Victron MultiPlus Stopped showing AC Input Watts

[stroodle96]

On my Multiplus 48V 3000VA 35amp(charger), It no longer shows the AC input watts. It just shows 0 watts when connected to shore power. If I disconnect shore power it shows a dash(-) for AC input, so I know the inverter knows the shore power is connected.

It also does not shows any watts for AC load when shore is connected. When I disconnect shore power it will shows the load watts from the inverter.

I can see on my generator screen that it is drawing watts from shore and charging the battery. (See screenshots.)

This is a new install. It was all working initially, then when I checked again in about 30 minutes, the AC loads and Input where both showing zero. I had a constant 1400Watts draw on the inverter the whole time.

My inverter was on firmware v501 and the Cerbo 2.92. I updated the cerbo GX to 2.93 and the multiplus to V502. Same issue persisted.

Screenshot is what it looked like with a constant 1400 watt heater running off the inverter and the shore power connect to the generator. ( I know it says last updated 4 minutes ago, but it looked the same even when that said "realtime") The EG4-LL battery screen also showed the battery charging at 25+amps.

So everything seems to be working fine, except it does not show the input and load watts when connected to shore.

Any ideas???

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Try turning off DC system.

 

[stroodle96]

Try turning off DC system.

I have shutoff all power to the inverter and let it sit overnight and still no change.

I also disabled the DC system toggle in the cerbo in case that's what you were talking about.

Here are some more screenshots after disabling the DC system toggle. In the first one, you can see the eg4-ll is charging at 20amps, yet AC Inputs is showing zero.

 

[stroodle96]

I have shutoff all power to the inverter and let it sit overnight and still no change.

I also disabled the DC system toggle in the cerbo in case that's what you were talking about.

Here are some more screenshots after disabling the DC system toggle. In the first one, you can see the eg4-ll is charging at 20amps, yet AC Inputs is showing zero.

Try turning off DC system.

Or did you mean to leave shore power connected and turn off the 48v battery?? Is it okay to not have the battery connected to the multiplus and supply it with grid power?

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Or did you mean to leave shore power connected and turn off the 48v battery?? Is it okay to not have the battery connected to the multiplus and supply it with grid power?

No.

Enabling DC system with a 3rd party BMS in control can have unpredictable results. I wanted to eliminate that as a possibility. The DC system isnt' very reliable... it's basically a hole where anything not directly accounted for goes.

Recommend you contact your seller for support.

 

[stroodle96]

No.

Enabling DC system with a 3rd party BMS in control can have unpredictable results. I wanted to eliminate that as a possibility. The DC system isnt' very reliable... it's basically a hole where anything not directly accounted for goes.

Got it, I did notice it was just randomly jumping around so I'll just leave it off. Thank you!

Do you have any other suggestions to try? I'm wondering if it's a faulty unit. I bought it from Sigsolar and I've called them a few times with questions about the victron equipment and they have been no help at all, they don't seem to know anything about the victron equipment. I'm gonna call them on Monday about this issue but I'm not expecting much. I wish there was a way to get someone there directly who was well trained on the victron equipment.

Unrelated to the problem above, but are there any settings I NEED to change on the cerbo for proper communication with eg4 battery? I setup the battery per Sig solars video and it shows up just fine. Should I have enabled DVCC in the settings? I left it off since the eg4-ll V2 battery was not on victrons site as supported.

 

[HighTechLab]

Does your unit have a 2.5mm round plug for the ac current sensor?



Plug anything (even headphones would be fine) and then unplug it. Should fix the issue.

 

[stroodle96]

Does your unit have a 2.5mm round plug for the ac current sensor?

View attachment 135566

Plug anything (even headphones would be fine) and then unplug it. Should fix the issue.

Yes mine does have that. I'll try that tomorrow and report back, thank you!

Is this a common thing that will happen? Is it something I did that caused it? (Assuming headphones fix it)

 

[HighTechLab]

Yes mine does have that. I'll try that tomorrow and report back, thank you!

Is this a common thing that will happen? Is it something I did that caused it? (Assuming headphones fix it)

Yes...but Victron is changing to a new connector here instead and we're starting to see the new connectors in our inbound shipments.

It can happen from moving around in shipping (not even damage, just being oriented in the various different directions the shipping companies do). Essentially the connector is spring loaded inside so that if nothing is inserted, the signal goes straight through from the internal CT. Since you have no external CT and the internal CT connection isn't complete, you get no current reading (and thereby wattage reading).

Victron released a bulletin on this a while back...with the new terminal you strip the wire and insert it sort of like the other aux terminals.

I would be curious if you could get SS support to find this issue for you. They've been getting a lot of "training from Victron" lately and sure do toot their horn on how well trained in Victron they are.

 

[cs1234]

@HighTechLab

They read these forum posts from time to time, so they might catch it here. Their name was mentioned and they probably search for it.

 

[stroodle96]

Yes...but Victron is changing to a new connector here instead and we're starting to see the new connectors in our inbound shipments.

It can happen from moving around in shipping (not even damage, just being oriented in the various different directions the shipping companies do). Essentially the connector is spring loaded inside so that if nothing is inserted, the signal goes straight through from the internal CT. Since you have no external CT and the internal CT connection isn't complete, you get no current reading (and thereby wattage reading).

Victron released a bulletin on this a while back...with the new terminal you strip the wire and insert it sort of like the other aux terminals.

I would be curious if you could get SS support to find this issue for you. They've been getting a lot of "training from Victron" lately and sure do toot their horn on how well trained in Victron they are.

Wow, this is great to know. Thank you for the detailed explanation.

Should I have the inverter powered on when I plug the headphones in and unplug them?

 

[HighTechLab]

Should I have the inverter powered on when I plug the headphones in and unplug them?

It wouldn't make a difference either way. It's just re-seating the contacts.

They read these forum posts from time to time

Well aware!

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Victron sellers are obligated to provide support. If they fall short, they get cut off.

If they do not step up, initiate a support ticket through Victron:

https://professional.victronenergy.com/support/

If you are trying to get the BMS to interface with the GX, I don't know anything about that. I have a Batrium, and that was like setting my head on fire and putting it out with a hammer. Good now, but it was painful.

DVCC is the means by which a BMS is given control of the GX ecosystem, so it should be enabled if you need the EG4 BMS in control of the system and communicating with the GX.

 

[stroodle96]

So the headphone tricked worked today! As soon as I unplugged it it started showing the ac input again.

Thank you everyone for the help!

I'll will still contact sig solar about the DVCC setting to see if I should turn that on.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

So the headphone tricked worked today! As soon as I unplugged it it started showing the ac input again.

Thank you everyone for the help!

I'll will still contact sig solar about the DVCC setting to see if I should turn that on.

Again, if you're goal is to have the BMS control the GX and charging/discharging voltages/currents, AND the batteries are capable of doing so, Yes. DVCC must be enabled as that's the feature that enables BMS control.

 

[stroodle96]

Again, if you're goal is to have the BMS control the GX and charging/discharging voltages/currents, AND the batteries are capable of doing so, Yes. DVCC must be enabled as that's the feature that enables BMS control.

Oh okay, then it sounds like that's what I want enabled then. They said the eg4-ll v2 batteries will have closed loop communication with victron inverters as long as I use a cerbo gx or equivalent.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Oh okay, then it sounds like that's what I want enabled then. They said the eg4-ll v2 batteries will have closed loop communication with victron inverters as long as I use a cerbo gx or equivalent.

Yep. DVCC enabled.

 

[stroodle96]

Update: Called Signature Solar today to double check about the DVCC setting and they had no idea what I was talking about. Said they would email me back. Haven't gotten any response yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

LOL... growing pains.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

It's definitely needed:

11. DVCC - Distributed Voltage and Current Control

www.victronenergy.com

Enabling DVCC changes a GX device from a passive monitor into an active controller. The available features and effects of enabling DVCC depend on the type of battery used. The effect also depends on the installed Victron components and their configuration. Two examples:

Managed CAN-bus batteries: In systems with a managed CAN-bus BMS battery connected, the GX device receives a Charge Voltage Limit (CVL), Charge Current Limit (CCL) and Discharge Current Limit (DCL) from that battery and relays that to the connected inverter/chargers and solar chargers. These then disable their internal charging algorithms and simply do what they're told by the battery.