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kevin88252 avatar image
kevin88252 asked

Tell Quattro which AC in to use

Hello Guys
We are setting up a ESS System with a external codesys PLC as the "Brain".

it can happen that both AC inputs become available and we would like to tell the quattro over ModbusTCP (or in any other way) what AC-in should be used.

and on the other side it can also happen that the genset is in aftercooling and no power should be pulled from it so the quattro must ignore the AC input.

i am struggling much with controlling the AC inputs from the PLC. i am trying to write the Register 2711 and 2712 but it does not seem that the inverters are correctly working with that, also setting the register 33 to 2 or 4 does not sucessfully disconnect the AC input.

any ideas would be greatly appreciated.


thanks

Modbus TCPac coupling
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3 Answers
nickdb avatar image
nickdb answered ·

Hi, As per the manual, this cannot be controlled. The one input has priority over the other if grid is present.

"The Quattro automatically selects the input where voltage is present. If voltage is present on both inputs, the Quattro selects the AC-in-1 input, to which normally the generating set is connected"

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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented ·
And a warm-up and cool-down feature was added to Venus OS a while ago.
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kevin88252 avatar image kevin88252 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented ·

thank you for the hint, unfortunately this function seems to be missing somehow, what am i doing wrong
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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image Matthias Lange - DE ♦ kevin88252 commented ·
https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2023/05/31/venus-os-v3-00-generator-start-stop-improvements-ess-peak-shaving/

Is you Quattro running on the latest firmware?

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kevin88252 avatar image kevin88252 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented ·
I have seen this manual, my inverter is on 510 and according to victron everything above 502 should work.

Do i propably also need to configure the generator in the inverter?


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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image Matthias Lange - DE ♦ kevin88252 commented ·
What GX device do you have?
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kevin88252 avatar image kevin88252 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented ·

Cerbo gX1000003319.jpg

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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image Matthias Lange - DE ♦ kevin88252 commented ·
Strange...

I just checked that menu in the two systems I installed this week an I can see that option.

Did you also updated the internal MK3 of the Cerbo?

(explained at the bottom of that blog post)

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kevin88252 avatar image kevin88252 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented ·
I am not 100% sure about that, will check next week.
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kevin88252 avatar image kevin88252 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented ·
Updating the MK3 did the trick. however no matter what i setup in these parameters, as long as the generator is running, the inverters will not stop charging as long as power is available. so the generator runs under 80% load until the end and shuts off in hot condition...


The only solution here is propably to add a contact that is controlled by my PLC to manage what AC-in to use and cut power to let the generator cool down...

i was hoping for a much more professional solution...


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nickdb avatar image
nickdb answered ·
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Kevin Windrem avatar image
Kevin Windrem answered ·

In order for warm-up and cool-down to function, you need to set the AC input type to generator and you need to set the times associated with these two periods. Note that the GX device must initiate generator start/stop in order for these periods to function. If an external trigger starts and stops the generator there's no way for the GX device to know that.

GuiMods does include some generator enhancements, specifically it will synchronize the manual start state with an external digital input set to generator. So if that input goes active, manual start will go active and should trigger the warm-up period. Likewise, of the input goes inactive, manual start will go inactive and should trigger cool-down.

As far as prioritizing AC inputs externally, you may experiment with ignore AC input. It's dbus parameter /Ac/Control/IgnoreAcIn1 and Ac/Control/IgnoreAcIn2 for the inverter/charger. Note however these are also used by the generator start/stop logic so there could be a conflict.

The only other way I can think to do this is to actually disconnect the AC input you don't want to use with a power contractor.

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