Hi Neptune UK,
I got the point with regard to connecting a multimeter (instead of the cabling to the contactor) at the output of relay 1 and see what will happen.
I can instruct my colleague on-site and tell him what to do.
What I didn’t get is the following:
“Alternatively if they were running V3.60:
WEBUI->Debug->Values->settings->0->Settings->Relay->0->InitialState
0 for off/false, 1 for on/true (NO relay)
As the relay state changes, the current state will be displayed as the value for ‘InitialState’.”
I just updated to V3.60.
But I fear your advice is for more advanced operators than myself - or can you explain me more what to do?
I don’t know how to come into the debug-mode and what to there a bit more in detail.
Sorry - I hope for your understanding.
Hi,
I’ve edited my previous post to make it clearer, as it missed a step ( via Settings - apologies) that some users probably needed to know:
You will also need to elevate your user to ‘Superuser’ as pointed out by @pwfarnell:
WEBUI (Main Dashboard)->Settings->Debug->Values->settings->0->Settings->Relay->0->InitialState
If you connect to your Cerbo WEBUI remotely (via VRM or via direct web) when at the main screen display, follow the path above, it should be self explaining from that point.
The below image shows your starting point.
The value of ‘Initialstate’ will change as the state of the relay changes.
As your relay changes physical state when in manual mode, you can also see the value of ‘InitialState’ change when you operate the manual mode toggle. You may want to try this first just so you can see the expected result.
You’ll be able to see if the ‘software’ (your conditional) logic is actually firing and changing the software perceived state of the relay. If this is changing from 0 to 1 and vice-versa that means your relay should be changing it’s physical state.
Then you get the bit about actually measuring the physical state with a physical device (the multimeter), if the ‘InitialState’ value is changing when the conditional logic flow is true / false.
If the ‘InitalState’ does not change when using the ‘autostart’’ logic then there is a software / condition issue with the ‘autostart’ flow.
@anon39974850 You have missed one vital step, getting the user access level to SuperUser, hardly anyone has this level set.
Go to Settings - General - Access and Security on V3.60 (different for earlier)
1.Press/ click and hold on the line where it says “Access level”
2. Whilst still pressing/ holding the line, drag the line down to the bottom of the screen
3. Hold the “Access level” line at the bottom of the screen for 5 seconds
4. It will change to Superuser on its own
5. Once it says Superuser let go
You can now access the debug menus mentioned. You can return to user or user and installer access levels but will need the password either zzz or ZZZ, can not recall which, upper or lower case.
Ah yes, good catch. I get so used to my emulated environment being for the use of the Emperor!
Hi,
For peace of mind and to be absolutely clear on your setup.
Can you confirm how many wires are connected to your relay connection (the one for grid connection /autostart that we are discussing here) on the Cerbo?
I’m expecting 2.
If it’s more than 2, can you provide a basic schematic of the circuits or better, a picture?
@anon39974850, @pwfarnell,
it’s great what you explained me!
I am really surprised what is possible after I shared my question here on this channel…
Thank you very much for your detailed explications which I could follow so far.
I succeeded now to reach the “superuser”-state.
And after I had got this very state the “mysterious” menu which you sent to me was explaining by itself and I ran through the submenues.
Just I made some experiences:
I activated the “periodic run” of the “generator” and set the bounds in the periodic submenu in that way that I could direct follow the procedure on my screen some minutes later - watching the “Initial state” value.
The result is:
It works correctly. The initial state changes from 0 to 1 and the relay closes in due time, the “generator” (grid) powers the battery really with 2500 W - and when the set time is over the initial state changes from 1 to 0 and the grid stops powering the battery! It was unbelievable for me…
I’ll add 3 pictures which I made a short time ago. The "charging"time was set to only 5 minutes.
Everything worked correctly.
Remaining now the question why the SOC is unable to trigger the procedure…
I guess the draft with the cabling from the relay to the contactor might be no longer important, because the charging process is working so far, isn’t it? (We used the outputs NO (normally open) and COM of the relay, connected 48V for the switching process and the 2 cables for the coil of the contactor to the “classical” circuit…)
(in your previous message): …so we could ask the OP to obtain the settings XML file and see how the Cerbo is actually configured…" Please, how can I do this?
That is true, we can reasonably omit the physical test with the multimeter now.
The Periodic run actually uses some more complicated logic other than on/of. It’s looking at time and duration and it’s having to do that in a loop. So we can be reasonably confident the software logic flow work, the relay works and both are demonstrably so, and you have achieved that yourself.
Well done!
You could even use this simple ‘Periodic’ now to charge the batteries if TANESCO offers cheaper pricing at specific times!
HOWEVER do the same test for your low SoC flow.
Let’s just confirm what actually happens to the InitialState.
If it remains at 0 we need to investigate a flow/settings/SoC detection or reporting issue (this is our expected outcome).
If it changes to 1 AND there is no grid connection something else is at play (at this point we test the Cerbo relay has been physically closed).
Just set the trigger point of your generator flow at the actual current SoC e.g if it is 80% SoC, set 80%, when this drops to 79% your flow show be true (see the previous explanations by @guystewart and @BartChampagne ).
We don’t have to wait long for a drop in the SoC (unless you have a local reason this cannot be done). Your local colleague could apply a load to the system to hasten this process 
I don’t want to jump ahead, although it is tempting.
Like I said before you’ve been working hard to resolve this yourself, doing all you could think of. That expended, you rightly asked for help from the community hive mind, and we are all making progress all together. Slowly and surely. Thank you for your patience.
I have a course of action for the next step based on our test of ‘InitialState’ using the ‘Generator’ autostart - Low SoC state flow.
We will wait until that is our only remaining option. It can appear quite complicated depending on a users experience level with Victron CerboGX and remote SSH access etc. It’s better we prepare to cross that bridge if we need to at that point.
Good evening @anon39974850,
thanks for your last messages and your appreciation.
Just I made the test: The current SOC was 86%, so I set 86% as the lower value in the configuration (and 90% for the higher value), temporarily.
I changed to the debug menu, used the same procedure as previously and observed the initial state of the relay. It was “0” - as expected.
Simultaneously I observed the SOC on another device.
When the SOC changed to 85% (the load was 560W, it wasn’t a long time of waiting) - then… nothing happened! The initial state remained “0”.
In order to be sure I checked the values of SOC and initial state of the relay several times - but it’s clear that it remained “0”.
Now we can begin with the next experiment…
I guess you’ll have something for me!
Greetings
@solarfreak1951 I have not been keeping up to date with this today but just checked in. Your screen shots raise a significant question, posting one here
Your battery is not actually indicating an SOC on the Cerbo so there is no way that it can run a relay based on SOC. Do you ever see SOC on the Cerbo. Sometimes it shows dashes if it does not have a current value and is waiting for a reset to 100% when full.
You obviously have voltage and current info for the battery so you have a battery monitor of some form.
Hi pwfarnell,
you are completely right - myself I was wondering at this point already since a long time. The SOC is not indicated there.
When I wanted to have a look on the SOC I used one of the following ways:
Either i opened the “advanced”-menu. There I can see the SOC in a window.
Or I opened the “remote console”-menu. There also I can see the value of SOC.
But in the dashboard, or as you saw it here, within the battery-symbol, the SOC is not mentioned. There is a dash only.
I thought all the time that would have been my blame because I were unable to find out how to configure it…
Do you think that this is an unusual behavior of the Cerbo?
Please post an image from the Remote Console window where you can see the SoC.
In Settings> System setup>, what do you have available and set under “Battery monitor” ?
This is in GUIv1, for GUIv2 it’s one level (“Batteries”) deeper.
I can kick myself in the head for not spotting this, as that will most certainly be the cause as to why the “generator” isn’t kicking in.
Can’t act on a SoC if there is none.
Oh - just asked the AI about this problem and it showed me some explications. Now I used the following way to fix this problem:
I went to:
Settings - System Setup - Battery monitor and saw…
…that there was set “No battery monitor”.
I changed it to the value “battery monitor by WECO” (because I use WECO-batteries) and then:
WOW, the value of SOC is now being displayed within the small window for the battery!
I will enclose a picture.
Very good hint, dear
@BartChampagne Don’t be too hard on yourself, it is such a fundamental thing that none of us have thought to ask “do you see an SOC value”.
Go ahead and test the relay now, I think you have it cracked. If you do not choose a battery monitor the Cerbo has its best guess at what to use and obviously chose something to get the V and A but not SOC. You could see it in advanced because you were looking at the Weco BMS data at a guess.
Ah, I see that you just gave me the same advice!
Now I am very curious what will happen when I repeat the experiment!
I will do it just now and share with you what came out…
This will solve your “Relay not triggered” problem!
Go ahead and set a SoC where the ‘generator’ should kick in and you’ll see that it’s working now.