June 12, 20197 yr Hi guys I subscribed to topic (N/xxxxxx/system/0/Ac/ActiveIn/Source), when == 1 then Grid is there, when != 1 Grid failed, kick off email (will be replaced with iPhone integration str), to catch a Grid failure and email me, but have had these a couple of times now, mostly during the early morning hours when people asleep. Is there a way to somehow confirm there was a grid failure, and is this just one message on failure, is there a catchup message on when the grid feed is restored?
June 12, 20197 yr Just a thought, you could look at your AC input voltage, because it is probable that your input voltage drops below the minimum threshold setup on the inverter (180V IIRC) So technically there is grid power, the multi is just ignoring it, till it comes back into spec. Edited June 12, 20197 yr by PJJ
June 12, 20197 yr Author Had a look, from the logs visible on VRM (coming from the ET112) my input voltage never dropped below 210V G
June 12, 20197 yr The inverter might be doing a relay test. I've never been around to see mine doing one, but they do it every few days. This requires disconnecting the grid for around 30 seconds or so. Perhaps you can confirm if that is the case? A simple way is to debounce it. Don't send the notification unless it persists for more than 60 seconds. Also note that vrmlogger has different strategies to how it logs things. Some values will be logged immediately when they are changed (settings). Others are only logged on interval (once every 60 seconds or 5 minutes or whatever, this would be for things that jitter a lot, like voltage), and some might be logged immediately when they change but also on interval (alarms). This means a dip or a spike in the voltage is easily missed.
June 12, 20197 yr Author ok, will try and use the big timer on Node-Red and add some logic to try and first wait for 60 seconds before we cry wolf. Is there a topic that we can look at to see if it's doing the relay test ? maybe see that one fire followed by a grid failure then ignore both, as a second method. G
June 12, 20197 yr 52 minutes ago, plonkster said: The inverter might be doing a relay test. I've never been around to see mine doing one, but they do it every few days. This requires disconnecting the grid for around 30 seconds or so. Perhaps you can confirm if that is the case? Aha! I have heard the relays tap dancing thinking it was Eskom going off / coming on when it was not. My Geyserwise reboots adhoc - peeping sound - which I thought was power dipping but could never see it on the Carlo's data.
June 12, 20197 yr BTW, keep your eye on this one. Once that is implemented it will become a whole lot easier.
June 12, 20197 yr Author ... I saw the Carlo got 2 data ports, and then I know it is behind the DB face plate conjured via think serial bus directly into the VenusGX. How do I get to the Carlo data itself... thinking a drop in voltage at that level for more than 60seconds would be the true indicator of a grid failure. G
June 12, 20197 yr Author just wondering... as I have a prepaid => 2 way input selector (Grid or Genset) => Carlo => ACInput (Victron) my thinking is in my setup the Victron will never know if the feed is coming from Grid or Genset. G
June 12, 20197 yr 1 minute ago, georgelza said: ... I saw the Carlo got 2 data ports, and then I know it is behind the DB face plate conjured via think serial bus directly into the VenusGX. It's RS485. It's all just connected together, and you're supposed to terminate it at the last point (though at 9600baud this is hardly necessary). 2 minutes ago, georgelza said: How do I get to the Carlo data itself The service name is "grid". So something like N/xxxxxx/grid/??/Ac/L1/Voltage, fill in the ?? with the device instance (probably 30), grid meters start at 30.
June 12, 20197 yr 1 minute ago, georgelza said: my thinking is in my setup the Victron will never know if the feed is coming from Grid or Genset. Correct. Only a Quattro can know that 🙂 You can put an energy meter on the generator output and use that to detect when the genny is running. If you use the generator start/stop on venus, there is also a path on dbus that indicates its status and why it is running, ie what condition started it. Don't ask for details, I'd have to go read the source to figure that out and I'm too lazy right now 😉
June 12, 20197 yr Author My world, petrol gene, needs the choke pulled (not diesel) so edifying for auto start is not an option, otherwise ye configure auto start with a carlo would have been considered. G
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