question

Hi Daniel,

It is hard to believe that this is not 'a known issue' within Victron Energy.

This issue was reported to David Romero of https://www.emarineinc.com/ on January 1, 2019. I received the following reply on January 3, 2019;

'Sorry to hear of the problems. We do not have a solution at hand, so we had reached out to the manufacturer and pasted your email along for their input. Reply may take a couple of days and we will let you know what the next step would be.'

I received a further email from emarine Service and support team as follows;

'We contacted Victron, USA office directly after receiving your earlier email as the problem you encountered is not known by us. They too did not have a solution and they were to contact with the factory engineers in the Netherlands to try to get an answer. With the holidays and all I am sure things have been backed up as Victron is usually very responsive and supportive of their customers.'

(Underlining and bold text added for emphasis).

I received a further email on January 11, 2019 as follows;

'According to the Victron Service Department, this is a software related issue that could be solved with a firmware upgrade, however, you would need a Color Control GX or Venus Gx and a solid internet connection to the VRM Portal to perform the upgrade.From your earlier email this does not sound like an option.'

(Underlining and bold text added for emphasis).

I received a further email on Jan 18, 2019;

'Good news I received confirmation that Victron will be replacing the battery charger...'

In light of the above and including the fact that the unit was replaced under warranty, it would appear that this is indeed 'a known issue'. known to both eMarine Systems and to Victron Energy for more than a year now.

On January 3, 2020 and again on January 9, 2020 I emailed eMarine Systems and the parties involved in the January 2019 correspondence setting out the fact that this issue has again appeared. I have to date received no response from any of the following;

2020-10-1, Moderator edit: I removed the email addresses, no need to put them here in public.

Hi Daniel,

With regard to 'You as a customer don't have to be a detective, your installer / dealer is the first point of support,;

I have now received an email from eMarine Systems Support Team which contains the following;

'It’s possible certain settings are either being over written, or not saved, or there is some other form of corruption on this new unit. I have to look into your particular unit’s datasheets and user manuals to see about physical dip switches playing a role. When we were setting up a Multi-plus Compact we kept erasing are presets by doing the dip switch toggling out of sequence it was tricky at first, maybe your having a similar problem.'

As you are no doubt aware, there is no mention of Dip Switches or Dip Switch Settings in the supplied Skylla IP44 user manual or installation instructions.

I have been charging onboard lead acid batteries for more than 20 years with a Xantrex 2/40 charger. When I upgraded the batteries to LiFePO4 I decided to also replace the alternator with a Balmar alternator with MC 614 regulator and to replace the Xantrex charger as this was specifically designed for lead acid charging.

I purchased and installed the IP44 myself in August 2018. After operating on several different shore power supplies and on a 230v 50Hz generator for four months the problem first appeared in December 2018. The unit was replaced in January 2019 and I installed the replacement unit in August 2019. The problem again appeared on the replacement unit under the same operating conditions in December 2019.

I am now faced with the option of charging with the 20+ year old Xantrex charger or going to the boat to run the engine..

The IP44 is sold by Victron as a rugged and reliable stand alone battery charger. The included installation instructions make no mention of the need to check for firmware updates. Neither does the included documentation make any mention of the need for the customer to purchase additional hardware in order to perform firmware updates.

No has the experience over the last 18 months taught me that I do need to be a detective, it has also taught me that I have inadvertently signed up to a rather expensive 'Science Project'.

Updating to v 1.05 has removed the incompatible hardware error message but not the error that triggered the message. In addition, the chargers now operate only in storage mode regardless of battery voltage or state of charge.

This issue has been going on for more than eighteen months and is no closer to being resolved.

See my reply to mvader (Victron Energy Staff)

Thank you for your reply mvader,

I think you need to look at the fact that I have two units, 1) purchased and installed in August 2018

2) Replacement for 1) shi[[ed to US address in January 2019 but not installed until August 2019.

Unit 1) began displaying error 118 in December 2018 four months after installation

Unit 2) began displaying error 118 in December 2019 four months after installation.

While the error 118 no longer appears their are clearly a number of issues.

The fact that both units failed after four months would indicate more than a firmware issue.

The manual for these units is dated 2016 I therefore find incredible that I have been facing such fundamental and serious issues with the function of a battery charger since the end of 2018