Released today, RS firmware series v1.16 improves the partial shading performance of the MPPTs.

The previous method of shade detection has been replaced with a fast periodic sweep which scans for a short five second scan every 5 minutes.

Extensive field testing has shown significant improvements.

This update is recommended for all RS systems. 

Changelog

Changes applying to all RS models:

• Start the fan for the DCDC circuit earlier.
• Add product settings lock functionality; this is a feature that is coming in the VictronConnect app in 2024.

Changes applying to all RS models with a built-in MPPT:

• Improve partial shading mechanism. The old partial shading detection mechanism has been replaced with one that does a periodic full scan. For units with multiple trackers the scans are interleaved.
• Reduce PV under voltage limit from 85V to 65V, which slightly increases the daily energy yield.

Changes applying to Multi RS only:

• Fix grid charge issue, the unit no longer connected to the grid when allow-to-discharge was inactive.

History logging and VRM reporting:

• Fix bug that caused occasional non-sensible values (negative voltages) to end up in the min/max battery voltage history fields.
• Fix VRM energy counter reporting in case the inverter is off.

VE.CAN NMEA2000:

• Fix fast-packet transmissions (applies only to Inverter RS and Multi RS), could cause the custom name from being missing on the connected GX device.

A special thanks to the many beta testers in the Victron Modifications Community for providing feedback for this release.

How to install

Updating the RS can be done using either the VictronConnect app as well as online via the VRM Portal.

A new version of the VictronConnect app, adding this new v1.16 firmware version, will be released latest next week. Until then, the manual firmware update method or remote update via VRM can be used.