The SmartSolar range of Victron Energy MPPT charge controllers all have a number of LEDs on the front, the smaller controllers have 2 LEDs and larger controllers have 3 LEDs.
Through a combination of different colors and flashing sequences these LEDs will indicate a number of different 'situations' going on with the controller. This can be good, by indicating your controller is in say bulk charge, or it can be bad, by indicating an error code that you have an over-voltage or you need to download the latest firmware update. How do you know what they all mean? You can look in the manual for your controller or make use of the very handy Victron Toolkit app which can be downloaded for free to your phone/tablet.
Once you open up the Victron Toolkit app it has three sections to it: Cable calc, LED definitions, Temp derating
What we're looking at in more detail here is the LED definitions section. This will help you identify what all the flashing lights mean on the front of your charge controller.
Clicking on this blue center section opens up a Victron product list, you then select your controller from either MPPT 3 LEDs or MPPT 2 LEDs. eg. if your controller is one of the smaller ones and has the 'LOAD' output (75|10) then you would choose the MPPT 2 LEDs.
This then gives you a screen that shows a controller with some flashing LED's. By clicking on either previous definition or next definition you can scroll through all of the different combinations and find out what they all mean.
Let's say your 75|10 controller has a flashing green light and you're wondering what that means. Scroll through by clicking next definition until you find the image with a flashing green light. In the large orange button at the bottom will be it's definition, in this case 'Float/Battery life'. By clicking on the orange button it opens up a window with a more detailed description:
'Float/Battery Life' - One the charger switches to float, the battery is fully charged. During this stage, float voltage is applied to the battery to maintain it in a fully charged state.
Let's take another example, you have a flashing blue light on the BULK LED on your Victron 100|50. This is a controller with 3 LEDs, so we click through, scroll until we find a flashing blue light on bulk which indicates 'Not Charging' in the orange box. Clicking the orange box opens up that description in more detail:
'Not charging' - The device is not charging. Go through the possible causes below to solve the problem....'
Not ideal as this means you have some troubleshooting to do to find out why the charge controller is not charging. But typically you can get these things solved with some quick changes and soon be back up and running.
Should you have any questions feel free to email us or another good resource is to search the Victron Community page where you will find a wide range of conversations and topics. If you don't find what you're looking for just post your question and someone will help you - the answer might come from another end user, installer, marine electrician or Victron customer support.