Hey everyone. New to the new site. So all my old info on old site. Anyhow i have 2 smart solar charge controllers, 150/100 and 2 quattro 48v/5kw inverters, cerbo gx and color display, 3 paralleled 7.5 kw kilovault batteries (batteries do not communicate with cerbo). All working well except 1 of my charge controllers is used way less than the other. I just went fully off grid but this has been noticed for a while now and now its a bigger deal. I have 27 panels (10kw nominal) array. Array voltage is present equally at both controllera and last night i drew batteries down to 30 percent ish. Now suns out 1 controller outputting 2.6 kw (53v/33amp) but the other not contributing anything. Bulk light is on, no errors I find none of my settings are different than the other, what would cause this? Im basically only getting half capacity like this. Whats the best sequence for a hard reset. thanks.
Wiring from.panels to controllers, poor connector, loose terminal could cause this.
Do you have a VE Smart Network setup between the 2 panels as well as wired connection to the Cerbo. If so, disable this youshould only have 1 network, wired or Bluetooth.
You say you have 27 panels, how are they split to the 2 controllers. Are they facing the same direction.
On the VictronConnect app grab screenshots of settings, status page when charging and history pages.
Thanks for reply. I dont think i have. Bluetooth connection running at least not intentionally. Ethernet wires to quattros. Shunt and chargers all v.e Direct cables, all.to cerbo. 12 panels to one array, 15 to the other. Strings of 3 in series gives 100~ vdc and i think around 11 amps panel amp. So… 4 sets parallel on 1, 5 sets on the other. ~ 44 amps on one, 55 on other. All well under spec. And im rather positive of no loose connections. It has history of times its works at capacity but seems like exactky 25% use compared to the other array. All facing south on low pitch roof on same bonded frame. My controller shows full voltage its just like it chooses one over the other instead of utilizing both. Im at work but will poat aome pica soon as i can. Thank u.
Hey i wanted to give it a few more days to try resets and see operations. Looking at history its been an ongoing problem but we’ve just now gone fully off grid so my load has increased greatly and its now leaving me in the dark, literally. I’ve done multiple gx reboots, all updated firmware. Unless there’s something hidden in v.e. configure i dont know about all settings are identical in victron connect The only redundancy I’ve found is that after a great solar day and good night sleep…The next day this one charge controller won’t charge. The blue bulk light is on and full array voltage present but no output. All controls say its on but that whole array is not contributing through this cc. The other cc has never done this. I thought about swapping array feeds to confirm. When it works it works perfect, full array capacity delivered. It has only started working again the same morning after my inverters shut down due to low battery volt and turned off everything for 3 or 4 hours. 1 st time system down I removed power from gx. The 2nd time I did not kill power to gx but it still came back into operation once I restored array power. I think cc is bad but I wanted to make sure not a setting issue. I wouldn’t think swapping v.e. cables would matter as it recognizes each device by serial#. HELP!
Here’s a brief history of basically what its doing. All or nothing whenever it feels like it. Thanks again
Well that is not poor connection on the PV side. We keep seeing odd reports of MPPT not starting without an obvious solution.
In some of the reports turning the charging on and off in the VictronConnect app was enough to get it working.
Linked the pre RMA instructions, this may provide some tests. May need to speak to your supplier.
Yeah my cc’s were under like battery saver mode (it may be different word than that but something like that) so I switched both to always off then both to always on. I have done that several times and rebooted the gx after to be sure. Left in always on mode. I honestly dont have a full understanding of the gx interface as far as does it actually control the system or is it just a way in to monitor and adjust component settings and the components are otherwise autonomous based on their settings. I’m doing all load control manually this sec. Really my ac is the only large continuous load and i own an ac company so ive got that under control Gas stove and tankless gas water heater. With the size of my array as long as both cc’s work I’m golden on capacity and storage even with cloudy overcast days. I really appreciate your help. AltE was my supplier but unfortunately they are gone. A company from texas called powerstore.com helped me on a non communicating gx last year and they were great. I’ll reach out to them again. Tried a vendor here in north carolina but got no response unfortunately. Thanks again for the quick response
It looks from your VRM screenshots that you are only using the GX for information sharing and the cc’s run their own algorithms. You can get DVCC to manage the charging more proactively if you have a lithium battery with a communicating BMS.
Well…I have lithium but they are kilo-vault . They are working great but they have their own bms and kilo-vault died with alte. No warrany, no app, no support. I have 3 for 22.5 kw total storage and they are bus linked to them selves but stand alone from all else. I wish I had been a little better informed on some things by alte when I got it all but such is life. Id like to possibly add one more bank as i left room for it in my mechanical room but if I can get full charge capacity its really doing pretty good. We can live life as if grid connected once I get this resolved. Ill have to research how to connect a managed bms system in combination with a stand alone. I haven’t even looked into it because of what i have for now. I was really hoping somone would take over kilovault because I know there’s quite a few out there but we’ll see.