VE Bus Firmware Update limitation Ground relay function

Q&A and troubleshooting
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1

This word is more a word of caution for my fellow installers. Beware that Ground relay configuration may cause the remote firmware update to fail forcing to reset the System Configuration manually and will require a Hardware reset of the units.

I needed to do a remote firmware update of a Quatro system with 2x 15kVA/48V/230V units.

The wiring of this unit is for a US based power system at 60Hz. The Quattro’s are set to NOT use the ground relay. Ground is directly provided by grounding the middle point of the Auto transformer connected on the output of the Quatro’s. All the AC inputs are purposely ungrounded ( a Generator and an Isolator transformer). System works well. As delivered the system was using firmware v555. Current version is v558.

I proceeded to perform the remote firmware update. By itself the update appear to work properly. But instantaneously, on restart the Quattro went into Overload Fault. I am assuming that after firmware upgrade, the system applied the default settings and started the inverter mode before re-applying the original settings thus Enabling the Ground relay. As the system did not have AC power source, it started in Inverter mode which created a Short circuit via the auto transformer mid point. This seemed to have stopped the remote upgrade sequence and final settings were never applied.
I was able to reload the proper settings to the unit using Ve-Remote configure. It was obvious that the remote firmware sequence did not reset the settings to the original settings as, among other things, the system frequency was 50Hz instead of 60 and all settings appear to be the default values. I was able to restore them using the remote configure application. But I still had to go to the installation to reset the fault by cycling the power.

In conclusion: the same issue would have happened if I had done the update locally using an MK3 and Ve Connect. Part of the problem appears to be that the Firmware update re-starts the system with the machine Default values BEFORE applying the configuration (Or did something wrong happened during the process?) . I may have saved myself the aggravation if I had set the Quattro to “Charge only” before the firmware update as this should have prevented the ground relay to close.
If possible I would like @victron to comment on the matter. Is my understanding Correct or did something else happened? I did not see any specific warning on the matter on the VRM firmware help page. If my understanding is correct, in future version, it would be nice to ensure that the site specific settings are applied before re-starting the inverter mode…

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There is always a warning that the settings are being reset to default during the update and that you need to restore the settings after the update.

3

If those quattros have a DIP switch to enable external ground relay (SW1), setting it on will eliminate the chance of a software update causing a short circuit through the internal ground relay. No need to have an external relay.

Always better to rely on hardware for safety.

This doesn’t address the 50Hz issue, however, which could damage 60 Hz compressors, refrigerators, etc.

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@M_Lange you are correct that when you do a manual update, there is a warning about restoring the settings. My fault for not fully analyzing the consequence of the firmware upgrade.
In our configuration any firmware update will always trigger a system fault no matter what method we use as long as the Inverter mode restarts using the Default settings. Our only option is to either insure that the System is on “Charger only” mode or opening the autotransformer input breaker.
In the case of the remote configuration, since the original settings are being saved, It would be nice for the sequence to re-apply them before enabling the functionality. And the System did that partially, It was able to restore the System configuration for two parallel units.

@ricardocello That is a good point I did not think of. I will implement. The 50Hz is less of a concern in our case as we usually do the firmware updates with the loads disabled.