There are various ways to program the Victron MultiPlus inverter charger, this article details using the dipswitches

Posted by Peter Kennedy on 11/7/2018 to Victron MultiPlus and Quatro

The Victron MultiPlus inverter/charger is very programmable. Not all the program options are available by using the dipswitches but they do allow you to program some of the more basic options.

Tech Tip

As you will see from the instructions below using the dipswitches is not that easy. If after reading the instructions you give up and buy the computer interface instead you won't be the first to do so. Using these dipswitches is rather challenging and only real application in my mind is when you are stuck away from civilization and need a quick fix. For any other situations I suggest you hook the multiplus up to a computer. Its so easy and you will thank me!

Programming with the built in dipswitches doesnt require any extra equipment, but is not a very intuitive proceedure and its hard to know if you have done it correctly. For those with perseverence, it is however possible and my example below demonstrates the proceedure for making some basic adjustments. First lets look at the default settings for the Multiplus as it comes out of the box. I am referring the the US version of the 12/3000 MultiPlus. This comes from the Service Manual

If you refer directly to the Service Manual it goes into an explanation of what the settings mean, I wont repeat it here. I am only going to try and demonstrate how to adjust three settings, the AC Current Limit, the Battery Type and the UPS function as these are the functions that in my experience might be most useful to adjust in the field without a computer. Lets look at the dipswitches themselves first:

The dipswitches are in the top left corner, numbered 1 through 8, with 1 on the bottom and 8 on the top, "on" to the left and "off" to the right, as supplied they are all "off". Also circled are the two push buttons associated with these switches. The dipswitches by themselves don't do anything until you save the settings with the push buttons.

Proceedure

To program the Multi with the dipswitches you need to disconnect the shorepower and have the inverter on and running on battery power, preferably under no load. As you now have the cover off the circuits are live and you need to be careful to not touch any live parts. Its best to do this with some non-conductive stylus.

Here comes the tricky part, I hope you are paying attention: Each dipswitch has two programming functions, one from Step One, and one from Step Two.

Step One programming includes the settings for limiting charge current, and for limiting AC input and some other items. You set the dipswitches and then push the UP button (top button circled in the picture above) for two seconds to save the settings. For our example we are going to change the AC Current Limit from the default 50 Amps to 30 Amps. This will prevent you from blowing the dock circuit breaker when you connect to a 30 Amp dock service.

Step Two programming includes the Battery Type and UPS settings we want to adjust for our example as well as some other settings we are not going to change. We set these dipswitches as we want, push the DOWN button for two seconds to save the settings. Then we can leave the switches where they are or turn them to off, it doesnt matter.

When we push the save button we are saving all the settings including the ones we are not interested in, so we cant avoid dealing with all the settings.

STEP ONE SETTING

Here is what the Step One settings look like when you start. You can see that the top three dipswitches are reserved for AC input, the next for AES (Automatic Econony Switch), the next two for Charge Current and the last two for Stand Alone Mode. The only one we want to change for our example is the AC Input. We are going to change it from 50 Amps, which is the default, to 30 Amps, because our example boat has a 30 Amp power supply. Next we refer to the manual to see what arrangement of dipswitches corresponds to 30 Amps.

This tells us that to set up for 30 Amp shorepower limit we need to set Switch 8 to on, Switch 7 to on and Switch 6 to off.

We arent finished here however because even though we dont want to do anything with the other settings of Step One we still want to make sure we are leaving them in their default settings. By referring to the default settings we can see that the next dipswitch, #5 for AES, the default is off because AES is by default off.

The next two switches (#3 and #4) are for Charge Current and by reference to the default settings at the top of this article you can see that the default is 75% of the maximum

So here we see that even though we want to leave a setting at its default we still have to fiddle with its dipswitches. To set the charge current to the default 75% switch #4 has to be on and switch #3 has to be off.

The last two switches are for Stand Alone mode and are not used in step one, so leave them to off. Here is what our dipswitches are going to look at when we are finished:

To save these settings push the top button for two seconds as shown below:

The two UPPER right hand red lights will flash to indicate the settings have been accepted for Stage One. Once you have saved the settings you can set all the switches back to OFF and start into STEP 2

STEP TWO SETTING

Here are the functions of the switches for Step Two:

The top two switches deal with Battery Type and Charge Voltage and they are ones we want to adjust. We also want to adjust Switch #3 the UPS function. But as before we can't avoid addressing all the switches because we have to save all the settings at once.

For battery type settings there are four choices and lets say for our example we want to choose the one with the lowest charge voltage because we are using some rather sensitive Gel batteries, here is an excerpt from the manual

In this example it is telling us that for the highlighted battery type we need to have dipswitches 7 and 8 set to off.

Then to set our UPS function to "off" we need to adjust dipswitch #3 to "off". (The UPS function sometimes causes trouble with small generators and turning it off usually clears up the problem)

So to change our two settings we had to adjust three of the dipswitches to "off". We still have to make sure the other dipswitches reflect the default values.

Switch 1 would be set to "off" meaning 60 Hz

Switch 2 would be set to "off" meaning 120 Volts

Switch 3 we have already set to "off" to turn the UPS function off

Switch 4 would be set to "off" meaning dynamic current limiter is inactive

Switch 5 Adaptive charging characteristic would be "on" (meaning four stage charge curve)

Switch 6 Absorption time "on" meaning 8 hours

Switches 7 and 8 we have already set for our battery type.

At the end our dipswitches would look like this:

When we are finished we push the Down button for two seconds to save the settings.

Thats it, you are done, The two LOWER right hand red lights will flash to indicate the settings have been accepted for Stage Two. . I would suggest checking to see if it worked. Check the voltage ouput and frequency when inverting, check the charge voltage when charging and check in particular that whatever settings you adjusted ended up being what you intended. As you saw its rather complicated so dont just assume you did it right, check and verify.

And remember that if you have access to a Mk3USB interface and a computer you can do all this and more with considerably less pain. How to do that will be the subject of my next Blog Post.

Notes

I did the excercise described above after I wrote about it. Its a lot easier to do than it is to write about it. The whole operation takes less than a minute. I had the Multi hooked up with a computer interface at the same time so I was able to check on the computer if my settings had been succesfully adjusted. It worked fine for the UPS function and the Charge Voltage function but I didnt have as much luck with the Current Limiting function. It did adjust the values but not in the way I expected. Maybe the manual is a bit out of date, I dont know, I will have to check with the folks at Victron.

Comments

Easy? Not Easy? Please leave your questions and comments below.

Leigh Armistead

Date 11/12/2018

This article was very helpful, Peter. I’m looking forward to more info about using the new Bluetooth module. So far, I’ve only been able to get it to monitor my new Multi but can’t get it into a settings mode.

Peter Kennedy

Date 11/12/2018

I will get around to more blog posts including the VE Bus Bluetooth Dongle. For now this item just monitors the MultiPlus, but in the future it can be used for programming. For now the best way to program is with the Mk3USB interface.

Jay Peterson

Date 12/26/2018

Read all the parts, great stuff. Have you found a way to do timed inverting (eg. have the inverter on only from noon to 3pm)? I have not found this option looking at the settings from CCGX, but the usb interface seems to provide a lot more options.

Les Olson

Date 5/10/2019

THANK YOU SO MUCH for providing this information and your explanation of how to set all of the settings!! This was extremely helpful!! This is SO MUCH clearer than the Victron Manuals!!

B9b Deering

Date 7/22/2019

I just went through the process today. The first phase worked fine and all of the proper settings were saved when I pressed the ‘up’ button. But when I programmed the second phase, the settings didn’t register when I held the ’down’ button for two seconds. Is there something basic I’m missing here? Without this change I can’t charge my LFP batteries at the correct voltage.

Peter Kennedy

Date 7/23/2019

That's why I recommend only using the dipswitches for emergencies. Do it on your computer. Now with the latest software update you can do it on a Mac also.

Mitch

Date 2/17/2020

Is the VE Blootooth dongle now capable of programming and monitoring

Peter Kennedy

Date 2/18/2020

Monitoring only, not programming. You have to use the Mk3 USB Interface for programming.

Rolf

Date 5/19/2020

Hello Peter, thank you very much for explaining in detial where the DIP switches are (without your pics I would not have found them) and how to program the unit. Is a Multiplus capable of not only working in UPS mode but also in "Battery Priority Mode"? So it will run on inverter and produce energy until the battery gets below critical charge rate. Then it switches to grid power (without loading the battries). Batteries are charged during day by solar modules and when the Multiplus senses that batteries are full enough to switch back to inverter it does that.

Peter Kennedy

Date 5/19/2020

I don't think you can get it to do what you want, it always prioritizes grid power if that is available. I'm not saying it's impossible but I can't personally see any way to achieve that.

Jonathan

Date 10/27/2020

Thank you for this very informative article. I wish I would have come across this prior to my recent first install. As a result I am now having to go back and troubleshoot for a remote customer. From the sounds of it, people have had success in making changes via doing step 1 but perhaps mixed results with performing step 2 mods. A couple of questions. Do I assume correctly that the factory default settings do NOT allow remote setting/lowering of AC input and the only way to get the system to recognize the multiplus remote monitor and allow changing the AC input remotely is to reprogram via the Mk3USB and computer? If I were to change/lower the AC input current via dip switches step 1 and later reprogram via Mk3USB, do I assume correctly that the new settings would override the previously settings without having to reset the inverter to factory settings via the dip switches?

Jonathan

Date 10/27/2020

Thanks Peter...good article. A couple of questions.. (1) Do I assume correctly that the default factory setting does not allow "override from remote" and that the only way to enable this is reprogramming via the Mk3USB interface? (2) If I were to adjust AC input limit via the DIP switches step 1 and later adjust via the Mk3USB interface do I need to reset the DIP switches to factory settings or with the new setting via Mk3USB interface override existing settings without issue?

Chris

Date 4/18/2021

Peter, Your blogs have been really helpful throughout my install process! I am having 1 issue maybe you could help with. I have shore power coming into the AC input with 120v - checked with multimeter. However the system never will use the incoming power to charge my 3 Battle Born batteries, or provide power to the rest of my Travel trailer. The system always inverts power from my battery bank to power everything in my travel trailer, so if I am not connected to shore power everything works perfectly. Solar charges batteries, batteries power 12v and 120v with multiplus. Connected to shore power everything works like above.. but no charging of batteries or supplying power to travel trailer. I do not have the USB to Ethernet adapter so I cannot check all settings, however I tried the dipswitches as you mentioned above. Hoping you might have insight to something simple I have overlooked?

Fred Higgins

Date 6/18/2021

Rolf / Peter, What Rolf suggests is exactly what I want to do. It's surprising to me that this can't be done. We can't be the only ones that want to do this very basic configuration. If either of you find the solution please email me: [email protected] Thanks.

Andrew Simpson

Date 8/20/2021

Rolf, We often do this by using the virtual switch to ignore mains when battery voltage is above a user set limit. Turn the charger off. Need to use VE configure. What I can’t figure out is how to do this with lithium batteries.

Joel Kiilu

Date 1/28/2023

The article by Peter on using the dipswitches is very useful. I configured my unit Multiplus 48/3000/35 using the dipswitches and since I wanted it to operate as a ups I had ds3 on. On energising the unit, it has remained on inverter mode without coming on mains. Whenever I select charger only the mains green light flashes to show it is not charging. What could be the issue? I would also wish to know the settings of ds1 and ds2 to keep the unit as stand-alone.

Peter Kennedy

Date 1/30/2023

This just proves my point, the dipswitches are just there for emergencies but they are so cryptic to use that once you try and do anything complicated you quickly get lost. Get yourself a Mk3 USB interface, hook that Multi up to a computer, and make life easy for yourself.

bob hunt

Date 8/3/2023

Hi Peter can you tell me what positions the dip switches should be in before i connect to a computer to set up ? many thanks for your great guidance bob

Peter Kennedy

Date 7/2/2024

In the default position the dipswitches are all off.

Jeff Demme

Date 6/27/2024

Thank you for the great instruction. It wasn't complicated at all after reading your article. Today was final installation details and start up. The boat is sitting at my dock on shore power with the charger running. Inverter runs my AC AOK. I am glad that I became a Victron convert. It is a nice piece of equipment. MultiPlus 12/3000/120-50. I will probably buy a MK3 USB interface. Thanks again Peter. As I mentioned in a previous email, you are the reason I bought Victron and from you.

Programming your Victron MultiPlus Inverter/Charger - Using the dipswitches

Proceedure

STEP ONE SETTING

STEP TWO SETTING

Notes

Comments

15 Comments

Leigh Armistead

Peter Kennedy

Jay Peterson

Les Olson

B9b Deering

Peter Kennedy

Mitch

Peter Kennedy

Rolf

Peter Kennedy

Jonathan

Jonathan

Chris

Fred Higgins

Andrew Simpson

Joel Kiilu

Peter Kennedy

bob hunt

Peter Kennedy

Jeff Demme

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