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adev avatar image
adev asked

rPi integration - what can it do?

I have (soon to collect) a small bank of Victron lithium batteries (non-smart), a smart solar 100/20 MPPT charge controller, and will get a MiniBMS or VE.Bus BMS (latter only if there is an advantage conisdering the above components and following Qs).

I also have a Raspberry Pi. I seem some mention of rPi in here but I can’t quite figure out what’s actually possible.

  • Can I interface the rPi with the above setup in some useful way, eg to monitor and log statistics?
  • Something else?
  • what extra equipment, if any, would I need to do so?
MPPT ControllersBMSbattery
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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ♦♦ commented ·

The support platform is the GX device range.

I’ve moved this to the modifications section.

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adev avatar image adev Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ♦♦ commented ·

thank you :)

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2 Answers
Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

The possibilities with the RPi are endless. The mind is your limit.

You can connect all of the above mentioned Victron devices to the RPi through Venus OS to interface and then control them. There are several ways to monitor. The most common is by running the GUI/frontend (see Venus GX or CCGX) and by storing the data into cloud, which is VRM (provided you give it internet access). When you're not at your installation, you remotely control all devices and even upgrade firmware to some of them.

The more advanced you are and the more you know about Venus OS, the more you can do with it. The basis though work out of the box. More advanced things can be done using different protocols like MQTT or Modbus TCP. For statistics use either VRM or store data into influxdb and then having beautiful dashboards to display them.

You will need VE.direct USB interface for the SmartSolar and VE.Bus USB interface for VE.Bus BMS.

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adev avatar image adev commented ·

Thanks Stefanie. Am I correct in assuming then that I need a venus GX at a miniumum in order to do any of this?

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Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ adev commented ·

Not necessarily. When installing VenusOS on a Raspberry Pi, it is virtually a Venus GX with exactly the same behaviour like a real Venus GX or CCGX. Except for the connections, which you need to realise through USB dongles, Sensors etc.

It's easier to say that if you don't wanna go the hard way setting up a Pi, go buy a Venus GX or CCGX and hook up your MPPT and BMS to it. Almost plug'n play with just a little of configuration. VenusOS on a PI can become a bit of a pain if you have no idea about Linux and stuff. But it's definitely a fun project with great learning experience. Depending on the system the Venus Pi is not really a money saver with all the USB interfaces one may need to buy.

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adev avatar image adev Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

ok thanks that makes a lot more sense now. I’ve been a part time web dev/host for several years so I’m pretty comfortable with linux and the commend line so this sounds like something I will definitely look into more.

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solarflo avatar image
solarflo answered ·

I would say the rPi can act as a GX device alone, except for the CANbus (a working USB to CAN interface is quite complicated to get)

For instance, I've set up a rPi with a multiplus and an MPPT charge controller, all of them communicate (using USB/VE.Bus and USB/Ve.direct) and send data to the VRM online portal.

If I was you, I would choose the regular BMS, not the mini since it doesn't have a VE.Bus... It only provides analog connections to control load and charge and won't send info about the voltage, temperature and so on...


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adev avatar image adev commented ·

great, I will most likely go for the VE.BMS then with the intention of integrating the rPi at some point. Thanks very much for your comment.

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adev avatar image adev commented ·

one question about the above - if I have older Victron lithium batteries (NOT smart, but has the BMS connectors) connected to the VE.Bus BMS and then connect all that to VRM portal via the rPi as you say, will I be able to see individual cell voltage on each of the batteries I have connected?

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solarflo avatar image solarflo adev commented ·

Damn, that's a good question... On my setup I have 4 Victron lithium batteries, without smart capability, only BMS bus (min-XLR like). I can't see the voltage of each battery individually, not to mention each cell. I can't even see the BMS as an independant device in the CCGX, it's a "slave" of the Multiplus.

I have to say though that it might be due to the firmware version of my CCGX, 1.74. I'm stuck with this version since there's a bug on this issue (or my CCGX, nobody can tell) preventing any kind of update.

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adev avatar image adev solarflo commented ·

ok that’s more or less what I suspected. Strange issue about the firmware update.

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jeroen avatar image jeroen ♦ solarflo commented ·

Dear @solarflo,

That is not a bug, you can google how to update such an unit or see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-qK9f6FlmU

Regards,

Jeroen

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solarflo avatar image solarflo jeroen ♦ commented ·

@Jeroen, I've tried this update process about 30 times, with many different SD cards. I keep on getting the same error message on reboot, saying "an error occurred". It seems to be an hardware issue on some CCGX card readers...

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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ♦♦ solarflo commented ·

I’ve successfully updated a CCGX with a broken SD card slot to v2 before with a USB thumb drive.

Not recommended or supported, but I’ve done it.

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mihair avatar image mihair commented ·

@solarflo

You don't need an USB to CAN adapter as long as there are 100% VenusOS compatible RPI shields for that.

This one works without a glitch for more than a year in my setup, including CAN BUS BMS: http://www.industrialberry.com/canberrydual-iso-v2-1/

Besides CAN interface the shield above provide a Real Time Clock which is a big plus for RPI

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adev avatar image adev mihair commented ·

interesting. thanks for that.

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solarflo avatar image solarflo mihair commented ·

That's quite interesting, I didn't know there was a shield for that. Thanks

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