question

Alex Leo avatar image
Alex Leo asked

Pylontech BMS stops MPPT

Hy guys.After a certain load,usually usually 3500-4000w the MPPT stops and everything runs only from battery.I have a pylontech US3000C with BMS that i keep only for backup with small loads at night.But daytime I want to use as much solar power as I can.Discharge current on console is 37A but my BMS deactivates the MPPT ....whats going on ? UPDATE : I have added another US3000C to the system but nothing changed.

MPPT ControllersPylontechEasySolar All-in-One
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7 Answers
kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

Would be interesting to see the charge current limit while this is happening.

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Alex Leo avatar image Alex Leo commented ·
Charge current limit of MPPT or BMS ?
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nickdb avatar image
nickdb answered ·

You appear to have AC disconnected, with one battery that is terribly undersized. The system has to lean on the battery for load transitions, Unbalanced systems, no grid etc will cause instability with undersized batteries.

There should be at least 3, preferably 4 for systems like that.

Mppt's are slow and the bank needs to be able to supply/sink large load variations, one US3000C will not be up to that job.

It is a great way to damage a battery.


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Alex Leo avatar image Alex Leo commented ·
I know that there has to be more batteries.But this does not change the fact that the MPPT stops.The battery that i have is only for small loads at night,usually 150-200w.And during the day when load spike this one battery can handle 1500w discharge with no problems whatsoever.The MPPT mixes its power with the battery up to a certain point,and than leaves the load only on the battery.Thats the problem that i have.
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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ Alex Leo commented ·

The BMS is probably going into protect and blocking charge.

It is a flaw to only design for the small standby load.

MPPTs are slow, they ramp up/down, they also have to track. While ramping the battery must be capable of supplying or accepting the loads, in your example that is up to 4kW.

Without grid, if you turn off a 4kW load, the MPPT is still producing power, which has to go somewhere, the system will try honour limits but it simply can't.

This leaves it up to the BMS to deal with, and pushing or pulling that amount of power will cause issues with the BMS, which, when controlling the chargers will cascade.

It can also balloon your cells, destroying the battery.

You have to size for the larger of the two requirements which is why the sizing minimums exist for ESS and why they are more severe for scenarios where grid is disconnected.

There are countless posts of people with issues as a result of too little battery.

Does the CCL by any chance go to 0A (or a very low number) at this time, since you are near top of charge.

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Alex Leo avatar image Alex Leo nickdb ♦♦ commented ·

The grid is not disconected.The system is set with Virtual switch and the grid is re connected after some rules that i set in the rvsc file.


1 rule : if load on inverter is bigger than 3500w for 1 second the grid is reconected,and it is disconected when the load is smaller than 3000w for one minute.

2.If battery voltage drops under 49v for 2 seconds the grid is reconnected and disconected again after voltage is 52v for 5 minutes

3.If battery is at 90% the grid is reconected and is disconected after voltage is 52v for 5 minutes.

So the battery cannot balloon or destroy because in any of the cases the grid is reconected.

I also want to say that these loads come slowly.There is no 4kw load just appearing out of nowhere.

The CCL varies.But it goes to 0 when battery is full.Max is 15A.Discharge is set at 37A by the BMS and here is another problem that i see.When this problem that i explained happens,the battery can discharge even with 70A...which I dont understand.

I dont think the system is a flaw,its working perfectly for my needs.I only need the battery at night with small loads and during day i want to use as much PV power as it is available.And i think the rules from the rvsc file are doing their job at protecting the battery.

The inverter limit is 3700w and I cannot even get to 3000.I should be able to get there without buying 3 US3000C that cost 3500 Euro and will do absolutely nothing for me.I have a very stable 3 phase connection,and i installed this system for self consumption and no injection.

And the MPPT is rated for 5800w,so it should give me my 3700w for the inverter load and have some spare to charge the battery,and some more spare.

Screenshot_2023-09-30-12-20-35-68_40deb401b9ffe8e1df2f1cc5ba480b12.jpg

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ Alex Leo commented ·
You're missing some fundamental principles about how these systems work.

If you're using a virtual switch then you aren't running the ESS assistant, unless you are mixing terminology, that won't help.

While your virtual switch is reconnecting the grid, and letting that synchronise, where does the power go/come from? Yes, the battery, because reconnection isn't instantaneous.

The issue is not the rating of the gear but that the battery is being forced to operate outside of its spec while power for loads are managed and the mppt/inverter ramps up and down.

With grid dropped, a CCL of 0 and load/mppt variations, the battery will not enjoy the transitional loads you are subjecting it to.

How does it behave when you disable the VS and leave grid connected?

I would suspect better.

The minimum requirements for an ESS of your size are documented, they exist for a reason.

Until you either a) increase your battery pack or b) disconnect loads, you will continue to have instability in a configuration like this.

Like it or not.


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Alex Leo avatar image Alex Leo nickdb ♦♦ commented ·

The battery doesnt even have time to blink.Its just one second.ONE

The battery is discharging very high currents and does it very well.Even Pylontech says it can handle double the current,meaning 70A.But the battery is not the problem,the MPPT is the problem because it stops,and starts,and stops,and starts....thats the problem.

I m not mixing anything here.I know what ESS is and what VS is.Unfortunately ESS doesnt work,and i m tired of hearing "read the manual".I read the manual.I need this inverter to make the most of PV and grid,not the most of the battery.Victron is supposed to be very configurable and versatile.So much for configurable and versatile.....

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Alex Leo avatar image Alex Leo nickdb ♦♦ commented ·

I feel somewhat insulted for your reply where you insinuate i didnt read or document myself.I want to inform you that you are the one who doesnt read.I analysed all the docs,manuals and everything there is.And regarding the victron link where they recommend 4 batteries,they also state that it is ONLY for off-grid systems.

QUOTE :

"Some suggested battery sizings for common Victron inverter/chargers are listed below. These are suggestions for reliable operation for single phase OFF grid and are not specified by Pylontech.

Using the above formula, an example of minimum system sizing based on the US2000 battery module is below. Each battery module is approximately 50Ah at 48V, can provide 25A continuous charge and discharge and 100A peak for 1 minute."

Victron is famous for versatility and many configurations.I do have a grid,and SOLAR-GRID-BATTERY priority should work with no problem.

Seems to me that you have a thing for insulting people here on the forum,telling them to read things that you yourself have not,and I will do my best to help everyone here without telling them to read documents that I havent.Good luck

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ Alex Leo commented ·

This is the last I will add to this thread. The devil is in the detail.

First, when you voluntarily disconnect a system from grid (that it is set to reconnect under specific conditions, matters not) you are going to run into the issues associated with being off-grid, because the automatic grid cutover is not instantaneous.

Second, there is generic advice in the doc for grid and off grid, not the least:

"Using very large solar arrays with battery banks that are too small can exceed the limits of the batteries ability to charge and possibly lead to the BMS triggering over-current alarms.

You must have the minimum number of battery modules to supply the inverters startup inrush surge currents that charge the capacitors when the inverter is first connected, this occurs prior to any loads being connected. There is also the subsequent potential current demands of the loads connected to the inverter. It is much more desirable to have the inverter/charger overload than the battery, as the inverter will automatically recover, whereas the battery may require intervention once in a fault state."

So, high ratios of PV to battery is not great.

Not considering the transient loads is also not good.

These systems do just work when designed and configured right. Unfortunately yours isn't, and we're just going to have to agree to disagree about that.

Good luck indeed.


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Alex Leo avatar image Alex Leo nickdb ♦♦ commented ·

Hello nickdb avatar imagenickdb . Just wanted to say i followed your advice.Got ESS up and running and added all the needed US3000C.But the MPPT still stops.Any ideas ? cos I really need an idea after spending another 2000 euro and seeing no changes...

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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image
Matthias Lange - DE answered ·

Did you consider using ESS instead?

https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Energy_Storage_System/en/index-en.html

In off-grid the discharge current can't be limited, the Inverter is pulling from DC what is needed to supply the AC load.

Maybe you have a cell imbalance? In VRM go to advanced and there you can add a diagram of the highest and lowest cell voltage.
Or you look in the remote console -> device list -> Pylontech -> details -> there you can see the highest and lowest cell voltage in real time.
At parameters you can see the current CCL and DCL coming from the battery.

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Alex Leo avatar image Alex Leo commented ·
Finally someone who gave me and important information."In off-grid the discharge current cannot be limited".Thank you very much sir,you are a blessing compared to "read the manual" guys.Now I have to understand why the MPPT is going to OFF state and Ext.Control and bouncing between these.I left the loads on the battery for a lot of time,but the MPPT just doesnt want to stabilise and loads remain on the battery.
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Alex Leo avatar image Alex Leo commented ·

I tried ESS but it doesnt load....Last time i tried loading ESS i got


VE.Bus Error: VE.Bus Error 6: Error in DDC Program


For some reason that...again no one seems to know,ESS doesnt load/work on easysolar 2 GX

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Alex Leo avatar image Alex Leo commented ·
Installed ESS,added a second battery,same thing happening....
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Alex Leo avatar image
Alex Leo answered ·

Finally I got ESS working,and also added a second Pylontech US3000C to the system.But nothing has changed,if the total MPPT load is higher than 65A the MPPT will receive a stop signal.( i presume from the BMS..).Funny thing...no errors ...no alarms,nothing.MPPT just stops and starts...If i got errors or alarms it would be better....Clip attached with the system running ESS and having the same problem.


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sesshoumaru avatar image sesshoumaru commented ·

Thats just my unqualfied idea, so it might be totally off.

One US3000C is rated with 35A continuous load. You have two, so we say 70A.
The MPPT peaks a couple time to 3500W, which at 50V means about 70A.
As with VS and ESS alike the Grid can go away at any given time and needs about 30-60s to connect back once available. Could it be that the BMS uses the continuous load to caculate when to protect its tush? Not the peak load (which should be able to handle 140A for 60s (peak1) and 200A for 15s (peak2))?

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Alex Leo avatar image Alex Leo sesshoumaru commented ·
The weird thing is that even when I had only one battery the situation was the same.The MPPT would not go over 3500W,which like you said,is about 70A even though one battery meant it should be around 37A.After I added the second US3000C absolutely nothing changed.
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sylk avatar image
sylk answered ·

Very weird behaviour, but my guess is the same as others. It trips over 30 amps on the pv side, but that translates to way over 70 on the battery side. And since bms controls the mppt, it shuts it down. I never encountered this problem in the past when i had only one 5kw array, but maybe because i had minimum 200Ah, 4 50Ah pylons. Now i have 12kw pv, i m willing to test it myself. When i get a sunny day i ll plug in the water heater and disconnect all the batteries except 1 us5000. I ll let you know what i get.

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Alex Leo avatar image
Alex Leo answered ·

I have 3 Pylontech US3000C,so thats 3x37A which is 111A that can be tolerated on the battery side,and MPPT can put out 100A max.The bigger problem is that i dont have any errors what so ever,when i look in the pylontech menu the is no overvoltage,no overcurrent....absolutely nothing.Everything is ok,the battery says its ok.And i dont think the MPPT should behave like that,shouldnt it throttle up/down?.This stop/start is not right.If battery menu says charge rate 111A in real time...why is the MPPT stopping at 60-70 ? And i repeat,the is no overcurrent alarm on the battery,because if there was i should see it.

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sylk avatar image
sylk answered ·

Can you go into mppt settings and look up max charge current?

I have no other ideas, 3 x us3000 should be more than enough for the job. Maybe talk to your distribuitor to open a ticket to victron about your mppt, it s worth a try

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Alex Leo avatar image Alex Leo commented ·

MPPT is 250/100 so max current is 100.If it is set over 70A the MPPT stops and starts and thats the problem.If I set it to 60 it works perfectly without any glitch.

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