Dynamic ESS setup wizard loops between System and Battery steps and never unlocks Buy/Sell prices

Been pulling my hair out with this one for the past few days and wondering if anyone else has hit the same wall.

Running a Victron MultiPlus-II GX 48/3000 in my garden office setup, paired with a Fogstar Drift 48V 100Ah LiFePO4 battery. Trying to get Dynamic ESS configured through the VRM portal but the wizard just keeps bouncing back and forth between the System and Battery steps — never progresses far enough to unlock the Buy/Sell price configuration.

A few things I've already tried:

• Confirmed the DVCC settings look sensible
• Battery state showing correctly in VRM
• Firmware updated to latest on both the MultiPlus and the GX device

My gut feeling is it might be related to how the battery is being recognised — possibly a BMS communication issue that's causing the wizard to stall — but I'm not 100% sure that's actually the blocker here.

Has anyone successfully pushed through this on a similar setup? Specifically curious whether:

1. Does the GX device need a specific VE.Bus or VE.Can BMS configuration before Dynamic ESS will proceed?
2. Is there a minimum SoC threshold or something equally obscure that needs to be met at the exact moment you run the wizard?

It's a relatively modest garden office system so I don't have a full Cerbo GX — just the built-in GX on the MultiPlus-II. Wondering if that's a limitation others have run into as well.

Any pointers appreciated — feels like I'm missing something obvious.

@Macca97 Classic GX firmware headache this one! Had almost identical symptoms on my MultiPlus-II GX last winter.

The wizard loop is usually because the BMS connection isn't being recognised properly before the battery step completes — so it never satisfies the prerequisite to unlock the grid tariff settings.

A few things worth trying:

• Force a VE.Bus firmware update via VictronConnect first, even if it looks current
• Check your DVCC settings — if "Use charge current from BMS" is ticked but BMS comms are flaky, the wizard stalls
• Try running through Venus OS large if you haven't already

What battery/BMS are you running with it? That's usually the crux of the issue in my experience. My Fogstar Drift cells with a Daly BMS caused me weeks of grief until I switched to a proper CANbus connection rather than VE.Direct.

Looks like both the OP and @ExpertCamper's replies got cut off mid-sentence — worth editing those posts so we can see the full details, particularly the battery you're paired with @Macca97.

One thing worth checking that often gets missed: ESS Assistant must be loaded via VictronConnect or VEConfigure before the wizard will progress properly. The GX interface alone won't unlock the Buy/Sell price fields if the assistant isn't properly installed at the inverter level first.

Also — what firmware are you on? There was a known loop bug in certain GX builds that was patched a while back. Worth checking under Settings > Firmware on the GX touchscreen.

Both the OP and @ExpertCamper's posts appear to have been eaten by the forum gremlins, so we're essentially three blind men describing an elephant here.

That said, on my narrowboat I hit a similar ESS wizard loop and the culprit was the DVCC settings not agreeing with the BMS — wizard silently chokes and just spins between steps rather than throwing a useful error. Worth checking Settings > DVCC and ensuring "SVS" and "STS" are both off if your BMS handles that itself.

Also, which firmware version are you on? Anything below v3.14 on the GX side had a known quirk where the Buy/Sell price fields stay greyed out until you manually set the grid code first — almost certainly your issue if that matches.

@Macca97 and @ExpertCamper — yes, the forum has clearly had a nibble at your posts, so we're all guessing in the dark here. That said, "ESS wizard loops between System and Battery steps" is a fairly recognisable pattern — nine times out of ten it's either a DVCC mismatch or the GX not receiving a valid SOC signal from the BMS before it'll release the grid setpoints.

Before anyone can give proper advice though, we really need to know:

• Which VenusOS version are you on?
• What battery/BMS is paired with it?
• Are you using DVCC with SVS/SCS enabled or disabled?

Without that the guessing is basically pub quiz territory. Edit those posts and we'll actually get somewhere useful.

Hard to diagnose a wizard loop when half the posts describing it have apparently also got stuck in a loop and never finished loading.

@Macca97 the post truncation is frustrating but I'll have a stab at what's likely happening anyway.

The Dynamic ESS wizard loop between System and Battery steps is almost always one of three things:

1. VRM portal not seeing a valid grid meter — without confirmed grid feedback the Buy/Sell price fields stay greyed/locked
2. Firmware mismatch — GX device and MultiPlus-II need to be on compatible versions; check both in Remote Console under Settings > Firmware
3. Grid code not set correctly — UK installs need G98 or G99 selected under MultiPlus-II > Grid before ESS will progress

What firmware versions are you actually running? And has your DNO issued a G98/G99 approval letter, or are you still pending? That changes what's available in the wizard considerably.