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dunnp avatar image
dunnp asked

MultiPlus Ignore AC settings

I have a MultiPlus C12/1600/70 and 200AH LiFePO4 battery system in a caravan. When not travelling, the caravan lives in a shed so solar panels provide no charge and I leave the MultiPlus running in charger mode. I have some small PV panels on the shed roof but insufficient to keep the battery charge. There are a few DC loads on the battery and nothing on the AC side of the inverter.

With the charger running the battery was sitting at 100% SoC for extended periods and I believe that is not good for lithiums. So I explored Ignore AC function in Virtual Switch and after a bit of fiddling with thresholds the battery now cycles down to about 25% then the charger kicks in and recharges it. Perfect. Exactly how I wanted it to behave - use whatever PV power is available and only use grid power when necessary.

However I realised this configuration works against us when travelling because we DO want the charger to be able to get the battery as full as possible - eg if we stop overnight on a powered site (especially in bad weather and low SoC), we want the charger to fully recharge the battery from the grid, not wait until it drops to 20-30%. In other words when travelling, we need to disable the Virtual Switch configuration (that works so well at home) and have the charger run whenever grid (or generator) power is available.

I know I can (and do) change this in VE Config but I wonder if there's another way without having to fire up my laptop and Mk3? I looked at the options within Virtual Switch but can't see anything that could be triggered manually (eg with a switch). The MultiPlusC has no aux input so that was a dead end. Can anyone suggest a solution I've missed?

Ideally it would be nice to have this available via Victron Connect and VE.Bus dongle - eg the ability top remotely enable/disable a VS configuration. Feature request??

Any suggestions or advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Phil


MultiPlus Quattro Inverter Charger
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Mark avatar image
Mark answered ·

In the new version of VictronConnect (v5.8) you actually have the ability to configure basic virtual switch conditions to 'Ignore AC In' with your phone and VictronConnect - but you still need to use the MK3 to USB device + a small adaptor to connect to your phone.

Refer to the related manual;

https://docs.victronenergy.com/victronconnect-vebus.html#warning

There is a VE.Bus Smart Dongle that allows you to communicate with the MultiPlus via Bluetooth, but that only allows basic functions and monitoring, not full setup or firmware updates.

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/vebus_smart_dongle_manual

Also for some advanced configuration (such as assistants) you still need to use VE.Configure.

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dunnp avatar image
dunnp answered ·

Thanks Mark.

Yes I’m using VC5.8 and have the VE.Bus Smart Dongle and Mk3.

I got excited when I checked out the VC Demo Library and saw the Ignore AC settings there (precisely what I’m after) but was disappointed to find it’s not available when I connected to my MultiPlus (from my iPhone). That’s a bit misleading. I know I can use VC5.8 on my PC but that has no advantage over just using VE Config the old way.

Is it likely you’ll make the Settings functionality available via the VE.Bus dongle (for iOS devices) in a future release? Or the Ignore AC switch at least? That would be cool.

Cheers

Phil

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bitcrusher avatar image
bitcrusher answered ·

I miss this funtion, too!

It would be nice to have the following possibilities:

- Charger "on" dependent on SoC.

- Charger always on (charger "only" as it is currently implemented)

- ON (inverter and charger on, as it is currently implemented)

- Passthrough: When charger is off, AC loads should be feeded with grid AC.

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Ed Jones avatar image Ed Jones commented ·

Did you see my response to your post on Sept 30? It doesn't address all of these scenarios, but it answered the question you had before. https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/103497/force-multi-to-charge-although-ac-input-control-is.html

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mrhappy avatar image
mrhappy answered ·

These things you are discussing seems like perfect situations for programming assistants and connect a few switches and/or relays to the auxiliary inputs of your units. First, check this thread out:

https://community.victronenergy.com/questiwtgons/52652/multiplus-mains-led-flashing-1.html

And, to be able to disable the charger with a switch, add a "charge current control" assistant and a switch to an aux-in, which will enable "passthru" if AC in is not ignored, when the switch is activated.

To create a "charger ON depending on SOC" one could implement a "generator start-and-stop" assistant to drive a K relay which is connected to the aux-in which controls the "charge current control" assistant.

/MrHappy

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