Remote VEConfigure 3 values don't seem to correspond with reality

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Dave van Dongen asked Jan 17, '19

Remote VEConfigure 3 values don't seem to correspond with reality

When I was trying to work around the 180 volt cut-off problem (https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/3306/cut-off-input-voltage-lower-than-180-volt.html) I entered a disconnect value of 180 and a reconnect value of 181 volt while I was onsite. This caused the system to switch many times, so I changed the reconnect value to 184 volt. But this was via Remote VEConfigure 3. Now something strange has happened, because the system disconnects not a 180 volt, but at 184 volt. Reconnect voltage seems to be 185 volt, so now the system still switches a lot. If I download the Remote VEConfigure file, it has the values of 180 for disconnect and 184 for reconnect. But judging by the behavior of the system the values are really not these numbers!

I don't know what to do now, because I can not physically access this site and I would like to solve the switching problem.

Any ideas on what to do now?

VEConfigure 3

pv-ethiopia-ac-low-disconnect-and-connect-behaviou.png (182.2 KiB)

pv-ethiopia-ac-low-disconnect-and-connect-values-2.png (1.3 MiB)

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Answer 1 · 2019-01-18T12:49:37Z

Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) answered · Jan 18, 2019 at 12:49 PM

Remember in VRM, you aren't watching reality either.

I had a look at the system in VRM, and while I can see the behaviour you are talking about, my theory is that the 1 minute sample of the CCGX/VRM is missing the 180V/184V trigger thresholds that ARE being detected and acted on more quickly by the Multi (maybe in 10 seconds).

The periods that I looked at would tend to reach ~177V after a few minutes and the system would connect and disconnect several times. The remote data we get from VRM is awesome, but it still has its limitations, and on the whole from what I could see, I think this system is doing alright.

The unfortunately reality for you is that is a very marginal grid, operating right on the performance margins of the multiplus. But it works.

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Answer 2 · 2019-01-18T16:57:19Z

Dave van Dongen answered · Jan 18, 2019 at 04:57 PM

I am not too sure that this is the issue, because before the remote configure action, with the lower limit at 180 volt, you could see the value of this limit quite easily and consistantly (multiple days) in the VRM data. The system switched at around 180 volt (sometimes display value of 179, sometimes display vaue of 181, etc.)
In that same way that the value now quite clearly and consistantly (multile days again) is 184 volt (sometimes display value of 184, sometimes display vaue of 185, etc.)
What could cause this change in display in VRM other than the system really switching over at another value???
I will dig up the screenshots from before, so you can see the difference. (and to double check myself)

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Answer 3 · 2019-01-22T22:39:25Z

Dave van Dongen answered · Jan 22, 2019 at 10:39 PM

See for yourself.
Before changing the value (so disconnect = 180 volt and reconnect = 181 volt)

The voltages before disconnecting are mostly around 180 or 181.

pv-ethiopia-ac-low-disconnect-before-remote-veconf.png (165.6 KiB)

pv-ethiopia-ac-low-disconnect-before-remote-veconf.png (164.5 KiB)

pv-ethiopia-ac-low-disconnect-before-remote-veconf.png (164.4 KiB)

pv-ethiopia-ac-low-disconnect-before-remote-veconf.png (165.2 KiB)

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Answer 4 · 2019-01-22T22:41:18Z

Dave van Dongen answered · Jan 22, 2019 at 10:41 PM

After changing the value (so disconnect = 180 volt and reconnect = 184 volt)

The voltages before disconnecting are mostly around 184 or 185.

pv-ethiopia-ac-low-disconnect-after-remote-veconfi.png (164.7 KiB)

pv-ethiopia-ac-low-disconnect-after-remote-veconfi.png (168.0 KiB)

pv-ethiopia-ac-low-disconnect-after-remote-veconfi.png (165.6 KiB)

pv-ethiopia-ac-low-disconnect-after-remote-veconfi.png (166.8 KiB)

pv-ethiopia-ac-low-disconnect-after-remote-veconfi.png (166.1 KiB)

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Answer 5 · 2019-01-23T18:09:43Z

Dave van Dongen answered · Jan 23, 2019 at 06:09 PM

@Guy Stewart (Victron Energy Staff) Did you have a look at the data? What do you think?

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Answer 6 · 2019-01-29T13:44:36Z

Dave van Dongen answered · Jan 29, 2019 at 01:44 PM

@Guy Stewart (Victron Energy Staff) What is your opinion on what is going on here, based on the data that I have submitted here?
Do you still think it is that the 1 minute sample of the CCGX/VRM is missing the 180V/184V trigger thresholds that ARE being detected and acted on more quickly by the Multi (maybe in 10 seconds).
If so, what would explain the difference in behavior as seen above, before and after updating the values. The change seems rather consistent...

I would appreciate your support in this matter.

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Answer 7 · 2019-02-06T21:20:41Z

Dave van Dongen answered · Feb 06, 2019 at 09:20 PM

@Guy Stewart (Victron Energy Staff) What is your opinion on what is going on here, based on the data that I have submitted here?
Do you still think it is that the 1 minute sample of the CCGX/VRM is missing the 180V/184V trigger thresholds that ARE being detected and acted on more quickly by the Multi (maybe in 10 seconds).
If so, what would explain the difference in behavior as seen above, before and after updating the values. The change seems rather consistent...

I would appreciate your support in this matter.

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Attachments: Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

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