VE Bus 276 - low battery alarm when turning on Multiplus II

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snakesteve asked Apr 30, '22

VE Bus 276 - low battery alarm when turning on Multiplus II

Some background on my system: I have a 1995 Casita RV with the following power system:

1780 watt Canadian Solar bifacial solar array powering the following Victron components:

4x 12 volt LiFePo4 smart batteries,

1x Lynx Smart BMS,

2x Lynx Distributors,

1x Multiplus II 12V/3000 watt Inverter,

2x Bluesolar 150/70 Charge Controllers,

1x Cerbo GX/Cerbo Touch 50.

Now that I have my system online and charging (thank you Stefanie for the expert advice on the jumper wire :-)

Here's the new issue: The DC side of things works as it should, however, when I turn on the Multiplus II the system tosses out the following error:

VE Bus system (276) - low battery: alarm.

However, the battery bank is not anywhere near low - in fact, it is fully charged (see photos below).

I have tried clearing the alarm and re-initializing the inverter - and I continue to receive the same alarm...

Does anyone have any ideas on what may be going on with my system and how I should proceed to get the AC side of the system online and operational?

battery charging multiplus ve.bus error VE.Bus alarm

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Attachments: Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) answered · Apr 30, 2022 at 04:06 PM

@snakesteve

Two things that are obviously wrong in your settings:

1) Number of batteries in parallel is set to 4. It should be 1 because all batteries in parallel count as one batterie. The wording "Number of batteries in parallel" is a bit misleading and AFAIK will change in one of the next firmware releases. Also verify that you have 4x 200Ah batteries. Only then 800Ah capacity would make sense. However, that's not the main case for your VE.Bus low voltage alarm.

2) In your MultiPlus charger settings you have checked VE.Bus BMS. This not correct, because your system does not have such BMS. Uncheck this and this hopefully will solve the VE.Bus low voltage alarm. If not, come back :-)

Edit: 1) Is incorrect. Leave it at 4 batteries in parallel and 800Ah bank capacity.

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Attachments: Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

snakesteve commented · May 01, 2022 at 11:19 AM

Thank you Stefanie - your fix worked - the AC side of my system is working!

I changed the battery setting to reflect the reality of the installation - one big 800 Ah battery - and unchecked the other BMS box as you suggested - and all came alive with the inverter. I then threw the main AC breaker and energized the main AC panel. I gave the system a good 3-hour test by running the AC unit on the high cool setting (15.5C) and all worked as it should without any losses from the battery bank - the 1780 watt array was putting out over 800 watts so it easily offset the loads from the AC and DC sides off the RV.

Thank again for all your help with getting my new Victron power system online and fully functional.

Cheers,

-Stevo

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Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ snakesteve commented · May 01, 2022 at 12:02 PM

I'm happy that everything worked so well. Thanks for the feedback.

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Answer 1 · 2022-04-30T04:42:37Z

Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) answered · Apr 30, 2022 at 04:42 AM

@snakesteve

Glad you made it this far. Let's see if we can fix the low battery alarm problem.

There is also a VE.Bus low battery alarm when the BMS has opened the contactor (system in hibernate or standby) as the MultiPlus then does not see the battery. The alarm will then persist until acknowledged in the GX device, even if the contactor has closed again and the Lynx Smart BMS is in On mode.

Another reason could be that ATD (allow-to-discharge) for some reason is open. Both can be checked with the VictronConnect app.

And last but not least, the alarm could also be old (from your previous attempts to get the system up and running) and not yet acknowledged via the Cerbo GX (Notifications menu),

Please take a screenshot of VictronConnect when connected to the Lynx Smart BMS.
And a system diagram to see how everything is wired might help with the diagnosis.

Check the cabling of your MultiPlus and measure the voltage at the DC inputs with a DMM, also check the fuses in the Distributor.

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Attachments: Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

snakesteve commented · Apr 30, 2022 at 02:35 PM

Thank you Stefanie for getting back to me so fast -

From what I can tell I have acknowledged and cleared all the alarms in the Cerbo.

I checked the cables and connections and all is well. Solidly attached and intact.

The voltage at the Multiplus's main DC terminals under the protective shroud matches the rest of the system at 13.35 V.

All fuses are OK.

I put the BMS in standby mode, then back into operational ON/Running mode.

I rebooted the Cerbo GX, waited till everything came back up - I then turned on the Multiplus II - and I received the same low battery light and alarms.

I then powered off the Multiplus and cleared the latest alarm.

I opened up the VC app and have attached a few screenshots of what I am seeing.

I am a newbie to the Victron system so you may need to help me navigate to the correct locations/setting you spoke of so please let me know if you see anything out of spec that could cause this issue.

I have also attached a system schematic for reference.

Thank you for helping me get this system up and running.

Stevo

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snakesteve commented · Apr 30, 2022 at 03:36 PM

Here are a few more screenshots of the VC screens that may help you help me get this thing online - thanks!

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VE Bus 276 - low battery alarm when turning on Multiplus II

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VE Bus 276 - low battery alarm when turning on Multiplus II

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