Hi,
we (SSL Energy GmbH from Germany) are producer of new battery storage system, called eSafe with LiFePo cells.
We want to add communication between our BMS and Victron Multigrid or Venus to make our battery compatible to Victron Inverters.
We have possibility to create a CAN-Bus communication between our BMS and Inverter. Can someone provide us with information, how we have to go on with this?
Thanks in advance
Hubert Merkle
SSL Energie GmbH
Any luck with this effort? I have hooked up my CAN stuff to the CAN port of the CCGX and I do see a heartbeat message (0x305?) comming out of the CCGX. I send the exact messages that are documented in the REC-BMS doc and the CCGX is not detecting a bms. Anyone has been successful at this?
Hi SSL, thank you for reaching out. I'm afraid we can't help you from within Victron; right now there is a stop on supporting more types of batteries.
Left and right on the internet (REC-BMS docs for example) you might find information on how to do it; but to officially support it we need to test it; and discuss things; which is -at the moment- not possible.
From Victron, we recommend our distributors, users and installers to use one of the already supported brands of batteries. And advice to not under estimate the amount of work involved in making a new BMS work reliably.
Hi mvader,
Just out of curiosity, why have you guys halted support on new types of batteries?
Because it’s (a) impossible to send documentation, but thereafter not help in case of issues or questions, combined with (b) no time / prefer to spend time on other things in R&D.
But, I have good hope that this will change; better documentation and less ‘moving parts’ on our side.
Making a canbus battery integration and understanding the full range of system types, how they work in detail and not to forget how to set them all up (ESS, Ac-coupled, dc-coupled, off-grid, and-so-forth) is quite a lot.
Hi mvader,
Any update on this topic. I have inquired about this almost 2 years ago and I'm hoping the situation has changed?
In the mean time I managed to use the REC BmS and work done by tomdebree on github to write some code and interface with the CCGX via Arduino and a Canbus shield pcb. While it all works fine and the information displayed is adequate, I would like to add some features like displaying a BMS name longer that 8 characters. Can you assist in this regard or does it still violate your NDA you have in place.?
thank you.
Hello,
I was working some time in the field of monitoring of large PV power plants.
We (that time skytron energy) were member of the working group 437 within the CiA - CAN in Automation - https://can-cia.org/can-knowledge/canopen/cia437/
On this fieldbus system and CANopen protocol, up to date, about 8.000 MWp have been installed; originally developed for the SOLON Mover.
CiA, at least was hosting also a working group for Off-Grid / Hybrid systems, in which the Fraunhofer ISE was also engaged, on my level of knowledge.
The question is, why it is not possible for the renewable industry to agree on one industrial standard protocol and fieldbus to avoid this interface/protocol desaster?
CiA - CAN in Automation
https://can-cia.org/; https://www.can-cia.org/canopen
Martin Sauter, Nanak Consult GmbH, Vaihingen/Enz
To understand Victron answere. I would like to know..
Would we not be able to present 3.part bms / cell info in example extra pages on a Venus, without Victron official support on the other side?
I have a software specialist want to do the job for me, and we want to do it for the bms we use, as well as from a few other units with can bus that we want to present information from.
Is the only solution to make my own hmi solution to pull data from Venus and my other controllers present in our machine?
The bms can-bus for allow/disallow charge integration is not mandatory for our implementation.
We have other solution on that. But would possible be nice to have for simplified setup/cabling, as well as source for SOC. (Eliminate some overlapping hardware in the setup)
Hi Rune, yes; showing battery/bms data on the Venus OS (so on ccgx or Venus GX or similar products) is perfectly possible indeed.
Most of it you can do yourself. Depending on used protocol and such; and prevent double work; you might need access to some source on our side which can be discussed.
Pls start reading here:
https://github.com/victronenergy/venus/wiki/howto-add-a-driver-to-Venus
And then contact me to obtain access.
A ha! I have just done it! I strongly suggest you look at this arduino project, it contains all CAN info needed to make it work! Good luck!
Hi @fred0 this sounds great and might be of good use for the community. We are actually preparing a new community space here, for software modifications and useful tweaks. It would be great, to have a posting about this and a few explaining words. Would you mind, writing a community post regarding your work? If yes, I would arrange access to this new space for you. Thank you!
Yes this is Tom de Bree 's work, he also has SimpBMS, he develops it (and I test it)
https://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/fs-tesla-vw-outlander-bms-master-198263.html
currently it supports OEM bms slaves:
-tesla Model X/S
-Mercedes B-class (Tesla made) 7s modules
-Outlander
-I-Miev
-some others, not all have balancing working yet. (VW, BMW)
Hi Hubert,
you might find some inspiration from my approach of writing a Pyhton canbus driver for the Valence U-BMS here: https://github.com/gimx/dbus_ubms
It does not "pretend" to be a Victron (supported) BMS, but decodes canbus messages and announces to the values as a battery device on dbus.
Torsten
