Tell Quattro which AC in to use

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kevin88252 asked Apr 26, '24

Tell Quattro which AC in to use

Hello Guys
We are setting up a ESS System with a external codesys PLC as the "Brain".

it can happen that both AC inputs become available and we would like to tell the quattro over ModbusTCP (or in any other way) what AC-in should be used.

and on the other side it can also happen that the genset is in aftercooling and no power should be pulled from it so the quattro must ignore the AC input.

i am struggling much with controlling the AC inputs from the PLC. i am trying to write the Register 2711 and 2712 but it does not seem that the inverters are correctly working with that, also setting the register 33 to 2 or 4 does not sucessfully disconnect the AC input.

any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Modbus TCP ac coupling

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Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2024-04-26T07:14:04Z

nickdb answered · Apr 26 at 07:14 AM

Hi, As per the manual, this cannot be controlled. The one input has priority over the other if grid is present.

"The Quattro automatically selects the input where voltage is present. If voltage is present on both inputs, the Quattro selects the AC-in-1 input, to which normally the generating set is connected"

9

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Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented · Apr 26 at 08:04 AM

And a warm-up and cool-down feature was added to Venus OS a while ago.

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kevin88252 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented · Apr 26 at 08:26 AM

thank you for the hint, unfortunately this function seems to be missing somehow, what am i doing wrong

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Matthias Lange - DE ♦ kevin88252 commented · Apr 26 at 08:30 AM

https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2023/05/31/venus-os-v3-00-generator-start-stop-improvements-ess-peak-shaving/

Is you Quattro running on the latest firmware?

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kevin88252 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented · Apr 26 at 11:25 AM

I have seen this manual, my inverter is on 510 and according to victron everything above 502 should work.

Do i propably also need to configure the generator in the inverter?

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Matthias Lange - DE ♦ kevin88252 commented · Apr 26 at 11:54 AM

What GX device do you have?

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kevin88252 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented · Apr 26 at 12:07 PM

Cerbo gX

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Matthias Lange - DE ♦ kevin88252 commented · Apr 26 at 12:20 PM

Strange...

I just checked that menu in the two systems I installed this week an I can see that option.

Did you also updated the internal MK3 of the Cerbo?

(explained at the bottom of that blog post)

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kevin88252 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented · Apr 27 at 04:44 PM

I am not 100% sure about that, will check next week.

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kevin88252 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented · May 01 at 12:15 PM

Updating the MK3 did the trick. however no matter what i setup in these parameters, as long as the generator is running, the inverters will not stop charging as long as power is available. so the generator runs under 80% load until the end and shuts off in hot condition...

The only solution here is propably to add a contact that is controlled by my PLC to manage what AC-in to use and cut power to let the generator cool down...

i was hoping for a much more professional solution...

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Answer 2 · 2024-04-26T08:29:47Z

nickdb answered · Apr 26 at 08:29 AM

Generator features require a minimum 502 inverter firmware.

https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2023/05/31/venus-os-v3-00-generator-start-stop-improvements-ess-peak-shaving/

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Answer 3 · 2024-05-01T18:35:37Z

Kevin Windrem answered · May 01 at 06:35 PM

In order for warm-up and cool-down to function, you need to set the AC input type to generator and you need to set the times associated with these two periods. Note that the GX device must initiate generator start/stop in order for these periods to function. If an external trigger starts and stops the generator there's no way for the GX device to know that.

GuiMods does include some generator enhancements, specifically it will synchronize the manual start state with an external digital input set to generator. So if that input goes active, manual start will go active and should trigger the warm-up period. Likewise, of the input goes inactive, manual start will go inactive and should trigger cool-down.

As far as prioritizing AC inputs externally, you may experiment with ignore AC input. It's dbus parameter /Ac/Control/IgnoreAcIn1 and Ac/Control/IgnoreAcIn2 for the inverter/charger. Note however these are also used by the generator start/stop logic so there could be a conflict.

The only other way I can think to do this is to actually disconnect the AC input you don't want to use with a power contractor.

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