solution. This community being one of them.
It has been long suggested that Victron open global call centres and take on all end-user customer support ourselves. But it is not the model, Matthijs has been very clear that for many reasons it's best handled by the dealer who knows the customer and the system. Not what you want, but allows us to focus on the things that only we can do, training dealers, product R&D, & production.
I would happily pay by the minute for direct company 24/7 tech support.
This online forum based peer to peer system is great for the hobbyist, but for end user professionals it is crap.
The original problem may have come from an automatic update to the GX, as the date on the last update was approximately when the problem started. Y'all might want to check that.
