I have an idea for a custom alternator project , I was wondering if it’s possible to build in Ve.direct to allow it to fit into the Victron eco system.
It could emulate a battery charger style device from the Ve viewpoint ( or even a solar controller. )
Are there technical or legal issues involved. I understand the VE direct protocol isn’t patented so it can be utilised.
This is not a commercial initiative.
Cute Idea. From the technical point of view, it would be relatively easy to report voltage & current (meter data) using Ve Direct. Implementing control of the field winding to regulate charge voltage and respond to current limits would introduce a higher level of complexity, but could be implemented. With a little extra work, this could also be adapted to a hydro turbine alternator too (or wind).
Hi, no problem, i guess, but you don't need to emulate the serial protocol. Just make sure you feed the data to dbus accordingly, there are pre-defined containers for dcsource and alternator, look at the spec of dbus.
If you can get this working. It would be a pretty awesome upgrade to the Victron Orion DC-DC chargers. It's the only thing in my campervan electrical that's not in the VRM
You can do it now using a SmartShunt or a BMV to measure the voltage, current, power, energy of any device you want, when you use 2 shunts you can measure both sides (alternator and output), it's just money.
Alternatively you can create your own shunt device from parts and write some code to integrate it in the Victron ecosystem. (I did it for a WiFi connected remote double-shunt to monitor alternators and a non-Victron inverter)
Your DCDC Orion does not have a wired data interface (Ve.Direct), so cannot hook up to the Cerbo directly. BT is not a option for networking with the Cerbo by design, the BT is only meant for easy installation, the range is too short and BT is a point to point protocol, means when you connect your Orion to something by BT, nothing else can connect to it, you would loose the App capabilities.
I was thinking more like using an ESP 8266 for the emulated VE.Direct device and putting in inside the Orion so you can just plug it into the Cerbo and get the readings.
There's no way I'm paying for a Smart shunt or a BMV just for that lol.
not sure how you want to fit it in there, but you will probably loose the warranty if you meddle with the internals of the unit.
Thanks personally I don’t care about warranty , but my project is not a Victron unit to begin with. It’s an alternator controller.
I have checked out dbus but I don’t want a system that must have Cerbo style solutions on it. What I’d really like is a way into the Ve.smart networking possibly by fooling the Victron ve.direct Bluetooth dongle into thinking its talking to a Victron device.
Bluetooth is not an option for Ve.Direct, the Cerbo would not search there - you need a UART / serial RS232 and have to use either the Ve.Direct ports or you can use a PL2303 chip based RS232 to USB adapter, both are scanned by the serial interface service of the cerbo for suitable devices.
DBUS is not a Victron thing btw. It would be much easier to write a custom driver for your interface and mock a Victron device than to implement the Ve.Direct HEX protocol and use the serial service of Victron, in the end your data would end up exactly at the same place on the DBUS, but with the first option you can choose what you transmit freely and add more / different information than Victron has envisioned in their products.
right now I don’t want to go down the dbus route. I want to find a way to integrate it into the ve.smart infrastructure
Have a look at a product called wakespeed ws500. They integrate with the Victron systems via CBus and there is a huge amount of options on them for custom charging setups. You can plug your phone into them for most setting changes.
Well aware of the wakespeed product it’s actually a commercial development of a open source Ardunio project by the project author. So you can see the internals by studying the open source project.
