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Warwick Bruce Chapman avatar image
Warwick Bruce Chapman asked

URGENT: Battling with USB on MultiPlus-II GX with Powered Hubs

Due to the non-availability of MultiPlus II, we have been using MultiPlus-II 5kVA GX and are having serious problems with the USB port for multiple USB / VE.Direct devices.

All installations I am referring to now have maximum 2 x MPPT (1 x USB to VE.Direct) and 1 x Energy Meter (1 x USB to RS485).

We are using high quality 30 USD D-Link DUB-H7 hubs with 12V power from an Orion 48-12 DC DC Converter. On a near daily basis, we are having to reboot the GX device because one of the two USB devices disappears.

It has been suggested to me by another installer that this is a nanopi problem. We would appreciate some assistance from Victron in this respect. PS. We did try USB powered hubs and we had the same issue.

We now have 5 installations with this issue and around 3 more going in each week. We have to find a solution.

Multiplus-IImodifications
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Al avatar image Al commented ·

Do you have ferrite choke beads on the USB cables? (and all cables coming out of the GX)

I was having the same issue with a Bluetooth dongle on an active USB cable and hub at the end disappearing, but putting ferrite chokes at both ends of the cables seems to have helped.

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Warwick Bruce Chapman avatar image Warwick Bruce Chapman Al commented ·
Thanks, we will try add these but we have never yet had issues with any USB requiring ferrite chokes. We have ordered 10 and will provide feedback.
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6 Answers
Warwick Bruce Chapman avatar image
Warwick Bruce Chapman answered ·

UPDATE

We continue to work with Victron on this question, but our interim assessment is that this may be USB chipset related.

We have determined that for smaller systems, the best solution is the following unpowered hub:

Digitus Slim Spider 4-port USB 2.0 Hub (DA-70216) - https://www.techinn.com/en/digitus-slim-spider-usb-hub/137831753/p



For larger systems that required a powered hub, the StarTech range is best and we've tested:

StarTech 4-port USB 2.0 Hub (ST4202USBGB) powered with 48V to 5V supply like an Orion - https://za.rs-online.com/web/p/usb-hubs/1385535/


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wkirby avatar image wkirby ♦♦ commented ·
Indeed, the Digitus Spider has an SMSC (now Microchip) chipset. SMSC is my personal favourite USB chipset, I use it in some of my own product designs and it has always been reliable for years now.
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Warwick Bruce Chapman avatar image Warwick Bruce Chapman wkirby ♦♦ commented ·

We see it as Terminus?

lsusb

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1a40:0101 Terminus Technology Inc. Hub

dmesg

[  421.624797] usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 6 using ehci-pci
[  421.733490] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=1a40, idProduct=0101, bcdDevice= 1.11
[  421.733493] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
[  421.733495] usb 1-1.2: Product: USB 2.0 Hub
[  421.733882] hub 1-1.2:1.0: USB hub found
[  421.733948] hub 1-1.2:1.0: 4 ports detected
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wkirby avatar image wkirby ♦♦ Warwick Bruce Chapman commented ·
They've changed sides then. I definitely had an SMSC chip in the Spider that I had.

Terminus are OK. I've got a PCB with a Terminus FE1.1 on it. It enumerates well and works OK most of the time, but if you give it too much to do it hangs or locks up. For example, a 1080p camera stream tends to make it spontaneously soil it's self after a few minutes.
I don't think that using it in the way we would do here would cause a Terminus device to lock up, it's pretty laid back sort of work.

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Warwick Bruce Chapman avatar image Warwick Bruce Chapman wkirby ♦♦ commented ·

Interestingly, another hub we tested NOT WORKING used the same chipset:

Orico 4-port USB 2.0 Desktop Hub (W5P-U2) - unpowered

lsusb

Bus 001 Device 008: ID 1a40:0101 Terminus Technology Inc. Hub


dmesg

[ 1101.845718] usb 1-1.2: USB disconnect, device number 7
[ 1210.866198] usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 8 using ehci-pci
[ 1210.974879] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=1a40, idProduct=0101, bcdDevice= 1.11
[ 1210.974883] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
[ 1210.974885] usb 1-1.2: Product: USB 2.0 Hub
[ 1210.975420] hub 1-1.2:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1210.975462] hub 1-1.2:1.0: 4 ports detected
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Warwick Bruce Chapman avatar image Warwick Bruce Chapman Warwick Bruce Chapman commented ·

@WKirby - just want to emphasise that the post above is the same chipset in a different hub which does NOT work.

Happy to send to you for confirmation because it would be great to get to the bottom of this. It works at first and then one of the devices drops off until GX is rebooted.

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wkirby avatar image wkirby ♦♦ Warwick Bruce Chapman commented ·
Then there is also the way that the gadget is constructed.

Several tenths of a cent can be saved by omitting bypass capacitors and having poor signal routing on the PCB.
It's very easy to ignore the directions on the chip's datasheet and have a gadget that does work some of the time.

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kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

If you're using USB 3 cables with the extra connections/blue internals, could be that. Some are good, some give problems like this.

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Warwick Bruce Chapman avatar image Warwick Bruce Chapman commented ·
Will check but we have tried hard to keep USB 2.0 only.
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neki avatar image
neki answered ·

I dont know how long is cabels... i had some problem whit long usb cabels. Maybe thats its issue. Maybe try make usb cabel whit little bigger diametar of wires. And i dont know is orion is giving non stop power or have some milisec where he check system. Try other power supply too. Thats my thinking.

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Warwick Bruce Chapman avatar image Warwick Bruce Chapman commented ·
Nothing longer than about 0.5m on the USB side. Obviously, the RS485 to Energy Meter is direct to port and the USB to VE.Direct is also direct to port in the USB portion.
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apple047 avatar image
apple047 answered ·

I’ve been trying to use one of D-link DUB-H7 hub today but doesn’t work either, it would have been amazing if Victron would test and provide a list of compatible hubs for use.

In particular where the Multiplus II GX is known to have only one USB port and one VE direct. For most common installation you would use 1x shunt 1x mppt and 1 or more Modbus meters…

Hopefully feedback is taken

Thanks

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ecoworld avatar image
ecoworld answered ·

So guys I’m limited to 5kw multiplus GX inverters at the moment and I have 2 smart solar 150-70-VE.CAN MPPTs plus a smart shunt to try and connect up to the limited GX inputs. I’m assuming I can use a non powered usb2 splitter cable to plug both MPPTs into the GX inverters USB port and then use VE.Direct port for the shunt. An expert on this forum just told me I’d need a powered hub, can this be correct, I find that totally overkill for simple ascii data transfer and do I have to tap into the 230v AC inverter supply to power a usb hub, crazy talk. What was your ultimate solution to your similar situation?

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Warwick Bruce Chapman avatar image Warwick Bruce Chapman commented ·

The problem is not throughput, in my experience, but stability. Once the USB hub 'died', it requires a reboot to get it back. The following was the only one we found to be stable under all circumstances:

https://za.rs-online.com/web/p/usb-hubs/1385535

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gazza avatar image
gazza answered ·


Reading through this thread I feel incredibly lucky. I used this Anker 4 port hub (unpowered) with a Multi 2 GX. It has the RS485 USB link from a ET112 meter and a MPPT VE Direct USB going through it, I haven’t noticed any dropouts or required any re-booting.? So, not sure of the significance of the specification but it just worked…?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-4-Port-Macbook-Surface-Notebook/dp/B00Y25XFGK/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=Q25V7MMCAW2V&keywords=anker+4+port+usb+3.0+ultra+slim+data+hub&qid=1670110062&sprefix=Anker+if+4+port+hub%2Caps%2C74&sr=8-3

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Related Resources

Additional resources still need to be added for this topic

MultiPlus-II Product page 

MultiPlus-II Manual

Multiplus-II GX Online Manual

MultiPlus-II 230V Datasheet 

VE.Bus Error codes