This bug is still not resolved. Moreover, it is quite problematic behaviour of the system and NEEDS to be fixed from Victron side ASAP. This problem can cause quite sustantial financial damage when feed-in is disabled in countries with individual metering. In the Czech Republic the penalty is around 20 - 40 EUR per kWh of feed-in.
Also, I have noticed, that the system fallbacks to Total of All Phases, after user changes ESS mode to External control and then back to âOptimized w/o Battery Lifeâ.
This is indeed very troublesome, because users have no chance of expecting this kind of behaviour - not even Victron staff was able to help with this topic and this is confusing also for us professionals. The whole flow is documented in the Event Log attached.
Just run this flow in node-red to set Individual phase. The ESS tool is not very good and never works much better to program the system yourself. This is how I set all my settings so they cant change.
Hi Owen,
thank you! It is a good idea and I see your point. I would not hesitate to use it if I needed this only for my home installation. I canât imagine taking care of Node-Red installs at every site that we commission.
Gotcha. And then it takes 60 minutes every year for each customer on the phone, explaining why it works this way and why they canât toggle their ESS modeâŚ
Thank you for your help, but I can only listen to ideas that actually solve the problem for all our customers and potentially all VRM users, not only for one particular installation. Last time I checked, VRM portal and Cerbo GX firmware 3.52 are not in beta and switching ESS modes should definitely not affect configuration item that is meant to be set only during commissioning.
The eventlog clearly says that someone (you?) did the change.
Does someone else have access to the system?
Try to change the password (and donât save it in your browser).
Or you you have any external controls running that can access that settings?
We have nearly 1000 systems running and never had any reports about that.
Matthias, maybe it is because in Germany, when you switch these modes it always fallbacks to Total of All phases, which is correct setup for Germany. But in the Czech Republic it is not correct and changing the ESS mode changes ESS compensation strategy. Maybe that is the reason why users donât complain on your installations.
Also, you must realize, that if EV charger is in the system then even basic user (owner) of the system needs Technician access rights in the system, therefore can change this ESS mode?
The problem is not that someone changes ESS mode, the problem is, that it âresetsâ ESS compensation to Total of All Phases. The event log simulates this behaviour, which is maliciousâŚ
It has noting to do with the country.
I canât reproduce a switching of the regulation if I switch the ESS mode.
No matter how often I switch the ESS mode, the regulation remains the same.
Both, you as the installer(?) and the enduser should have separate accounts.
If the enduser is playing around with the settings itâs his problem not yours.
Idk if you can reproduce it or not, but it is exactly what happens to us.
Of course, both of us (me and the customer) have separate accounts. Again, this is a bug and it should be treated this way, not swept under the rug
Anytime the user or me switches mode on the screenshot attached, then it also changes multiphase regulation from Individual phase to Total of All Phases. This canât be intended behaviour of the system.
If I grant only âuserâ rights to the customer, he looses remote control of his EV Charger.
I think this canât be really explained âdonât play with the settingsâ to the customer.
First - log in to Cerbo Remote Console
Go to Settings â ESS â Multiphase regulation â Individual phase regulation
Secondly - in the VRM toggle ESS mode as I have posted before
Then, the system resets multiphase regulation to âTotal of All Phasesâ
Of course it is connected to the country. Because there are countries that dont use individual phase regulation (which is your case) and for these countries this issue does not happen obviously - because Total of All Phases is âresetâ to the same value âTotal of All Phaseâ â therefore configuration remains valid in these countries.
OK, I can reproduce it if I switch to âexternal controlâ, but why are you switching to âexternal controlâ ?
Do you have any external control devices in the system (PLC, LOGO, HomeAssistant or something like that)?
With an external control system you normally donât switch back and forth between the ESS modes.
You either use external control or not.
Of course the course the customer should have admin access to his system but if he plays around with the settings itâs his fault not yours (or Victrons).
The problem is, that the customer wants to switch to Keep Batteries Charged - maybe he is expecting a blackout⌠He accidentally switches to External Control on his phone in the app. He immediately selects the correct ESS mode after that (in his eyes it is fixed). But toggling this changes another crucial settings in Cerbo - compensation strategy. The customer does not know this until he receives a letter that he needs to pay a fine to the distribution company.
A side effect of this is, that when you have Grid feed-in disabled and Total of All phases is selected, then you actually physically have feed-in scenario in our country (because phases are measured separetely) and you are actually feeding in even when grid feed in is disabled.
This is not our intention to do this - we are not using a PLC to change it. This is purely just confusing behaviour of the system.
And again, I need to assign at least Technician access rights to the user/customer, because otherwise he does not see controls for EV.
Clicking on another mode activates a 5s timer to confirm or cancel the action.
If you click cancel it doesnât change the ESS mode and it doesnât change the phase regulation.
The timer was added to prevent accidentally switching the modes while scrolling.
Matthias, I get it. But it is not how UX world works.
I have spent countless hours on calls with our distributor tech support, looking for the reason why this settings in the Cerbo changes. NO ONE including Victron staff was able to help with that. âWe have never seen that.â was a common answer.
We have considered:
firmware upgrade?
misconfiguration on our side?
Settings being saved in some temporary state in between upgrades and not being converted correctly?
We have considered all that. Who knows, we install it, we donât develop it.
Now finally this is investigated and explained because our new customer accidentaly encounterered grid feed-in situation when there should be none and we were able to replicate that.
This happened on multiple sites before and again, no one was able to help. So it is not rare, it is not one curious or incopetent user fiddling with settings and this can cause real financial damage.
Even though I appreciate explanations on how to use VRM and that this settings is not âmeantâ to be used under normal circumstances, I would be happier If I received plain and clear:
âWe understand the issue and potential outcomes stemming from this non-transparent behaviour of the system. We will fix that as soon as possible, thank you for bringing this to our attention.â
We install Victron systems and strive for delivering best possible experience to our customers. You can either use this feedback to improve the product or not. Take it or leave it. I am just saying that at the moment, it behaves in such a way that even professionals and Victron staff donât expect it to behave.
I confirm If I change setting (in GX or VRM) from âOptimized with battery lifeâ or âOptimized without battery lifeâ to âExternal controlâ and back then there is automatic change from âIndividual phaseâ to âTotal of all phasesâ
I am just saying that at the moment, it behaves in such a way that even professionals and Victron staff donât expect it to behave.
