Do NOT discard a Dead Victron MPPT 100/30 or its kind

[HOU_Castle]

ANL fuse 70A or 80A on my Victron MPPT 100/50 output? So what was on the inside? Looks like you have a Class T 80A.
I'm replacing my Bussman 60A CB to reduce voltage drop. Don't think 500W of panels would trip it. I generally point them in different directions.

I replaced it with Bussmann 80LET 80Amp LET 150VDC Fast-Blow Cartridge Blade, which is same kind as the original fuse.

 

[Stokie]

Thanks for the info. So hard to find any help on the net with repairing my 250/60 unit.

Here's my experience:

Apologies, this is a bit long, but I think necessary, in order to give you clever reders an understanding of the situation, hoping you’ll be able to help me:

My hydro turbine, running at absolute maximum speed gave 198V DC when totally unloaded, the water pressure in the line (96 psi) being as good as it gets. The 3-phase rectifiers I'd ordered hadn't arrived, so I had used the 2 rectifier method for getting the 3 phases into DC.

My Smart Solar 250/60 was “happily" doing the typical MPPT rollercoaster revs/voltage thing to the turbine, as the MPPT constantly played with the load. Fast, slow, fast slow.

I wrote to Victron, suggesting that they write a firmware update for hydro (these units are the most recommended ones for hydro generation that I've run across so far) with a button in the bluetooth setup for "Hydro", giving the option to adjust and set the load on the input, not just the output. Their repeated negative responses to my emails weren't the most humble ones I've ever received.

I had the Assistants in my main Easy Solar unit all set up (thanks Ben Stanton) to turn on a 1200W heater load when the SoC reached 98%, and off again when the SoC dropped to 85%.

All was good, the hydro was getting around 800W, until after a few hours, it suddenly spun up to full revs.

I closed the water valve as fast as I could, and discovered that not only had the 250/60 stopped, the entire lithium BYD battery box, and my main Easy Solar system had also crashed.

After an hour or so of trying to reboot everything, I finally figured it out - I got everything disconnected, and reset the batteries with their small reset button, reconnected the battery breaker to the Easy Solar unit, then the solar panels, and after getting AC supply back on (after numerous looping AC cutouts after 4 or 5 seconds, even while running just one 6W light bulb (batteries were about 45% SoC)) I finally got the AC on and stable again.

I reconnected the Smart Solar 250/60 to the battery again, checked the logs, found it had hit 260v and cut out. This was a mystery. How could it speed up past the no-load revs?? The only thing I can think of, is that the strange rectifier setup, combined with the 250/60 unit at the other end of the cable, conspired to give the turbine a little extra push. Or that the F&P motors have some kind of free energy ability… Anyway, I set the turbine spinning again with a bigger pair of water jets, less speed but more torque.

All was good again, until the the weather changed and the creek got low, so I turned off the hydro for a few weeks. The 3 phase rectifiers arrived, so I installed one in place of the 2 square rectifiers.

Just as I was soldering up the heavy red and black DC out wires from the rectifier, visitors arrived, and I hurriedly failed to squint carefully enough at the tiny + and - markings of the rectifier, getting the DC polarity reversed. Grrrr...

When I fired the hydro up, the Smart Charger got about 190v DC backwards across the PV in terminals, which killed it dead. I was kicking myself for not including a breaker both in and out of the unit. The same strange crowbar fault happened to the BYD Battery box again, taking out the whole system.

I went through the process of getting everything restarted, with the usual 4 sec AC cutout loops, etc. When I repeatedly failed to get any sort of response from the 250/60, and realising that the warranty was voided by my mistake with the wrong polarity, I opened up the case (took about a day and a half, involving chisels, drills, a big hole saw and grinder cutting disc, due to Victron’s obsession with epoxy resin) to see whether Victron had thought to include an internal fuse. There were 2, both blown, and the 6 big capacitors were all snapped off, and needed to be replaced, due to Victron thoughtfully encasing them in resin as well, so they’d be destroyed if someone managed to get the lid off. The Victron company plummeted drastically in my opinion that day... I couldn't see any other signs of damage, apart from some heat marks on the heatsink underneath the fuses.

Anyway, I replaced the capacitors, re-soldered the 3 other components also unseated by the resin, wired in external 20A fuses to both the input and output internal fuses, and hooked the unit back up to the battery. Clunk went the Easy Solar relay, and the whole system went down again, batteries and all as before.

I'm wondering if there is some sort of temporary “protection" short across the battery terminals?

The resistance across them is 0.1 Ohms. Same with the PV terminals.

Hooking up the unit to an old 12v battery with about 1mm cables there is a small to medium spark, and the cables slowly warm up. Is there any hope for my unit? Is there a way of resetting the unit without the bluetooth?

 

[HOU_Castle]

Thanks for the info. So hard to find any help on the net with repairing my 250/60 unit.

Here's my experience:

Apologies, this is a bit long, but I think necessary, in order to give you clever reders an understanding of the situation, hoping you’ll be able to help me:

My hydro turbine, running at absolute maximum speed gave 198V DC when totally unloaded, the water pressure in the line (96 psi) being as good as it gets. The 3-phase rectifiers I'd ordered hadn't arrived, so I had used the 2 rectifier method for getting the 3 phases into DC.

My Smart Solar 250/60 was “happily" doing the typical MPPT rollercoaster revs/voltage thing to the turbine, as the MPPT constantly played with the load. Fast, slow, fast slow.

I wrote to Victron, suggesting that they write a firmware update for hydro (these units are the most recommended ones for hydro generation that I've run across so far) with a button in the bluetooth setup for "Hydro", giving the option to adjust and set the load on the input, not just the output. Their repeated negative responses to my emails weren't the most humble ones I've ever received.

I had the Assistants in my main Easy Solar unit all set up (thanks Ben Stanton) to turn on a 1200W heater load when the SoC reached 98%, and off again when the SoC dropped to 85%.

All was good, the hydro was getting around 800W, until after a few hours, it suddenly spun up to full revs.

I closed the water valve as fast as I could, and discovered that not only had the 250/60 stopped, the entire lithium BYD battery box, and my main Easy Solar system had also crashed.

After an hour or so of trying to reboot everything, I finally figured it out - I got everything disconnected, and reset the batteries with their small reset button, reconnected the battery breaker to the Easy Solar unit, then the solar panels, and after getting AC supply back on (after numerous looping AC cutouts after 4 or 5 seconds, even while running just one 6W light bulb (batteries were about 45% SoC)) I finally got the AC on and stable again.

I reconnected the Smart Solar 250/60 to the battery again, checked the logs, found it had hit 260v and cut out. This was a mystery. How could it speed up past the no-load revs?? The only thing I can think of, is that the strange rectifier setup, combined with the 250/60 unit at the other end of the cable, conspired to give the turbine a little extra push. Or that the F&P motors have some kind of free energy ability… Anyway, I set the turbine spinning again with a bigger pair of water jets, less speed but more torque.

All was good again, until the the weather changed and the creek got low, so I turned off the hydro for a few weeks. The 3 phase rectifiers arrived, so I installed one in place of the 2 square rectifiers.

Just as I was soldering up the heavy red and black DC out wires from the rectifier, visitors arrived, and I hurriedly failed to squint carefully enough at the tiny + and - markings of the rectifier, getting the DC polarity reversed. Grrrr...

When I fired the hydro up, the Smart Charger got about 190v DC backwards across the PV in terminals, which killed it dead. I was kicking myself for not including a breaker both in and out of the unit. The same strange crowbar fault happened to the BYD Battery box again, taking out the whole system.

I went through the process of getting everything restarted, with the usual 4 sec AC cutout loops, etc. When I repeatedly failed to get any sort of response from the 250/60, and realising that the warranty was voided by my mistake with the wrong polarity, I opened up the case (took about a day and a half, involving chisels, drills, a big hole saw and grinder cutting disc, due to Victron’s obsession with epoxy resin) to see whether Victron had thought to include an internal fuse. There were 2, both blown, and the 6 big capacitors were all snapped off, and needed to be replaced, due to Victron thoughtfully encasing them in resin as well, so they’d be destroyed if someone managed to get the lid off. The Victron company plummeted drastically in my opinion that day... I couldn't see any other signs of damage, apart from some heat marks on the heatsink underneath the fuses.

Anyway, I replaced the capacitors, re-soldered the 3 other components also unseated by the resin, wired in external 20A fuses to both the input and output internal fuses, and hooked the unit back up to the battery. Clunk went the Easy Solar relay, and the whole system went down again, batteries and all as before.

I'm wondering if there is some sort of temporary “protection" short across the battery terminals?

The resistance across them is 0.1 Ohms. Same with the PV terminals.

Hooking up the unit to an old 12v battery with about 1mm cables there is a small to medium spark, and the cables slowly warm up. Is there any hope for my unit? Is there a way of resetting the unit without the bluetooth?

Well, I don't know till re-examine the unit and test it. You need to replace the exact same fuse type and brand (preferably). Can you share the pic of the internal? before replacement? and after?

 

[Stokie]

Well, I don't know till re-examine the unit and test it. You need to replace the exact same fuse type and brand (preferably). Can you share the pic of the internal? before replacement? and after?

Why would I need to replace the fuses with the exact same type? Are they doing something else in the circuit other than simply waiting for a high current?

Here are a few photos of the 250/60 box opening mission: I haven't taken many after this, sorry.

 

[HOU_Castle]

Why would I need to replace the fuses with the exact same type? Are they doing something else in the circuit other than simply waiting for a high current?

Here are a few photos of the 250/60 box opening mission: I haven't taken many after this, sorry.

Each fuse type is built to perform certain functionality, such as time delay, fast acting, etc. Using improper fuse type will destroy/stress other components. Again, Victron mppt design selects certain fuse type to support its design and functionality. For fuse brand, I pick Bussmann due to its quality and will perform as per its design. Cheap Chinese brand fuse won't perform. There are many posting here about using cheap fuses, won't protect the eqpt properly. Fuse is design to protect the device for certain characteristic. I do not see the fuse/location from your pic. The capacitors look good. From my experience, any over-voltage/reverse polarity issue for Victron to blow fuse. Unless, you damage other components in the process of removing its casing/from insulation.

 

[HOU_Castle]

Why would I need to replace the fuses with the exact same type? Are they doing something else in the circuit other than simply waiting for a high current?

Here are a few photos of the 250/60 box opening mission: I haven't taken many after this, sorry.

Make sure, you CLEAN the metal debris from the board prior to energize the unit. Else, this can cause ISSUE in the future. You can use vacuum cleaner to clean it.

 

[kuranaga]

I reconnected the Smart Solar 250/60 to the battery again, checked the logs, found it had hit 260v and cut out. This was a mystery. How could it speed up past the no-load revs?? The only thing I can think of, is that the strange rectifier setup, combined with the 250/60 unit at the other end of the cable, conspired to give the turbine a little extra push. Or that the F&P motors have some kind of free energy ability… Anyway, I set the turbine spinning again with a bigger pair of water jets, less speed but more torque.

you could parallel a parasitic load directly onto the hydro turbine output, big (wattage) resistor, you will be loosing some of the power but the turbine would not then spin beyond spec. You should add a load that will draw about 10% of the nominal power.

 

[crockettjn]

All,

For those who have a failed Victron MPPT, please do not discard it.
I have few experiences to resurrect the dead Victron MPPT 100/30.View attachment 50511

I've had mine for 2 years and just got a new LFE battery. I hooked it up reverse polarity and the smoke came out. I'm not sure they will honor the warranty considering it was my fault. Any suggestions? I'm probably going to be doing the same surgery depending on the warranty response.

 

[HOU_Castle]

I've had mine for 2 years and just got a new LFE battery. I hooked it up reverse polarity and the smoke came out. I'm not sure they will honor the warranty considering it was my fault. Any suggestions? I'm probably going to be doing the same surgery depending on the warranty response.

Ask Victron to replace with it for you under Victron warranty.

 

[McRod]

Not made in USA.....enough for me. No seriously Victron was a world class company years ago, their marine gear was respected worldwide but their modern solar stuff is pretty substandard. I have trouble programming them to set values for the intended use.The Bluetooth programming thing is ridiculous , you have to buy a programmer to set your set points. It might need some special phone to use their Bluetooth App as an iPhone and several assorted googling androids could not pair with the controller, I replaced it with an American made controller that had programming built in and is all aluminum casing, not glued thermoplastic......same price, no hassles. Still there. I know that the boards are not American and I can think of only one country that can outdo China in cheep junk and that is India. Outback made the mistake of having their charge controller built in India now we are flooded with fake outback units that no one will support, the builder of the fake outback’s instruct their customers to go to the Outback forum for support. I do have a few offshore units in my systems but they are well proven systems from proven manufacturers who do support their equipment.

If you can't program Victron gear, you must be from China. Victron is quality, user friendly gear. You can tell the OP likes to frankenstein stuff, on a budget, so there is no wonder his Victron failed. Its not representative of the manufacturer. I have 5 Victron MPPT controllers, none of them have ever had a problem.

 

[Pappion]

If you can't program Victron gear, you must be from China. Victron is quality, user friendly gear. You can tell the OP likes to frankenstein stuff, on a budget, so there is no wonder his Victron failed. Its not representative of the manufacturer. I have 5 Victron MPPT controllers, none of them have ever had a problem.

WRONG!!! My Motorola Android phone could not do the updates. I had to use my older Samsung tablet. My new Moto phone works OK.
My batteries bluetooth is trouble free.

 

[McRod]

WRONG!!! My Motorola Android phone could not do the updates. I had to use my older Samsung tablet. My new Moto phone works OK.
My batteries bluetooth is trouble free.

Yeah, it probably don't work on flip phones. May need to update into the 21st century. JMHO.

 

[tim0shel]

In my research for repairing a Victron 100/30 obviously I came across this thread. So I have one that may fallen victim of similar here and it could have been caused by reverse polarity to battery. Although mine still works connects to app etc I can not get any output over 1amp to the battery.
In app settings if I set the controller over 1amp it just shows 0 watts. If changed to 1 amp in settings it will work just fine showing wattage input yet only 1amp to the battery.

Based on the above I can not say I have a fuse issue and like to hear others inputs as to what this could be?

 

[HOU_Castle]

In my research for repairing a Victron 100/30 obviously I came across this thread. So I have one that may fallen victim of similar here and it could have been caused by reverse polarity to battery. Although mine still works connects to app etc I can not get any output over 1amp to the battery.
In app settings if I set the controller over 1amp it just shows 0 watts. If changed to 1 amp in settings it will work just fine showing wattage input yet only 1amp to the battery.

Based on the above I can not say I have a fuse issue and like to hear others inputs as to what this could be?

My suggestion is to do triage/test on each component (starts with the one fails often). That's what I did. It will be time consuming, but you may save hundreds of dollars and having fun to repair it. You just need to invest time to do so.

 

[octal_ip]

I opened up the case (took about a day and a half, involving chisels, drills, a big hole saw and grinder cutting disc, due to Victron’s obsession with epoxy resin) to see whether Victron had thought to include an internal fuse. There were 2, both blown, and the 6 big capacitors were all snapped off, and needed to be replaced, due to Victron thoughtfully encasing them in resin as well, so they’d be destroyed if someone managed to get the lid off. The Victron company plummeted drastically in my opinion that day... I couldn't see any other signs of damage, apart from some heat marks on the heatsink underneath the fuses.

After reading this thread I'd be far less likely to buy any Victron gear. If I was to pay the premium for top quality equipment, I'd expect to be able to open, diagnose and repair it after the warranty expires. It's clear in this case that Victron intended these to be throw-away items, making design and manufacturing decisions that would prevent any kind of maintenance to even the simplest components like fuses.
I understand not everyone cares about the option to repair equipment, but for those who do this has been a fair warning.

 

[sunsurfer]

It will probably last much longer without the heat trap cover in place. One of my biggest gripes about Victron is the cheap flimsy housings. If you we could some how merge the EPEVER aluminum housing with Victron internals and software, it would be a good mid grade unit.

 

[tim0shel]

My suggestion is to do triage/test on each component (starts with the one fails often). That's what I did. It will be time consuming, but you may save hundreds of dollars and having fun to repair it. You just need to invest time to do so.

Yes I know this is something I've already not had time to do. Just been using my 75/15 Victron which has like an external fuse which I like. Maybe start looking into getting that cover off after few more test and then.

 

[Goboatingnow]

I have a Victron mppt 100/20 damaged by lightening strike. The output mosfets I suspect are gone as there is a direct short on the mppt dc output.

Is it possible to open these ? What’s involved

 

[HOU_Castle]

I have a Victron mppt 100/20 damaged by lightening strike. The output mosfets I suspect are gone as there is a direct short on the mppt dc output.

Is it possible to open these ? What’s involved

Will it power up? when connected to battery.

 

[Goboatingnow]

Will it power up? when connected to battery.

Nope