Adding an aftermarket charger to VRM

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northtown2022 asked Jan 17, '24

Adding an aftermarket charger to VRM

I've modified an 80-200VAC Eltek Flatpack2 rectifier to output 55.2VDC for charging a 16S bank of LFP and It is showing up as a DC source in the battery status block.

It would be VERY cool to see this added as an AC input on VRM Dashboard however this does not seem to be easily accomplished for aftermarket chargers.

From my understanding without having a Victron inverter/charger installed, the AC inputs can't be selected. Using an SSH command provided by @mr-manuel in another thread, I'm now able to successfully change the AC input to either 'generator' or 'grid'. Unfortunately my Eltek power source only shows up in battery status though.

I think I would need a custom driver and communication to make this work?

VRM charger modifications driver ssh

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VRM login page

VRM documentation

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How to change the Owner of a VRM installation

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Experiments, Modifications and Adaptions. Mods (Modifications) can be made to Victron Software by the Community. Please use the modifications space for enthusiasts who want to push what is possible, without official Victron Support.

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Answer 1 · 2024-01-17T09:03:48Z

mr-manuel answered · Jan 17 at 09:03 AM

Checkout my GitHub repository. Maybe you find something that you need.

https://github.com/mr-manuel?tab=repositories&q=venus-os

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Answer 2 · 2024-01-22T00:15:20Z

northtown2022 answered · Jan 22 at 12:15 AM

I believe this could perhaps work:

https://github.com/mr-manuel/venus-os_dbus-mqtt-grid

I'm eager to attempt it but my coding knowledge is very limited, leaving me at a standstill. After renaming the config.sample.ini to config.ini I'm lost. If anyone is willing to help, I'll need basic instructions to get started :)

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mr-manuel commented · Jan 22 at 09:41 AM

Just check the readme again. I updated it with more detailed steps.

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northtown2022 mr-manuel commented · Jan 22 at 03:10 PM

Steps 1-4 were pretty straightforward and seemed to execute without a hitch. The only adjustment I've made in the config.ini file so far is:

broker_address = localhost

I've paused at this stage because my next task involves understanding Tasmota (perhaps it should have been my first). However, I've noticed there seems to be an issue with the dbus_serial_battery driver leading to a persistent SoC reading of 100%.

This seems to have occurred during the execution of the SSH commands this morning. I'm uncertain if this might be due to the absence of Tasmota?

It could be worth mentioning that I have Venus firmware v3.13 installed. At a glance, both configuration files for the dbus-serailbattery seem to remain unaffected. Additionally, both the JK BMS app and the Smart Shunt are providing reasonably accurate SoC readings.

I may try reinstalling dbus-serialbattery as a temporary measure until I get Tasmota fugured out.

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