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Victron Advice Needed

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  • This is most likely caused by the grid voltage dropping below the normal working threshold for the UPS.  The voltage on one of my phases often drops below 200V in the early evening.  If it drops

  • I think the important part here is that with LFP there isn't really as much of a minimum current  as you have with lead acid. Charge is incredibly efficient and you could charge the battery from empty

  • You need this only for firmware updates. But usually you do need to update the firmware during installation, so unless you have a friend who can do this for you once off, it is good to have the dongle

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18 minutes ago, georgelza said:

so you want to spend the money on lithium-ion and then run them SoC/DoD as if they are Lead Acid's...

I'm pretty sure if you look at say your cell phone... which is  a lithium ion, which gets drained to 5-10% daily and it survives...

ye sure Lithium-ion is not as old as lead acid, come on people, they not exactly 1 year old... they have been around for a couple of years, and all the mfg's run 1000's of cycles on various config's to test what works and what not... allot more testing that any of us combined can imagine.

G

Hmmm just replaced four Apple lithium batteries. Not so old as well. And quite expensive as well. 

Tell the truth, we decided to follow solar guidelines and not run them down low before charging. 

35 minutes ago, georgelza said:

so you want to spend the money on lithium-ion and then run them SoC/DoD as if they are Lead Acid's...

I'm pretty sure if you look at say your cell phone... which is  a lithium ion, which gets drained to 5-10% daily and it survives...

ye sure Lithium-ion is not as old as lead acid, come on people, they not exactly 1 year old... they have been around for a couple of years, and all the mfg's run 1000's of cycles on various config's to test what works and what not... allot more testing that any of us combined can imagine.

G

I hear you but I don't agree.

If the manufacturer claims XYZ, then that is what it must deliver but I don't see that happening. Not with Lead Acids and not with lithiums. Too many factors in the real world affecting them, like there: 1) Temp, 2) DoD and 3) how they are charged.

I work on 5 years that a bank will last. If they exceed that, well that is awesome for the owner.
The rest of us got the batts that was manufacturer on a Monday morning after a soccer world cup, that stood in a store for 1 year. 🙂 

Edited by Guest

3 hours ago, phil.g00 said:

I remember Y2K,  they all couldn’t be wrong about new technology, surely not...

We were camping in the woods. The nearest cellphone reception was an hour's walk and another half hour's drive. And a few cups of coffee ;) My Nokia 6110's NiMh battery (what is this weird thing called Lithium?) lasted about 3 hours between charges, which took about 3 hours to charge. The lister engine only run for an hour at night, though it ran till about 1am that night since it was new year's. 

We didn't know what the Y2k bug did to the world. We didn't know how many planes fell out of the sky. I didn't know if I would have a job, since I worked for an ISP. But my Ford Escord XR3 started fine since SkyNet couldn't infect it and I drove up the hill to phone a friend and wish him happy birthday. 

Yes, those were interesting times. I think people made more money out of Y2K PCI cards back then than solar solutions now 🙄

12 hours ago, georgelza said:

I'm pretty sure if you look at say your cell phone... which is  a lithium ion, which gets drained to 5-10% daily and it survives...

To be fair, it's totally different chemistries. Well, not totally, both are lithium, but LFP is quite a different beast to the rest. If my LFPs only last the 3 years or so that most cell phones do... that's going to be a problem 🙂

9 hours ago, SilverNodashi said:

Nokia 6110's NiMh

I still have a 6310i. Still works. NiCd batteries as far as I know. The original one with the memory effect... but if you ran them down properly they last decades. Mine still holds a charge. If I leave the phone off... and turn it on 6 months later... HELLO... battery is still good. Perfect phone for an emergency kit. Lasts a week too...

Hi there

 

I hope i am in the right place to ask a question or 2......

 

My system consisting of a 48 volt 4000 watt multiplus 2 , venus gx , 2 us3000b pylontec and 12 x 3000 mono solar pannels was installed about a month ago.

 

It s running great but i have a couple of questions......

 

I seem to struggle to get the remote console to work , i have telkom 4g lte running at home to wich the system is connected , on the portal all the info displays and updates but when i want to open the remote console it doesnt , basicaly says it cant connect , is there settings on the rooter that i need to change ? Lte i presume doesn't have a static ip , is this the problem and how do i get around it ?

 

Also , what is the right voltages to charge the battery to , pylontec manual seems to say 53.2 but my installer says victron recomends 52.3 ?

 

Does victron have a support line localy in SA ?

 

Thanks in advance for the help

 

Morne

1 hour ago, plonkster said:

I still have a 6310i. Still works. NiCd batteries as far as I know. The original one with the memory effect... but if you ran them down properly they last decades. Mine still holds a charge. If I leave the phone off... and turn it on 6 months later... HELLO... battery is still good. Perfect phone for an emergency kit. Lasts a week too...

My dad moved a while ago and left some stuff in my garage as he couldn't take everything with. This was probably a year ago, or thereabouts. So the other day I find this plastic bag with some receipts, and a tablet! Samsung 7", don't know the model number. I switch it on and it had 80% battery left. He thought someone stole it and "wrote it off" long ago, was very pleased to get it again. Even more surprised when I gave it to him a few weeks ago and it had power. 

My daughter's Sony Arc S, which was mine, about 8 years ago, still holds a day's charge. The Samsung Core last about half a day though. So these things can last long. 

1 hour ago, Morras said:

Also , what is the right voltages to charge the battery to , pylontec manual seems to say 53.2 but my installer says victron recomends 52.3 ?

Turn on DVCC (under Settings, System Setup) and the system will automatically 1) listen to the charge and discharge current limits the battery specifies, and 2) it will cap the voltage at 52V. I'm not sure where you heard that Victron recommends 52.3V 🙂 In general, with LFP batteries, going a bit lower is better for the battery and it avoids unnecessary switch-off events because once you get to 53.2V it spikes to over 54V really really easily.

1 hour ago, Morras said:

Does victron have a support line localy in SA ?

You talk to your installer first. Victron spends a lot of time training people (often for free or at really low cost) so that the installer can solve these issues. If the installer cannot solve it, they will escalate it to the local reseller (there are two in the country, one in Gauteng and one in Cape Town). If they don't have an answer, they will escalate it to level3 support (which is in NL). If the first line level3 guy cannot handle it, it gets assigned to an R & D guy, usually the one who actually built the part you have trouble with.

7 minutes ago, plonkster said:

(there are two in the country, one in Gauteng and one in Cape Town)

3, on in Groerge too.

Thanks for the reply Plonkster !

Any advice for the whole lte problem ? Is it settings on the router maybe ? Specific ports that need to be added or opened ?

I get the idea that telkom might be seeing it as a hack and therefore blocking it ?

39 minutes ago, Morras said:

Thanks for the reply Plonkster !

Any advice for the whole lte problem ? Is it settings on the router maybe ? Specific ports that need to be added or opened ?

I get the idea that telkom might be seeing it as a hack and therefore blocking it ?

Hi Morrass

I think you have to enable this on the CCGX first. See Settings -> Remote Console -> Enable on VRM.

46 minutes ago, Morras said:

Any advice for the whole lte problem ? Is it settings on the router maybe ? Specific ports that need to be added or opened ?

Once you enable remote console on VRM as NigelL explained, there should be nothing extra that needs doing. The CCGX will make an outgoing connection on port 443 (which is normally https, so very very unlikely to be blocked) and tunnel all communications through these connections. The connections are made from the inside, so most firewalls (which only blocks incoming connections and have very soft rules on outgoing connections) will have no problem with it. Additionally, should port 443 be blocked, it will fall back to ports 80 and 22.

The port also has to be logged to the remote end so VRM can connect back to you over the tunnel. Sometimes this fails or goes out of sync (rarely), but then a reboot or just toggling the VRM switch off and back on usually fixes it (if you are in a hurry).

Thanks again for the reply gents, the thing is.....i can access it from my laptop in the house over my wi fi , cant access it from my cell phone or tablet and neither can the people who installed it.

 

Vrm works on all my devices and the data is updated no problem.even my phone and tablet wont open the remote console whilst connected to my wi fi at home.

 

Thanks for the imput so far.

 

6 hours ago, Morras said:

Thanks again for the reply gents, the thing is.....i can access it from my laptop in the house over my wi fi , cant access it from my cell phone or tablet and neither can the people who installed it.

PM me your VRM ID, I'd like to take a look.

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Author

image.png.843864be38e348687f089ff58c2825c2.png

I came up with this last night while trying to set up ESS. I know it refers to some sort of GND/N issue. 

 

 

 

Edited by VisN

4 hours ago, VisN said:

image.png.843864be38e348687f089ff58c2825c2.png

I came up with this last night while trying to set up ESS. I know it refers to some sort of GND/N issue. 

 

 

 

So here is what the inverter does. It checks that you have an N-PE bond on the input side. Then it checks that you DON'T have an N-PE bond on the output side. Then it checks the bonding relay to make sure it works. I'm sure it does a few other things as well. If you slow the clatter-sound way down you should hear it click about 8 times. My theory is that there are three relays that's tested. 2^3 = 8 🙂

In rare cases a surge arrestor or EMI filter on the output can cause this. It's worse with the older Multigrid inverters and much better with the new Multiplus-II. Some of these EMI filters pass enough current between the lines and earth that it can be mistaken for a bond (especially when the test lasts only milliseconds).

Also... update the firmware to 459. There are many many fixes for Error 11 in 459.

Edited by plonkster

  • Author
 
 
 
4 hours ago, plonkster said:

 Also... update the firmware to 459. There are many many fixes for Error 11 in 459.

I am already on 459. I hope this is fairly easy to fix. 

54 minutes ago, VisN said:

      I am already on 459. I hope this is fairly easy to fix.

The usual process of trial and error. Cycle the power while nothing is connected to the output and see if the relay test succeeds. Then turn on main breaker on the output, do it again. Then turn on breakers one by one. And so forth.

  • 8 months later...
  • Author

Finally.

image.thumb.png.bd91d30e500c4b543de3e824bf55ba01.png

 

image.png.313705360a5b953ca3f15823b596b4c8.png

 

Thank you immensely Jaco de Jong. What a man. 

MPII 3kVA

Venus

2 x US3000B

SmartSolar 150/70 

6 x 315W JA Monos (Generating in excess of their rated wattage at midday. 2011W vs 1890W expected)

 

Super happy. 

 

one thing I'll say bout our forum, the guys are always helpful and friendly, I'm on loads of forums and at times you just have to shake you head at the aggressive nature/vibe of some of the forums.

Looks nice

G

  • Author

Thanks George. 

I forgot to add that Jaco also fixed the ground relay error that had plagued my installation. I cannot say enough good things about Jaco.

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