Venus OS v2.40~45 available for testing

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mvader (Victron Energy) asked Dec 5, '19

Venus OS v2.40~45 available for testing

Changes (v2.40~38 up to and including ~45)

General:

Add "Inverter only" option to the On/Off/Charger-only switch in the Multi/Quattro menus
Add support to give a custom name to our SmartSolar VE.Can chargers. Note that some other devices connected via VE.Can can also be given a customer name, such as a Skylla-i. But others unfortunately don't support that feature, such as our VE.Can Tank Sender Adapter.
The "Multiple managed batteries" warning was removed, thanks Wilco.
Send custom names to the VRM Portal. Soon we'll improve the VRM Portal to use those names, making it possible to customers to set their system up such that all those graphs on the Advanced page are named; rather than the "Solar charger (288)" naming.
Fix issues related to DVCC and solar chargers; these issues were introduced together with the new features introduced earlier in v2.40 (charge current sense and more).
Hide the bluetooth on/off switch on devices that don't have bluetooth. (the Cerbo GX has bluetooth).
Fix bug where, in certain conditions, the Multi/Quattro could not be switched on.
Fix bug that prevented disabling the Sunday in the ESS Scheduled Charging settings. Bug was introduced in v2.40~19, thank you John H for reporting!.
Update VE.Bus Error 8 and Error 11 titles to be in line with the updated documentation.
Add support for the Discovery AES battery, including forcing the DVCC & SVS options to their required setting (DVCC on, SVS off).
Rename "Battery measurements" menu to "Marine MFD App Configuration" menu. Thank you Matej!
Force the BMS-Can port on the EasySolar-II GX and MultiPlus-II GX to be able to be used only for that purpose, no longer as a VE.Can port. The reason why we changed that is that we can't guarantee proper functioning of that port for connecting VE.Can products, even worse: we know for sure it won't work reliable. The hardware is not good enough. Product documentation of those products has been updated already a while ago.

Developers:

Change address of mqtt server. More info here. Note that, for now, there is still only one and the same mqtt server behind all those addresses. A few weeks from now we'll deploy the new cluster. After which still the old server remains in tact: any customer that has issues because of this change, and needs more time to adapt his own setup and software, can solve the problem by reverting back to v2.33.
Cerbo GX preparations.
VictronConnect remote settings preparations.
Add ntp and gpsd as optional opkg installable packages

Venus OS

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Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2019-12-06T09:55:31Z

permyra answered · Dec 06, 2019 at 09:55 AM

HI,

I tested the "inverter only" function on my Multiplus and it seems to work fine.

Is it possible to get a "AC-in to AC-Out Only" option as well?

I want to be able to use AC from Grid without using the charger.

Thanks.

Per

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Elimac commented · Dec 06, 2019 at 12:52 PM

Hi,

Another one here with similar request...

Would like to leave lifepo4 winston cells resting in middle SOC while switching Multi to grid at night, using off-peak tarifs (only for night installation consumption). Lithium battery can then continue to charge "free" in the morning.

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ Elimac commented · Dec 09, 2019 at 10:53 AM

Hi Elimac, then why not set the minimum SOC in the ESS menu to 50%?

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Elimac mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented · Dec 09, 2019 at 05:26 PM

Hi, I'm not running ESS...

I'm looking for good contactors rated for DC. My setup is now a little complicated, I have LiFEPO4 winston cells in parallel with lead acid, and this requires special attention to the charging. I have a manual switch to take the lithium out of the circuit when I want to make sure LA is fully charged, or when I want to perform equalization.

The voltage setpoint of FLOAT (27.6 V in my case) is ok, but I want to disable charging altogether. An alternative I may follow is to modify the (relatively cheap) BMS I have and force the Charge MOSFET to be OFF via an external signal, which I could get from either Multiplus or Venus...

This is an experiment...lithium as buffer for the LA battery.

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ Elimac commented · Dec 09, 2019 at 09:32 PM

Hi E, for the contactors, try Tyco Gigavac or good old Albright.

For the rest, thats up to you :o). Enjoy!

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Elimac mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented · Dec 11, 2019 at 01:30 AM

Very good suggestions, thanks!

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented · Dec 09, 2019 at 10:21 AM

Hi Per, yes most likely. But that is a more involved software change: it will take a while before that is completed.

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permyra mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented · Dec 09, 2019 at 05:48 PM

Thanks for the update Matthijs,

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Mark ♦♦ commented · Dec 09, 2019 at 11:59 AM

If you use the '2 wire BMS assistant' in the Multi and disable BOTH charging and inverter, then the Multi will go into 'PASSTHRU' mode - which is what you want.

Now you can achieve this with a single set of contacts by choosing the 4th option in the assistant (to trigger both a high and low voltage condition).

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Manual-Connecting-other-lithium-battery-systems-to-Multis-and-Quattros-EN.pdf

You could also potentially automate this by wiring it to the CCGX / Venus GX relay and setting up some genset start/stop conditions + using the quiet hours feature if you want it to occur at night.

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permyra Mark ♦♦ commented · Dec 09, 2019 at 05:46 PM

Thanks Mark,

What you describe, using tha Assistant and Venus CX relay functions could be a good solution. Guess I have to test it next time I'm onboard.

/Per

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Answer 2 · 2019-12-07T00:43:24Z

Elimac answered · Dec 07, 2019 at 12:43 AM

Hi,

Power assist has been triggered more often, behavihour seemed a bit strange. With input current limit set as 16A I usually never see Powerassist kick in.

Below what I saw in Multiplus (set of 2x 3kVA in parallel)

This is with the dishes washing machine working. Input current seems higher than usual...

Granted, I don't know for sure the actual power factor....

I went and measured the AC current with a clamp meter, AC mode. It indicated around 10.8A, more inline with what I expected.

Any ideas?

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Elimac commented · Dec 07, 2019 at 01:15 AM

I need to check this more thoroughly, I also have an heating stove working which has a small motor running (new device in installation - maybe affecting power factor).

EDIT: The stove does not make much difference... still uncertain why PowerAssist needed to come ON.

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ Elimac commented · Dec 09, 2019 at 10:57 AM

Hi E, no, I have no ideas sorry. (and I don't see how this could be related to Venus OS).

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Elimac mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented · Dec 18, 2019 at 10:19 AM

Hello Matthijs. Thans for replying to our comments!

The situation got worse, I will create an independent topic about the erratic behavior I've noticed recently. The PowerAssist starts when it shouldn't. The current limit in Venus is now 14A, but after downloading the setup file and checking with VE confi, only one unit (of the 2x parallel) has half of this (7A). The other one has 3A, don't know why or if this is normal. I will post all of this info in a separate topic.

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