12 hours ago, mafiose13 said:

I'm not sure if once the 55.06 is patched up whether it will work for you or not

Yes, like all the other VM III Twin firmwares (56.97, 60.90, 56.09), it works on 6 kW as well as 4  kW models. 55.06 is the latest of these, with VP5K.hex dated 05/Jan/2023.

EDIT: Actually, this file had the wrong date on it; it's actually 4/Oct/2022. So the latest is at present actually 56.97, dated 20/Oct/2022.

Edited January 12, 20233 yr by Coulomb

4 hours ago, Coulomb said:

 55.06 is the latest of these, with VP5K.hex dated 05/Jan/2023.

There must something wrong, as I received this version Dec 21. I think u had previously mentioned that the actual file was date September. 

10 hours ago, mafiose13 said:

I'll ask, but they don't have yet any VMIIIs twin yet in their stock so I  doub they'll be helpful...In my case eventhough bought 6 units of this VMIII 4k from them Ive been waiting a month now for the promissed firmware....not holding my breath !!!

On the other hand, I'm not sure if once the 55.06 is patched up whether it will work for you or not, more experienced people can give you their input @Coulomb on that one. 

Have you the VIII 4kw 24v? do you have problems? mppt works fine? 

5 minutes ago, lucass said:

Have you the VIII 4kw 24v? do you have problems? mppt works fine? 

Yes that's what I have. I did flash the 55.06 on all 3 of my units. They are an improvement from the factory 55.02, but still suffer from the following bugs as previously stated throughout this thread:

- Premature float 

- Stuck at 120 mppt morning/afternoon and mediocre  output in cloudy weather. 

- Random early termination of battery equalization 

I can't say I'm happy with it, but I'm sort of stuck as it's my only "safe option" until i either receive a different version from the supplier or this one is graciously patched up by the master contributors on this forum. Either way ill share anything i have on this thread. 

20 minutes ago, mafiose13 said:

Yes that's what I have. I did flash the 55.06 on all 3 of my units. They are an improvement from the factory 55.02, but still suffer from the following bugs as previously stated throughout this thread:

- Premature float 

- Stuck at 120 mppt morning/afternoon and mediocre  output in cloudy weather. 

- Random early termination of battery equalization 

I can't say I'm happy with it, but I'm sort of stuck as it's my only "safe option" until i either receive a different version from the supplier or this one is graciously patched up by the master contributors on this forum. Either way ill share anything i have on this thread. 

where did you buy this inverter? Didn't the seller give you any other updates?  a curiosity because I would like to buy it too how much power does the inverter on without load consume?

Edited January 12, 20233 yr by lucass

1 hour ago, mafiose13 said:

There must something wrong, as I received this version Dec 21.

Ah, yes, I should have realised. This file had the wrong date, as it came in a file with the wrong file extension. I've fixed that up now, and its date seems to be 4/Oct/2022, so it's not quite the latest (which is 56.97).

3 hours ago, Coulomb said:

Ah, yes, I should have realised. This file had the wrong date, as it came in a file with the wrong file extension. I've fixed that up now, and its date seems to be 4/Oct/2022, so it's not quite the latest (which is 56.97).

The 56.97 is patched? if u checked and compare it to the 55.06 do you forsee any compatibility issues if i flash the 56.97 on the VMIII 24v 4kw units if you are saying it's newer (and assuming it's patched for the known bugs)?

4 hours ago, lucass said:

where did you buy this inverter? Didn't the seller give you any other updates?  a curiosity because I would like to buy it too how much power does the inverter on without load consume?

I'm in Lebanon mate. The seller provided the 55.06 as an update to the factory installed 55.02, last month and hasn't responded to my requests for further updates since then 

25 minutes ago, mafiose13 said:

The 56.97 is patched?

No, none of the VM III Twin firmwares is patched as yet, as far as I know. VM firmware is technically much more challenging.

I'm still trying to figure out which one I would patch, and what the differences are. One has 12 fewer commands than the others, and a function associated with power limits is twice the size in one compared to another.

30 minutes ago, mafiose13 said:

if u checked and compare it to the 55.06 do you forsee any compatibility issues if i flash the 56.97 on the VMIII 24v 4kw units if you are saying it's newer

At this stage, I would have to say that this is still unknown, sorry.

33 minutes ago, Coulomb said:

I'm still trying to figure out which one I would patch, and what the differences are. One has 12 fewer commands than the others, and a function associated with power limits is twice the size in one compared to another.

Perfect, from your answer i guess I won't take any chances yet. 

How can I incentivize you to start with mine 😁😁😁? Ill be your tour guide, hiking, climbing if you're ever in Lebanon

1 hour ago, mafiose13 said:

The 56.97 is patched? if u checked and compare it to the 55.06 do you forsee any compatibility issues if i flash the 56.97 on the VMIII 24v 4kw units if you are saying it's newer (and assuming it's patched for the known bugs)?

how much power does the inverter draw without load ?

So I took a leap of faith and flashed 1 of my units with U2 19.16. I can confirm that it worked and didn't brick my display. 

The update from 19.12, corrected the odd menu setting 38 which is now no longer visible to me. All other menu/sub menu settings remained the same. Not sure if ill notice any improvements elsewhere, ill report back if i do

17 hours ago, lucass said:

how much power does the inverter draw without load ?

About 15w at no load with low fans and floating batteries. 50w when loaded. 

PS: These r average values

Edited January 13, 20233 yr by mafiose13

3 hours ago, mafiose13 said:

About 15w at no load with low fans and floating batteries. 50w when loaded. 

PS: These r average values

What is the maximum power it can deliver? did you do any tests?

1 hour ago, lucass said:

What is the maximum power it can deliver? did you do any tests?

I did not load test specifically for load testing, but I've loaded it up to 3-3.2kw in normal operation. 

On 2023/01/13 at 1:00 PM, lucass said:

What is the maximum power it can deliver? did you do any tests?

I did a load test today on one of the units, i went up to 4.1kw all resistive load with no issues for 15min.

Running a capacitative load at 3.7kw tripped a 58 code within 10 seconds. 

So to answer your question about max load, i guess it depends on your load. 

Maybe someone else more knowledgeable can explain why

13 hours ago, mafiose13 said:

I did a load test today on one of the units, i went up to 4.1kw all resistive load with no issues for 15min.

Running a capacitative load at 3.7kw tripped a 58 code within 10 seconds. 

So to answer your question about max load, i guess it depends on your load. 

Maybe someone else more knowledgeable can explain why

excellent result, I was going to use it to charge the ev, I think it is resistive load

@Coulomb just an fyi (since you like keeping track of things). I just finished updating the U2 to 19.16 (from 19.12) on all 6 units (3 for me + 3 for friends who have the same unit). I can confirm that this update fixed: 

- Odd menu setting 38 with 00/00 is no longer there.  

- No longer prematurely terminating equalization charging at 30-40min randomly, regardless of time originally set. 

Obviously, no effect on premature float bug or stuck at 120v symptom. I am still counting on your help or @Georg594 on that one, when either of your time permits to patch 55.06. 

15 minutes ago, mafiose13 said:

@Coulomb just an fyi (since you like keeping track of things). I just finished updating the U2 to 19.16 (from 19.12) on all 6 units (3 for me + 3 for friends who have the same unit). I can confirm that this update fixed: 

- Odd menu setting 38 with 00/00 is no longer there.  

- No longer prematurely terminating equalization charging at 30-40min randomly, regardless of time originally set. 

Obviously, no effect on premature float bug or stuck at 120v symptom. I am still counting on your help or @Georg594 on that one, when either of your time permits to patch 55.06. 

is your model not on the voltronic website? it's a 4kw 24v but it doesn't have a double output, right? do you have the mppt with range from 60v to 450v ? or 120v to 450v?

 

2 hours ago, lucass said:

is your model not on the voltronic website? it's a 4kw 24v but it doesn't have a double output, right? do you have the mppt with range from 60v to 450v ? or 120v to 450v?

 

No not on their site. It's a 4kw 24v yes but not twin and not their 3.6kw VMIII  probably custom boosted & branded for the reseller as such so  VMIII 4KW, let's call it a VMIII.5 😀

MPPT 120 to 450

Hello everyone,

In comparing battery charging performance for the 2 battery settings Flooded VS User, for 2x240Ah (24v system) tubular lead acid batteries, both on clear sunny days, and both cycles starting from about the battery voltage status ~23.9/24v @ 20A charging current.

Left or top screenshot (L) is for batttery setting: user, Bulk 29.2v, Float 27.2v

Right or bottom screenshot (R)setting: Flooded, Bulk 29.2v (default), Float 27v (default).

The major difference is the reaaaaally long absorption phase in R (5hrs) vs L (1.5hrs). 

Time in bulk to reach and switch to float is about the same (2hrs). 

Float time to reach 0A charging current about 1.5 hrs for both. 

Battery performance at night indicates that by next day L reached CV voltage set at 23v by 4AM, while R maintained 23.8v till next day solar charging cycle. 

@Coulomb could the premature float bug be a setting-related issue made worse by cloudy weather, perceived drop in PV charge to trigger an early float in an already premature setting? In this case and in best case, apple to apple scenario the "flooded" setting provided a full charge cycle as opposed to "User" set with same parameters. 

My only issue with "flooded" setting is the low CV default @ 21v (cannot be changed in this setting), which doesn't really protect battery longevity, but then again this is not a good reflection of SOC or open circuit voltage. So in hind sight, why would voltronic default such a low, unhealthy CV? Don't they know better, or do they not care about our battery investment?

Changing to user...put us in a battery undercharged battery situation even it completes a full charge cycle and reaches 0A float. 

Any takes, opinions? 

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 20233 yr by mafiose13

On 2023/01/22 at 1:43 AM, mafiose13 said:

The major difference is the reaaaaally long absorption phase in R (5hrs) vs L (1.5hrs). 

I see about the same time in absorb (the short peak) on both, as expected. For the (L) graph, I see several periods of zero charge (battery voltage drops to around 25 V), what are sometimes called "dips". But those dips are 1.5 and 2.5 hours long!

On 2023/01/22 at 1:43 AM, mafiose13 said:

@Coulomb could the premature float bug be a setting-related issue made worse by cloudy weather, perceived drop in PV charge to trigger an early float in an already premature setting?

1.5h seems OK for an absorb time. The premature float bug should affect USE and FLD battery types exactly the same, I believe. But certainly cloudy weather can provoke the premature float bug, and if you have good weather all day, that can cause the premature float bug to not appear at all.

 

On 2023/01/22 at 1:43 AM, mafiose13 said:

Battery performance at night indicates that by next day L reached CV voltage set at 23v by 4AM,

I assume you mean low DC cut-off by 4am. Your battery seems to charge very fast; I wonder if it's showing high internal resistance because of months of poor charging due to the premature float bug.

I've gotten one patch off yesterday, I'll see what I can do about this one. The main premature float bug is a simple one-byte patch, trivial to add to the larger "stuck at 120V" patch. Well, it's trivial when you know where to patch. It took me months of part time searching the first time. Even yesterday with the first VM III firmware I've touched in a while it took hours to find. But now I have found it, it should be easy enough for 55.06.

(battery voltage drops to around 25 V), what are sometimes called "dips". But those dips are 1.5 and 2.5 hours long!

On both graphs in my case solar you should look at pure solar charging from ~10AM to 4PM the rest of the time, its grid tied for charging, and grid isn't always available, so the dips are periods of no grid power and battery discharge instead. 

1.5h seems OK for an absorb time. The premature float bug should affect USE and FLD battery types exactly the same, I believe. But certainly cloudy weather can provoke the premature float bug, and if you have good weather all day, that can cause the premature float bug to not appear at all.

Perfect weather all day...not a single cloud. How can you explain the super long absorption in FLD mode. This was not on 1 day...it's been doing 4.5 hrs Absorption + 2 hr bulk consistently since switching to this mode 7 days ago.  This is a relatively new installation 1 month with brand new batteries...can't seem to justify internal resistance yet, but FLD i can attest has been providing better charging. 

But now I have found it, it should be easy enough for 55.06.

I would be eternally grateful...can't wait to get those machines tuned up. 

Edited January 23, 20233 yr by mafiose13

12 hours ago, Coulomb said:

I've gotten one patch off yesterday, I'll see what I can do about this one. The main premature float bug is a simple one-byte patch, trivial to add to the larger "stuck at 120V" patch. Well, it's trivial when you know where to patch. It took me months of part time searching the first time. Even yesterday with the first VM III firmware I've touched in a while it took hours to find. But now I have found it, it should be easy enough for 55.06.

sorry replied above 

Edited January 23, 20233 yr by mafiose13

14 hours ago, mafiose13 said:

the rest of the time, its grid tied for charging, and grid isn't always available, so the dips are periods of no grid power and battery discharge instead. 

Duh, of course. I'm spoiled; grid charging is a rare event for me, so I didn't even think of that.

14 hours ago, mafiose13 said:

How can you explain the super long absorption in FLD mode. This was not on 1 day...it's been doing 4.5 hrs Absorption + 2 hr bulk consistently since switching to this mode 7 days ago. 

Ah, you're confusing bulk and absorb stages:

The bulk stage is where the bulk of the charging takes place. How long the battery stays in bulk stage depends on how discharged it was, and the net charge current (basically solar power less load power). I just assumed that the battery was more discharged in the second graph than the first. I don't understand why you seem to be getting consistently longer bulk stages in FLD versus USE battery types.

Can you check the battery charge current for each? I can't see why they would be different.

Maybe in USE mode, you are somehow getting a much larger charge current, and somehow that's causing the BMS to do something strange.

On 2023/01/23 at 4:40 PM, Coulomb said:

But now I have found it, it should be easy enough for 55.06.

Unfortunately, one of my inverters has a dead power supply, so that has to take priority.