question

greg-johnson avatar image
greg-johnson asked

Cerbo GX cannot connect to SmartSolar (most of the time)

I've had a single period of about 8-10h in the last month where my Cerbo GX has been able to "see" the MPPT (SmartSolar 100/30). The Cerbo can see the SmartShunt just fine, and I have swapped the VE.direct cables to ensure that the cable is not the issue.

The evidence of the connection is only that I remember seeing a new "PV" icon appear in the bottom right hand side of the remote console, and that the VRM dashboard shows:


What can be done to diagnose this problem? My distributor has no idea, and referred me here. I have ssh access to the cerbo enabled - are there more verbose logs present there that I could pull?

Many thanks in advance!

Cheers,

greg

cerbo gx
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Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·

Hi Greg,

Is remote support enabled on the Cerbo GX and is it ok if we login to see if we can find anything on the system? If so, can you please give the serial number of SmartShunt?

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

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greg-johnson avatar image greg-johnson Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·

Hi Thiemo

Sorry, I didn't spot your reply (the community software is dreadful - I have to come here and manually search all things I have written to see if anyone replied!).

I'd love you to take a look. Remote support is on the cerbo (s/n HQ2030KJBHK) and the SmartShunt (which works) doesn't appear to have a s/n, but the SmartSolar (which is incommunicado) is HQ2032KTE9X

(all serial numbers from my device list in VRM)


Thanks,

greg

PS can I supply an email address for you to write to?


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Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ greg-johnson commented ·

Hi @Greg Johnson

I logged in on your system and it looks like there is just no communication between the Cerbo and the SmartSolar. When you have a VE.Direct USB cable and a laptop (or Android phone with USB-C and USB-A converter), please test with VictronConnect whether it can communicate with the SmartSolar. If this is also not the case, I suspect that the VE.Direct port on the SmartSolar is broken.

Did you perhaps also do anything with the TX and RX port configuration on the SmartSolar?

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

P.S.
I now specifically mention you in the message (using the @ character). This should cause the community software to send you a mail on the registered address.

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greg-johnson avatar image greg-johnson Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·

I didn't touch anything - and the MPPT has connected again. This is driving me crazy...


1624494223779.png

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1624494223779.png (144.2 KiB)
greg-johnson avatar image greg-johnson Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·

Hi @Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff)

Another example - the MPPT lost connection at 05h42 this morning. This can be seen in VRM:
1624889637481.png


I cannot see any diagnostics in the remote console, but if I ssh into the cerbo, is there a log file somewhere that would reveal what is happening?

Thanks in advance!

greg

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1624889637481.png (35.1 KiB)
greg-johnson avatar image greg-johnson greg-johnson commented ·
Hi @Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) - not sure if you get notified of replies.
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Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ greg-johnson commented ·

Hi @Greg Johnson

I do get notified via email. You can change the notification settings in "my preferences".

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

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2 Answers
michelg avatar image
michelg answered ·

Hi Greg, I had such kind of issue, and it was related to the connector on the VE cable which was having a weak connection with the mppt. I did solve the issue by wiping part of the connector so it will fit much better into the mppt.

No more issues since this trick.

Hope it helps.

Michel

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greg-johnson avatar image
greg-johnson answered ·

@MichelG I really appreciate the answer. I have tried two different cables, but if there is something on the pins in the MPPT it will not have made a difference. I will try getting in there and cleaning them tonight. Thanks for the tip!

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michelg avatar image michelg commented ·
Using a small cutter will allow you to cut 0,5mm of the plastic, which currently makes a loose connection. That was the issue I had, and probably yours, as other members had also such kind of problems.

Michel

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