Easiest way to light LED when inverter is on

DIY
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1

I have just finished the installation of the Multiplus II etc in my Coachmen Prism and mostly everything is working as it should.

However, I am suffering from the apparently known problem of GFCI trips when the charger moves from Bulk to Absorption. Some GFCI breakers trip and others do not.

If I am in the RV and connected to shore power, using AC appliances has no bearing on my SOC. However, if the GFCI trips and I lose shore power, the inverter cuts in and my limited battery reserves will start to drop. My issue is that I will be completely oblivious of that unless I continuously monitor the status of the Multiplus using the VictronConnect app.

My question is, what is the easiest way for me to light a 12v LED in the RV when the inverter is on? That way I have a clear visual that it’s likely the GFCI on the shore power has tripped.

Thanks for the advice.

(btw I have researched the community and can’t find anything directly addressing my requirement, although I can perhaps use an assistant to program the multiplus and achieve my objective?)

2

Best way is to use assistants.

With the MP2 you also have a (weak, but strong enough for an LED) 12V source on the terminal block. Use the open collector K2 relay.

I did exactly this for an indicator of grid lost in my house

3

Why don’t you put a “nightlight” in a good visibly ac socket ?

4

The easy way is to use node-red and one of the relays on the GX device. Here is a flow that will monitor AC in and when it loses the AC input closes relay 2. I did need to write a function to reverse the message.

You can also have it send an alert if you wish.

Flow

image
image1501×277 47.8 KB

[
{
“id”: “e2c454393d1802b7”,
“type”: “victron-input-custom”,
“z”: “1112bdc43019f870”,
“service”: “com.victronenergy.vebus/276”,
“path”: “/Ac/ActiveIn/Connected”,
“serviceObj”: {
“service”: “com.victronenergy.vebus/276”,
“name”: “MultiPlus-II 48/5000/70-50 (276)”
},
“pathObj”: {
“path”: “/Ac/ActiveIn/Connected”,
“name”: “/Ac/ActiveIn/Connected”,
“type”: “number”
},
“name”: “”,
“onlyChanges”: false,
“x”: 1250,
“y”: 1680,
“wires”: [
[
“88098ba273d29162”,
“4a368bdc5f80e1fe”
]
]
},
{
“id”: “d1e11e5115a030a4”,
“type”: “victron-output-relay”,
“z”: “1112bdc43019f870”,
“service”: “com.victronenergy.system/0”,
“path”: “/Relay/1/State”,
“serviceObj”: {
“service”: “com.victronenergy.system/0”,
“name”: “Venus device”
},
“pathObj”: {
“path”: “/Relay/1/State”,
“type”: “enum”,
“name”: “Venus relay 2 state”,
“enum”: {
“0”: “Open”,
“1”: “Closed”
},
“writable”: true
},
“initial”: “0”,
“name”: “”,
“onlyChanges”: false,
“x”: 1860,
“y”: 1680,
“wires”:
},
{
“id”: “2b5e0a44acdbfc82”,
“type”: “victron-input-relay”,
“z”: “1112bdc43019f870”,
“service”: “com.victronenergy.system/0”,
“path”: “/Relay/1/State”,
“serviceObj”: {
“service”: “com.victronenergy.system/0”,
“name”: “Venus system”
},
“pathObj”: {
“path”: “/Relay/1/State”,
“type”: “enum”,
“name”: “Venus relay 2 state”,
“enum”: {
“0”: “Open”,
“1”: “Closed”
}
},
“initial”: “”,
“name”: “”,
“onlyChanges”: false,
“x”: 1860,
“y”: 1740,
“wires”: [

]
},
{
“id”: “88098ba273d29162”,
“type”: “debug”,
“z”: “1112bdc43019f870”,
“name”: “debug 28”,
“active”: false,
“tosidebar”: true,
“console”: false,
“tostatus”: false,
“complete”: “false”,
“statusVal”: “”,
“statusType”: “auto”,
“x”: 1600,
“y”: 1740,
“wires”:
},
{
“id”: “4a368bdc5f80e1fe”,
“type”: “function”,
“z”: “1112bdc43019f870”,
“name”: “CHANGE LOGIC”,
“func”: “// Check if the payload is 1 or 0\nif (msg.payload === 1) {\n msg.payload = 0;\n} else if (msg.payload === 0) {\n msg.payload = 1;\n}\n\n// Return the updated message\nreturn msg;\n”,
“outputs”: 1,
“timeout”: 0,
“noerr”: 0,
“initialize”: “”,
“finalize”: “”,
“libs”: ,
“x”: 1590,
“y”: 1680,
“wires”: [
[
“d1e11e5115a030a4”
]
]
}
]

5

This is for an RV with limited batteries and will never have a grid connection and therefore it seems the assistants are not available. Never the less, I’m curious as to what assistant you used and how?

6

Sadly there is no GX device and so this option is not available.

7

Putting a nightlight in a socket won’t work since when the shorepower is gone, the inverter kicks in and a nightlight would stay lit!

8

I’m thinking I could possibly use the AC2 out ports which will be turned off when shore power is cut. Using a 120v NC relay I could then create my LED circuit from the 12v side using the load contacts on the relay. My major concern becomes how/where to install a fuse to protect the wires to the relay.

I’m also thinking I could maybe use some sort of non contact current sensing device on the hot input from the shore power feed at the Multiplus. There will always be some sort of current in normal operation and so again I could feed an NC relay to my LED.

I thought this would be easy, so am I over thinking it? It seems to be that this would be a common requirement in vehicular installs where battery power is limited?

9

How about a nightlight on ac2 ?

Or the victron digital control 200 ?

10

I used a generic 12V 22mm pilot LED. Connected to K1 and 12V terminal.

Used the following assistants:

image
image274×180 2.21 KB

This was to indicate the grid presence, to know you’re on inverter to avoid overloading.

At a different site, I used the 12V source through a Cerbo relay with some Node-RED code for more flexibility