Unanswered Questions in Assistants

Hello everyone,

I am currently testing our ESS, that consists of 3 MP2 3000 24V (3Phase) and that is always connected to the local grid.

My current problem is, that the fan in the Multis are clearly audible at night. I now want to enable the "silent fan" mode at night, but I have a few questions, regading that mode:

On the Victron homepage it just says: "The result is that during invert the product will switch off sooner".

In Offgrid systems, it is obvious to me that this means, the multi will just shut down due to overtemperature. But what happens in a grid tie system? Does it just throttle down and invert less power, getting the rest from the grid? Or does it also just shut down? (This would be kind of dumb...)

Do you know anything more about this mode?

Thanks in advance!

Hello guys,

I am from Czech Republic and I have following device setup:
3x MultiPlus-II 48/5000 in 3-phase configuration
DC coupled system with PV array (2 strings, 2 MPPTs)
Pylontech batteries
VenusGX - devices are connected to the VE.Can (Battery & MPPTs) and VE.Bus (Multis)

Next, the software configuration:
VenusOS version: 2.92
Multiplus-II firmware version: 500
=== Multis settings: ===
The same settings on tabs: General, Grid, Inverter on all Multis; Charger settings only on L1 Multi
Grid code: "Europe (EN50549-1:2019)" on all Multis
== Assistantants: ==
ESS on all Multis
generator start and stop (load & battery SOC conditions on L1, load conditions on L2, L3)
general flag user

Goal of configuring assistants:
To be able evaluate load on L1, L2, L3 and based on defined conditions set "Ignore AC" to off and take additional power from grid.

So far I have been working with a 1-phase installation - it has worked well. But in this 3-phase system it doesn't work, no reaction on any assistant conditions.

The question:
Is there any recommended/supported settings for this solution?

I have used mainly following documentation for my setup:
Victron & Pylontech US2000, US3000 and Phantom-S [Victron Energy]
https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Venus_GX/en/index-en.html
https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Energy_Storage_System/en/system-design.html
https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ve.bus:grid-codes-and-loss-of-mains-detection
https://www.victronenergy.com/live/assistants:ignore_ac_input_using_the_generator_assistant
https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/VE.Bus_Configuration_Guide/en/index-en.html
https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2021/02/02/victronconnect-parallel-three-split-phase-setup-and-more/

Thanks in advance for the responses and advice.

Hi,

I've got a system which I can't check on site if the disable fan logic is as expected.

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It's not clear if disabling the fan for charge only will also limit inverter output maximum power, or just reduce the charge current?

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Can anyone confirm if silence fans when 'charge' is selected just silences fans whilst charging and the inverter still has maximum power output with fans un-silenced whilst inverting heavier loads?

I expect fans will still come on when inverting heavier loads but I want to minimise them coming on for charging at the expense of the charge current.

This is for a DVCC setup holiday houseboat with a 6k Solar, Multi 5k, 4 x Pylontech US5000.

The main reason is the sound sensitive owner, and not being able to use assistants for disabling charger when ignore AC allows shore power to power assist heavy loads, but still have the charger enabled for cloudy low SOC times. - (Without a manual switch)

We have a house where we would like to support the insufficient grid power with the help of the inverters+batteries & Fronius PV inverter.
We have following equipment and conditions:
- 3 phase MP48/5000 system with Cerbo GX & Touch & 30 kWh LFP battery
- Fronius PV inverter 10 kW sitting on the MP 48/5000 output so that it works when the public grid is off
- Exporting any power to the grid is not allowed (zero feed in)
- AC grid with the power of 15 kW max

How can we set up both - power assist (to limit the load on the grid within 15 kW) and at the same time provide Fronius PV inverter with zero feed in, which is normally done with ESS assistant.

If we put ESS assistant we can have zero feed in but we cannot have power assist function as it is being disabled when selecting ESS.

How can we have both - limiting 15kW on the grid and having zero export to the grid using MP 48/5000?

Hi there,

I'm trying to realise a two-phase load shedding functionality for overload situations. It should work as follows:

1. Turn AC-Out-2 off when a Pre-Alarm exists for at least 2 seconds
2. Turn AC-Out-2 back on 60 seconds after Pre-Alarm has been cleared
3. Turn Primary Programmable Relay on as soon as a Pre-Alarm occurs
4. Turn Primary Programmable Relay off 300 seconds after Pre-Alarm has beed cleared

Assistants 1. and 3. seem to work as expected, but 2. and 4. are executed way before the configured timeouts of 60 and 300 seconds.

I'm very grateful for any suggestions!

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Hi I use battery life functionality and it works really well.
I have heater connected to AC-2 and I want to turn it on only when excess energy available.
Now programmable relay assistant allows to on/off relay based on absolute values.
For example it can close relay if SOC > 40%.
However after cloudy week my SOC active limit can be 60%.
In this situation relay will be still closed, while system will get energy from grid, what I wanted to avoid.
In order to respect battery life settings, assistant should allow to define relative thresholds instead of fixed values.

Example rules based on SOC:
Close relay: SOC > active SOC limit + 20%
Open relay: SOC < active SOC limit + 10%

How to do it?

So in general I would propose to use any system parameter
(of course if it has the same units like percentage or wats) in formula with additional offset.
Logical expression would be also acceptable.

I have several 5kVA and 3kVA inverters all of them standalone. How can I setup grid assist without having to shell out a lot of money for ESS? HUB-1 should be able to do exactly what I want to do but I can't seem to be able to force grid assist to work. Do I need external HW even with a simple HUB-1 assistant?

I know HUB-1 is "depreciated" and I don't really care.

I hope someone can point me in the right direction regarding logic of MultiPlus Assistants.

I understand that when multiple things exist in a rule they use logic AND to deice, so if two checks exists then both are required. So for example if a rule has

• load lower than 2000w
• AC1 not available

For that rule to match both need to be true.

When multiple rules exists it is an OR so one needs to be true to enable/disable a relay. Further on has precedence over off.

This is my understanding from https://www.victronenergy.com/live/assistants:start

Combining multiple Assistants

Multiple Assistants can be used in one unit. For example the Programmable Relay is often used multiple times. When doing so; this is how they are evaluated:

- an ON condition always has priority over an OFF condition - multi criteria in the ON ( or OFF ) list go by the OR principle

So when you look at my system... Rule 4, I am drawing less than 3000w and AC1 is available and AUX Input 1 is closed so my AC2 out relay should be on, it is not.

If I look at the office conditions.

Rule 6: Load Higher than 3200w (False) and AC1 available (TRUE)

Rule 7: Load lower than 2000w (False) and AC1 not available (TRUE)

Rule 8: AC1 not available (FALSE) and SOC Lower than 95% (TRUE)

Rule 9 Aux Input 1 is open (FALSE)

So if all conditions in a rule must be TRUE then I do not see how my AC2 output is off.

So my first question is how do multiple rules in a single assistant get processed, is it based on all criteria must be TRUE?

What I am trying to do is disable AC2 out depending on the load on AC1, and vary that depending on if AC1 is available or not. Therefore when running on battery the off load is less than when connected to mains.

Thanks in advance.

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Three phase multiplus system (6 x 3kva multis) Wish to self consume, have the multiplus only charge from grid on battery level or excessive load. There is solar PV on AC out so PV Assistant is also required, and driving need for system to be group switched. Grid AC (3 phase) is avialable to AC IN .

Do not want to use ESS, as I do not want to put in grid code and risk feeding any of my power into the grid.

If I load Genstart and Genflag on phase 1 then that works for low battery and excess load on that phase , only. Excess load on L2 or L3 cause Multis to overload. The Genflag seems to be distributed somewhat to the other phase multis since they dont start charinging, probably via group switch function. I cant get Genstart to trigger for overload on L2 or L3. IF I load the assistant on another phase , nothing happens. If I load the assistant plus another instane of Genflag then I lose function on L1 too.. seems the Genfag on L2 or L3 is Or'd with L!. I can prove if I put both assitants on L2 or L3 then the genflag does control the Ignore AC flag on that multi.(changes from 1 to 0) . but when triggered nothing happens.. presumbably because it is still 1 on L1 and that is charge / phase master.

Any ideas how I can use these assistants and genflag to trigger for overload on L2 & L3?

Hi All. I would like to disable charging on an Orion and MultiPlus when it hits zero degrees Celsius.

I have a Cerbo GX and Touch 50 as part of the system, and a temperature sensor on the Cerbo GX.

For the Orion - To the best of my knowledge, I have set up the configurations correctly on the "Relays" option on the GX to work off "Temperature", and activation/deactivation settings.

Where I need advice is:

1. How do I connect the NC/COM/NO relays to the Orion Remote L/H? I have tried various combinations without any success.

2. What assistant can I use on the MultiPlus if I ran wires from Relay 2 of the Cerbo to AUX of the MultiPlus? And which NC/COM/NO wires do I need to use.

Thanks in advance.

If I have understod it right. The Charge current control Assistant ads current linearly to the voltage on AUX input (0-5V). Meaning more volt more current. And if so a trimpot to control the voltage on AUX input would leed to more or less current passing thrue. Or not?

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Hello,

In the PV Inverter Assistant it says 'Each phase must have the same solar power installed'

So what happens if it is not balanced? If the 1:1 rule is adhered to on each phase will it be ok?

Thanks.

I am off-grid and my array is way larger than actually needed on a nice day.
but on these not-so-nice days I am super happy to have this size array and I am planning on further extending it.

So far, because I never got to look into it any further, I have when the batteries were charged turned the air-conditioner, pool-pump, water.heater, dishwasher, washing-machine, microwave oven, ..., on, and set it on a timer.

this manual process I would like to automate now.
I have set up two assistants now in my quattro 10k for testing purposes, and to get the relay to trigger.
> use secondary programmable relay K1
> set relay on (consumers (another relay with more switching capacity) are connected to NO)
> DC voltage (I previously had also selected AC input but the relay didn't trigger) this is an AND condition not an OR condition. that is not clear in the software and should be select-able there, or at least the condition should be mentioned AND/OR or explained.

> DC voltage higher than 57.70V for more than 3600 seconds (57.80V is my absorption voltage of the solar charger)

then I installed a second assistant:
> programmable relay K1
> set off
> DC voltage
> extra drive options (in case of a general system failure) [but is this now an AND condition or an OR condition, it was an AND condition on the previous page where you can select DC voltage AND AC input??????
> DC input lower than 53.2V for more than 120s (53.3V is my float setting from the solar charger)

so I guess I have to add another assistant now the same relay K1, for when AC input is present and AC input is not present?

and then another assistand for general failure to dis-engage the relay?

how does the order have to be, does the assistand wait after condition 1 has been triggered for the 2nd one to be triggered before going to option 3?

or is it constantly scanning the remaining not-met conditions?

thank you guys a lot for bringing light into the dark ...

When I try to configure programmable relay assistant in Multi II to close relay, using SOC level settings, seems that assistant doesn´t use SOC coming from CerboGX using BMS-CAN.

I read post with same issue https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/65651/does-the-soc-assistant-condition-on-the-programmab.html , and tried to use same recommendation , that seemed worked in that case, so I selected "enable battery monitor", because the post says that doing so, SOC will be coming from external meter (in that case BMV) and not from internal SOC calculation, as all internal data will be replaced by the data coming from external control.

Well, I tried to replicate the solution indicated in post and it simply doesn´t work. The only difference I see is that in post SOC was coming from BMV, and inmy case SOC is coming from BMS. But cannot figure out why this could be the difference for my Assistant fails to take true SOC.

Any help to understand how to use SOC coming from BMS in a Multi II assistant ?

Note: Assistant and connections work fine and activate Relay when using other conditions. The problem is where SOC is coming from.

Hi, we are in the final design stages of a 3 Phase intentionally islanded system with 3 Quattro 15s. Using the assistants we want to ignore the grid connection on AC1 In and only grab it when battery low or load high. I have several systems on single phase using this set up which is fine, but i am concerned that the high load setting may miss a high load on one phase causing a shut down as i am told that the high load is aggerated across the three phases. I see there is an LED Alarm switch condition but cant find any detail on it. Can anyone confirm that this will trigger the switch when any of the LED alarm states is triggers on any of the 3 inverters. ie Low battery, Over load or high temp. This would be perfect if it does.