Feature Suggestion: Minor GUI Change

Beta testing Venus OS beta testing
1

Hi Folks;

I thought I would just ask if you could change the GUI in the firmware for the GX so that it shows incoming line voltage on this screen like so;

Victron
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Perhaps right under the Watts at the top left in the same size font/layout.

This would be very handy for me, and probably others, because in an RV application line voltage can vary a great deal from park to park or even from lot to lot. This way we can see at a glance if there is a line voltage issue, and even at different times of day.

For instance, in summer, with a full park, a multitude of AC units can drag a park’s line voltage down considerably. Either way, it seems to me to be an easy thing to add but I don’t have the skills for it.

2

I don’t see a need for that, you can just tap on the grid tile and you get more information.

And what would you do with that info?
If you want to disconnect from the grid if the voltage is too high/low you can configure that in the settings of the MultiPlus and you will also get an (audible) alarm.

3

I can’t think of a reason why you wouldn’t want to expose the line voltage for the reasons stated above, and many others. Marine connected to the dock?

But in the RV world this is essential as every park has power of varying quality and being able to check it at a glance is a bit of a no-brainer to me. It’s common to see different line voltages even at different pedestals/lots in a park.

It can easily be argued that being able to see line voltage at a glance in an RV park is required. Many AC units have been destroyed due to low voltage. It goes on and on, but at the end of the day, how can one argue against seeing line voltage at a glance?

4

Because it doesnt matter at a glance. Either the voltage and frequency is in the acceptable window, and then the MP will have switched to mains, or its not, then the MP is disconnected. Either its ok or its not. Thats enough information for a brief moment.

Do i want to know more? Of course, but then that additional information is just a tap away.

Also, are you watching the display constantly? If not then it doesnt even matter if the voltages are shown on the main page if no one is looking at it. If are concerned about the incoming voltage, why not add alarms for low or high voltages, so you dont even need to actively glance at the display, instead the GX will notify you if somethings wrong.

5

That’s way to complicated for the average user. Most RV’s are not running every circuit off the inverter, typically AC units are on their own circuits and NOT on the inverter for obvious reasons.

As such, being able to see the line voltage at a glance is really important. It can tell you if it’s safe to run your AC units or not (as just one example). I say it again, many people have destroyed their AC units (and other gear) by running them and not knowing that the park has poor power. This is often $8,000 to replace. And it’s common.

For sure, you can set alarms and do all sorts of things. But the average user needs to see it a glance, and in an RV application, it’s critical.

Otherwise they need to do what I’m doing, have a Kill-O-Watt permanently installed in an outlet to monitor the line voltage, which seems kind of silly when you have an expensive inverter setup that just refuses to display something that seems to me, is a no-brainer and easy to implement.

Either way, can’t really see how one can argue against something as simple as that. It’s not as if the display is cluttered as it is. And it certainly would be easy for Victron to implement it with zero chances of bugs.

6

Still doesnt change that you need to notice that the voltage isnt correct. Having the voltage displayed doesnt prevent an issue with it. What if the voltage drops while you are just outside, or while you sleep?

Theres the ACout2 for things that have to run on mains power but still should be protected by the MP. So you dont need to rely on the user to prevent something.

With 8k possible damages theres also a lot you can do outside of victron. A simple grid surveillance relay for 100$ can prevent things from running while voltage and frequency are not in an acceptable window. Id guess for 400$ max you got that installed. Spending 500$ to prevent 8k damage is worth it to me.

7

You’ve made something that’s very simple really complex. I expect that, or rather I hope that, at some level Victron realizes that the RV market is a significant segment of their business, and that the varying power levels from different parks/pedestals are a very real danger. I would guess that it’s the same at the marine level when plugged into shore power or even running off the genset.

So I like to think that they understand the importance of serving their customers and when they have a valid suggestion that just makes sense, they would tend to run with it.

Something as simple as adding the line voltage to the Grid box is, programmatically, for them very simple. The risk of adding bugs is non-existent. It’s just pulling a variable and displaying it on the screen. That grid box is 90% empty anyway. It’s not going to take any appreciable time to add it.

It’s already displayed in the Grid section of the Victron Portal. Why? because it makes sense to see the line voltage.

Why do cars have voltmeters? Why do they display engine temperature? Why do they have oil pressure gages? They usually display both on what? Their dashboard where it’s easy to see at a glance.

It’s just beyond me that someone would find seeing the line voltage displayed offensive for any reason and argue against it especially when there’s so much value to it.

Just as one example, the voltage regulator in my genset packed it in. I had to plug my Kill-O-Watt in to see why. It was putting out 150v (!!). If that were displayed on the Victron dashboard it would have saved me a lot of time. I could go on and on about the value of it, but I would leave it like this, it’s obvious, it’s easy and it’s displayed on the Portal. Make it happen on the Cerbo GUI and I would think everyone would love you for the ability to see if the voltage is high or low at any time and you may even save your customers a lot of money and a lot of wasted time.

Here’s another one. I have a brand new computer controlled washer/dryer combo in my RV. It’s incredible. I love it. About a year in it started adding water during the dry cycle. Research showed that a small percentage of people experienced that issue and repairmen were replacing control boards to address it.

So I did the same, to the tune of $500 or so. Not fixed. Because it was intermittent I could never case it. Do you know what I found out when I plugged in my Kill-O-Watt? Every once in a while the park power would drop below 115v and the second it did that, the washer would act up. I never knew. It never occurred to me that the electronics were sensitive to low line voltage.

Why was it intermittent? Because RV park power often fluctuates and its often intermittent. Had I had the ability to glance at the screen and see the line voltage I would have seen the commonality in these instances, low line voltage. But I come back to the same thing, I don’t think you guys have RV experience or experience with RV park power. If you did, you would know why seeing the line voltage on the dashboard is very handy. Real fast way to see the genset power output too.

I find it odd that I have to make a federal case out of something as simple and easy as displaying the incoming line voltage to a company that’s entire business is based on power products and managing/monitoring power.

If your goal was to stop a very simple and easy improvement, I fear you succeeded.

8

I agree fully, simple thing to add that provides so much information at a glance, if it was so unimportant maybe they should remove it from the VRM portal, I can’t see why anyone would take the time to object so heavily to such a valid request. What I can add though is the space is available on a single phase setup, however in a 3~ setup that available space is partly used up to display the three separate line power values so could be a bit tight to add voltage as well

IMG_2281
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9

Thank you so much, to me it’s obvious. I just went through an issue with my Genset and it would have been so easy if the dashboard had the line voltage. And then I ran into another issue where I was wondering if my Autoformer was boosting the voltage as required. Instead I had to dig up my Kill-O-Watt and install it (in the right outlet) and check it manually.

With respect to the 3 lines you have, they could do it this way;
L1: 120V / 390W
L2: 120V / 108W
L3: 120V / 160W

PS> According to the site it’s been two years since your last post - welcome back!

10

I had a similar problem with the grid, the Quatros were not reconnecting to the mains after an outage, open the DB board check with the multi meter, power on all 3~ phases so what’s the problem. Power just within the reconnection range so what’s happening. Only then did I decide to look at what the inverter voltage was displaying and there I saw it multi meter voltage and inverter voltage 1v difference and it just so happened that one phase slightly past the reconnection voltage set point. There might be a wish list somewhere add the wish there and it might appear someday. There was a similar discussion about 2 -3 years ago, adding the PV inverter total power as a separate line on the main home page to show total MPPT power as well as total PV inverter power as some systems had multiple PV inverters, this was debated and accepted into a possible future release but has not yet made it, could be that it was later decided by the Victron developers that its was not going to be added in the end or simply forgotten.

11

Yeah, I’m at a bit of a loss why some of these easy/obvious improvements don’t get done, and more oddly yet, draw fire.

I’ve been asking since early in the year for the Multiplus to have the ability to set the Equalization voltage. To me, the Multiplus does everything except the one easiest/simplest thing I can think of, equalize batteries. I need a voltage of 16.2v to do it - and it won’t.

It’s as if they think everyone has lithium batteries. It’s always odd to me when the RV industry should be one of their largest markets, and lead acid is still the norm there.

I find it odd that you can configure every other voltage with respect to the batteries, float, absorption, whatever, but NOT set an equalization voltage.

It’s likely another 5 minute job, and then you can advertise that your inverters support equalization. And yet, all the solar controllers do. Go figure.