In inverter mode my Quattro II 5000W/24V goes into overload with a load of 3000W connected. How can I get the Quattro out of overload? I only found a way to manually turn off the Quattro with the little physical switch on the unit but this is not an option when you are remote.
I case of an overload/temperature/low battery alarm the device will always trying to restart 3 times and stays off after the 3rd attempt.
That’s a safety feature.
After that a manual reset is required via the physical switch at the device but should also be possible via VRM remote console.
I did not see this entry in the remote console but I will try again and look for this alarm reset entry.
Should this be under the Quattro entry?
I had cleared the alarm on the remote console but the Quattro did not turn on.
Is this normal that a 5kW Quattro turns off at 3000W after only a few minutes?
If you can access the remote console/vrm you can change the soft switch state which is under the inverter device entry, or on vrm when “inverter control” is enabled.
For many users, remote access evaporates when AC disappears and wifi doesn’t have a backup.
I did but this did not bring it back to life.
Hello @dloy , the Quattro is not rated at 5000 watts. It is rated at 5000 VA. Although watts are the same as volts x amps if the power factor is 1, if the power factor is less than 1, the real power is the apparent power multiplied by the power factor. The 3000 watts that is causing the 5000VA Quattro to overload, I expect the power factor is pretty low. The power factor is the cosine of the angle between the current and the voltage.
Hello Trevor,
you are correct and I was a bit sloppy. Below is a trend log of the load connected. Green is W and purple is VA. But also VA does not go above 4000VA. For a short time the Quattro should handle 9000W. For this trend log the Quattro is running from the 230V input.
But Victron also specifies W in their datasheet. 3700W at 40° and up to 9000W peak.
The power factor is between 0.8 and 0.98
Dietmar
Hello Dietmar, Well you certainly have all the detail on this and it does look like it is overloading too soon doesn’t it. I wonder is a very fast “inrush current” or transient startup current causing the overload and is too fast for the graphical sampling based on Mödbus calls to see? Anyway, thanks for providing the extra detail.
Trevor
Hello Trevor,
I don’t think it is an inrush current issue because the air condition is running for a few minutes before the Quattro goes into overload.
I have tried the softswitch on the remote console to get it out of the overload (of course the load has been switched off) but the Quattro does not clear the fault. The only way for me up to now is to toggle the mechanical swich on the device itself. This is very annoying.
Do you know a better way to clear the fault?
Dietmar
What’s the ambient temperature seen by the Quattro? Is it out in the open (cool air) or in some kind of enclosure/cupboard? They don’t like getting hot… 
27° ambient in a room.
I don’t get an overtemperature alarm, only the overload fault.
Dietmar
If the Quattro heats up – but not as hot as the internal overtemperature limit – then the maximum current falls, as shown in the data sheet – I see this happening when battery charging (my Quattro is in a fan-cooled cabinet).
So you could then see the current limit alarm rather then the overtemperature one.
But this shouldn’t happen at 27C in a room. Can you hear the internal cooling fans start and speed up as the Quattro warms up?
I forgot. The fan is running.
It does sound as if your Quattro is going into overload at too low a power level then… 
The overload alarm should just be an alarm / hint / notification and clear when the load drops / normalises.
In VRM you should be able to clear the alarm. If it is anoying just switch off alarms in VRM.
aor try dashboad alarm rules and increase timing
The inrush current of a directly started AC motor can be 6 to 7 times the nominal current, and they’re notorious for having a poor power factor (cos phi) as well.
Since you’re starting an airco compressor I expect the inrush current to be pretty high and to remain on the high side while pressure is being built up.
Probably it just takes a while for the high power draw to become visible on the GX and VRM, the warnings and alarms aren’t instantaneous if I’m not mistaken.
Do you have power draw specs from your air conditioner ?
Some heat pumps regularly use an extra electric heater to kill off any possible Legionella, the combination of compressor + heater might be too much for the inverter.
The general advise for powering motors from an inverter is to spec the inverter to twice the rated power of the motor or more.
A variable frequency drive on the airco motor will prevent the high inrush current but you still need to spec the inverter on the higher side of the expected power draw.
FYI: P (in Watt) = Q (in VA) x cos phi (the power factor).
Anything with an electronic power supply (eg a variable frequency drive) has a cos phi of ~0.9 while electric motors are typically around 0.7 to 0.8
This means that your 5kVA inverter can power at max a motor of ~3500W.
In your graph the power draw regularly goes up to 3000-3500W but don’t forget: this is sampled and averaged over the sampling period. The actual power draw peaks are probably higher, too short to be visible in the graphs but high enough to push your Quattro in overload.
The alarm turns into a fault of the Quattro. It does not help if I disable alarms. What is annoying, there is no way to clear the fault without physically accessing the device.
I make power measurement readings every second and there are no peaks. If the peaks are shorter than 1s than the Quattro should handle 9000W according to the datasheet.
Since the system is running for 5-10 minutes all compressors are in a stable state and there are definitely no peaks close to 9000W and longer than 1s.
Is there also somebody from Victron on this forum to help out?