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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image
mvader (Victron Energy) asked

Introduction to the Modifications space on Victron Community

Good morning all! As some of you know; I want Victron to be "open" and when it comes to our products this means making protocols available online; and for some product ranges even making it possible to modify them / making them open source.

Markus, one of the super responsive members here proposed to make a separate section and call it Mods. (@all of you whom are so responsive here and everyone else; thank you! This Community has become better and more valuable than I had ever deemed possible; already within a few months after launch!).

Mods: a great idea; so that is whats now happening.

By doing that; we can also solve a problem that I've seen rising: for most of you and also ourselves at Victron; normal systems, ie. non-modified, are our bread and butter. And `normal systems` are also what I want to be the topic of the main community. So, now there is a nice place to move all the MQTT this; and D-Bus that posts too, so no longer confusing or even shying away the day to day electrical installers and system designers that work with Victron.

Soo..


Herewith the official explanation of what the Mods space is for. If anyone has improvements over that; let me know. And for now to all of you tinkererers; @Markus, myself and many others are looking forward to see you over in the Mods Space.

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For professional software developers and the private enthusiasts community alike, the Mods Space is here for helping each other to make the Victron equipment do more than it does out of the box.

Some examples of topics relevant for this space include:

  • interfacing to Victron equipment using ModbusTCP, MQTT, VE.Direct, the VRM API or one of the other available protocols
  • modifying Venus OS by adding a small script, but also to add a new driver to interface to a another device; like for example a diesel generator or a solar irradiance meter.
  • modifying the Venus OS GUI with custom tiles and custom values
  • going a bit overboard with the Assistants in our Multi and Quattro inverter/chargers (link to Assistants start page)
  • node-red.
  • SignalK

And lastly I know of even two people out there designing working on there own PCB design to add onto our equipment.


Note on support
Although these types of modifications are encouraged, it is not possible for Victron to officially support modified and/or externally controlled equipment. Please ensure that all modifications are removed and that the equipment is configured to its original state before contacting our support channels.



Venus OSvictron communitymodifications
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Ole Saether avatar image Ole Saether commented Ā·

Hi Matthijs,

I have added two informational posts to the Mods space but they are listed as "Unanswered Questions" even when I did not ask a question. How can we post there without posting as a question?

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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ā™¦ā™¦ Ole Saether commented Ā·

Hi _OS_,

Thanks for your information posts.

I will make the change required so that they aren't questions and don't show up as unanswered.

Regards,

Guy

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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ā™¦ā™¦ Ole Saether commented Ā·

Hi again @_OS_

There is now multiple different types of post options available in the Mods space,

  • Questions
  • Articles
  • Ideas

I am looking forward to seeing how the tinkering Mods people find out how to use them.

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Ole Saether avatar image Ole Saether Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ā™¦ā™¦ commented Ā·
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olulope-oladeji avatar image olulope-oladeji commented Ā·

Do I need to enable remote support and the Two ways communication on Colour Control for me to have a full control remotely?

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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ā™¦ā™¦ olulope-oladeji commented Ā·

Please ask this as a new question here - Create a new Question

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kai-fuchs avatar image kai-fuchs commented Ā·
Great idea, but I would suggest to put the default in the drop-down of the form to ā€œquestionā€ not to ā€œmodificationā€
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3 Answers
JohnC avatar image
JohnC answered Ā·

Good idea. Not so sure I like the 'Mods' name though. For regular forum goers in other venues that's usually translated as 'Moderators', like those guys that wield the big axe. :)

Edit: Maybe call it 'Deep Dark Stuff'. That's what it is to me. :)

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Hi John,

I have heard this more than a couple of times now. So I've renamed the space to Modifications, let's see if that helps.

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Paul B avatar image
Paul B answered Ā·

Guy I just answered a question that was in the normal unanswered list and I see its now in the mods area.


Info only as I see its not supose to go into the unanswered que

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Thanks Paul,

At this stage I am still playing around with visibility.

The Mods space at the moment still have all content published to the front page, and questions to the unanswered list.

As it grows, that might change.

EDIT - this has now changed, and modifications content is not shown on the front page.

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jbakuwel avatar image
jbakuwel answered Ā·

How about calling it Geekzone? Or if you want to stick with the "spaces", Geekspace? :-)


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Related Resources

Victron Venus OS Open Source intro page

Venus OS GitHub (please do not post to this)

Additional resources still need to be added for this topic