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captainpalapa avatar image
captainpalapa asked

System Reboots happen under certain circumstances...

I believe my RV's Victron setup has FIVE major components:

  • MPPT (1)
  • MPPT (2)
  • SmartBMV monitor
  • Color Control GX
  • MultiPlus (the big unit, inverter)
  • In addition, 4 x 100ah Battle Born batteries

In this RV, we also have an Onan 5500 generator (45amps) and when connected to shore power, has always been 50 amps. (We are configured as a 12v system, not 24v, in case that's a question one might ask.)

Frequently, when putting a heavy load on the power consumption (two good examples are the electric/hydraulic slides and extending (sometimes retracting) the hydraulic leveling jacks), the system will reboot. So far, we have only seen this on generator and/or shore power.

Reproducing the scenario is easy: While still plugged into shore power (or have genny on), retract slides or jacks. In addition, the generator will shut off if in use during these reboots. (The Victron system doesn't engage the generator, that's the RV's house "OneControl" system.) I think because the OneControl system is also rebooting, that is what kills the generator. (The Onan's have some weird "pulse" on/off system, and I don't have the gizmo that lets me wire that up to the Victron system.)

I have found that simply unplugging from shore power (or turning off the generator) and running solely on batteries usually prevents the reboots. Bear in mind that there are no A/C's on, no heaters, and minimal power consumption as we are either getting setup in a campground or preparing to leave.

Our sorta-vendor (not original installer, but did some fixes for us) doesn't have any clue why this might be happening. One would think that the 50amp shore power would be more than sufficient to be handle these operations. We do NOT have reboots even when running three air conditioners!

During the last time we experienced this, and I had disabled shore power to run solely on batteries, I watched the BMV while extending the jacks. The voltage did slip down to around 11 volts. The reboot doesn't happen, as I said earlier, when on batteries alone. The system did NOT reboot, however.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can look for as a potential cause of this issue.

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Kevin Windrem avatar image Kevin Windrem commented ·

It sounds like your problem is the DC voltage to CCGX and OneControl is dropping too low which is odd because the CCGX should run on 8 volts! So my guess is you are experiencing a complete DC power failure for a few seconds.

The BattleBorn batteries can each supply 100 amps continuous so with 4 in parallel the bank should supply 400 amps continuous. However, if the batteries aren't load sharing properly, you may be experiencing a situation where one battery will shut down because it's supplying more than 100 amps, then the next, then the next ...

Having shore power on to assist the batteries should lessen the possibility of a DC shutdown so this isn't making any sense to me.

How much current are your slides and levelers pulling?

12VDC or 120 VAC?

Put a volt meter directly across the battery bank and cause a failure. Use a meter that will record max and min voltages so you can see what the minimum actually is.

The BMS in the BB batteries will shutdown for about 5 seconds so this should be pretty obvious if you leave a light on in the RV.

Run the OneControl and CCGX from another source of power so they can stay up and help diagnose the problem.

Look at the battery bank wiring. Ideally, each battery should be connected to a common point with equal length cables (star configuration), and that the wire size is sufficient to minimize voltage drops. Proper battery cabling is explained in the Victron Energy Unlimited document.

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Book-Energy-Unlimited-EN.pdf

Try putting the Multi in charger only mode during the test.

A more detailed description of your system including wire sizes/lengths will help us diagnose your problem.


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captainpalapa avatar image captainpalapa Kevin Windrem commented ·

I can't quite answer the questions about current for the slides/levelers. I'm sure I can spec it out, assuming that (at any given time) it isn't super variable. I would think that as the levelers go down, they use less power until they contact the ground. Would definitely need a min/max on that. Our vendor reworked all the cabling late last year. Everything is properly cabled (now) according to Victron specs. (Part of that change was removing the AUDIO cables the original installer used between batteries. Sigh.) From the Multiplus to the breaker panel is now 6 gauge wire instead of 10 gauge. (Again, sigh.)

Some of your suggestions are definitely beyond my ability to do (such as alternate power supplies, etc.) At least, beyond what I want to get into! :)

I will, however, try your suggestion next time of going to Charger Only (or just simply "Off"), as that's a pretty easy test. Thank you for that. I'm working to schedule an appointment with my vendor (who should be experts on this), in August when we'll be in that area. I've emailed them a few times, but they're kind of stumped without getting "hands on", I'm sure along those testing steps you laid out. Not having an extra pair of hands to measure [this] over here, while being over here hitting [that] button makes this much more difficult to diagose.

I was hoping for a quick answer like "Oh, you have [this] setting wrong"! Ha. Of course, debugging is never quite that easy.

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