Getting repeated ground relay test failures as load shedding ends, as it tries to reconnect to the grid. Does this suggest an issue on the non-essential circuits (since those are off during load shedding and only on after grid reconnection) or could it be anywhere?
Right now it’s actually failing to come back online at all (restart, trip, restart trip, 10 times so far)
Just trying various breakers on the db for now to try get out of the tripping cycle
Ok, have tried every breaker, and still in a tripping cycle. Going to trip all outputs from inverter as a last resort, otherwise will have to bypass the inverter
Ok, tripping ESS output breaker allowed the system to reconnect, could then put it back up and all fine, for now.
I assume I have a neutral-earth fault somewhere on the ess curcuit, since dropping a single pole breaker didn’t resolve anything?
I assume this is double pole? If yes… then the answer is simple. The other breakers didn’t do anything because a) they only break the live, and b) the fault is between a neutral and earth.
Check the menu, there is a menu somewhere that tells you on what step the relay test failed, and that should tell you whether it was looking for a bond that should be there, or testing for a bond that shouldn’t be there. I’m guessing it is the latter… there is a TN bond (or at least some sort of low impedance path) on the output that should not be there.
Weird though that it doesn’t trip an RCD…
Thanks, yes is the double pole that “fixes” it.
Just did the same thing again now at 2am.
Which menu should I be looking at? (not sure which ballpark to start looking in here)
I assume I need an electrician at this point, but 2 questions:
To add some pictures, dropping the breaker in the left allows the system to resync with the grid.
Dropping to double breaker in the right (Flat essentials) did not fix it.
Can I thus assume that the issue lies on one of the single pole breakers in between?
I’m a complete idiot with these things, and don’t know how to spot parts, but where’s the EL for non-essentials?
*edit: Nevermind, I assume that is only the sub DB. I saw pool and by default thought this is the main DB with breakers for non-essential circuits.
OK decoding that error code…
0x24 (right most byte). The 4 is a global error flag (something went wrong). The 2 means “GND Relay Error (either did not open/did not close) measured by 2nd µC”
Middle byte is zero, no info there.
Left is 0x80. That gives no info. Only the left most bits (0x01 and 0x02) would tell us if the failing step was an open- or closed relay.
So this is a very generic error.
What I would do is open all breakers (all lives), then pull all the neutrals from the neutral bar. Bring them back one by one (connect neutral, close corresponding live), until you find the circuit with the fault.
Unplug all appliances from that circuit, see if that resolves it. That gets you the bad appliance.
Test the RCD. With a neutral fault of this magnitude… I feel distrustful of that RCD.
Yes, this is a row on the main DB with the essentials.
Non-essentials are the row below, not pictured.
I’ll try get an electrician out to do what @plonkster suggested.
The RCD is new (installed in May this year) so seems strange that it’s fine but the Victron is unhappy.
Dankie
This is the standard error, mine is the opposite as when the grid is off I get the Relay error with a different error code though.
Just to clarify with a silly question:
The RCD in the pic below is the 2nd item from the left, correct? (ie, the earth leakage)
If so, I agree with @JacoDeJongh (discussion offline) that the fault may lie in a light circuit going through the left-most breaker but not the earth leakage.
Those breakers pictured below (they’re the row above the essential row on my DB, but are downstream of the essentials breaker)
I agree. If you have loads that are not on the RCD… and the RCD is not tripping (but the inverter is), that may well narrow it down. Good thinking!
Jaco’s thinking, but yes, makes sense 
That man was born to debug earth faults… I swear he fixed an earth fault in the hospital before the doctor sent him home!
So any cape town electrician recommendations that won’t throw their hands up when they see a Victron in the mix?
My side of the woods… this guy has done at least one Victron install
Stefan, TSE Electrical. 021 851 3461
Herman Van Niekerk (remove the number, not sure if it is the right thing to post on the WWW). PM me for his number if you are interested.
We did his 1st ever Victron install years ago together … mine.
Today he is quite comfortable with solar installs, the programming the owner’s responsibility.
He also found the earth leakage problem we had.
