ralph

Your suggestion was correct. Switching the unit off and changing prog 28 to SIG allowed me thereafter to change prog 4 to energy saving mode. Many thanks for your help with this.

Thx for the reply.. will investigate..... No, units are not paralelled. I took a unit out the box, applied 48Volt with my bench PSU, connected nothing else, switched on and couldnt change the setting. I then tried a second unit out the box and couldnt change the setting. Both units have the paralelling board installed though.....

I have two axpert 5Kva units. Both behave the same. I wish to enable the "power saving mode" (setting #4). If one enters setting mode, scroll down to setting 4, press enter, display flashes "SdS", pressing the up/down arrows beeps but does not change setting to "SEN". Does anyone else have this problem? Is there a solution?

One more thought - the RCT's are quite cheap, if you have a mission critical application - you could have an extra unit just in case.

I have had a pair of 5Kva RCT inverters running a lodge in northern Botswana for 3.5 Years now and they were subjected to 0.75Kw electric pumps, 1.5Kw chop saws, angle grinders and even a complete dead short on the output on one occasion and survived. However, no argument that the build quality on Victron is the best I have seen and the accuracy of their voltage set points is unparalelled.Victron is extremely robust when subjected to unfriendly loads. Their Mppts provide the highest solar production of any product ive seen, and a whole lot better than the built --in MPPT on the RCT. My question in my mind is how well either of these products would hold up bolted to a truck body on a corrugated road - its a concern about mechanical stress. I would think you need to reduce that risk by finding suitable rubbery shock absorbing mounting method.

HI Sorry, my bad for using wrong terminology. The victron multi I'm looking at drives the (large torroid) transformers with HF PWM sine wave at low voltage. The HF designs I was referring to are similar in so far as HF pwm but no large torroids/ large copper transformers involved, for eg RCT/ voltronics type units. Ref my comments on efficiency, I refer to the Victron info below. https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Output-rating-operating-temperature-and-efficiency.pdf This indicates 86% efficiency for a multi 3K at close to full load. I shall assume similar stats for larger of their inverters. I think I dont quite get as good figures by a few percent in real life. There are probably a few external factors (eg wiring losses) that will add a few percent losses. Whlie we are discussing this, I am realising I havent measured up, and this prompts me to go make some detailed measurements on my site when next there, then I can make a precision comment. Do you know of a victron approved repair facility in SA that fixes boards? or is it a case of module replacement?

Do you know where one can find any circuit diagrams or tech info on the victron stuff? Seems like theres nothing out there.I must say the victron stuff is impressive in terms of build quality and resilience Ive installed a number of larger quattro's in the field 10 and 15Kva models and they are very resilient to abusive loads. However they are not so efficient in terms of DC conversion losses (round 80%) in my large off grid solar systems (no fault of thiers, just the limitation of LF transfromers) - I am beginning to think of using HF inverters again for the inverter part of my offgrid sytems simply not to lose the additional 10-15%. energy in the system (difference between efficiency of the LF and HF inverters). Adding 15% to the battery capacity is no joke in the larger systems - one begins to think hard about losing 15% of your power for the sake of a more bullet proof inverter topology.

Recently was asked to look at a faulty Victron multiplus 3Kva 48V inverter. The symptom was that on switching inverter switch on, when unit attempts to start inverter (with or without load attached) unit emits load buzz noise, then only the overload led comes on and there is no output. Problem turned out to be one of the two torroid transformers 220V winding was internally shorted. The torroids consist of a 220V winding and two presumably 48V windings which are simply run in paralell. Interestingly there are 2 x torroid transformers in the Victron units and each torroid has separate "H" bridge FET bank to drive the primary windings and the 220V secondary windings are simply paralelled to supply the load. To my limited knowledge all the victron inverters share the same basic design so this info may be useful to you guys out there when you come accross this symptom. Interestingly the user claims the problem occurred without warning. Also interesting is that the transformers have built in temp sense devices in the windings, so its hard to imagine how the transformer windings could have got 'cooked' without the unit having shut down. Takes a fair amount of effort and ingenuity to fry windings on large torroids.Uusally the FETS go for a smaoke break first!

I want to set a victron ccgx to user level instead of user& installer. when I follow menu items 'general - access level - and then select 'user', when i press enter key I am prompted to enter password. I didn’t put a password, the dealer that sold it to me says he didint put password. Is password required to change from user& installer to "user"? If password is not known, what to do? I dont see anything in the victron manual about this situation.

HI I recently installed an SMA sunny Tripower 25Kw 3 phase GT inverter with SMA energy meter and SMA sunny home manager there are 15Kw of panels attached- however the readings below were taken during my experiments with only 5Kw of panels attached. I configured the export limitation settings on the home manager and the inverter per the SMA 'official" youtube webinars for '0W' of export. I have strange readings on my 'el cheapo' amp clamp meter. The above readings for utility make no sense when the GT inverter is operating. I conclude the slight differences in readings between load and utility amps with the GT switched off relate to the lack of accuracy on the cheap clamp meter and slight timing differences as I take the readings and the laod changes in that time. My problem is this - the SMA portal graphs will show zero import/ export during the day, however the utility smart meter is showing that power is being consumed (or perhaps exported since it is the type of meter that charges customer whichever way the power flows). I can see the inverter divides the power generated equally accross the phases - I understand this relates to power regulations when one is exporting to grid, however I dont understand why this is needed when there is zero export? Has anybody got experience with SMA tripower and export limit setups? what should the behaiour be? Can anybody explain the wierd current measurments - what is that caused by? Regards Ralph

I also have a 15kw 3 phase SMA GT installation at the office with a SMA energy meter limiter. I note that it takes about 3 seconds to react.

I opened up the top cover on my infini today to track down the burning smell. It seems to come from the upper left choke. I put a computer fan on top of the unit running permanently and this appears to have cooled the choke off and the smell has gone away. I wonder why that choke is heating up.

Im in Botswana. The metres here are made by Hexing and they carry the SDS logo. They dont trip out if you reverse feed them, they just bill you for exported power.

good news. My infini 3Kw plus with SDM630 meter is working well and limiting power to the grid as it should be! The magic in my case was unchecking (taking away the tick) on the 'export to grid' setting in grid tie with backup II mode and also running a new piece of signal cable away from any power cables between the inverter and the meter situated 30 metres from inverter. All my other settings are as per infini , Modbus card and SDM630 documentation. When I used a piece of signal cable that was running in same conduit as my power cables the infini wasnt getting any comms from the SDM 630 and was only paying attention to its internal current shunt. I find that if I unplug the RS485 link I get the same effect/fault as using a signal cable that is running in same conduit as power cable. If I tick the box for 'export to grid' then the infini runs full throttle into the grid with no limitation. I note that the feed in to grid calibration does in fact work and one can fine tune the 'sweet spot' so that there is virtually no over and undershoot (within approx 100watts) related to feeding back into the grid. I note the limiter takes between 5 and 15 seconds to react to changing load conditions. Having driven myself bonkers trying everything else..... I had a hunch the 220V wiring was overowering the piddly litle RS485 signals due to the cose proximity and long paralell run next to power cables. Nex I am going ot order a RS485 wireless link from fleabay and get rid of the wires altogether. My Infini is working well, but has a vague burning smell - do these units suffer from problems with failing capacitors? hope my info helps others. Regards Ralph

Wetkit... I also have an infini 3kw plus. I have the SDM630 modbus meter. My smart meter doesnt trip, however my infini is not limiting exported power and is exporting all excess power to the grid. Did you manage to get yours to limit export to zero?