Generator talks

SquirrellCook

Forum Member
It's unlikely to be a pure sine wave, it'll be a digital copy. Don't think this is a bad thing. It'd still play with it on domestic mains.
 

Nabsim

Forum Member
It's unlikely to be a pure sine wave, it'll be a digital copy. Don't think this is a bad thing. It'd still play with it on domestic mains.
Will have a play next time I get hookup somewhere. Only time I have had that this year was when I visited Charlie so may be time to go back there :)
Charlie did come to see me in the Peak District yesterday in hid brand new MAN 4x4
 

Nabsim

Forum Member
More weird stuff this week. I have the van parked outside the house and decided to do a bit of tidying on the electrical wiring rats nest. As it was getting very cold and to give a little extra space to work I removed both my Lifepo4 battery’s and both 30a chargers and took them in the house. I didn’t remove the shunt as I wanted to see what was happening on the system and I installed one of the old Varta PowerFrames just to give a little power for testing.

Back to the weird. I connected up one charger to each battery so there were two separate systems, no connection at all between batteries or chargers except the 240v outlets and the Victron app. Initially had both chargers set at 30a but when I was going out I went to turn them down to 15a. I turned one down in settings and the front page showed 15a. Went on the second charger and it was putting out 15a although setting was still for 30a. Turned the first charger back to 30a and both chargers showed 30a output.

Did quite a lot of up and down on each charger and what you did on one went into effect on the other although only the settings you manually changed altered. This Victron kit certainly doesn’t work as I would expect, I am used to setting something and it doing exactly that on my Votronic kit.
 

wildebus

Forum Member
Check to see if you have smart networking enabled on the charger/app. It will be an option on the bottom on the settings (gear) screen.
If you have that enabled, the chargers act in parallel as one large charger and the settings are in sync. This maybe would explain why the generator is not doing what you think becausethe chargers are running higher then your realised?
Disable smart networking would be best I think as you want independent control.
 
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Nabsim

Forum Member
Thought you may have been on to something there with the smart networking but it doesn’t look like it is set up. If I click on VE. Smart networking I get options to create or join existing networks. Am I right in assuming that means it isn’t enabled or do I need to create/join to disable it?
 

wildebus

Forum Member
Posh people with new kit ;) My victron chargers don't have the option.
If blue smart, you can update for free via the app :)

Thought you may have been on to something there with the smart networking but it doesn’t look like it is set up. If I click on VE. Smart networking I get options to create or join existing networks. Am I right in assuming that means it isn’t enabled or do I need to create/join to disable it?
I was sure that would be it. You do have to create the networks and choose which device to add to which network.
Maybe create one, join and then leave to reset the feature?
 

PeteS

Forum Member
There are also interesting discussions on Victron Community about who becomes the master in a networked system with MPPT, it appears that the recommendation is to ensure all chargers solar or otherwise are all on the same network as the IP22 becomes the master and ensures that the MPPT does not do its own thing.
I dont think this is mentioned in the handbook
 

wildebus

Forum Member
ah.. How old are yours? I have an IP22 Blue Smart from 2015 I think it is. probably too old?
Using my IP22 today .... I updated the firmware quite recently and got extra options regarding configuration but no smart networking options at all. So as mentioned, will be too old.
 

SquirrellCook

Forum Member
Using my IP22 today .... I updated the firmware quite recently and got extra options regarding configuration but no smart networking options at all. So as mentioned, will be too old.
They don’t have to be new David, they have to be very new.
 

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