I am sure I am missing something really simple here but I just can’t figure out this for the life of me. I have a basic Victron system with a CerboGX, a MPPT 150/60 and a 25a Phoenix Smart Charger. The MPPT works exactly like I would expect it to, shows up on the Dashboard and in greater detail under the “Advanced” tab. I can see all of the data for the Phoenix Smart Charger under “Advanced” Tab, but it doesn’t show up on the Dashboard. I have fiddled around with assigning “Grid” or “Generator” to the "AC Input"s under System Settings, and other things commonly suggested on the internet. I know it is connected fine because it all shows in advanced.
Is there something I need to change to assign the Phoenix Smart Charger to AC Input 1 so it can be tagged as “AC in from grid” and show up thusly?
Is there some VRM-side technical limitation around the dashboard displays that is preventing this from showing up?
Is there some sort of software/firmware configuration that needs to happen on the Cerbo to get this transmitted to VRM in an appropriate fashion for it to be automagically be put into the right bucket to show up on the dashboard?
AC input is usually an inverter read (or grid meter read) value. The IP 43 is not an inverter (does it actually reports its own ac use?) so would not usually go there. Since it is an auxiliary item and a direct to DC charger it would be under that section in the DC system. (Has DC system tile)
All i can think off without writing pieces of code would be to add a grid meter on the system. (Or even a shelley EM)
Maybe someone else here has done something clever to make it work like that natively without additional hardware
Sadly the AC/DC standalone chargers seem to be rather neglected from the overall integration of things in Victron. No DVCC, poor VRM integration etc. You need a grid meter to show the AC input.
Below screenshot shows my VRM and I have the ET112 meter connected via USB/RS485. The Grid Meter shows as shore power OK, and the AC/DC Charger just shows as an AC load.
This AC load figure gets confusing as my standalone inverter (not multiplus) shows as AC loads when there is no shore power connected, but as essential loads when the is shore power connected.
The AC/DC Skylla IP65 in my case can be viewed under the device list in VRM and firmware managed, but cannot be controlled there.
Vrm shows my charging as the total of PV + AC/DC and you have to mentall subtract the PV charging from the total to get the AC/DC Charging rate.
So the long and short is if you dont buy the Multiplus, you will be second class citizen on VRM.
Since theres no Multiplus/Quattro in the system, VRM does not know where the measured grid AC power then goes. All it can do is assume it goes entirely to the load, which is a simple calculation, grid power minus inverter power equals load.
Apart from using a physical grid meter you could also use a virtual device through NodeRed, and read the AC chargers power as grid power. But the visualization in VRM will be as incorrect as the above example, due to the missing MP/Quattro.
Please could you add the Bug tag to your post so that the victron team takes a look? The more we flag this issue to them the more likely they are to fix it if there is enough demand.
It seems that after adding a Grid AC meter in front of the AC/DC charger you can then add a smartshunt on the output (DC Side) of the AC/DC charger and configure it as an AC Charger and that will show up on the Cerbo display, but I dont know about VRM.
By the time you add the complexity and cost of adding the meters to a simple AC/DC Charger one might as well have purchased a Multiplus in the first place.
Hm, ok, thats at least a step forward. You can also use a virtual device in NodeRed to fake a DC meter. But i do see that this should not be necessary, when all devices in a system are Victron. An AC charger should be displayed in VRM in a sensible way, automatically.
Edit: Just checked, you cant set a virtual device to DC meter, but theres a DC genset option
