@guystewart - You were getting an update for this. Any news?
Thanks,
David
Hi,
I have two PV Strings - 1 connected to a SmartSolar 100/20 and the other (larger) string connected to a SmartSolar 100/50. Whilst the 100/20 works perfectly well, the 100/50 controller occasionally does not restart charging in the morning. This may happen once every 5 to 10 days. I can get it going again by turning charging off then on and all will work fine until next time. If it does not start and I leave it not charging, then it may start charging again the following morning! There doesn’t appear to be any consistency as to when it might not start charging.
I reckon this started happening after a firmware upgrade about 3 or 4 updates ago. Each time I try to update to a newly released version I hope that it will fix the issue - but unfortunately not. It used to work perfectly fine for over a year. Both units are configured with exactly the same settings.
Is anybody else getting the same issues? Any suggestions?
Thanks!
David
guystewart
(Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager))
2
Hi @davidp,
The internal ticket is still open, last note was re-assigning it to another engineer to investigate. I have asked for an update and posted this new thread to it.
I’m fairly sure it has to do with the VE Network side of thinks. I removed from the network for several days and it didn’t have this issue. Two days after I added it back in, the problem re-occurred
Thanks,
David
guystewart
(Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager))
5
I’ve posted your note to the ticket, there was a test firmware but the results were inconclusive so otherwise no update yet.
I am experiencing the same issue in Germany. I have two charge controllers, a 100/30 connected two a single module and a 100/50 connected to two modules of the same type in series. While the 100/30 starts charging nominally every morning when there is enough sun, the 100/50 often does not start charging automatically. I have to turn it off and on again, after which it starts charging immediately. Also here, the temperature is well above the temperature cut-off and the solar voltage is in the 70-80V range. Both charge controllers are mounted right next to each other. It appears that this issue is related to the software of the device. Looking forward to a firmware update fix.
Normally I have to go and restart the MPPT every morning. I have to wait until the solar input voltage is a few volts higher than the battery, and then I do a charger off/charger on.
This morning I forgot about it, so the voltage from the panels were around 75v (48v battery system) and I can’t get it to start charging at all.
Since that string was a 2s/2p, I decided to add another 150/85 and split them up. Now I have two MPPTs that I can’t get going.
Both the 150/85’s were on the latest firmware (3.16). I have since put 3.13 on one and 3.15 on another but that didn’t solve anything.
I have a 150/70 rev2 on Firmware 3.13 that works perfectly everyday.
I’d be happy for Victron to send me firmware to test. Also happy to share my VRM if they want to have a look.
Just a quick update;
I got up on the roof and covered the panels on one of the 150/85 strings until I had ~60v, disable/enable charger and the MPPT started.
Did the same on the other 150/85 string and it also started.
Thank you for sharing this information! My charger worked fine for another night/day cycle after I restarted it in the app (charger enabled off/on). But this morning it didn’t start again. What was even worse is that after I restarted it, it charged on a couple watts for a couple minutes (early morning) but then a cloud came up, so the incoming power dropped below the charging threshold for a moment. After the cloud had passed, the charger again didn’t start up by itself but I had to give it another manual restart. This is very frustrating and I urge Victron to do something about this issue.
To add to this, I can get the charger to restart charging either by restarting it in the Victron connect app (charger enabled off/on) OR by turning my DC circuit breaker between the panels and the charger off/on. My other charger 100/30 works fine every day without issues.
More often than not, I manage to only get one MPPT by turning charging off/on.
The voltage range (few volts <60 to few volts >60) seem pretty narrow for that trick to work, so once I get one going, the voltage is often too high to get the other going, so up the roof I have to go again.
The other issue for me, is that once the batteries are fully charged and it ramps down to 0w, my 150/85’s will not be able to start back up again when there is demand.
It seems my problem is somewhat related to yours but not really so maybe I should just create a new thread.
Hi All, Could everyone experiencing this issue please try the following to see if the MPPT restarts charging:
Instead of disable / enable charging, can you temporarily remove it from the VE Network and then add it back in to the network. In my case charging started immediately after removing it from the VE Network.
I think this will confirm if all our issues are similar and give the developers more of an insight into what’s going on.
@davidp I will try this next time it doesn’t start charging. I have three devices in my VE.smart network: a SmartShunt, one MPPT 100/30 and one MPPT 100/50. While the 100/30 settings list synchronized charging, as well as voltage, temperature AND current sense from the SmartShunt, the 100/50 settings are missing the current sense from the SmartShunt. Maybe that’s a hint to the problem? Firmware on both the 100/50 and the 100/30 is v1.64.
@davidp just confirmed that mine also starts charging immediately after removing it from the VE network and also keeps on charging after adding it to the network again.
The charger has been working without problems for the past two weeks or so and started charging immediately every morning when there was enough sun. However this morning, under similar conditions as in the past days, just didn’t start again.
@guystewart - unfortunately the problem has now become worse after the latest firmware update. The MPPT 100/50 has now failed to start charging in the morning in 2 out of the last 3 days since I updated the firmware to the latest version.
The instant I remove the unit from the VE Network, the unit starts charging. When I join the network again it continues to charge. This is getting very annoying. The MPPT 100/20 continues to work flawlessly with the latest firmware.
Again this morning the 100/50 failed to start charging and the 100/20 started fine. I removed the 100/50 from the network and it started charging. I then deleted the network from all 3 devices (100/50, 100/20, Smartshunt) and created a new network, starting with the Smartshunt. I then added the 100/50 and it showed it was receiving network data for temperature, voltage and current. Great! I then added the 100/20 into the network and it too showed all three. I then went back to the 100/50 and initially it showed it was still receiving all 3, after a few seconds it then removed the current sense from the list, leaving only temp and voltage. I removed the 100/50 and the 100/20 from the network and then only put back the 100/50. After about 10 minutes it was still showing it was receiving all three data sources. I then added the 100/20 back in and again, after a few seconds, the current sense was removed from the 100/50 but the 100/20 still had all three.
I would not think this would be normal to have the 100/50 drop the current sense after the 100/20 is added. Am I correct? Is this causing the issue with not starting in the morning?
Both SmartSolar devices have v1.64 firmware and the SmartShunt has v4.16
This is the 3rd day in a row it has failed to start after the firmware upgrade.
guystewart
(Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager))
19
Have you considered a warranty RMA?
We are not seeing lots of these cases, so it might be something specific to your unit?
Please put as much info, even a link to this thread in the RMA if you choose to go that route.