Anyone else having issues with Victron inverter when batteries are low?

belfert · September 30, 2021, 02:21:24 PM

The house batteries in my bus are shot so they my new Victron Multiplus inverter shut down due to low battery several times. Out of three times the inverter only restarted when mains power was supplied to it once. The first time it shut down due to low battery I had to start the bus and use power from the alternator to kickstart the inverter. The second time it wouldn't start up until I turned it off and then on from the front panel of the inverter. Only once did it wake up once mains power was supplied to it.

Have others had issues like this with a Victron inverter? I do have the PC interface and software for it, but I couldn't find any parameter in any of the software to control this. I am thinking about just sending the inverter back as defective.

Utahclaimjumper · September 30, 2021, 03:41:49 PM

If the batteries are low,,( the source for inverter power,) then what do you think the inverter is doing wrong?? Do something about the problem.>>>Dan

buswarrior · September 30, 2021, 04:02:52 PM

My Trace 4024 cannot deal with dead batteries, i think they are all similar.

Batteries too low, the inverter won't/can't decide what to do with them, which is good, cuz the inverter could blow the whole works up, if it cranked up the amperage.

Call Victron to check, but it sounds ok to me.

It serves a busnut well to have a couple simple battery chargers onboard, tucked away somewhere, they are needed in the moment, to get the batteries to the point that the inverter will figure out what to do.

Brian, perhaps just get 4 golf cart batteries for the minimums and run the generator for the rest?

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

luvrbus · September 30, 2021, 04:22:02 PM

After owning 2 Victron in our boat 6 years ago if it is blue in color I run

richard5933 · September 30, 2021, 04:26:17 PM

On mine when the low-voltage alarm kicks in the only thing which will allow it to restart is to cycle it off using the black switch on the inverter itself. I put it in the middle (off) position for a few minutes, and then when restarted it comes back to life.

If you have the touch screen you will also benefit from clearing the error code. I've had occasion where it wouldn't restart till I acknowledged and cleared the code.

belfert · September 30, 2021, 07:55:23 PM

Quote from: Utahclaimjumper on September 30, 2021, 03:41:49 PM
If the batteries are low,,( the source for inverter power,) then what do you think the inverter is doing wrong?? Do something about the problem.>>>Dan

I start the generator and the inverter doesn't pass any power through until I play around with it.

windtrader · September 30, 2021, 11:36:50 PM

Check the wires going into the inverter. There is one that needs power to tell the inverter to turn on or cut off. There are also various settings to turn off inverter like when voltage drops below x.

richard5933 · October 01, 2021, 03:32:05 AM

Quote from: belfert on September 30, 2021, 07:55:23 PM
I start the generator and the inverter doesn't pass any power through until I play around with it.

When you're running the generator, what's switching the input from shore power to generator power? Is that working? Auto transfer switch?

Or, are you using the inverter to do the switching for you? In this case, double check that you have things configured correctly inside the Victron's interface to make the hand off properly.

While you're at it, have you confirmed that the generator's output is proper?

On mine, when I apply AC power to the Victron it takes about 1-2 minutes for it to evaluate the incoming power before it makes it available. At first, I thought something was wrong and starting futzing with things. About the time I got in the middle of a good futz it would start working so I got frustrated trying to figure out what I was doing that made it work. In the end, it was just that I had to wait about as long as it took to get panicked and start futzing before it just started working on its own.

belfert · October 01, 2021, 08:16:58 AM

I have an automatic transfer switch for the power from the generator. Everything that doesn't go through the inverter works just fine. I'll have to check the output from the generator, but I doubt that is the problem. Wouldn't the inverter never pass through power if the incoming power was bad? It will start to pass power after playing around with the inverter for a few minutes.

It could very well be I am not waiting long enough for the inverter to detect power and start working. I'll have to do some more testing. I'll check the settings again from my PC, but I didn't see anything the first time that seemed to be related.

buswarrior · October 01, 2021, 09:39:03 AM

My Trace 4024 takes a little while to pass through power, when it is first applied, as it has to sync what it was already doing, to the incoming power.

Load sharing/boosting requires the inverter to be matching the Hz/sine wave of the incoming power.

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

Dave5Cs · October 05, 2021, 08:54:58 AM

My Magnum 4024 hybrid when the power you are asking of it is to high for the inverter it will shut down and not allow power to come through until either a short is corrected or power in coming is lowered and then it will let it through otherwise it will not let anything through at all.