I manufacture motor homes and have been using the Victron system for 5 years.
The structure of the system is very simple: 4-6 Smart Batteries (24V/200Ah), SmarShunt, VE.BUS BMS V2 , Quattro 24V/8K, CCGX, Buckboost, Cyrix, BatteryProtect, 1 or 2 Solar controllers, 5 or 6 solar panels.
I have a motorhome in Asia, and I received a bug report over the weekend.
The inverter suddenly stopped working. None of the LEDs are lit.
I tried to restart the system with the owner by completely disconnecting the power, but unfortunately it did not work.
The CCGX system says on the Quattro that the Switch status is Unknown and the State is Unknown.
I checked the communication cables with the help of the customer, they are fine and connected correctly.
I also checked all other components with the Victron connect app, SmartShunt, 5 Smart Batteries, MPPT, none of the components reported any errors.
The VE.BUS communication is as follows:
Victron VE.Bus BMS V2 → Victron VE.Bus BMS Mains Detector → Victron Quattro → CCGX (VE.Bus1)
The VE.CAN communication is as follows:
Skylla-I → CCGX (VE.CAN2)
The VE.Direct communication is as follows:
Victron SmartShunt 1000A → CCGX (VE.Direct1)
Victron Solar MPPT 100/50-TR /1 → CCGX (VE.Direct2)
Other communication:
Victron Solar MPPT 100/50-TR /2 → Victron VE.Direct to USB Cable Interface → CCGX (USB Host1)
Siemens PLC Profinet → CCGX (Ethernet port)
Do you have any ideas on how I can remotely diagnose the cause of the error?
It would be very, very difficult to get a new inverter to the camper and the trip to the location would be very expensive. That’s why I’m asking for your help and ideas!
First, it would be interesting to know whether the Quattro is receiving DC voltage… if not, check the fuses or shut-off devices. If this can be verified by the customer…
Perhaps the BMS has shut down somehow…
I think the Quattro gets voltage, the DC current from the batteries goes to a fuse distributor, from there our system is divided into separate fuses. 500A of secured power goes to the Quattro and 200A of secured power goes to a Battery Protect.
I saw the Battery Protect on the customer’s phone via BLE and saw that the voltage is the same as the battery voltage.
I wouldn’t think the 500A fuse would have blown, but thanks for the tip, as soon as I can talk to the customer, that will be the first thing we’ll check.
By the way, we restarted the BMS and it shows the usual LED lighting, if I remember correctly and the BMS doesn’t like something, it usually lights up red and breaks the Load Disconnect thread.
Then I would definitely remove ALL external controls… including the communication connections to the CCGX and the VE bus… Basically, a bare device… Then try to start the device via the remote contact… I’ll keep my fingers crossed…
And even a fuse that allows you to measure voltage without a load… breaks down when the Quattro switches on… we’ve had this happen frequently here in the forum with Megafuses… everything looks fine from the outside… voltage is there… but the device doesn’t work because of a small hairline crack in the fuse.
Thank you for your answer, I’m trying my best to solve the problem, but it’s quite difficult because the system is very far from me and I can’t talk to many other specialists in that region.
Thank you very much for the advice, if anyone has any other ideas or experiences, I’m happy to share them.
I am well aware that analyzing and fixing errors from this distance is extremely difficult. It would be nice if operators and users understood a little bit about the technology and didn’t just rely on it all the time.
But something else occurred to me… Hopefully, the main switch is turned on and can be switched mechanically and audibly.
