question

dylan avatar image
dylan asked

Error 17 master failure when Grid fails aka Loadshedding.

We have a Few Installations that have 2 or more multiplus II's where we have the system work perfectly until the grid fails, at this point we get error 17 master failure.


We Have victrons rj45 cables cables between the Multipluses and colour control. They have been checked.

The wiring is all the same length.

We have updated the firmware to latest.

The fuses are fine.

The colour control has been replaced at one site, but it still happened.

Is there any other advise?

This has happened at multiple sites now with multipluses in parallel.


Thanks


BYD
2 comments
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Alexandra avatar image Alexandra ♦ commented ·

Does the master remain powered up? or does it switch off?

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dylan avatar image dylan Alexandra ♦ commented ·

it remains powered up

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6 Answers
Warwick Bruce Chapman avatar image
Warwick Bruce Chapman answered ·

What firmware version are they all running?

Victron recommends updating the firmware as your first step in troubleshooting.

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ve.bus:ve.bus_error_codes#error_17_-_phase_master_missing

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dylan avatar image dylan commented ·

Yes we have followed all the steps in the troubleshooting guide and the firmware is all up to date.

Multiplus II on firmware 469

Colour control 2.42

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Warwick Bruce Chapman avatar image Warwick Bruce Chapman dylan commented ·

My apology. I see you covered that in your original post.

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Warwick Bruce Chapman avatar image
Warwick Bruce Chapman answered ·

Have you confirmed that all your DC fuses are not blown - 100% that you're getting full voltage through the fuses?

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Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Hi @Dylan

Have you resolved this already?

if not: are you the installer or did someone else install it?

Did you check the power switch at the bottom of the unit? are you sure both are on 'I' (not 'II' that stands for 'charge only')

Basis troubleshooting steps: try every unit as stand-alone and see if any of them fault when grid is lost, try swapping master / slave, etc.

does it happen every time the grid is lost?


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dylan avatar image dylan commented ·

No we have not, yes we are installers.

Yes they all on on 1.

We do not get faults when we test by switching off grid, because we switch off each phase all at once. It might be that when we have loadshedding they switch of each phase separately, because if we test the system works perfectly.


We have not swapped masters and slaves. In this system we have 3 masters 3 slaves. So 3 phase and parallel.

Yes it has happened everytime we have loadshedding.


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Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ dylan commented ·

Hi Dylan,

That's a big system! but good information on the fact that it doesn't happen on simulated grid failure.

Even when one phase goes out first, the whole system should switch to inverting at once.

I'm afraid supporting these size systems is not really something for this community forum. I'll email you about this.

(the results can be posted here for others to learn, no problem)

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ET avatar image ET Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
Hello Daniel, I’m wondering if you found about a solution for this type of system because its happening with one of my 3 phases installation also with 2 multiplus II paralleled on each phase
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ET avatar image ET ET commented ·

Hello Daniel, any news?

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dylan avatar image dylan dylan commented ·

on another site which has 2 multiplus 2's in parallel, when loadshedding happened we got error 17. It said it had a overload warning, but the load was only 450 watts. So what could the problem be? I have heard it could be the colour control? I need to sort this out as soon as possible.

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Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Daniël Boekel (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ dylan commented ·

One of the things that can happen, is when the grid goes down 'slowly' (a 'brownout') and the system follows the grid down too low, this can give problems.

Remedy: set the low voltage disconnect (AC input) to a higher value, this way the system disconnects the grid sooner and the overload is prevented.

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Hannes van Staden avatar image
Hannes van Staden answered ·

Hi, I have three installations with the same problem. I get a "Error 17 Phase master missing" error 50% of the time when there is a grid failure. It used to happen more often (in the case of the one site every time) but since upgrading the firmware to version (2623) 481 it is better.

All three sites are made up of 6 Multi II 5kVA units in a three phase configuration.

We cannot simulate the problem with the AC input breaker only - has to be a grid failure.

Any help will be appreciated - we sell Victron as the Rolls Royce of inverters down here and the customers are of course not happy.

We are now at the point of hiring very expensive hardware to try and catch what comes down the line when the grid goes down. Also investigating filters but it is difficult if you don't know what you are trying to smooth out.


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Hannes van Staden avatar image
Hannes van Staden answered ·
Latest update on this Error 17 with loadshedding saga is that putting ferrite beads on all the VE-bus cables close to the ends of the cables seems to sort out the problem. Waiting for next loadshedding events to test further but so far so good. A site that always failed did not fail during the last two loadshedding events after fitting the ferrite beads.


Please let us know if this works for you as well as it will be a major win if we can solve this problem.

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ET avatar image ET commented ·

interesting but you mean on the communication cables between the inverters? Please would you share a photo for the installation of ferrite beads? Thanks in advance.

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stingerb avatar image
stingerb answered ·

Hello Hannes, I keen to hear if you were ever able to resolve this issue. I have the same issue on my system.

I have a Victron system that I installed myself and initially had assistance programming it by a chap called Colin while he still worked for Specialised Battery Systems (SBS) in Benoni. He has since left and opened his own solar installation company and the folk that work there now have no idea how to help me. At the time when Colin helped me with settings, it was a single inverter but I have subsequently upgraded the system to install a second inverter with a second MPPT and 6 additional panels. I have approached Colin on several occasions for help but he is either too busy or earning too much money to bother with me. I have also approached two other installers here in my area but have had zero assistance. The current folk at SBS seem clueless and also referred me to two of their current installers, neither of which could help when I mentioned my system and its current set-up.

If you would be prepared to look at my config file to see if you pick-up any obvious errors, I can send it to you in a private message.

When I use a single inverter, I get it right but when I use the dual inverter set-up, I start to get error messages and the system shuts down with low battery warnings when loadshedding occurs. I have a feeling that the system tries to power-up the grid for a split second when this happens. I run a dual (master and slave) Multiplus II 3KVA system with dual 60/150 MPPT’s and 15 panels, 9 X 365W connected to the one MPPT and 6 X 450W to the other, both in three strings each. I have two 4.8Kwh Ritar batteries. These are connected to the Venus via a cable but I am not sure if the BMS is operational.


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