Unanswered Questions

Hello Community,

Hope someone can guide me :-)

We are in a professionally built expedition truck with Victron systems. Over the last two days we have been smelling rotten eggs. I started with the toilet but ended up at the starter batteries :-(

Both starter batteries are leaking (2 x 12v series).

Q1 Is it usual for both starter batteries to fail together or is this symptomatic of an external issue ( overcharging issue or something else)?

We are parked up (Corona 19) with a shore supply feeding a Pheonix Multiplus that charges our leisure batteries and starter via a Cyrix-i 12/24-120 bidirectional voltage sensitive relay. A Victron MPPT solar charger is a second charging source (added a month ago to replace a PWM unit).

About two days ago the inverter displayed a Bulk Protection alarm. And I reset it. I didn't know what this was, but the community has told me that it means the max bulk charging time of 10 hours was exceeded. I suppose this is associated with my problem.

I noticed yesterday that my MPPT was generating 17A, but the BMV indicated only a few amps charging the onboard leisure batteries and I wondered where the rest was going as I had not much load switched on. I guess it was going into the started batteries.

Q2 Can anyone through some light on what is going on? Have the batteries failed as a result of a system issue or of their own accord and just need replacing?

Many thanks in advance to responders.

David

UPDATE 1

Multiplus & MPPT have identical charge settings (bar current limit):

Vab = 28.8v

Vfl = 27.6v

Current limits are 45A and 30A respectively.

Voltage across starter battery terminals (chargers off): 24.8v

Voltage across leisure batteries (from BMV) (chargers off): 25.5v

Voltage across starter battery terminals (MP charger on): 27.6v and climbing slowly

Voltage across leisure batteries (from BMV) (MP chargers on): 27.7 and climbing slowly

Hello,
I have two 100W solar panels on my vehicle, an MPPT 75/15 with a Banner Energy Bull 12v 130 ah slow discharge lead acid battery on a motorhome.
In the MPPT 75/15 configurations, there are no voltage configurations for slow discharge lead acid batteries for absorption and float voltage.
14.4 for absorption and 13.1V for float, do you think it is correct?
We sometimes see a higher floating voltage (13.8 V), but this does not risk causing the evaporation of the electrolyte during the period of non-use?

Just trying to understand the remote switch operation be for installing.

This system will be load only on a small yacht. All charging will be between battery bank and SBP.

No integration with other equipment. Simple cut off to protect deep discharge.

Can the remote be use to override the cut off and force a reconnect?

IE to temporarily bypass for emergency radio transmission, operate emergency lights etc. While charging system is brought on line.

Hello, the VictronConnect app on my Android does not show the voltage output when the power supply mode is on. I used version 1.03 and just today v1.05 of the latest firmware.

Rarely does the output voltage show on the app, mainly it just shows the two dash "--".

Any ideas why?

Is there a bug in the app, or an issue with my cables? 8awg from the 12v battery with a length of 6 feet to the Orion, then 10awg from the Orion to the unit being supplied with power with a length of 8 feet.

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When grid connected, relay is quiet. When disconnecting grid, relay start buzzing. Or sometimes the relay is quiet and when I gently knock on the casing, relay start buzzing. Any thoughts?

The seller I have buy it from does not answer me. Is the relay possible to replace by my self?

And the unit draws over 40 watts in idle current when inverting.

I live in Sweden, any chance that I can claim warranty any other way? The unit is 3 weeks old.

Hi! I bought the Isolation Transformer 3600W Auto 115/230V (SKU: ITR050362041) from a web shop in France in October 2019, brought it in Greece (Preveza) this summer, and installed it in my boat this week.

The connections are straightforward :

Input (L, N, PE) connected from the shore inlet with 6 mm2 wires (H07RNF 3G6) to handle future 110 V input;

Output (L, N, PE) to Differential Circuit Breaker (left open at the moment).

A 4 mm2 cable connects directly the transformer case to the ground common point of the boat.

The various shunts in the transformer are set in order to: 1) output 230 V; 2) connect N et PE outputs; 3) connect input and output PEs (the boat is on the dry).

Unfortunately, when I connect to shore power, only the green Led lights up, which would be normal if the input voltages was not in the proper ranges.

However, I checked that there is 227 V on the input side between L-PE and N-L, and 2 V between N-PE (same as on the shipyard post). 0V everywhere else at the output.

I addressed the problem to the retailer yesterday, but I don't know when I will get a response, and I am afraid that this response will be anyhow to send it back, which will not be very convenient for me (to say the least).

There is no Victron distributor in the Ionian area.

Is there anything I can do to identify the origin of the problem, and what can be done from this place (I won't stay here much longer than 2 weeks).

Much thanks for any help.

Hi, I just switched on my installation of 2 Multiplus 3000s and a Venus GX and am now looking at scheduling power draw from the grid. I'm in the US and have a grid tied SMA inverter in parallel with the Multiplus. Since I can't set a grid code here I can't use ESS.

I'm able to handle turning on and off AC input with modbus but couldn't find a way to disable charging without using one of the relays which I'd prefer to avoid just to keep wiring nicer. It looks like there's no way to disable charging or set the DVCC limit to 0 over modbus without ESS, is that correct? Any workarounds?

Hello there!

I am trying to figure out something rather simple but can't find the answer:

* The system is a three-phase system with three Multiplus II 48/5000. There is also a Fronius Symo 8.2 connected at the AC OUT of the victrons.

* Grid is connected to the AC IN (Spanish grid).

* Victrons have a 20 kWh BYD LVS battery.

We want to allow exporting all excess energy towards the utility grid, while the grid is available.

If the grid fails, we want the system to keep running, without feeding any excess to the grid, and regulating the power output of the Fronius Symo, in order no to overcharge the batteries.

What would be the recommended settings for VE Configure/ESS? Would I need anything else like an external contactor? If the Grid code was configured to Spain, will the Victrons still work in the case of grid failure?

Thanks!

Hello, I am using a Venus GX to communicate with an MPPT. I have connected a PCAN transceiver to the CAN 2 port of the VGX (not the VE.Can port) and I receive frames with the following CAN IDs:

0x305

0x307

0x18EAE1E1

0x18EAFFE1

0x18EEFFE1

0x19F014E1

0x1CEFE1E1

0x1CEFFFE1

I would like to know which information is within each CAN frame so a PLC can use it for analysis. Can anybody please help me to find any document which explains the information sent by this port? In the Victron's documentation I've found only the PGNs but this is not useful as I want to use the information sent by the raw CAN bus.

Hallo,

ich habe 4x12V 225Ah Nasszellen angeschlossen, aber die Ladereglung klappt nicht, die Zellen werden in relativ kurzer Zeit immer schwächer (Säureheber) obwohl die Anzeige 100 % zeigt.

Bitte Info, wie die korrekte Einstellung vorzunehmen ist, denn den 1. Satz Akkus habe ich vorsorglich schon mal getauscht, um die Zellen auszuschließen.

Verhalten ist beim 2. Satz genau gleich.

I have seen others have asked this question for a long time!

What is happening Victron designers? This appears to be a very big omission from your system thinking!!!

All the other components in my system can talk to each other with VE.smart but not the mains charger. :(

Can you please provide an update.

Thank you.

Hi, All

Our client wants to know the short circuit current delivered by victron quattro 10 kVa inverter. This is for circuit breaker selection. For example, if victron inverter can deliver 160 A short circuit current, will cause 10A, 16A sub circuit breaker trip within 400ms, a 32A circuit breaker will not trip. Does anyone know this value and or from some publish document.

Thanks

<span style="font-size: 14px;">I have a Quattro 48/15000/200-2x100 with 32 panels with the opportunity to Grid-Tie through a smart meter to the Local Grid. How do I add my Solar System to the Grid and limit the amount of energy passed back to the grid. We have a maximum allowable limit of 5kWh we can push into the local grid. My system generates over 10kWh.</span>

Hello,

I have a very simple question : I have a battery to be connected to the Phoenix VE.Direct Inverter. What is the minimum value of Amps that shall be delivered by the battery to trigger the inverter ?

I want to use my MPPT 100/50 1) with a bicycle powered alternator (0 to 75V and 36A, up to 1000W but 100W normal power) at the input and 2) different electrical consumers or battery charging at the output. Actually I need a DC-DC converter with very wide input voltage range.
1) This seems to work fine (with battery at the output) but the MPPT should be switched off to get this working like a normal DC-DC-converter. Otherwise, the MPPT will never find the right point because the input voltage changes to fast. Can I switch MPPT off somehow via VE.direct settings or custom firmware?
2) I didn't try that yet because I fear to destroy the device. Is it possible to directly connect different consumers (e.g. DC-AC inverter, 12V Car Mobile Charger, Car Hifi)?

I can seem to figure out how i setup the second relay on the Cerbo GX. I want to use it to start my diesel heater in my boat. Is that possible to have.a custom button in the Venus interface that can name diesel heater ?

Hello

I've not found were to get information about fw upgrades like a readme ,not even any post in the forum about new fw?

Today I wanted to connect to my MPPT SmarSolar 100/15

and it want me to upgrade from 2.23 to 2.25

Any one having any issue with this upgrade?

The only I see is about a float issue with batteries.

Can I go back to lower fw? I have in parallel a "normal" battery charger which is connected directly to the battery to get battery up at night...

I not even find from which date is this fw...

Any info would be appreciated.

Hi, All

Client asked us to provide harmonics testing sheet for both voltage and current to comply IEC 61000.3.6.2012 .

Anyone has idea ? Many thanks

I have had 3 phoenix 24/3000 inverters working in parallel for years, after a firmware upgrade on my color controller, a week later they have failed to parallel connect now coming up with a firmware issue. Was advised to update the inverter firmware. Using the MK3 interface i have done one successfully which is the newest. 2612154.HEX to version 476.

The other 2 are older 1912137.HEX and 1912112.HEX The 137 unit appeared to update but will not accept changes on the dip switch settings now, the oldest one came up with no MK2 found.

So now no parallel operation what so ever.

Any advice as to my next step. I am an electrician so know my way round electrical gear.

I am currently using firmware 2.54 and using all USB ports for MPPT controllers. I understand 2.57 will make one of the USB ports power-only.

I have a USB hub that can be powered from a USB port. Does the power-only port provide enough power to connect the hub and then use the HUB to connect two of the MPPT controllers to it?

Right now my three controllers power is adding up to about 700 watts if you view them individually. But the new network power field is very wrong today. I verified all three are networked with green checks. You can see in this screen shot that one panel is putting out 242 watts, but the network field is showing 64 watts total. One of my controllers was showing 64 watts, but the third was over 300w at the time. Total should have been close to 600 watts.

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I need to connect from the power grid ( 2 phases at 480 V with neutral conductor) a split-phase system with two Quattro to feed a serial of street-lights at 240 V.

Greetings,

I am switching over from lead battery in my motorhome and installing a lithium battery. I am attempting to install the Orion-TR Smart DC-DC Charger so the vehicle alternator charges the battery while driving.

• The Victron doesn’t seem to work properly grounded to the chassis as in the factory configuration. It appears I need to run the ground to the battery post directly?
  
  
• If I ground the lithium battery directly to the Victron instead of the chassis ground is it okay to also keep the ground from the battery for the chassis since the Power Converter needs that ground?
  
  
• Because of the Buss Bar, will it cause “crossing” of the 12. 5 AMPS coming off the alternator mixing with the 14.4 the Victron Orion?
  
  
• The Victron won’t power on unless I have Remote Wire Bridge attached, which the instructions say not to attached until you get the Bluetooth set up, which won’t connect.

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Can I use BERG UPN30 power meter with Victron 3-phase system?

This power meter is equiped with RS 485 output.

I am using a pre-used 65Ah car starter battery on a tiny trailer camper. It will eventually need replacing, but I am hoping to squeeze two more years out of it. It's only feeding LED lights and phone/tablets (oh, and the potable water pump)

The MPPT is set to BatteryLife. To preserve the battery I would like to go even less deep into the battery. So while I know the BatteryLife modifies the cutoff based on whether it has seen Float that day, what is the actual base cutoff, and can it be uplifted a bit.

While I am assuming it is one of the common numbers of 10.6v or 11.1v, I feel to be safe 11.6 is a good number too. I can set that by disabling BatteryLife, but I trust the Victron engineers knew what they were doing when they game up with that adaptive cutoff. I would just like to tune the latter to "extra-safe-BatteryLife" or "conservative Battery-Life"

I'm finishing up a fixed install of two Multiplus 24/3000 in a split phase setup and wanted to make sure I understood how grounding is handled.

In Wiring Unlimited for a fixed install looks like the Multiplus chassis ground connects to a bus bar (in my case Lynx distributor) along with the battery negative terminal which is bonded to the ground rod for our house. Using a multimeter it looks like all ground points are connected. Is there a difference between grounding through the chassis ground point vs AC-IN and AC-OUT and if not is OK to use only the chassis ground?

Thanks!

I have two MultiPlus units (1200 & 2000) both running independently as UPSs for two critical systems.
Can I daisy-chain the VE.Bus ports so I can monitor both units without having to physically change leads?

Daniel

We have a customer with the following installed:
1 x Victron MultiPlus II (48/3000/35-50-230V)

2 x Fronius 3kW Primos (1 on the input, one on the output)

7kWh of BYD batteries

Currently everything is working ok, except there is no pv production being recorded and displayed by any of the Victron devices.

Using the Remote Console I can see that the MultiPlus is aware of both of the inverters. The customer has a Solar.Web monitoring setup for the Fronius inverters, but can only monitor one of them, so the customer can't use Solar.Web to record production data.

All of the devices are connected to the customers wi-fi, though it is not the best signal strength at the inverters.

The customer used to have the PV Production showing on the CCGX, and in the past a reboot through the CCGX would get it to find the Fronius', though this isn't working anymore.

I have had the customer run through a full shutdown of the system and restart, but this hasn't changed anything either.

There hasn't been a firmware update installed since the customer had the ability to measure

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have a few questions about installation of Lynx 1000 Distribution

Current Set Up: 550W Go Power Solar with Charge Controller, 100W Go Power Solar with Charge Controller Portable, 400Ah Battleborn Batteries, 2000 Go Power Inverter, 40A DC/DC Charger, Blue Sea 12V Block, Junction Studs, Converter Charger

I have 2 Lynx 1000 Distribution Boxes, using Shunt from Victron B-712

I’ve linked up the 2 Lynx boxes. I have all the items connected with proper fuses POS to POS and Neg to Neg

My questions are:
1. I assume using this diagram, my batteries are charged via the shunt?

2. Does it matter about the placement of each item where is it installed on the Lynx?

From left to right
Lynx #1 - Slot 1 is Inverter, Slot 2 is MPPT Charge Controller, Slot 3 is MPPT Charge Controller, Slot 4 is DC/DC Charger

Lynx #2 - Slot 1 is 12V Fuse block, Slot 2 is Converter Charger, Slot 3 is Junction studs, Slot 4 is Open

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Thought recommendations thanks in advanced Ed,