Victron playing up

[SteveW]

Of course these things only happen when it's hot.

The power system shut down completely - no 240v from mains or inverter and no 12v. The 240v reconnected itself but only enabling 12v lights, and 12v power to enable the fridge and HWS to start up on LPG. The Victron will not fire up - when it is switched to ON all the led's come on for a second or two then they all go off. I can hear a little click from inside the Victron as it starts then shuts down. At the moment we have no 240v at any power point or appliance. No idea whether the problem is in the Victron or whether something else is causing the problem. I've tried shutting everything down to isolate the problem but with no luck.

Any ideas?

[T1 Terry]

Victron inverters do not handle the heat very well. They should be derated by around 50% when their internal temp exceeds 40*C and they will often just shut down over 60*C internal temp, not the ideal choice for running the air con in the Aussie outback. This is one of the reasons so many builders switched to the Invertek units, they are rated to full output at 70*C internal, they smell hot at those temps yet still operate.

[BruceS]

Steve I'm presuming you have a combo unit?
If so it's detecting a low battery voltage I reckon?
Could be just low or faulty connection. What does a multi meter show as batt volts?
Can you run the genny to power 240 directly or isn't it set up for that? (bypass the combo)

[SteveW]

Batteries were ok. Suspect a caravan park spike.
However, it's fixed. I made several calls and in the end Tom from Roberts RV at Campbelfield solved the problem. He led me through secret rebooting which, did not work. He then described how an electrician could bypass the inverter as a temporary solution. At the end of the conversation, as a throw away line, he suggested disconnecting the house batteries via the big red knob then disconnecting the shore power and leaving it for ten minutes. I did so, had a shower and lo and behold, it fired up.
Tom suspects a spike and I think he might be right. The trouble started with loud noise through the TV speaker system followed by a dimming of the 12v LED's.

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[Wilbor]

We had a similar thing happen this arvo with our Victron. I have the bus in the shed on power, fridge on, engle bar fridge stocked on 240 (through the bus) ready for an early departure tomorrow morning for a few days and what do I find this arvo? HOT beer in the engle looked a bit further and the inverter remote has an overload light on. Nothing I do fixes it. Sooooo, remembering this post I disconnected the house batteries, left it for a few minutes and reconnected and all is good in the world again . Engle on shore power and will have cold beer tomorrow

Last night we had a brief power outage and I think this was the cause of our Victron issue, bloody Ergon

[SteveW]

A question. While you were on shore power, what was your Victron switch set to - On, Off or, Charge Only?

[Wilbor]

It was switched to the on position

[SteveW]

I believe being switched 'on' while on shore power is the cause. That was my position when mine failed. The advice from the man at Roberts in Melbourne is to switch to 'charge only' when on shore power. All 240v functions and 12v functions operate correctly in this mode when on shore power.

[Wilbor]

Makes sense, I will do that from now on, although this is the first time it has happened.

[SteveW]

It only happened to me once but what I noticed - because, typically, I make the morning latte and do the evening cooking outside with the bin containing the Victron open - the overload light flashes on and off accompanied by an appropriate noise as high use appliances cycle on and off. That doesn't happen when using shore 240v power with the Victron switched to charge.

I suspect I know why now, but I'll leave room here for someone who knows what they are talking about to explain it.