"Grid lost" alarm for systems with Grid meter or AC->DC charger

Q&A and troubleshooting
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1

Hi.

I have 3 kinds of installs with Cerbo where the “grid lost” alarm doesn’t work. Can you please fix it in future versions of Venus and VRM? @guystewart

  1. Setup where there is Phoenix Smart IP43 Charger 12|30 (1+1) connected to Cerbo via VE.Direct
    Telco site with unreliable AC on site with DC only loads connected to a battery and Orion, no inverter
  2. Setup where there is Carlo Gavazzi EM connected to Cerbo, set as Grid Meter with 3rd party inverter
  3. Setup where there is Carlo Gavazzi EM connected to Cerbo, set as Grid Meter with no inverter - only used to monitor grid consumption and PV Inverter production
2

Just FYI the interface is built around an inverter charger like the multi or Quattro. Without one it won’t behave as expected. This is documented for non-victron systems.
There are some improvements pending, but using an EM to get a third party device into VRM is never going to be a supported config.

3

Sure… out of the 3 mentioned, the first one is really the one that interests me the most - it’s all-Victron system, just no inverter since there is no need for it… and it would still be useful to get “Grid lost” alarm as the Phoenix charger is connected to grid.

I would like some more love for DC only or AC->DC systems … for example: no need to display “inverter box” and “AC loads” box in such systems - both in VRM and GUI - it just takes space with no value whatsoever for end user

while surely not as popular as systems with inverters, I think such systems are very common - telco, campers, marine and I feel they are bit forgotten in the UI implementations even thou Victron sells bunch of DC equipment that connects to Cerbo via VE.Can or VE.Direct